Kinshasa saigne

Lumumba est mort pour ça? 

Trois jours de violence à Kinshasa ont fini par montrer ce qui suit:

·         La différence entre un gang de rue et un gouvernement est inexistante. Armes à la main

·         La différence entre un club et un parlement est nulle. Secrets bien gardés

·         La différence entre un émeutier et un terroriste est quasi nulle. Kalachnikov pour deux

·         La différence entre un citoyen libre et un mercenaire est insignifiante. Manifestation interdite

·         La différence entre un humain et un animal est nulle. La mitraillette plus efficace

·         La différence entre une loi et un ultimatum est nulle. Les deux textes sont exécutoires.

Pour cette fois encore, l'impuissance nous habite.

·         Le pays est grand mais il est devenu tout petit.

·         L'agneau donna ses raisons mais le loup le mangea sans aucune forme de procès.

Reposez en paix chers compatriotes, partis pour avoir demandé si peu.

Looking at the DRC's data

What the data say about Mobutu's and Kabila's regimes  
    The world bank has some data (http://data.worldbank.org/country/congo-dem-rep) on the years of both Mobutu and Joseph Kabila in power. Analyzing these data may give an understanding of how human and natural resources were used.
    One resource that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has in abundance and for which data are available is the arable land. I plot the agricultural land as a percentage of land area to portray how Congolese have used their natural resources.

    Figure 1 shows a positive trend from 1961 to 1994, a negative trend between 1994 and 2001, and a positive trend again from 2002 to 2013. It is easy to associate the negative trend with the beginning of the democratic transition initiated by Mobutu in April 1990, the armed conflicts in the Kivu, and the power shift in Kinshasa in may 1997. Figure 2 shows that the proportion of rural people has steadily declined since 1960. Less people live today in the countryside than it was in 1960. At the end of 2013, 58.3% of the population was still living in the countryside. It follows that a declining rural population has not reduced the use of the agricultural land at least for the years 1961-1994.
    Can we establish a statistical relationship between the use of land and the rural population?
I run a simple regression model, where the logarithmic change in the use of land is a function of the logarithmic change in the rural population. The relationship is positive, but not significant. A positive relationship is counter-intuitive as a decline in rural population should reduce the use of land. Unless there is a variable that we cannot observe but compensating for the decline  in the rural population. Economists call such a variable, a latent variable. I will call it a compensatory variable. This could be technology or healthier people. Although, we cannot say much about the positive relationship as the coefficient is not statistically significant. This is probably because taking a first log difference dilutes information in the use of land and the rural population. A co-integration model must be something to think about. But this is not what I want to discuss here. I have simply to conclude that changes in the use of land cannot be explained in terms of changes in the rural population.
    Still I have to ask myself a simple question. Do a declining rural population associate with a rising (declining) agricultural output? Think about technology. As the country uses a better technology less people are needed in the countryside. Think also about the output as a combination of inputs (land and rural people). If the output increases more than the rural population decreases, it will show that the country is more effectively using its land resources. However, as the output increases, the quality of both air and drinkable water may deteriorate. So social and environmental costs must be taken into consideration when evaluating of the production efficiency.
I will in my next post look at the relationship between the use of land and the crop and the corn production using the same database.
    I did not yet say a think on the performance of the two presidents. My next post will expand my analysis a little further.
Bernard, Ben Sita
    

BibTex, part 2

Generating a BibTex Bibliography in 4 steps on Scientific WorkPlace (SWP): Part II

Suppose you have 3 BIBTEX sources as follows: 

@article{black1973pricing,

  title={The pricing of options and corporate liabilities},
  author={Black, Fischer and Scholes, Myron},
  journal={The journal of political economy},
  pages={637--654},
  year={1973},
  publisher={JSTOR}
}

JabRef generates the following key: Black1973

@article{krugman1991increasing,
  title={Increasing Returns and Economic Geography},
  author={Krugman, Paul},
  journal={Journal of Political Economy},
  volume={99},
  number={3},
  year={1991}
}

JabRef generates the following key: Krugman1991

@book{tirole1988theory,
  title={The theory of industrial organization},
  author={Tirole, Jean},
  year={1988},
  publisher={MIT press}
}

JabRef generates the following key: Tirole1988

Step 3: Citing works in your tex-document

    Suppose you cited Fischer Black and Myron Scholes as Black and Scholes (1973) here, Jean Tirole there as Tirole (1988), and Paul Krugman somewhere else in the body of the tex-document as Krugman (1991).
To use your database: .
    (a) Click on icon " (citation) on the command line.
    (b) Double click on your database, a dialog box appears. Select the key (Black1973). You can view the key if you are unsure. Click OK, OK.
    (c) A button appears (cite:Black1973), which gives (Black and Scholes 1973). If you want the citation to look like Black and Scholes (1973), you have to use a TEX field. Click on TEX field. A dialog box appears. Write: \citeN(Black1973).
Repeat for every citation.

Step 4: Compiling your document

Compile your tex-document as follows,
    (a) Click on the icon "Typeset DVI compile" on the command line. The icon is a superscript TEX. It is different from TEX with an E as an underscript.
    (b) Check "Generate a bibliography" and click OK. Check for warning messages. If any correct your database on JabRef or NotePad.
    (c) Typeset PDF review.
    Good luck!!!

BibTex, part 1

Generating a BibTex Bibliography in 4 steps on Scientific WorkPlace (SWP): Part I

Step 1: Make a file with .bib as an extension

(a) NotePad

Retrieve a reference from Google Scholar as a BibTex source, copy it, and paste it on NotePad.
Do it for a number of references. For instance, "Maureen O'Hara" on Google Scholar:
The BibTex source for her book is

@book{o1995market,

title={Market microstructure theory},
author={O'hara, Maureen},

publisher={Blackwell Cambridge, MA}
volume={108},
  year={1995},

}



The BibTex source for one of her published articles is:



@article{easley1987price,
  title={Price, trade size, and information in securities markets},
  author={Easley, David and O'hara, Maureen},
  journal={Journal of Financial economics},
  volume={19},
  number={1},
  pages={69--90},
  year={1987},
  publisher={Elsevier}
}

Save the database as name.bib (e.g., mybib.bib).
*****Do not save it as mybib.txt or mybib.bib.txt. ***********************************

Save the bib file in the folder where the tex-document is located. 

A better alternative to NotePad is JabRef (Download it if you do not have). It is free for a month.

(b) JabRef
Adding a reference manually:
Open JabRef. Add a new working sheet. Use (+) on the command line to add a row. Fill out the required fields.
With a BibTex source paste it under "BibTex source".

Adding automatically: Open JabRef, Retrieve a BibTex source from Google Scholar, Copy it, and Paste as such on JabRef.
************Save your database where you saved your tex-document.************************
Generate a key with JabRef: Select your entries, an click on the icon "autogenerated BibTex Key".

Step 2: Use the database on SWP

Add "Chicago" as a package if you do not have it already (typeset, options and packages, package options, add, Chicago, OK, OK).

Make a pagebreak after the conclusion of your research paper (Insert, spacing, break, pagebreak).

Typeset, Bibliography Choice, BibTex, OK.

Typeset and General settings. Change the BibTex database directory to where your bib-file is located. Do no change the BibTex style directory.

Insert, Typeset Objects, and Bibliography. Your bibliography should appear here. Scroll down to select "Chicago", and OK.

The following icon appear: BIBTEX

See my next post for the last steps.