rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
The impact of demand on cargo dwell
            time in ports in SSA
Long cargo dwell times in ports are a
            critical issue in Sub-Saharan African countries since they
            result in slow import processes and are bound to
            dramatically reduce trade. The main objective of this study
            is to analyze long dwell times' causes in ports in
            Sub-Saharan Africa from a shipper's perspective. The
            findings point to the crucial importance of private sector
            practices and incentives. The authors argue in the case of
            Sub-Saharan African countries that private operators, rather
            than being advocates of reforms in this area, might be
            responsible for the failures of many of these initiatives.
            It seems that in Sub-Saharan Africa importers' and
            freight forwarders' professionalism, cash constraints
            and operators' strategies are some of the factors that
            have a major impact on cargo dwell time. Low competency,
            cash constraints and low storage tariffs explain why most
            importers have little incentive to reduce cargo dwell time
            since in most cases, this would increase their input costs.
            However, monopolists/cartels may have a stronger incentive
            to reduce cargo dwell time but only in order to maximize
            their profit (and would not adjust prices downward).
When do donors trust recipient
            country systems
The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid
            Effectiveness sets targets for increased use by donors of
            recipient country systems for managing aid. The target is
            premised on a view that country systems are strengthened
            when donors trust recipients to manage aid funds, but
            undermined when donors manage aid through their own separate
            parallel systems. This study provides an analytical
            framework for understanding donors' decisions to trust
            or bypass country systems. Empirical tests are conducted
            using data from three OECD-DAC surveys designed to monitor
            progress toward Paris Declaration goals. Tests show that a
            donor's use of the recipient country's systems is
            positively related to: (1) the donor's share of aid
            provided to the recipient (a proxy for the donor's
            reputational stake in the country's development); (2)
            perceptions of corruption in the recipient country (a proxy
            for the trustworthiness or quality of the country's
            systems); and (3) public support for aid in the donor
            country (a proxy for the donor's risk tolerance).
            Findings are robust to corrections for potential sample
            selection, omitted variables or endogeneity bias.
R&D and aggregate fluctuations
The research and development (R&D)
            sector is considered one of the main driving forces of
            sustainable growth in the long run. The sector, however,
            also shows excessive volatility which raises interesting
            questions regarding the sources of this volatility as well
            as the nature of the relation between the sector and
            aggregate fluctuations. Using data from the United States
            Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Science Foundation,
            we show that technology innovations are the main source of
            fluctuations in R&D investment while R&D technology
            shocks are important in driving aggregate output
            fluctuations. After taking nominal innovations into
            consideration, such as shocks in monetary policy and
            inflation, capital investment-specific shocks explain 70
            percent of fluctuations of R&D investment, while R&D
            technology shocks explain 30 percent of the variation in the
            output of the non-R&D sector. Technology innovations
            jointly explain most of the variation of output in the
            R&D sector and 78 percent of the variation of output in
            the rest of the economy.
Funding vs. real economy shock : the
            impact of the 2007-2009 crisis on small firms' credit availability
This paper analyzes the impact of two
            distinct shocks stemming from the cross-border transmission
            of the 2007-2009 crisis on credit availability for small
            firms. The paper uses data from AccessBank Azerbaijan which
            was affected in its liquidity position during the second and
            third quarters of 2008 by delays in its refinancing. The
            Azeri real economy was hit by the global crisis from the
            fourth quarter of 2008 onwards with a combined decline in
            oil prices, exports, remittances, and domestic demand.
            Therefore, a pure supply side shock con be contrasted with a
            real economy shock that hit exactly when the bank's
            funding position strengthened again. The paper finds that
            during the funding shock (potential) borrowers are
            discouraged from applying for loans. However, for those
            applications made, the likelihood of loan approval is not
            affected. The real economy shock, in contrast, reduces the
            approval likelihood for SME loans in particular, while agro
            and micro loans are considerably less affected. Finally,
            bank relationships increase credit availability in good as
            well as in bad times.
