rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Convexity and sheepskin effects in
            the human capital earnings function : recent evidence for
            Filipino men
Much attention has been paid to the
            issue of possible nonlinearities in the relationship between
            log wages and schooling in the literature on both the United
            States and developing countries. The author uses data from a
            recent household survey for the Philippines, the 1998 Annual
            Poverty Indicator Survey, to test the fit of the log-linear
            specification for Filipino men. He presents results based on
            various estimation strategies, including spline regressions
            and semi-parametric regressions with a large number of dummy
            variables for years of schooling and experience. He
            concludes that: 1) There appear to be large differences
            between rates of return to education across different levels
            in the Philippines. The wage premia for both primary and
            secondary education are significantly smaller than those for
            tertiary education. 2) Within each level - primary,
            secondary, and university - the last year of schooling is
            disproportionately rewarded in higher wages. That is, there
            appear to be clear sheepskin effects associated with graduation.
Bank privatization in Argentina : a
            model of political constraints and differential outcomes
Based on results from country case
            studies, many researchers have claimed that political
            constraints affect bank privatization transactions, which in
            turn affect the post-privatization performance of the
            banking sector. But no study has either econometrically
            tested how political constraints affect bank privatization
            transactions or theretically modeled the privatization
            transaction. The authors present a simple theoretical
            framework that models the inherent tradeoffs faced by
            governments and potential buyers in privatization
            transactions involving banks. The potential buyer is
            concerned about the probability that the bank will remain
            solvent, about the profits it will earn after privatization,
            and about the price paid for the assets and liabilities. The
            government is concerned about the price received for the
            assets, about layoffs, and about service coverage after
            privatization. The evidence from bank privatization
            transactions in Argentina in the 1990s supports several of
            their theoretical predictions. In particular, provinces with
            high fiscal deficits were willing to accept layoffs and to
            guarantee a larger part of the privatized banks'
            portfolio in return for a higher price. The tequila crisis
            (Mexico's economic crisis in 1994-95) meant that
            politicians could protect fewer jobs and had to assume a
            greater share of their public banks' assets. Evidence
            of better performance at banks privatized after
            Mexico's crisis suggests that, by tying
            politicians' hands, the crisis may have brought
            unforeseen benefits. This conjecture awaits further
            empirical validation, but the authors hope that by
            explicitly incorporating the incentives politicians face,
            analysis can begin to address the question of why some
            privatizations succeed more than others.
Business cycles, economic crises,
            and the poor : testing for asymmetric effects
The author examines whether output
            contraction associated with cyclical output fluctuations and
            economic crises have an asymmetric effect on poverty. He
            identifies four potential sources of asymmetry: expectations
            and cofident factors, credit rationing at the firm level
            (induced by either adeverse selection problems or negative
            shocks to net worth), borrowing constraints at the household
            level, and the "labor hoarding" hypothesis. He
            also identifies some testable implications of these
            alternative explanations. The author then proposes a vector
            autoregression technique (involving the detrended components
            of real output, the unemployment rate, real wages, and the
            poverty rate) to test whether the initial cyclical position
            of the economy, and the size of the initial drop in the
            output gap in a downturn, matter in assessing the extent to
            which output shocks affect poverty. He applies the technique
            to Brazil, using annual data for 1981-99. The results
            indicate that poverty responds asymmetrically to output
            shocks, showing less sensitivity when the economy is
            initially in a downturn.
Integrating independent power
            producers into emerging wholesale power markets
Many developing and industrial countries
            have sought to open their electricity industries to
            competition. In both contexts, policymakers and investors
            have to deal with the consequences of earlier, more partial
            sector liberalization measures. Foremost among these is the
            existence of long-term contracts with independent power
            producers (IPPs). The long-term nature of these contracts
            has complicated the introduction of more far-reaching
            sectoral reform designed to harness competitive market
            forces for the benefit of consumers. In developing
            countries, introducing competition is often coupled with
            breaking up and privatizing state-owned electricity
            monopolies. In this context, discussion of renegotiation of
            power purchase agreements has tended toward the polemical.
