rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Analyzing Flooding Impacts on Rural
            Access to Hospitals and Other Critical Services in Rural
            Cambodia Using Geo-Spatial Information and Network Analysis
Transport connectivity in Cambodia is
            challenged by its geography and exposure to recurrent
            flooding. Flood events create severe disruptions in segments
            of the transport network that undermine access to health,
            education, and work opportunities as well as create barriers
            to economic growth. Rural accessibility to emergency health
            facilities and delivery of medicines and basic food supplies
            is particularly critical in times of major health crises,
            such as the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. This paper provides a
            method to quantify the impact of flooding on hospital access
            and other critical facilities, aiming to support governments
            on setting up health emergency mitigation plans for rural
            transport in an environment with high flood risk. The method
            was piloted in three provinces in rural Cambodia, estimating
            that for 37 percent of the people on those provinces, it
            takes more than 60 minutes to reach an emergency health
            facility. During floods, 27 percent lose all access and 18
            percent experience an increase of 30 minutes in travel time.
            In conclusion, this method introduces transparency and
            evidence-based support for prioritization of rural transport
            investment, identifies the social benefits (health and
            education) of rural infrastructure investments, and supports
            policy dialogue on rural development and resilience.
The Evolution of Services Trade
            Policy Since the Great Recession
Are changes in services markets
            provoking reform, restrictions, or inertia? To address this
            question, this paper draws on a new World Bank-World Trade
            Organization Services Trade Policy Database. The paper
            analyzes the services trade policies of 68 economies in 23
            subsectors across five broad areas -- financial services,
            telecommunications, distribution, transportation, and
            professional services. Policy measures are quantified into a
            Services Trade Restrictions Index (STRI) following a novel,
            consistent and transparent framework. The paper identifies
            patterns of services trade policies across sectors and
            economies, and secular trends over the past decade. Higher
            income economies are still more open on average than
            developing economies, but the chronology of reform differs
            markedly across sectors. In telecommunications and finance,
            there is convergence toward greater openness driven by
            liberalization in the previously more restrictive developing
            economies. In the hitherto universally protected transport
            and professional services, there is policy divergence, as
            some higher income economies pioneer reform. But while
            explicit restrictions are being lowered in most services
            sectors—in contrast to recent developments in goods trade
            policy -- there is greater recourse to regulatory scrutiny,
            especially in higher income economies. These measures could
            reflect legitimate prudential or security concerns, but they
            could also reflect recourse to less transparent forms of protection.
The Important Role of Equivalence
            Scales : Household Size, Composition, and Poverty Dynamics
            in the Russian Federation
Hardly any literature exists on the
            relationship between equivalence scales and poverty dynamics
            for transitional countries. This paper offers a new study on
            the impacts of equivalence scale adjustments on poverty
            dynamics in the Russian Federation, using equivalence scales
            constructed from subjective wealth and more than 20 waves of
            household panel survey data from the Russia Longitudinal
            Monitoring Survey. The analysis suggests that the
            equivalence scale elasticity is sensitive to household
            demographic composition. The adjustments for the equivalence
            of scales result in lower estimates of poverty lines. The
            study decomposes poverty into chronic and transient
            components and finds that chronic poverty is positively
            related to the adult scale parameter. However, chronic
            poverty is less sensitive to the child scale factor compared
            with the adult scale factor. Interestingly, the direction of
            income mobility might change depending on the specific scale
            parameters that are employed. The results are robust to
            different measures of chronic poverty, income expectations,
            reference groups, functional forms, and various other specifications.