Modeling the roles of heterogeneity,
            substitution, and inventories in the assessment of natural
            disaster economic costs
Based on an IO structure, the
            ARIO-inventory model simulates the economic consequences and
            responses to a natural disaster. It represents explicitly
            production bottlenecks, models a flexibility in production
            capacity in case of scarcity, and introduces inventories as
            an additional flexibility in the production system.
            Moreover, it takes into account the heterogeneity in goods
            and services within sectors, and the consequences on
            production bottlenecks and substitution possibilities. The
            model is applied to the landfall of hurricane Katrina in
            Louisiana. Sensitivity analyses show that results are
            extremely sensitive to several uncertain model parameters.
            In particular, accounting for heterogeneity within sectors
            has a large negative influence on production bottlenecks,
            and thus increases total economic losses from natural
            disasters and other supply-side shocks. This paper shows
            that current models disregard important mechanisms and
            proposes an approach to take them into account.
How pro-poor and progressive is
            social spending in Zambia
This paper analyzes the distributional
            effect of public spending in Zambia using the most recent
            data from the 2010 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey. The
            analysis focuses on both the "traditional" social
            sectors, such as education and public healthcare, as well as
            other spending areas less thoroughly studied, such as
            agricultural support programs. Ultimately, this benefit
            incidence analysis addresses the extent to which spending is
            pro-poor and progressive; that is, it primarily benefits the
            poor and does so at an increasing rate as welfare levels
            decrease. The results indicate that overall public education
            spending in Zambia is neither pro-poor nor progressive, but
            while this is true for the system as a whole it is not true
            for all of its parts. The net unitary benefits of primary
            and secondary education are clearly both pro-poor and
            progressive. However, their progressivity is ultimately
            outweighed by the extreme concentration of tertiary
            education benefits among the wealthiest members of Zambian
            society. Health spending is also regressive and not
            pro-poor. Although unitary net benefits are slightly
            progressive, unequal access remains the key constraint. In
            contrast, the benefits of agricultural-input subsidy
            programs follow a somewhat progressive pattern (for each
            beneficiary in the top quintile there are almost two
            beneficiaries in the poorest quintile) but clearly suffer
            from targeting problems. Consequently, without
            better-designed and more conscientiously implemented
            targeting mechanisms, public spending on health, education,
            and fertilizers will not be able to further the
            government's larger objectives for pro-poor and
            progressive development policy.
Gender, geography and generations :
            intergenerational educational mobility in post-reform India
India experienced sustained economic
            growth for more than two decades following the economic
            liberalization in 1991. While economic growth reduced
            poverty significantly, it was associated with an increase in
            inequality. Does this increase in inequality reflect
            deep-seated inequality of opportunity or efficient incentive
            structure in a market oriented economy? This paper provides
            evidence on economic mobility in post-reform India by
            focusing on the educational attainment of children. It uses
            two related measures of immobility: sibling and
            intergenerational correlations. The paper analyzes the
            trends in and patterns of educational mobility from 1992/93
            to 2006, with a special emphasis on the roles played by
            gender and geography. The evidence shows that family
            background plays a strong role; the estimated sibling
            correlation in India in 2006 is higher than the available
            estimates for Latin American countries. There is a
            persistent gender gap in rural and less-developed areas. The
            only group that experienced substantial improvements is
            women in urban and developed areas, with the lower caste
            women benefiting the most. Almost 70 percent of the variance
            in children's education can be accounted for by
            parental education and geographic location. The authors
            provide possible explanations for the apparently puzzling
            improvements for urban women in a country with strong son preference.
Recent labor market performance in
            Vietnam through a gender lens
This paper provides an overview of the
            recent performance of the labor market in Vietnam during the
            Great Recession. The analysis uses data from the Labor Force
            Survey and the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey. The
            author finds that, notwithstanding the global crisis and
            domestic volatility, job creation has been sustained in
            Vietnam, especially in the formal sector, but that the
            overall quality of employment has suffered. Gender
            differentials are found to affect older women especially,
            while educated women benefit from a skills wage premium.