            At one end are those who resist any change, arguing that the
            "sanctity of contracts" precludes modification of
            contract terms. At the other end are those who favor
            governments taking coercive measures to modify existing
            contracts in the name of maximizing economic welfare and
            minimizing the burden of sector reform on consumers and on
            the state. Drawing on recent country experiences, the
            authors analyze alternative approaches to restructuring
            contracts and designing power markets to reduce rigidities
            and incentivize IPPs to participate more fully in wholesale
            power markets and to take on greater market risk. The
            authors conclude that forced market integration or forced
            contract negotiation have failed and are counterproductive.
            Conversely, in countries where IPPs provide a sizable
            proportion of generation capacity, ignoring market
            integration may result in insufficient market liquidity and
            discourage new entry, attenuating the scope for market
            forces to act for the benefit of consumers. Failure to adapt
            power purchase contracts and market rules imposes huge
            resource costs on the economy beyond the financial
            obligations consumers and taxpayers must bear. Based on
            recent experience, a combination of measures, including
            adaptation of specific market rules, contractual
            alternatives for enhancing market liquidity, contract buyout
            provisions, transitional financing mechanisms, and
            characteristics of the successor entity to the power
            purchaser, offer promising approaches for reconciling
            preexisting IPP contracts with new market structures and
            reducing the magnitude of above-market costs associated with
            such contracts.
Financial intermediary development
            and growth volatility : do intermediaries dampen or magnify shocks
The authors extend the recent literature
            on the link between financial development and economic
            volatility by focusing on the channels through which the
            development of financial intermediaries affects economic
            volatility. Their theoretical model predicts that
            well-developed financial intermediaries dampen the effect of
            real sector shocks on the volatility of growth while
            magnifying the effect of monetary shocks-suggesting that,
            overall, financial intermediaries have no unambiguous effect
            on growth volatility. The authors test these predictions in
            a panel data set covering 63 countries over the period
            1960-97, using the volatility of terms of trade to proxy for
            real volatility, and the volatility of inflation to proxy
            for monetary volatility. They find no robust relationship
            between the development of financial intermediaries and
            growth volatility, weak evidence that financial
            intermediaries dampen the effect of terms of trade
            volatility, and evidence that financial intermediaries
            magnify the impact of inflation volatility in low- and
            middle-income countries.
Hospital governance and incentive
            design : the case of corporatized public hospitals in Lebanon
There are three potential levels of
            government activity in the health sector: regulation,
            finance, and direct provision of services, with the
            government owning and managing hospitals and primary care
            clinics. Eid focuses on service provision. In recent years
            corporatization has been introduced as an institutional
            design for public hospitals-as a means of improving
            efficiency and reducing transfers in a publicly owned,
            decentralized health system. Eid treats decentralization as
            a reallocation of decision rights to lower levels of the
            public sector. She shows how such a strategy creates new
            needs for monitoring and control of decentralized units. To
            improve the understanding of the role of governance and
            incentives in corporatized hospitals, Eid explores the
            design of corporate boards of public hospitals, the
            institutional linchpin of such systems. She shows how
            principal-agent theory, particularly the multitasking and
            common agency approaches, can provide a useful analytical
            lens in understanding hospital board design in the case of
            Lebanon. She also shows the implications of corporatization
            for health policy and management.
