rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Capital inflows, equity issuance
            activity, and corporate investment
This paper uses issuance-level data to
            study how equity capital inflows that enter emerging market
            economies affect equity issuance and corporate investment.
            It shows that foreign inflows are strongly correlated with
            country-level issuance. The relation especially reflects the
            behavior of large firms, defined as those with large market
            value of equity. To identify supply-side shocks, capital
            inflows into each country are instrumented with exogenous
            changes in other countries' attractiveness to foreign
            investors. Shifts in the supply of foreign capital are
            important drivers of increased equity inflows. Instrumented
            contemporaneous and lagged capital inflows lead large firms
            to raise new equity, which they use to fund investment. The
            results indicate that inflows imply more than a transfer of
            equity ownership from domestic to foreign investors. Foreign
            purchases of equity have financial and real consequences for firms.
Sharing the benefits of
            innovation-digitization : a summary of market processes and
            policy suggestions
Governments play a very important role
            in supporting innovation, managing the disruptive effects of
            innovation, and ensuring that the benefits of innovation are
            broadly shared in the long run. This paper reviews the
            literature on market mechanisms that translate innovation
            into jobs and policies that are needed to improve outcomes.
            Although many countries now recognize the importance of
            modifying fiscal redistribution and insurance mechanisms to
            deal with the challenges of the digitization age, no country
            has yet done so feasibly. Developing country governments,
            having lower institutional capacity and usually fewer
            resources, will likely find it even more difficult to manage
            these changes. Global production patterns are likely to
            continue shifting. These shifts will depend on a combination
            of factors: the direction of technological change, trade
            agreements, global demand patterns, policies, and endowment
            shifts. Developing countries may not follow the same
            structural route of the past, through manufacturing, to
            higher income, but with appropriate investments, they can
            develop high-productivity service sectors. The policies that
            are needed to harness the benefits of digitization span a
            wide range of sectors: finance, competition policy, public
            support to innovation, fiscal and regulatory incentives for
            innovation, macroeconomic frameworks supporting demand
            growth, public support to education and reskilling,
            infrastructure provision for the digitization age, and
            sustainable fiscal insurance and redistribution systems.
            Finally, a lot more research needs to be done to understand
            how the gig economy affects the welfare of workers of
            different types, its macro effects, and how digitization
            interacts with an aging or shrinking labor force in the
            growth process.
Why are connection charges so high
            an analysis of the electricity sector in Sub-Saharan Africa
This study develops and structurally
            estimates a model of household and electric utility behavior
            to describe how the low access rates and high connection
            charges that are common in the Sub-Saharan Africa region
            arise from regulated electricity tariffs being set too low.
            As a result, the utilities lose money on each connected
            customer and low electricity consumption by households makes
            it difficult to recover the cost of providing a connection.
            For each possible choice of the regulated tariff, the
            optimal upfront connection charge is computed that will
            maximize profits for the utility in its service territory.
            Higher tariffs are associated with lower optimal connection
            charges and higher electrification rates. Nonetheless, due
            to households' low willingness to pay for electricity
            services, the equilibrium electrification rates in the model
            are much lower than 100 percent. Future advances in
            electrification will require higher incomes, increased
            coverage of the distribution network, and lower connection costs.
Place-based policies for development
Many development policies, such as
            placement of infrastructure or local economic development
            schemes, are "place-based." Such policies are
            generally intended to stimulate private sector investment
            and economic growth in the treated place, and as such they
            are difficult to appraise and evaluate. This paper sets out
            a framework for analyzing the effects of such policies and
            assessing their social value. It then reviews the literature
            on place-based policies in the contexts of transport
            improvements, economic corridors, special economic zones,
            lagging regions, and urban policies.