            Reassuringly given the large youth share of the total
            workforce, the youth labor market is dynamic and outcomes
            for youths have improved. Meanwhile, participation in
            poverty alleviation programs and labor market programs has
            not changed, and few workers use the newly created
            employment services and unemployment benefits.
Experiments in culture and
            corruption : a review
Two decades of empirical evaluation have
            shown that corruption has a negative impact on economic
            growth, political stability, judicial effectiveness,
            democratization, educational attainment, and equality of
            income. However, corruption exists, persists, and varies
            significantly by culture. Lab studies have recently come to
            the forefront in identifying both the incentives and
            disincentives for corrupt behavior. However, lab studies on
            culture and corruption have led to some puzzling,
            contradictory results. This paper begins with a discussion
            of non-experimental work in this area, and evaluates the
            experimental findings in the context of earlier research.
            The authors sketch out the channels through which culture
            interacts with corruption (through institutions and social
            norms), and argue that discrepancies in experimental results
            may be due to differences in design (including repetition or
            unobserved variation in beliefs) or to differences in the
            response to punishment across societies. In addition to
            exploring design-based reasons for previous contradictory
            findings, avenues for future research include: behavioral
            responses to different types of externalities; replicating
            results in different countries; and utilizing the lab to
            formulate effective anti-corruption measures.
Natural resources, weak states and
            civil war : can rents stabilize coup prone regimes
This paper argues that state weakness is
            broader than implied previously in the civil war literature,
            and that particular types of weakness in interaction with
            natural resources have aggravating or mitigating
            consequences for the risk of civil war. While in anocracies
            or unstable regimes natural resources can be expected to
            increase the risk of civil war, we suggest that resource
            wealth allows weak leaders to stabilize their relationship
            with their inner elite circle. In particular, for regimes at
            risk of coup d'etat, the availability of substantial
            resources is more likely to be channeled in ways that deter
            rebellion, plausibly countering the grievances generated by
            natural resources and rebels' viewing of such resources
            as a prize for taking over the state. Data from 1946-2003
            and multiple empirical operationalizations broadly support
            our argument. These findings are consistent with work
            showing that resource rents can induce stability in state -
            society relationships.
The Jordan education initiative : a
            multi-stakeholder partnership model to support education reform
The Jordan Education Initiative,
            launched in 2003 under the umbrella of the World Economic
            Forum, is a public-private partnership, or multi-stakeholder
            partnership, that integrates information and communication
            technologies into the education process as a tool for
            teaching and learning in grades 1-12. This initiative fits
            within the ongoing reform of the education system in Jordan
            that began in the 1990s. The Jordan Education
            Initiative's main objective is to help Jordanian
            students develop critical knowledge economy skills crucial
            for competitiveness and economic growth. The Initiative also
            seeks to build the capacity of the local information
            technology industry for the development of innovative
            learning solutions, and to build a sustainable model of
            reform supported by the private sector that could be scaled
            nationally and replicated in other developing countries.
Determinants of market integration
            and price transmission in Indonesia
This paper investigates the determinants
            of price differences and market integration among Indonesian
            provinces, using data from retail cooking oil, rice and
            sugar markets during the period 1993-2007, and from
            wholesale maize and soybean markets during the period
            1992-2006. The authors measure the degree of integration
            using co-integration techniques, and calculate average price
            differences. They use regression analysis to understand the
            drivers of price differences and market integration. For
            rice and sugar, they find wide market integration and low
            price differences, in the range of 5-12 percent. For maize,
            soybeans and cooking oil, they find less integration and
            higher price differences (16-22 percent). Integration across
            provinces is explained by the remoteness and quality of
            transport infrastructure of a province. Price differences
            across provinces respond to differences in provincial
            characteristics such as remoteness, transport
            infrastructure, output of the commodity, land productivity
            and income per capita.