The political economy of commodity
            export policy : a case study of India
Many developing country governments
            discriminate against sectors that export primary
            commodities. India, for example, discriminates against
            cotton production. Exports of cotton have been restricted by
            quotas, and the mill industry has been subject to such
            regulations as the obligation to supply hank yarn for Indian
            handlooms. These interventions have led to stagnating cotton
            yields, rent-seeking activities, manipulation of cotton
            statistics, and low profitability in cotton mills'
            offsetting the short-run benefits of inexpensive cotton in
            India. The author develops a numerical model to measure the
            impact of liberalizing cotton exports. This is the first
            simulation model of its type, and the first multimarket
            model that computes price elasticities endogenously, based
            on the ratios between product prices and input costs. The
            model distinguishes short-run from long-run effects by
            drawing on the principle that the cost of capital varies
            only in the long run. Results of the simulation under
            complete liberalization indicate heavy (16 percent) net
            losses in income in the handloom sector. The government
            subsidies needed to compensate for those losses amount to
            US$423 million, or about 25 percent more than current
            government revenue in India's cotton sector. Such
            costly subsidy of handlooms is undesirable not only
            budgetarily but also politically, because it creates new
            vested interests. The author proposes politically feasible
            programs for managing the adverse impact of liberalization
            on the handloom sector, including handloom conversion and
            involvement of mills in cotton cultivation. Governments tend
            to prefer an export quota to an export tax because it is
            easier to change a quota than a tax rate if market
            conditions change. But flexible controls actually facilitate
            rent-seeking activities. As quotas are changed more often
            than tax rates, more interest groups get involved in
            lobbying and in padding crop estimates. In other words, the
            political and economic problems that result from
            restrictions on commodity exports can be more serious than
            those relating to resource misallocation. It is important to
            consider how policy changes will affect the political power
            structure and the objectives of different interest groups.
Public spending and outcomes : does
            governance matter
The authors examine the role of
            governance-measured by level of corruption and quality of
            bureaucracy-and ask how it affects the relationship between
            public spending and outcomes. Their main innovation is to
            see if differences in efficacy of public spending can be
            explained by quality of governance. The authors find that
            public health spending lowers child and infant mortality
            rates in countries with good governance. The results also
            indicate that as countries improve their governance, public
            spending on primary education becomes effective in
            increasing primary education attainment. These findings have
            important implications for enhancing the development
            effectiveness of public spending. The lessons are
            particularly relevant for developing countries, where public
            spending on education and health is relatively low, and the
            state of governance is often poor.
Determinants of commercial bank
            performance in transition - an application of data
            envelopment analysis
Banking sectors in transition economies
            have experienced major transformations throughout the 1990s.
            While some countries have been successful in eliminating
            underlying distortions and restructuring their financial
            sectors, in some cases financial sectors remain
            underdeveloped and the rates of financial intermediation
            continue to be quite low. The authors estimate indicators of
            commercial bank efficiency by applying a version of Data
            Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to bank-level data from a wide
            range of transition countries. They further extend the
            analysis by explaining the differences in efficiency between
            financial institutions and countries by a variety of
            macroeconomic, prudential, and institutional variables. In
            addition to stressing the importance of some bank-specific
            variables, the censored Tobit analysis suggests that: 1)
            Foreign ownership with controlling power and enterprise
            restructuring enhance commercial bank efficiency. 2) The
            effects of prudential tightening on the efficiency of banks
            vary across different prudential norms. 3) Consolidation is
            likely to improve efficiency of banking operations. Overall,
            the results confirm the usefulness of DEA for
            transition-related applications and may shed light on the
            optimal architecture of a banking system.
Cotton sector strategies in West and
            Central Africa
Cotton production is truly a success
            story in West and Central Africa. The region is now the
            second largest exporter of lint, after the United States,
            with a world market share of 15 percent. Despite its strong
            performance in the past, the sector is characterized by
            several institutional and structural weaknesses that
            jeopardize its viability in an era of increasing
            globalization of the cotton industry. The sector's
            future performance will also depend on the implications of
            cotton sector policies in major producing countries such as
            the United States, the European Union, and China. This paper
            examines how the above factors may affect future growth of
            the region's cotton industry. It also identifies the
            changes that are required to enable countries in the region
            to fully exploit the sector's significant growth potential.