One more time : what are
            institutions and how do they change
This paper defines institutions,
            presents their basic characteristics, and discusses forces
            for institutional change. It draws on a wealth of research
            and study by scholars in different fields and follows from
            the flagship 2002 World Development Report on this topic,
            including relevant new research since then that illuminates
            key issues. The definition of institutions includes rules
            and organizations (specifically rules guiding peoples’
            actions). The paper emphasizes the diversity of institutions
            that can effectively perform similar functions, the
            arguments for and against standardization of institutions
            across specific transactions or groups, and the implications
            of these choices. It highlights the relationship between
            informal and formal institutions. It discusses forces for
            institutional change influencing all economies, ranging from
            external shocks (whether they be economic or weather-related
            shocks or driven by wars) to internal dynamics, such as
            those following population growth or compositional changes,
            and those following technological innovations. Many of these
            forces have a two-way relationship with institutions: they
            are affected by them and, in turn, influence whether and
            when they change. A special section is devoted to
            institutional transplants and their effectiveness. The paper
            concludes with a discussion of whether and under what
            conditions institutional change can be externally directed
            and the lessons for aid donors.
Do demographics matter for African
            child poverty
The effect of demographics on poverty
            measurement based on per capita consumption is well known.
            The size and composition of the household can affect the
            well-being of everyone in the household, with respect to
            total consumption within that household. Failure to address
            this issue may often lead to an underestimation or
            overestimation of poverty, especially for children. Many
            studies have tried to address the issue, using the generic
            approach of equivalence scales. However, the choice of scale
            is controversial and may lead to comparability problems
            between countries because of the different demographic
            structures and choice of the pivot household for
            establishing the per capita poverty line. Based on the World
            Bank's African poverty database, this study estimates
            poverty rates for African children using the new
            international poverty line of $1.90 a day defined in terms
            of 2011 purchasing power parity. The equivalence scales
            approach (Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health
            Organization) is used with the adjustment suggested by
            Deaton after the identification of the pivot household,
            which is defined as the household whose per capita
            consumption is around the international poverty line. This
            study shows that taking account of demographics results in
            downward adjustments of child poverty, adult poverty, and
            child-adult poverty gaps. Moreover, breakdowns by country
            show that poverty may vary significantly depending on
            demographics, which may cause some reranking when comparing
            poverty between African countries. Finally, sensitivity
            analyses reveal that child poverty is not sensitive to the
            child discount factor, unlike adult poverty, but, overall,
            taking account of demographics is helpful for better
            identifying poor children.
Who benefits from dual training
            systems evidence from the Philippines
Rising youth unemployment rates have
            been increasingly recognized as a serious challenge in
            developing and advanced economies, as the trend indicates a
            potential skills gap between the demands of the workforce
            and recent graduates. Effective dual education programs
            utilizing a combination of classroom instruction and
            practical skill training present an approach to developing a
            skilled workforce and meeting workforce demands. To evaluate
            the impact of the Philippine Dual Training System on labor
            market outcomes, this paper analyzes data from a recent
            survey tracking graduates from the Dual Training System and
            regular vocational training programs provided by technical
            vocational training institutes. The data analysis reveals
            that the Dual Training System has a significantly higher
            rate of return on labor market earnings compared with
            regular, classroom-only vocational training programs,
            particularly among high school graduates who did not perform
            well academically during basic education. The magnitude of
            the impact of the Dual Training System is also likely to
            increase in correlation with the intensity of the on-the-job component.
Gender gap in earnings in Vietnam :
            why do Vietnamese women work in lower paid occupations
Differences in earnings between male and
            female workers persist in developed and developing countries
            despite a narrowing of gender gaps in educational attainment
            over the past half-century. This paper examines the gender
            wage gap in Vietnam and shows that a nontrivial part of the
            gap is associated with occupational sorting. The paper
            considers three explanations for why occupational sorting
            emerges. First, it explores whether women sort into
            occupations with better nonmonetary characteristics, such as
            paid leave and shorter hours. The data from Labor Force
            Surveys support this hypothesis. Second, it checks if
            occupational sorting among the adult labor force is driven
            by social norms about gender roles learned and internalized
            at an early age. To do so, the paper checks for evidence of
            sorting in the aspirations of 12-year-old children.
