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The purpose of this paper is to assess the direct effect of climate change on income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the channels through which it spreads.

Using a sample of 38 countries, the authors specify and estimate a panel data model using the generalized least squares method over the period 1991–2020. Robustness is achieved through the generalized moment method-system.

The results show that an increase in vulnerability to climate change is positively and significantly associated with an increase in income inequality. The results also show that the effects of climate change are mediated by gross domestic product/capita, population and agriculture at the 15%, 17% and 24% thresholds, respectively.

The authors suggest the implementation of inclusive development policies consistent with climate mitigation and adaptation objectives; the creation of financial spaces from various sources to finance the social security of the most vulnerable; and the strengthening of agricultural resilience to climate-related adverse events, including financing for greenhouse agriculture.

On the positive side, it contributes to the literature on the analysis of the direct and indirect effects (transmission channels) of climate change on income inequality in SSA. Methodologically, the study goes beyond previous work as it adopts a stepwise methodology, dealing with the endogeneity issue. At the logical level, it offers some non-exhaustive suggestions of potentially interesting economic policies to guide policymakers in their common commitment to “reduce income inequality” (Sustainable Development Goal 10, target 10.1).

For many years, universities have been confronted with the rise of a managerial logic, in line with the new public management movement. They have been encouraged to implement new accounting tools such as cost calculations. Literature shows mixed results regarding the institutionalization of such tools, and the logic they try to support. In most studies, the agency of actors is examined to explain the institutionalization of accounting tools and only few studies consider the specific characteristics of these accounting tools to understand this process. To enrich the literature on institutionalization, this article examines how the affordances of costing tools affect the institutionalization of these tools and the institutionalization of new logics in pluralistic organizations such as universities.

The data were collected at a French university which is considered as an example of successful institutionalization of the tool and is cited as a model to follow. The data include a four-month participant observation and 18 interviews. Access to internal and external documents was also available. The analysis of the data is based on a framework proposed by Jarzabkowski and Kaplan (2015), which draws on the concept of affordance of tools, to investigate how the possibilities and constraints of costing tools shape the selection, application and outcomes of cost calculations.

The results show that the affordances of cost calculations facilitate the institutionalization of a new logic and its coexistence with previous logics. Technical affordances are mobilized by actors aiming to bring in a new logic without directly confronting the old ones. Role affordances also play a major role in the institutionalization by facilitating the adhesion of the actors through multiple applications of the tool. Finally, value-based affordances reinforce the institutionalization of a managerial logic by emphasizing the values shared with the other logics and thus facilitating the coexistence of the three logics at stake in the university.

This research provides three main contributions. First, it contributes to the literature on the institutionalization of accounting tools. It shows the relevance of the concept of affordance (Leonardi and Vaast, 2017) to unpack the characteristics of accounting tools (including the constraints and the possibilities they offer) and to achieve a better understanding of the institutionalization of accounting tools. Second, this paper contributes to the literature dealing with the role of accounting tools in the institutionalization of logics. The results suggest that the institutionalization of tools and the institutionalization of logics are two different phenomena that move at different speeds. However, these phenomena interact: the institutionalization of accounting tools can facilitate the coexistence of different logics in pluralistic organizations. Third, this paper contributes to the literature on affordances. The data reveal several types of affordances for accounting tools: technical affordances that refer to the technical possibilities to shape and tweak the tool; role affordances that refer to the various roles and purposes that the tool can fulfill and value-based affordances that refer to the plasticity of the values and beliefs that the tool can convey. The study shows that each type of affordance is prevalent at a different time of the process of institutionalization and that the combination of these affordances contributes to the institutionalization of the tool and of new logics.