The Important Role of Equivalence
            Scales : Household Size, Composition, and Poverty Dynamics
            in the Russian Federation
Policy Research Working Paper 9270 The Important Role of Equivalence Scales Household Size, Composition, and Poverty Dynamics in the Russian Federation _Kseniya Abanokova Hai-Anh H. Dang Michael M. Lokshin_ Development Economics Development Data Group & Europe and Central Asia Region Office of the Chief Economist June 2020
Method Matters : Underreporting of
            Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria and Rwanda
This paper analyzes the magnitude and
            predictors of misreporting on intimate partner and sexual
            violence in Nigeria and Rwanda. Respondents were randomly
            assigned to answer questions using one of three survey
            methods: an indirect method (list experiment) that gives
            respondents anonymity; a direct, self-administered method
            that increases privacy; and the standard, direct
            face-to-face method. In Rwanda, intimate partner violence
            rates increase by 100 percent, and in Nigeria, they increase
            by up to 39 percent when measured using the list method,
            compared with direct methods. Misreporting was associated
            with indicators often targeted in women's empowerment
            programs, such as gender norms and female employment and
            education. These results suggest that standard survey
            methods may generate significant underestimates of the
            prevalence of intimate partner violence and biased
            correlations and treatment effect estimates.
Female Business Leaders, Business
            and Cultural Environment, and Productivity around the World
Studies of female business leaders and
            economic performance are rarely conducted with worldwide
            observational data, and with considerations on the
            underlying cultural, institutional, and business
            environment. This paper uses worldwide, firm-level data from
            more than 100 countries to study how female-headed firms
            differ from male-headed firms in productivity level and
            growth, and whether the female leader performance disparity
            hinges on the underlying environment. Female-headed firms
            account for about 11 percent of firms and are more prevalent
            in countries with better rule of law, gender equality, and
            stronger individualistic culture. On average, female-headed
            firms have 9 to 16 percent lower productivity and 1.6
            percentage points lower labor productivity growth, compared
            with male-headed firms. The disadvantage is mainly in
            manufacturing firms, largely nonexistent in service firms,
            and present in relatively small firms. Although the female
            leader performance disadvantage is surprisingly not related
            to gender equality, it is smaller where there is  less
            emphasis on personal networks (better rule of law, lower
            trade credit linkages, lower usage of bank credit, and more
            equalizing internet), less competition, and the culture is
            more collective. The study does not find that the female
            leader disadvantage is amplified in corrupt environments.
            Africa differs significantly in that it features lower
            female disadvantage, stronger female advantage in services
            relative to manufacturing, and stronger sensitivity of
            female business leaders to electricity provision and bank
            credit access.
The Evolution of Deep Trade Agreements
This paper presents new data on the
            content of preferential trade agreements. The data contain
            detailed information on the 18 policy areas most frequently
            covered in preferential trade agreements, focusing on the
            stated objectives, substantive commitments, and other
            aspects such as transparency, procedures, and enforcement.
            Several new stylized facts emerge: (i) preferential trade
            agreements have reduced trade-weighted average tariff rates
            to less than 5 percent for more than two-thirds of
            countries; (ii) the number of commitments in preferential
            trade agreements has increased over time, particularly since
            the 2000s and in areas aiming at facilitating flows of
            services, goods, and capital; (iii) deepening commitments
            have been accompanied by an increase in regulatory
            requirements, namely on enforcement; (iv) developing
            countries tend to have fewer commitments in preferential
            trade agreements, with larger gaps in areas such as labor
            and the environment; and (v) preferential trade agreements
            are more similar within blocs, but similarity can be
            significant even across blocs. The paper also discusses the
            challenges of quantification of preferential trade
            agreements "depth" and its effects and proposes a
            research agenda for future work on trade agreements.
Growth and Risk : A View from
            International Trade
This paper studies the cross-country
            patterns of risky innovation and growth through the lens of
            international trade. It uses a simple theoretical framework
            of risky quality upgrading by firms under varying levels of
            financial development to derive two predictions. First, the
            mean rate of quality growth and the corresponding
            cross-sectional variance of quality growth in a country are
            positively correlated. Second, both the mean and variance of
            quality changes are positively correlated with the
            country's level of financial development. The paper
            tests these two hypotheses using data on disaggregated
            (Harmonized System 10- digit) bilateral exports to the
            United States. The patterns in the data are consistent with
            the theory. The mean and the variance of quality growth are
            strongly positively correlated with each other. Countries
            with greater financial depth are systematically
            characterized by higher mean and higher variance in the
            growth of product quality. The findings suggest a
            mean-variance trade-off in product quality improvements
            along the development path. Increases in financial depth do
            not imply lower variability of changes in the product space.
