Cette thèse est dédiée à l'étude théorique de phases exotiques dans un gaz dilué de bosons avec deux composantes (spins) en présence d'un couplage spin-orbite (SOC) entre ces deux états internes. En ajoutant ce dernier couplage à une description de type champs classiques de notre système, nous montrons que cette méthode permet de prédire le diagramme de phase à température finie de manière quantitative, efficace et fiable. Notre étude porte particulièrement sur un système de bosons bidimensionnels avec SOC dont nous dessinons le diagramme de phase en fonction de l'anisotropie du couplage spin-orbite ainsi que des interactions. Dans le cas d'un SOC anisotrope, une transition de phase de type Berenzinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless sépare une phase dite normale d'une phase superfluide à plus basse température. L'ordre des spins du quasi-condensat dans la phase superfluide est alors guidé par les interactions de contact dépendantes du spin. Elles favorisent l'apparition soit d'un état onde plane avec moment non-nul (PW) soit d'une superposition linéaire de deux ondes planes appelée état de bande (SP). Pour des interactions indépendantes du spin des particules, nos simulations indiquent une fractionalisation du quasi-condensat. Les états PW et SP restent alors dégénérés. Dans le cas d'un SOC isotrope, nos calculs n'indiquent aucune transition de phase à la limite thermodynamique et à température finie. Un changement de comportement non critique subsiste pour un nombre important mais fini d'atomes. / In this thesis, we theoretically study the occurrence of exotic phases in a dilute two component (spin) Bose gas with artificial spin-orbit coupling (SOC) between the two internal states. Including spin-orbit coupling in classical field Monte Carlo calculations, we show that this method can be used for reliable, quantitative predictions of the finite temperature phase diagram. In particular, we have focused on SOCed bosons in two spatial dimensions and established the phase diagram for isotropic and anisotropic SOC and interparticle interactions. In the case of anisotropic SOC, the system undergoes a Berenzinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition from a normal to a superfluid state at low temperature. The spin order of the quasicondensate in the low temperature superfluid phase is driven by the spin dependence of the interparticle interaction, favoring either the occurence of a single plane wave state at non-vanishing momentum (PW) or a linear sperposition of two plane waves with opposite momenta, called stripe phase (SP). For spin-independent interparticle interaction, our simulations indicate a fractionalized quasicondensate where PW and SP remain degenerate. For isotropic SOC, our calculations indicate that no true phase transition at finite temperature occurs in the thermodynamic limit, but a cross-over behavior remains visible for large, but finite number of atoms.

This thesis investigates the relationship between generalised trust, heterogeneity and fairness in the EU. High levels of generalised trust have been found to be linked to economic growth and lower transaction costs, while heterogeneous populations have been found to be linked to lower levels of trust. As the world is diversifying on virtually all fronts, a negative relationship between heterogeneity and generalised trust could have dire implications. Other empirical studies have found that heterogenety loses its importance when accounting for societal fairness, speaking to the fact that a fair and democratic society is what determines generalised trust, rather than inter-group differences. But as no such studies have been conducted on contemporary data, it is unknown how the relationship between generalised trust, heterogeneity and fairness holds today. To investigate this relationship, we conducted two-step hierarchical logit regressions on contemporary data, including over 40.000 observations from 23 EU countries. To capture contemporary heterogeneity, we constructed our own fractionalisation indices on this data, as the fractionalisation in- dices most commonly used in previous studies were constructed on data from the 1990s and early 2000s. Our results indicate that both fairness and heterogeneity are significant predictors for generalised trust in the EU. We theorise that this might be because the importance of heterogeneity for generalised trust is context-dependent, only mattering once countries have established a certain level of fairness.