Crime and local inequality in South Africa
The authors examine the effects of local
            inequality on property and violent crime in South Africa.
            Their findings are consistent with economic theories
            relating inequality to property crime, and also with
            sociological theories that imply that inequality leads to
            crime in general. Burglary rates are 20-30 percent higher in
            police station jurisdictions that are the wealthiest among
            their neighbors, suggesting that criminals travel to
            neighborhoods where the expected returns from burglary are
            highest. The authors do not find evidence that inequality
            between racial groups fosters interpersonal conflict at the
            local level.
Rapid labor reallocation with a
            stagnant unemployment pool : the puzzle of the labor market
            in Lithuania
Lithuania is a transition economy
            undergoing rapid enterprise restructuring associated with
            substantial job turnover. At the same time, unemployment in
            Lithuania is high and of long duration. This presents a
            puzzle: high job turnover epitomizes labor market
            flexibility, while high unemployment indicates labor market
            rigidities. What are the reasons behind this paradox? Why do
            the unemployed not benefit from job opportunities created by
            high job turnover, which entails high rates of job creation
            and hiring? To answer this question, the author looks at
            three perspectives on labor market flexibility: 1) The
            macroeconomic perspective-A flexible labor market is one
            that facilitates full use and efficient allocation of labor
            resources. 2) The worker perspective-A flexible labor market
            means ease in finding a job paying a wage adequate to the
            worker's effort and skills. 3) The employer
            perspective-A flexible labor market does not unduly
            constrain the employer's ability to adjust employment
            and wages to changing market conditions. The author looks at
            all three dimensions of labor market flexibility by
            analyzing job reallocation, worker transitions across labor
            force states, wage distribution, and regulatory constraints
            faced by employers. He focuses on the issue of job creation
            and job destruction, using micro level data on all
            registered firms. He finds that flexibility in one dimension
            can concur with rigidities in the other. Specifically,
            employers in Lithuania have a substantial degree of
            flexibility with employment adjustment coupled with limited
            flexibility to wage adjustment due to a high statutory
            minimum wage. The relatively rigid wage structure locks low
            productivity workers who are preponderant among the
            unemployed. The low-skilled long-term unemployed have become
            marginalized and unable to successfully compete for
            available jobs, while the high job turnover is accounted for
            largely by job-to-job transitions. As a result, a dynamic
            labor market coincides with a stagnant unemployment pool.
From knowledge to wealth :
            transforming Russian science and technology for a modern
            knowledge economy
Russia possesses a sophisticated science
            and technology (S&T) infrastructure (research
            capability, technically trained workforce, and technical
            research universities) which, even today, is a world leader
            in many fields. Despite this world class basic research
            capacity, Russia's exports are primarily raw materials.
            At a time when wealth depends to an increasing degree on
            knowledge, Russia does not have an effective system for
            converting its scientific capacity into wealth.
            Russia's S&T resources are isolated
            bureaucratically (they are deployed in the rigid
            hierarchical system devised in the 1920s to mobilize
            resources for rapid state-planned industrial development and
            national defense), functionally (there are few links between
            the supply of S&T output by research institutes and the
            demand for S&T by Russian or foreign enterprises), and
            geographically (many assets are located in formerly closed
            cities or isolated science/atomic cities). Overcoming these
            inefficiencies and adjusting the S&T system to the
            demands of a market economy will require a major program of
            institutional and sectoral reform. Part I of this paper
            describes the ambiguous legacy of the Soviet S&T system
            and the status of the Russian S&T sector after 10 years
            of transition. Part II describes the evolution of the
            Russian system of intellectual property rights protection
            from Soviet times to the present and argues that Russia will
            never develop a successful commercialization program until
            it clarifies the ownership of the large stock of
            intellectual property funded with federal budget resources.
            Part III outlines a comprehensive 10-point sectoral reform
            program to improve the efficiency of government research and
            development spending and link the Russian S&T system
            with market forces.