Power System Implications of Subsidy
            Removal, Regional Electricity Trade, and Carbon Constraints
            in MENA Economies
This study analyzes impacts on the power
            sector in the Middle East and North Africa region of three
            policies: removal of fuel subsidies, cross-border
            electricity trade, and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions
            in line with commitments under the Paris Agreement. The
            analysis uses a power system planning model that minimizes
            the total electricity supply cost over 2018–35 by satisfying
            specified technical, economic, environmental, and policy
            constraints. The study shows that the region would save
            between US$26.3 billion and US$27.5 billion, measured in
            2018 prices, by removing subsidies of natural gas used for
            power generation. It would save US$83.6 billion to US$90.9
            billion through cross-border electricity trade. The two
            policies together would yield a reduction of 10 percent in
            cumulative power sector carbon dioxide emissions in the
            region, with a net cost savings of US$111 billion. If a
            carbon constraining policy is considered to achieve the same
            level of reduction of emissions, the cost of the power
            system would increase by US$97 billion. The study also
            reveals that the benefits of subsidy removal would be higher
            in the presence of cross-border trade, and the benefits of
            cross-border trade would be higher in the absence of fuel subsidies.
Trust or Property Rights Can Trusted
            Relationships Substitute for Costly Land Registration in
            West African Cities
The paper studies the market failures
            associated with land tenure insecurity and information
            asymmetry in an urban land use model, and analyzes
            households' responses to mitigate tenure insecurity.
            When buyers and sellers of land plots can pair along trusted
            kinship lines whereby deception (the non-disclosure of
            competing claims on a land plot to a buyer) is socially
            penalized, information asymmetry is attenuated, but overall
            participation in the land market is reduced. Alternatively,
            when owners can make land plots secure by paying to register
            them in a cadaster, both information asymmetry and tenure
            insecurity are reduced, but the registration cost limits
            land market participation at the periphery of the city. The
            paper then compares the overall surpluses under these trust
            and registration models and under a hybrid version of the
            model that reflects the context of today's West African
            cities where both registration and trusted relationships are
            simultaneously available to residents. The analysis
            highlights the substitutability of trusted relationships to
            costly registration and predicts the gradual evolution of
            economies towards the socially preferable registration
            system if registration costs can be sufficiently reduced.
How Valuable is the Reliability of
            Residential Electricity Supply in Low-Income Countries
            Evidence from Nepal
This study uses a contingent valuation
            approach to value the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for improved
            service experienced by households in Nepal following the end
            of the country's load-shedding crisis of 2008-2016.
            Using a detailed survey of grid-connected Nepali households,
            the authors calculate the WTP per outage-day avoided and the
            residential value of lost (VoLL) and analyze their key
            drivers. Households are willing to pay, on average, 123.32
            NR ($1.11) per month, or 65 percent of the actual average
            monthly bill for improved quality of power supply. The
            preferred estimates of the VoLL are in the range of 5 to 15
            NR/kWh (¢4.7-¢14/kWh). These estimates are below the
            marginal cost of avoided load shedding, and virtually the
            same as valuations at the beginning of the load-shedding crisis.
Gender Pension Gaps in a Private
            Retirement Accounts System : A Dynamic Model of Household
            Labor Supply and Savings
This paper develops and estimates a
            dynamic model of individuals' and couples' labor
            supply, savings, and retirement decisions to analyze how the
            design of a privatized pension system affects gender pension
            gaps. Chile has one of the longest running nationwide
            private retirements accounts systems in the world, operating
            since 1980. It has served as a model for many countries and
            was reformed in 2008 to alleviate old- age poverty and
            reduce gender pension gaps. The paper estimates the dynamic
            model using pre-reform data and compares the model's
            short-term predictions with available evidence on the
            reform's causal impacts. The analysis finds that
            household structure is an important determinant of the
            behavioral and distributional impacts of the reform. The
            paper evaluates how actual and counterfactual changes in the
            pension system design affect men's and women's
            economic decisions, pension receipts, and program costs over
            a longer time horizon. Three design features significantly
            reduce gender pension gaps: expanding minimum pension
            benefit eligibility, providing a per-child pension bonus,
            and increasing women's retirement age to be equal to men's.
