rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Learning from Power Sector Reform :
            The Case of Uganda
Uganda's power sector structure is
            among the most sophisticated in Sub-Saharan Africa, and
            Uganda is one of only a handful of countries in the region
            where tariffs are close to being cost reflective. While
            reforms were swift and comprehensive, following the 1999
            Electricity Act, significant difficulties were encountered
            along the way that prevented the benefits of reform from
            materializing until much later. The failed first attempt
            with the Bujagali Hydropower independent power producer left
            the country heavily exposed to the 2005/06 and 2010/12
            droughts, which in turn created difficulties for the new
            private distribution utility, Umeme, and led to a relaxation
            of the regulatory performance targets for the concession.
            This situation led to a buildup of frustration with the new
            operator and the launch of two public enquiries, which
            recommended termination of the concession. In 2012, with the
            easing of drought conditions and the completion of the
            Bujagali Hydropower Project following a second independent
            power producer arrangement, there was improvement in the
            availability of power. This made it possible to set more
            demanding performance targets for the concessionaire, Umeme,
            which fed through into substantial improvements in
            operational efficiency and accelerating service coverage.
            Although the reform model was eventually able to deliver
            results, the associated cost was comparatively high.
            Furthermore, the extension of the private concession model
            to financially unviable rural areas did not prove to be
            successful. Access rates began to pick up only following the
            adoption of a revised approach in 2012, built around
            government-led and donor-funded expansion of rural networks.
Do Information Technologies Improve
            Teenagers' Sexual Education Evidence from a Randomized
            Evaluation in Colombia
This study reports results from a
            randomized evaluation of a mandatory six-month
            Internet-based sexual education course implemented across
            public junior high schools in 21 Colombian cities. Six
            months after finishing the course, the study finds a 0.4
            standard deviation improvement in knowledge, a 0.2 standard
            deviation improvement in attitudes, and a 55 percent
            increase in the likelihood of redeeming vouchers for condoms
            as a result of taking the course. The data provide no
            evidence of spillovers to control classrooms within
            treatment schools, and it finds that treatment effects are
            enhanced when a larger share of a student's friends
            also takes the course. The low cost of the online course
            along with the effectiveness the study documents suggests
            this technology is a viable alternative for improving sexual
            education in middle-income countries.
Food Prices, Access to Markets and
            Child Undernutrition in Ethiopia
This paper looks at how changing food
            prices affect child undernutrition in Ethiopia. It derives
            height for age (stunting) and weight for height (wasting) as
            indicators of child undernutrition from the two most recent
            years of the Livings Standards Measurement Survey and
            utilizes market prices for key cereals, teff, wheat, and
            maize at the zone level across all regions of the country.
            Using a panel data fixed effects model, the analysis finds
            that, contrary to previous studies, rising crop prices are
            positively associated with improved child stunting rates for
            children between ages 6 months and 5 years, while the
            results for wasting are not conclusive. These results
            suggest that across the board policy interventions that seek
            to suppress cereal price increases may have adverse effects
            on poverty reduction in the long term by undermining
            potentially positive impacts on child nutrition.
Impact of Fiscal Policy on
            Inequality and Poverty in the Arab Republic of Egypt
This study assesses the redistributive
            impact of fiscal policy –– including expenditures and
            taxation –– in the Arab Republic of Egypt. Using a broadly
            applied methodology, a fiscal incidence analysis is
            conducted using survey and government data for fiscal year
            2015. Evidence shows that Egyptian fiscal policy reduces
            income inequality, and that among individual fiscal
            programs, the largest reduction is due to public
            expenditures on the primary education system. Compared with
            similar countries, Egypt's overall fiscal policy placed
            it in the median of the distribution of inequality
            reduction. Fiscal policies in Egypt also led to a decrease
            in poverty, mostly from the flagship Tamween program.
            Poverty and inequality could be reduced more effectively if
            the country would shift away from spending on untargeted
            energy subsidies to more targeted transfers. The large gap
            between the government's expenditures and revenues
            helps explain the positive outcomes on poverty and
            inequality but poses challenges in the long term.
