rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Managing subnational credit and
            default risks
As a result of worldwide
            decentralization, subnational debt is rising. Subnational
            debt crises in major developing countries in the 1990s have
            led to strengthened regulatory frameworks for subnational
            borrowing and insolvency. With the fragility of the global
            recovery and increasing public debt, and the structural
            trends of decentralization and urbanization, it becomes more
            important to prudently manage subnational default risks.
            Although the regulatory frameworks share central features,
            the historical context and entry points for reform drive
            variations across countries. Addressing soft budget
            constraints is integral to the regulatory framework. Ex ante
            fiscal rules for subnational governments attempt to limit
            default risks; ex post regulation predictably allocates
            default risk, while providing breathing space for orderly
            debt restructuring and fiscal adjustment, as well as the
            continued delivery of essential public services. The
            regulatory reforms are inseparable from the reform of
            broader intergovernmental fiscal systems and financial markets.
Regional economic growth in Mexico :
            recent evolution and the role of governance
There has been substantial research in
            recent years examining the regional evolution of economic
            growth across states in Mexico -- with a particular focus on
            the post North American Free Trade Agreement period. There
            is also a vast literature using cross-country regressions to
            examine institutional determinants of economic growth,
            including government transparency, or
            "corruption," as a key institutional variable.
            This paper uses more recently available data for Mexican
            states to both update the general state
            convergence/divergence literature, and incorporate into the
            analysis more recently developed state level indicators of
            institutional factors related to government transparency.
            The authors do not find a systematic relationship between
            measures of government transparency and gross domestic
            product per capita growth in Mexico during 2001-2005;
            however, they do find that corruption is negatively
            associated with the level of state gross domestic product
            per capita. The contrasting results may imply that more
            years of data are necessary to be able to establish
            statistically significant relationships between state growth
            rates and measures of corruption.
Placing the 2006/08 commodity price
            boom into perspective
The 2006-08 commodity price boom was one
            of the longest and broadest of the post-World War II period.
            Apart from strong and sustained economic growth, the recent
            boom was fueled by numerous factors, including low past
            investment in extractive commodities, weak dollar, fiscal
            expansion, and lax monetary policy in many countries, and
            investment fund activity. At the same time, the combination
            of adverse weather conditions, the diversion of some food
            commodities to the production of biofuels, and government
            policies (including export bans and prohibitive taxes)
            brought global stocks of many food commodities down to
            levels not seen since the early 1970s. This in turn
            accelerated the price increases that eventually led to the
            2008 rally. The weakening and/or reversal of these factors
            coupled with the financial crisis that erupted in September
            2008 and the subsequent global economic downturn, induced
            sharp price declines across most commodity sectors. Yet, the
            main price indices are still twice as high compared to their
            2000 real levels, begging once more the question about the
            real factors affecting them. This paper concludes that a
            stronger link between energy and non-energy commodity prices
            is likely to be the dominant influence on developments in
            commodity, and especially food, markets. Demand by emerging
            economies is unlikely to put additional pressure on the
            prices of food commodities. The paper also argues that the
            effect of biofuels on food prices has not been as large as
            originally thought, but that the use of commodities by
            financial investors (the so-called "financialization of
            commodities") may have been partly responsible for the
            2007/08 spike. Finally, econometric analysis of the
            long-term evolution of commodity prices supports the thesis
            that price variability overwhelms price trends.