            Specifically, the analysis simulates what the gender wage
            gap would be if boys and girls pursued the occupations they
            aspired to at age 12, and the distribution of salaries
            remained unchanged. The paper does not find support for the
            hypothesis that gender norms drive occupational sorting by
            inducing aspirational sorting at an early age. Finally, for
            individuals with higher education, the paper checks if
            occupational sorting occurs during the school-to-work
            transition, when women face higher barriers in finding a job
            in their field of study. The analysis does not find evidence
            to support this last hypothesis. Overall, the findings
            suggest that in Vietnam gender-specific preferences for
            nonmonetary job characteristics play a key role in the
            emergence of occupational sorting.
Using satellite imagery to
            revolutionize creation of tax maps and local revenue collection
The technical complexity of ensuring
            that tax rolls are complete and valuations current is often
            perceived as a major barrier to bringing in more property
            tax revenues in developing countries. This paper shows how
            high-resolution satellite imagery makes it possible to
            assess the completeness of existing tax maps by estimating
            built-up areas based on building heights and footprints.
            Together with information on sales prices from the land
            registry, targeted surveys, and routine statistical data,
            this makes it possible to use mass valuation procedures to
            generate tax maps. The example of Kigali illustrates the
            reliability of the method and the potentially far-reaching
            revenue impacts. Estimates show that heightened compliance
            and a move to a 1 percent ad valorem tax would yield a
            tenfold increase in revenue from public land.
Multidimensional connectivity :
            benefits, risks, and policy implications for Europe and
            Central Asia
International connections through trade,
            foreign direct investment, migration, the Internet, and
            other channels are critical for the transmission of
            knowledge and growth and form macroeconomic linkages. But
            how much knowledge is transmitted to a country is not only
            the result of the overall level of connectivity, but also to
            whom a country is connected, as well as how these
            connections complement each other. For example, being
            well-connected to an economy with wide-reaching global
            connections is likely to be a stronger conduit for knowledge
            transfers than being connected to an isolated economy.
            Likewise, connections are likely to complement each other.
            For example, ecommerce is often seen as a benefit of
            Internet connectivity, but without transport connectivity,
            ecommerce may not amount to much. This wider definition of
            connectivity, referred to as multidimensional connectivity,
            is broadened and explored in this study as it applies to
            Europe and Central Asia. Focusing on countries from the
            Europe and Central Asia region, the paper shows that
            multidimensional connectivity is an economically and
            statistically important determinant of future economic
            growth. The paper further discusses the potential risks and
            transfer of shocks that can result from cross-country
            economic connectivity. Furthermore, it provides some
            examples of how policy tools can be designed to leverage the
            benefits of connectivity channels and mitigate their risks.
Investment under risks and
            uncertainty in Afghanistan
This paper investigates the state of low
            investment in Afghanistan by studying how investment
            decisions interact with risks and uncertainty in the
            presence of underdeveloped financial markets. The analysis
            shows that investing firms experience a higher probability
            of being affected by events related to crime and corruption
            and spend more on security arrangements. Firms that
            participate in the formal financial sector are also subject
            to higher levels of risk and uncertainty. As more productive
            firms face higher risks and uncertainty, a model of resource
            allocation with heterogeneous firms is used to quantify the
            economic loss from crime and corruption. The estimated
            aggregate output loss of 12 percent is significantly higher
            than the 7 percent loss observed in the absence of the
            resource allocation channel.
How preferential is preferential trade
World trade is increasingly ruled by
            preferential trade agreements (PTAs), but their precise
            nature remains relatively opaque. This paper assesses a
            central dimension of these agreements, the significance of
            tariff preferences, using a new data set on preferential and
            non-preferential or Most Favored Nation (MFN) applied
            tariffs, constructed by the International Trade Center and
            the World Bank. The data set covers 5,203 products, 199
            reporters, and 239 partners, representing approximately 97
            percent of world imports in 2016. There are three main
            findings. First, PTAs have significantly widened the scope
            of tariff-free trade. Whereas 42 percent of the total value
            of trade traded free under MFN rates in 2016, PTAs have
            fully liberalized an additional 28 percent of global trade.