The Rise of Star Firms : Intangible
            Capital and Competition
There is a divergence in the returns of
            top-performing firms and the rest of the economy, especially
            in industries that rely on a skilled labor force, raising
            concerns about their market power. This paper shows that the
            divergence is explained by the mismeasurement of intangible
            capital. Compared with other firms, star firms produce more
            per dollar of invested capital, have higher growth,
            innovation, and productivity and are not differentially
            affected by exogenous competitive shocks. Their pricing
            power supports their high intangible capital investment.
            Some exceptional firms may pose concerns due to their
            potential to foreclose competition in the future.
Replication Redux : The
            Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
In 2004, a landmark study showed that an
            inexpensive medication to treat parasitic worms could
            improve health and school attendance for millions of
            children in many developing countries. Eleven years later, a
            headline in the Guardian reported that this treatment,
            deworming, had been "debunked." The pronouncement
            followed an effort to replicate and re-analyze the original
            study, as well as an update to a systematic review of the
            effects of deworming. This story made waves amidst
            discussion of a reproducibility crisis in some of the social
            sciences. This paper explores what it means to
            "replicate" and "reanalyze" a study,
            both in general and in the specific case of deworming. The
            paper reviews the broader replication efforts in economics,
            then examines the key findings of the original deworming
            paper in light of the "replication,"
            "reanalysis," and "systematic review."
            The paper also discusses the nature of the link between this
            single paper's findings, other papers' findings,
            and any policy recommendations about deworming. This example
            provides a perspective on the ways replication and
            reanalysis work, the strengths and weaknesses of systematic
            reviews, and whether there is, in fact, a reproducibility
            crisis in economics.
The Economics of International
            Student and Scholar Mobility : Directions for Research
International trade in higher education
            services in the form of international student mobility has
            increased sharply since the 1960s and especially from
            Eastern Europe and Central Asia since the fall of the Soviet
            Union. Many international students, especially those with
            graduate degrees, stay on in the host country after
            graduation. Although their impact on labor markets has been
            investigated by economists, geographers, and regional
            scientists in recent years, most studies on international
            students focus on education and spatial issues, with very
            little economic analysis. Furthermore, the application of a
            trade in services framework to international student
            mobility is virtually nonexistent. Four areas of research
            have emerged that need further investigation, particularly
            for the Europe and Central Asia region. First is the
            research gap on host and source country pull and push
            factors affecting the demand and supply of international
            students. Second, there is little or no understanding of the
            impact of foreign direct investment in higher education
            services, both through the establishment of branch campuses
            as well as direct investment by multinationals in
            universities. Third, there is virtually no study on the
            impact of international student and scholar mobility on
            global collaborative patents. Fourth, there are very few
            field experiments in international student or migration
            research. These issues need to be understood for the
            development of appropriate policies in industrialized,
            emerging and developing economies, on the global mobility of
            students as well as establishment of branch campuses abroad.
The Apprenticeship-to-Work
            Transition : Experimental Evidence from Ghana
This paper examines the effects of a
            government-sponsored apprenticeship training program
            designed to address high levels of youth unemployment in
            Ghana. The study exploits randomized access to the program
            to examine the short-run effects of apprenticeship training
            on labor market outcomes. The results show that
            apprenticeships shift youth out of wage work and into
            self-employment. However, the loss of wage income is not
            offset by increases in self-employment profits in the short
            run. In addition, the study uses the randomized match
            between apprentices and training providers to examine the
            causal effect of characteristics of trainers on outcomes for
            apprentices. Participants who trained with the most
            experienced trainers or the most profitable ones had higher
            earnings. These increases more than offset the
            program's negative treatment effect on earnings. This
            suggests that training programs can be made more effective
            through better recruitment of trainers.
Learning from Power Sector Reform :
            The Case of The Philippines
The Philippines power sector underwent a
            substantial and largely complete reform process. Following a
            severe shortage of supply in the late 1980s and the Asian
            Financial crisis of 1997, which made the dollar-denominated
            debt of the National Power Corporation extremely burdensome,
            the Electric Power Industry Reform Act was passed in 2001.