The Labor Market Effects of
            Venezuelan Migration in Ecuador
As of 2019, more than 1.2 million
            Venezuelans passed through Ecuador and more than 400,000
            settled (almost 3 percent of Ecuador's population).
            This paper analyzes the location choices of Venezuelan
            migrants in Ecuador and the labor market consequences of
            these choices, using data from Ecuador's labor force
            survey and mobile phone records on the geographic
            distribution of Venezuelan migrants. Around half of the
            migrants live in four cantons (of 221). Their location is
            primarily driven by local economic conditions, rather than
            point of entry. Overall, the regions with the largest
            inflows of Venezuelans have not seen any effects on labor
            market participation or employment, compared with regions
            with fewer inflows. However, our difference-in-difference
            estimates clearly indicate that young, low-educated
            Ecuadoran workers in high-inflow regions have been adversely
            affected. Specifically, the estimates that these workers
            have experienced reductions in employment quality, a 5
            percentage-point increase in the rate of informality, and a
            13 percentage-point reduction in earnings, relative to
            workers with similar characteristics living in areas with
            very low or non-existent inflows of Venezuelans.
Who on Earth Can Work from Home
This paper presents new estimates of the
            share of jobs that can be performed from home. The analysis
            is based on the task content of occupations, their
            information and communications technology requirements, and
            the availability of internet access by country and income
            groupings. Globally, one of every five jobs can be performed
            from home. The ability to telework is correlated with
            income. In low-income countries, only one of every 26 jobs
            can be done from home. Failing to account for internet
            access yields upward biased estimates of the resilience of
            poor countries, lagging regions, and poor workers. Since
            better paid workers are more likely to be able to work from
            home, COVID-19 is likely to exacerbate inequality,
            especially in richer countries where better paid and
            educated workers are insulated from the shock. The overall
            labor market burden of COVID-19 is bound to be larger in
            poor countries, where only a small share of workers can work
            from home and social protection systems are weaker. Across
            the globe, young, poorly educated workers and those on
            temporary contracts are least likely to be able to work from
            home and more vulnerable to the labor market shocks from COVID-19.
Borrowing to Keep Up (with the
            Joneses) : Inequality, Debt, and Conspicuous Consumption
The quest for status is a powerful
            motivator, but does it affect inequality? This paper
            presents a novel lab experiment that was designed and
            conducted to identify the relationship between inequality,
            status signaling, debt, and conspicuous consumption. It
            reports three main findings: First, consumption increases
            when it is "conspicuous" (i.e. is both observable,
            and signals ability/status). Second, borrowing increases
            when consumption is conspicuous. More critically, this
            increase in loan-taking is driven by those at the bottom of
            the income distribution. Third, in the presence of
            conspicuous consumption, access to finance exacerbates
            inequality. The results point to a vicious cycle of
            inequality and costly borrowing.
Reacting Quickly and Protecting Jobs
            : The Short-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the
            Greek Labor Market
This paper uses administrative, survey,
            and online vacancy data to analyze the short-term labor
            market impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown in Greece. The
            analysis finds that flows into unemployment have not
            increased; instead, separations were lower than would have
            been expected given trends in recent years. At the same
            time, employment was about 12 percent lower at the end of
            June than it would have been without the pandemic. The
            interrupted time-series and difference-in-differences
            estimates indicate that this was due to a dramatic slowdown
            in hiring during months when job creation typically peaks in
            normal years, mostly in tourism. Although the reasons for
            these patterns are not formally tested, the analysis
            suggests that the measures introduced to mitigate the
            effects of the crisis in Greece played an important role.
            These measures prohibited layoffs in industries affected by
            the crisis and tied the major form of income support to the
            maintenance of employment relationships.