The risks of innovation : are
            innovating firms less likely to die
While innovation is a source of
            competitiveness, it may expose plants to survival risks.
            Using a rich set of plant-product data for Chilean
            manufacturing plants during the period 1996-2006 and
            discrete-time hazard models controlling for unobserved plant
            heterogeneity, this paper shows that innovating plants have
            higher survival odds. However, risk plays an important role
            for the innovation-survival link: only innovators that
            retain diversified sources of revenues survive longer.
            Single-product innovators are at greater risk of exiting. In
            addition, only innovators facing lower market risk, measured
            by fewer innovative competitors, low-pricing strategies, or
            lower sales volatility in the new products' markets,
            see their odds of survival increase significantly. Technical
            risk, measured by the proximity of product innovations to
            the plants' past expertise, the degree of
            sophistication of new products, or their novelty to the
            Chilean market, does not play a substantial role in the
            innovation-survival link. Engaging in risky innovation is
            not an irrational decision, since plants reap big payoffs --
            higher productivity, employment and sales growth -- from
            such innovations. However, those payoffs are not always
            higher than those from cautious innovation, suggesting that
            constraining factors, such as credit constraints, force
            plants to take on more risk when innovating. An implication
            of the findings for industry dynamics is that among
            innovators, only the survival of cautious innovators is
            guaranteed. Since engaging in cautious innovation may not be
            feasible for all plants, there could be a role for policy in
            reducing innovators' exposure to risks and providing
            assistance to deal with failed innovations, while setting
            the right incentives.
The future of the Nuclear industry
            reconsidered : risks, uncertainties, and continued potential
Skeptics point out, with some
            justification, that the nuclear industry's prospects
            were dimmed by escalating costs long before Fukushima. If
            history is any guide, one direct consequence of the calamity
            in Japan will be more stringent safety requirements and
            regulatory delays that will inevitably increase the costs of
            nuclear power and further undermine its economic viability.
            For nuclear power to play a major role in meeting the future
            global energy needs and mitigating the threat of climate
            change, the hazards of another Fukushima and the
            construction delays and costs escalation that have plagued
            the industry will have to be substantially reduced. One
            promising direction for nuclear development might be to
            downsize reactors from the gigawatt scale to less-complex
            smaller units that are more affordable. Small modular
            reactors (SMRs) are scalable nuclear power plant designs
            that promise to reduce investment risks through incremental
            capacity expansion; become more standardized and reduce
            costs through accelerated learning effects; and address
            concerns about catastrophic events, since they contain
            substantially smaller radioactive inventory. Given their
            lower capital requirements and small size, which makes them
            suitable for small electric grids, SMRs can more effectively
            address the energy needs of small developing countries.
Promoting the rural farm and nonfarm
            businesses : evidence from the Yemen rural investment climate
This study examines the major
            constraints of rural business entry and performance in
            Yemen. The Yemen rural investment climate survey made it
            possible to analyze rural investment climate constraints for
            rural businesses. The survey was used to investigate both
            farm and nonfarm rural enterprises. The rural investment
            climate was assessed using a combination of subjective
            impressions related by rural entrepreneurs, and a more
            objective, empirical set of analyses that employed
            indicators to rank the constraints to "doing
            business" in the areas surveyed. These empirical
            analyses included application of the entry model, the
            performance model, the closure model, and the migration
            model. The migration model was introduced to identify how
            the rural investment climate variables at the community
            level increase migration and economic activities. Based on
            the assessment of the rural investment climate, this paper
            identifies and explains four critical areas in which the
            rural investment climate in Yemen can be improved: market
            demand, access to markets, access to finance, and the
            provision of business services. Because farm and nonfarm
            businesses often experience common or similar constraints,
            the climate in which they operate can often be improved with
            the same measures and policies. Addressing the constraints
            that affect rural women entrepreneurs in particular, who
            play a vital role in rural nonfarm enterprises, warrants
            clear priority as a means to generate income and employment.
            Security and labor issues are identified as the key such
            constraints that disproportionately affect women.