            This was intended to improve the quality of service and
            reduce power tariffs via the introduction of private
            participation and competition at the wholesale and retail
            levels. Although the implementation of the full reform
            program took longer than originally expected, the unwavering
            support given to the reform agenda by successive presidents
            of the country ensured that the planned steps had all been
            completed by 2013. At that time, retail competition and open
            access for consumers in Luzon and Visayas of more than one
            megawatt were introduced. The reform process was not impeded
            by complications that would have arisen if consumer
            subsidies had been endemic, but retail prices are even
            higher than might have been expected in the absence of
            subsidies, due to domestic taxation and the presence of some
            inefficiencies that have not yet been eliminated by the
            onset of competition.
Childcare and Maternal Employment :
            Evidence from Vietnam
Little literature currently exists on
            the effects of childcare use on maternal labor market
            outcomes in a developing country context, and recent studies
            offer mixed results. This paper attempts to fill these gaps
            by analyzing several of the latest rounds of the Vietnam
            Household Living Standards Survey spanning the early to
            mid-2010s. Addressing endogeneity issues with a regression
            discontinuity estimator based on children's birth
            months, the paper finds a sizable effect of childcare
            attendance on women's labor market outcomes, including
            their total annual wages, household income, and poverty
            status. The effects of childcare attendance differ by
            women's characteristics and are particularly strong for
            younger, more educated women. Furthermore, childcare has a
            medium-term effect and positively impacts men's labor
            market outcomes as well.
Tackling the Global Profitarchy :
            Gender and the Choice of Business Sector
Sectoral segregation is often used to
            explain a large part of a well-documented gender earnings
            gap in business profits. Women tend to sort into different
            sectors than men, and the sectors dominated by women tend to
            be less profitable. This paper investigates the horizontal
            dimension of sectoral segregation by studying global data on
            female and male enterprises operating in sectors that are
            typically dominated by the same and opposite sex. The
            analysis uses the novel Future of Business dataset, which
            spans 97 countries and was administered to enterprise
            owners, managers, and employees who use Facebook. The
            analysis finds that some of the earnings gap can indeed be
            explained by sector choice: female-owned businesses in
            male-dominated sectors make significantly higher profits
            than those in traditionally female sectors. The evidence
            points to a hierarchy of earnings, with male-owned
            businesses in male-dominated sectors earning the most, women
            in male-dominated sectors and men in female-concentrated
            sectors in the middle tier, and women in female-concentrated
            sectors at the bottom. Correlational analysis suggests that
            women who own businesses in male-dominated sectors are
            younger, married, and more likely to have inherited the
            business than women in female-concentrated sectors. They
            have similar education to women in female-concentrated
            sectors and present higher self-efficacy but lower
            entrepreneurial identity and commitment to the sector. Male
            support networks appear to be key for female-owned firms,
            with co-ownership with husbands and male role models
            factoring into the decision to cross over.
Corruption and Country Size :
            Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data
What sorts of conditions make some
            countries more prone to corruption than the others? This is
            an important question for understanding how corruption
            arises and how to combat it. The present paper attempts to
            answer this question by exploring the link between the size
            of the country and corruption. Economic theory suggests
            advantages and disadvantages of being a large country. Fixed
            costs in monitoring and punishing corrupt politicians and
            bureaucrats implies lower corruption in larger countries.
            However, congestion or administrative costs may escalate
            with country size. Further, greater diversity in the larger
            countries implies that such countries may find it harder to
            reach a consensus on growth-enhancing anti-corruption
            reforms. Thus, the corruption and country size relationship
            is an empirical issue. Using firm-level survey data for 135
            countries, this paper finds that the level corruption
            experienced by the firms is positively correlated with
            country size. This holds for a measure of overall corruption
            and petty corruption that arises in availing specific
            government services. According to a conservative estimate,
            moving from a country the size of Namibia (25th percentile
            level in size) to a country the size of Morocco (75th
            percentile level) is associated with an increase in the
            level of overall corruption by 0.28 percentage point or
            about 23 percent of its mean value. The results are robust
            to several controls, alternative corruption measures, sample
            alternations, and different country size measures.
