Institutions, governance and economic development: problems, reforms and direction of the Gabonese economy.

Summary This thesis traces the genesis of development economics in order to highlight its salient features and main developments. It focuses on the prominent place given to institutions in the new theories of development and the resulting policies. The concept of governance mobilized here highlights new mechanisms of coordination and resource allocation and reveals new dimensions that were obscured by the first development policies. The launch of the concept of "good governance" by international institutions at the beginning of the 1990s is indicative of the appeal of this concept to them. Hence the importance of highlighting its strengths and weaknesses and the relevance of adopting a gradual approach in which developing countries, as they build up their institutional capacities and strengthen the basic capabilities of individuals, will have an increasingly diversified economy and growth driven by factors, efficiency and innovation. Gabon, which we are analyzing in several subsystems (political, economic and social), serves as a laboratory in that it allows us to measure the impact of the institutional deficit on the strengthening of the cash economy. Indeed, any strategy for diversifying the economy presupposes the establishment of new effective institutions and the emergence of a strategic state (coordinator, planner and reducer of uncertainty) and seems to be an intermediate mechanism - between bad governance and good governance - for producing confidence.