Les isolants topologiques sont des isolants qui ne peuvent être différenciés des isolants atomiques que par une grandeur physique non locale appelée invariant topologique. L'effet Hall quantique et son équivalent sans champ magnétique l'isolant de Chern sont des exemples d'isolants topologiques. En présence d'interactions fortes, des excitations exotiques appelées anyons peuvent apparaître dans les isolants topologiques. L'effet Hall quantique fractionnaire (EHQF) est la seule réalisation expérimentale connue de ces phases. Dans ce manuscrit, nous étudions numériquement les conditions d'émergence de différents isolants topologiques fractionnaires. Nous nous concentrons d'abord sur l'étude de l'EHQF sur le tore. Nous introduisons une méthode de construction projective des états EHQF les plus exotiques complémentaire par rapport aux méthodes existantes. Nous étudions les excitations de basse énergie sur le tore de deux états EHQF, les états de Laughlin et de Moore-Read. Nous proposons des fonctions d'onde pour les décrire, et vérifions leur validité numériquement. Grâce à cette description, nous caractérisons les excitations de basse énergie de l'état de Laughlin dans les isolants de Chern. Nous démontrons également la stabilité d'autres états de l'EHQF dans les isolants de Chern, tels que les états de fermions composites, Halperin et NASS. Nous explorons ensuite des phases fractionnaires sans équivallent dans la physique de l'EHQF, d'abord en choisissant un modèle dont l'invariant topologique a une valeur plus élevée, puis en imposant au système la conservation de la symétrie par renversement du temps, ce qui modifie la nature de l'invariant topologique. / Topological insulators are band insulators which are fundamentally different from atomic insulators. Only a non-local quantity called topological invariant can distinguish these two phases. The quantum Hall effect is the first example of a topological insulator, but the same phase can arise in the absence of a magnetic field, and is called a Chern insulator. In the presence of strong interactions, topological insulators may host exotic excitations called anyons. The fractional quantum Hall effect is the only experimentally realized example of such phase. In this manuscript, we study the conditions of emergence of different types of fractional topological insulators, using numerical simulations. We first look at the fractional quantum Hall effect on the torus. We introduce a new projective construction of exotic quantum Hall states that complements the existing construction. We study the low energy excitations on the torus of two of the most emblematic quantum Hall states, the Laughlin and Moore-Read states. We propose and validate model wave functions to describe them. We apply this knowledge to characterize the excitations of the Laughlin state in Chern insulators. We show the stability of other fractional quantum Hall states in Chern insulators, the composite fermion, Halperin and NASS states. We explore the physics of fractional phases with no equivalent in a quantum Hall system, using two different strategies: first by choosing a model with a higher value of the topological invariant, second by adding time-reversal symmetry, which changes the nature of the topological invariant.

Recent research suggests that financial system development is important for economic development and for reducing financing constraints of firms (Levine, 2005). Consequently, researchers started investigating the factors that determine financial system development. A group of factors that have been identified are institutional factors. Many researchers have investigated the theoretical and empirical links among historical institutional factors, current institutional factors, and financial system development (Beck and Levine, 2005). There are, however, few studies that have investigated extensively the theoretical and empirical links among institutional factors and financial system development within the African context. Africa provides an interesting context to empirically validate and refine many of the theories that have been postulated to explain the relationships among historical and current institutional factors and financial system development. This is because Africa is in the process of developing its institutions and reforming existing ones and offers an opportunity to examine the impact of institutional factors on financial system development in nascent contexts. Therefore, this dissertation investigated the following research question: To what extent are institutional factors determinants of financial system development in Africa? To answer this research question, this study empirically evaluated the effects on financial system development of historical institutional factors that have been identified by four theories: legal origins theory, disease endowment theory, religion-based theory, and ethnic fractionalisation theory. Moreover, current institutional factors identified by the law and finance theory as possible determinants of financial system development were empirically examined. Furthermore, the links among historical and current institutional factors were empirically studied. The results show that the disease endowment variables are the only historical institutional factors that explain cross-country variation in financial system development in Africa. Additionally, this study finds that the institutional enforcement quality and efficiency of the judicial system are the only current institutional factors that explain cross-country variation in financial system development in Africa. Current institutional factors such as the efficiency of the legal property system and the quality of the credit information infrastructure do not appear to have effects on financial system development. Moreover, the institutional enforcement quality seems to be one of the possible channels through which disease endowment affects financial system development in Africa. This study also reveals that there are few statistically significant links among historical and current institutional factors within the African context. To my knowledge, this is the first study to show some of these empirical links among historical institutional factors, current institutional factors, and financial system development for the African context. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that institutional factors seem not to be determinants of financial system development in Africa to a large extent. In essence, institutional factors appear to matter for financial system development in Africa, but not as much as might have been expected judging from many calls for institutional reforms from the World Bank and others. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings of this dissertation are discussed, and future areas of research are also proposed.