            Second, the extent of preferential liberalization varies
            significantly across countries and sectors. Around 70
            percent of countries have reduced trade-weighted average
            preferential tariffs to less than 5 percent, but PTAs have
            not been able to eliminate the high levels of protection in
            some low-income countries and in agricultural products,
            textiles, and footwear. Third, while the average
            preferential margin for trade covered by PTAs is low because
            one-fifth of world trade under preferential agreements is
            already duty free, more than a quarter of world trade is
            subject to an average preference margin of 7.4 percent.
            Considering competition from preferential and
            non-preferential sources, however, only 5.2 percent of
            global exports benefited from a preferential advantage of
            over 5 percent and only 3.3 percent of global exports
            suffered from a preferential disadvantage higher than 5
            percent. Furthermore, data for a subsample of importers
            reveal that not all eligible imports take advantage of
            preferences, because of impediments such as restrictive
            rules of origin, and therefore actual preference margins are
            generally lower than potential margins.
Using courts to realize education
            rights : reflections from India and Indonesia
This paper examines the role of courts
            in promoting fulfillment of the right to education in
            developing countries, focusing on India and Indonesia—two
            countries that have experienced increased education rights
            litigation in recent years. It argues that this litigation
            has been part of broader struggles over education policy,
            inequality, and the capture of educational institutions by
            political and bureaucratic forces; and that the extent to
            which litigation has been used and led to policy changes has
            depended significantly on the nature of, and access to, the
            court system; the presence of support structures for legal
            mobilization; the ideology of the courts and judges; and the
            roles and the willingness of litigants to pursue redress.
            Broadly, litigation has served the interests of the poor and
            marginalized, though gains have largely come through better
            access to education while issues of improving quality have
            been less prominent.
Shared prosperity : concepts, data,
            and some policy examples
"Shared prosperity" has become
            a common phrase in the development policy discourse. This
            short paper provides its most widely used operational
            definition -- the growth rate in the average income of the
            poorest 40 percent of a country's population -- and
            describes its origins. The paper discusses how this notion
            relates to well-established concepts and social indicators,
            including social welfare, poverty, inequality, and mobility,
            and reviews some of its design shortcomings. The paper then
            looks at household survey data to assess recent progress in
            this indicator globally. The analysis finds that during
            2008–13, mean incomes for the poorest 40 percent rose in 60
            of 83 countries. In 49 of them, accounting for 65 percent of
            the sampled population, it rose faster than overall average
            incomes. Finally, the paper briefly reviews a
            (non-exhaustive) range of 'pre-distribution' and
            'redistribution' policies with a sound empirical
            track record of raising productivity and well-being among
            the poor, thus contributing to shared prosperity.
Taking stock of the impact of power
            utility reform in developing countries : a literature review
This paper reviews recent literature on
            the impacts of various components of power sector reform on
            the performance of electric utilities in developing
            countries. Recent literature is heavily focused on
            statistical testing of the significance of the links between
            four components of sector reform (unbundling, private sector
            participation, regulation, and competition) and various
            performance indicators (relating to utility performance,
            user outcomes, and broader economic development). Some
            studies exhibit methodological shortcomings in failing to
            account for interactions between reforms or degrees of
            reform; however, others appear to be robust. The strongest
            result is that the introduction of private sector
            participation is linked to a significant improvement in
            labor productivity and distribution losses. Moreover,
            unbundling reforms in isolation is found to have hardly any
            significant impact on utility performance. The introduction
            of an independent regulator or competition is not generally
            significant across studies. A notable feature of all of the
            studies is very limited testing of the effects of policy
            introduction on performance indicators, such as bill
            collection and the duration and frequency of outages. Poor
            performance on these indicators of state-owned power
            companies is well documented and bill collection has been
            identified as a major hidden cost of unreformed power
            sectors. The materiality of the impact of private sector
            participation, on the various performance indictors found to
            be significant, is calculated for studies that provide
            sufficient information to do so. The size of the impact of
            private sector participation on utility performance is
            substantial in a couple of studies, although much more
            modest in others.