The Changing Pattern of Returns to
            Education : What Impact Will This Have on Inequality
The pattern of economic rates of return
            to investments in education can help us to understand the
            benefits of schooling. It was common knowledge that the
            returns to education were highest for the primary level of
            education and lower for subsequent levels. Recent evidence
            suggests that the pattern has changed. Since the 1980s, the
            returns to schooling overall have increased. The returns to
            higher education have increased the most. The fact that the
            more educated have improved their position, despite an
            increase in their numbers, must mean that the demand for
            more educated workers has increased more than supply over
            time, causing an increase in the overall returns to
            schooling. Possible reasons include technological change
            favoring higher-order skills, increased coverage at lower
            levels of schooling, and the quality of schooling.
How Much Does Reducing Inequality
            Matter for Global Poverty
The goals of ending extreme poverty by
            2030 and working toward a more equal distribution of income
            are prominent in international development and agreed upon
            in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals 1
            and 10. Using data from 164 countries comprising 97 percent
            of the world's population, this paper simulates a set
            of scenarios for global poverty from 2018 to 2030 under
            different assumptions about growth and inequality. This
            allows for quantifying the interdependence of the poverty
            and inequality goals. The paper uses different assumptions
            about growth incidence curves to model changes in inequality
            and relies on the Model-based Recursive Partitioning
            machine-learning algorithm to model how growth in GDP is
            passed through to growth as observed in household surveys.
            When holding within-country inequality unchanged and letting
            GDP per capita grow according to International Monetary Fund
            forecasts, the simulations suggest that the number of
            extreme poor (living below $1.90/day) will remain above 550
            million in 2030, resulting in a global extreme poverty rate
            of 6.5 percent. If the Gini index in each country decreases
            by 1 percent per year, the global poverty rate could reduce
            to around 5.4 percent in 2030, equivalent to 100 million
            fewer people living in extreme poverty. Reducing each
            country's Gini index by 1 percent per year has a larger
            impact on global poverty than increasing each country's
            annual growth 1 percentage point above the forecasts,
            suggesting an important role for inequality on the path to
            eliminating extreme poverty.
School-Based Management and Learning
            Outcomes : Experimental Evidence from Colima, Mexico
A school-based management program was
            implemented Mexico in 2001 and continued until 2014. This
            national program, Programa Escuelas de Calidad, was
            considered a key intervention to improve learning outcomes.
            In 2006, the national program was evaluated in the Mexican
            state of Colima, being the first experimental evaluation of
            the national program. All schools were invited to
            participate in the program; a random selection was performed
            to select the treatment and control groups among all the
            applicants. An intent-to-treat approach did not detect any
            impact on learning outcomes; a formal school-based
            management intervention plus a monetary grant was not enough
            to improve learning outcomes. First, the schools in the
            evaluation sample, control and treatment, were schools with
            high learning outcomes. Second, these schools had
            experienced some years of regular school-based management
            practices before the evaluation. A difference-in-difference
            design is used to identify heterogeneous effects of the
            program on learning outcomes. The difference-in-difference
            approach shows that the intensity of treatment increased
            test scores during the first year of the intervention.
Market Size, Sunk Costs of Entry,
            and Transport Costs : An Empirical Evaluation of the Impact
            of Demand-Side Factors versus Supply-Side Factors on
            Manufacturing Productivity
This paper uses plant-level, panel data
            from the Ethiopian manufacturing census to estimate the
            effects of demand-side and supply-side factors on
            industrywide aggregate productivity. The paper focuses on
            the effects of three factors: (1) local market size, (2) the
            value of transportation costs that firms incur in selling to
            customers outside their market, and (3) licensing fees
            needed to enter the market. Identification is based on a
            model of production under monopolistic competition, which
            enables interpreting the estimated coefficients of a reduced
            form, dynamic productivity equation. The paper analyzes 11
            industries in Ethiopia over 2000 to 2010. Several
            interesting results emerge. In the most parsimonious
            specification, the estimated coefficients are consistent
            with all three predictions of the model—but only for one
            industry: cinder blocks. In this industry, the expansion of
            the local market boosts industrywide total factor revenue
            productivity, while increases in transport costs and
            licensing fees reduce it. The picture is somewhat mixed in
            the other 10 industries but broadly consistent with the
            predictions of the model.