The thesis consists of three papers, summarized as follows.        "The Determinants of Labour Market Institutions: A Panel Data Study"    This paper analyses the argument that labour market institutions can be thought of as devices for social insurance. It investigates the hypotheses that a country's exposure to external risk and ethnic fractionalisation are correlated with labor market institutions. Extreme bounds analysis with panel data of fourty years indicates that countries that are more open to international trade have stricter employment protection, strong unions, and a more coordinated wage bargaining process. Moreover, there is evidence that union density is negatively associated with the degree of ethnic fracationalisation.  "Why do Some Studies Show that Generous Unemployment Benefits Increase Unemployment Rates? A Meta-Analysis of Cross-Country Studies"    This paper investigates the hypothesis that generous unemployment benefits give rise to high levels of unemployment by systematically reviewing 34 cross-country studies. In contrast to conventional literature surveys, I perform a meta-analysis which applies regression techniques to a set of results taken from the existing literature. The main finding is that the choice of the primary data and estimation method matter for the final outcome. The control variables in the primary studies also affect the results. "The Effects of Trade on Unemployment: Evidence from 20 OECD countries"    This study empirically investigates if international trade has an impact on aggregate unemployment in the presence of labour market institutions. Using data for twenty OECD countries for the years 1961-2008, this study finds that an increase in trade leads to higher aggregate unemployment as it interacts with rigid labour market institutions, whereas it may reduce aggregate unemployment if the labour market is characterised by flexibility. In a country with the average degree of the labour market rigidities, an increase in trade has no significant effect on unemployment rates.

Cette thèse est dédiée à l'analyse de signaux électriques quantiques dans les canaux de bords de l'effet Hall quantique. En particulier, j'ai utilisé l'analogue électronique de l'interféromètre de Hong, Ou et Mandel pour réaliser des expériences d'interférométrie à deux particules. En entrée de l'interféromètre sont placées des sources d'électrons uniques qui permettent l'injection contrôlée d'excitation ne contenant qu'une seule particule. Les canaux de bords guident ces excitations jusqu'à l'interféromètre. Il s'agit d'un contact ponctuel quantique qui agit comme une lame semi-réfléchissante pour les électrons. On mesure en sortie les fluctuations basse fréquence du courant. Cela nous permet de mesurer le recouvrement entre les fonctions d'onde à un électron émises à chaque entrée. Grâce à cette mesure de recouvrement, j'ai pu caractériser à des échelles de temps sub-nanoseconde, le rôle des interactions Coulombienne sur la propagation de l'électron unique. J'ai pu montrer que ces interactions étaient la source principale de la décohérence du paquet d'onde mono-électronique et qu'elles décomposent l'électron sur des modes collectifs. C'est une manifestation de la fractionalisation de l'électron qui apparaît dans les systèmes uni-dimensionnel en interactions. Grâce à cet interféromètre, j'ai pu aussi implémenter un protocole de tomographie qui permet de reconstruire toute les informations à une particule de n'importe quel signal émis dans le canal de bord. / This thesis is dedicated to processing of quantum electronic signals in the edge channels of the integer quantum Hall effect. In particular, I used the electronic analogue of the Hong, Ou and Mandel interferometer to realize two particle interference measurements. The interferometer consists of a quantum point contact (QPC) that acts as an electronic beam-splitter. The inputs are fed by single electron sources whose single particle excitations are guided toward the QPC by quantum Hall edge channels. We measure low frequency current noise in one of the output to measure overlaps of first order coherence functions. With this interferometer I could characterize on short time scales the role of Coulomb interactions on single electron propagation. I could show that interactions are the main source of decoherence of the single particle wave packet and that the electron decomposes into collective modes. This is due to fractionalisation which is a hallmark of interacting unidimensional systems. Thanks to this interferometer I could also implement a universal tomography protocol to dissect all single particle information of any arbitrary current. This enables the study of non-classical propagating state.