Industry and skill wage premiums in
            east Asia
This paper focuses on the estimation of
            skill/industry premiums and labor force composition at the
            national and sector levels in seven East Asian countries
            with the objective of providing a comprehensive analysis of
            trends in demand for skills in the region. The paper
            addresses the following questions: Are there converging or
            diverging trends in the region regarding the evolution of
            skill premiums and labor force composition? Are changes in
            skill premiums generalized or industry-related? How have
            industry premiums evolved? The analysis uses labor and
            household surveys going back at least 10 years. The main
            trends emerging from the analysis are: (a) increasing
            proportions of skilled/educated workers over the long run
            across the region; (b) generally increasing demand for
            skills in the region; (c) the service sector has become the
            most important driver of demand for skills for all countries
            (except Thailand); (d) countries can be broadly categorized
            into three groups in relation to trends and patterns of
            demand for skills (Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand;
            Vietnam and China; and Cambodia and Mongolia); and (e)
            industry premiums have increased in three countries of the
            region (Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia). These trends
            point to several policy implications, including that
            governments should focus on policies promoting access to
            education to address the increasing demand for skills and/or
            persistent skill shortages; support general rather than
            specific curricula given broad-based increases in skill
            premiums in most countries; better tailor curriculum design
            and content and pedagogical approaches to the needs of the
            service sector; and target some social protection programs
            to unskilled workers to protect them from the
            "unequalizing" impact of education.
Endowment structures, industrial
            dynamics, and economic growth
This paper develops a dynamic general
            equilibrium model to explore industrial evolution and
            economic growth in a closed developing economy. The authors
            show that industries will endogenously upgrade toward the
            more capital-intensive ones as the capital endowment becomes
            more abundant. The model features a continuous
            inverse-V-shaped pattern of industrial evolution driven by
            capital accumulation: As the capital endowment reaches a
            certain threshold, a new industry appears, prospers, then
            declines and finally disappears. While the industry is
            declining, a more capital-intensive industry appears and
            booms, ad infinitum. Explicit solutions are obtained to
            fully characterize the whole dynamics of perpetual
            structural change and economic growth. Implications for
            industrial policies are discussed.
"Finding the tipping point --
            when sovereign debt turns bad"
Public debt has surged during the
            current global economic crisis and is expected to increase
            further. This development has raised concerns whether public
            debt is starting to hit levels where it might negatively
            affect economic growth. Does such a tipping point in public
            debt exist? How severe would the impact of public debt be on
            growth beyond this threshold? What happens if debt stays
            above this threshold for an extended period of time? The
            present study addresses these questions with the help of
            threshold estimations based on a yearly dataset of 101
            developing and developed economies spanning a time period
            from 1980 to 2008. The estimations establish a threshold of
            77 percent public debt-to-GDP ratio. If debt is above this
            threshold, each additional percentage point of debt costs
            0.017 percentage points of annual real growth. The effect is
            even more pronounced in emerging markets where the threshold
            is 64 percent debt-to-GDP ratio.  In these countries, the
            loss in annual real growth with each additional percentage
            point in public debt amounts to 0.02 percentage points. The
            cumulative effect on real GDP could be substantial.
            Importantly, the estimations control for other variables
            that might impact growth, such as the initial level of per-capita-GDP.
Export entrepreneurs : evidence from Peru
This paper examines firm entry and
            survival in exporting, and in products and markets not
            previously served by any domestic exporters. The authors use
            data on the nontraditional agriculture sector in Peru, which
            grew seven-fold from 1994 to 2007. They find tremendous firm
            entry and exit in the export sector, with exits more likely
            after one year and among firms that start small. There is
            also significant entry and exit in new markets. In contrast,
            such trial and error in new products is rare. New products
            are typically discovered by large experienced exporters and
            there is increased entry after products are discovered. The
            results imply that high sunk costs of entry are of concern
            for product discovery, especially for products that are not
            consumed domestically. In contrast, the tremendous entry and
            exit in exporting and in new markets suggests that initial
            sunk costs are relatively low. The authors develop a model
            that explains how entrepreneurs decide to export and to
            develop new export products and markets when there are sunk
            costs of discovery and uncertainty about idiosyncratic
            costs. The model explains many features of the data.
Integrating land financing into
            subnational fiscal management
Land assets have become an important
            source of financing capital investments by subnational
            governments in developing countries. Land assets, often with
            billions of dollars per transaction, rival and sometimes
            surpass subnational borrowing or fiscal transfers for
            capital spending. While reducing the uncertainty surrounding
            future debt repayment capacity, the use of land-based
            revenues for financing infrastructure can entail substantial
            fiscal risks. Land sales often involve less transparency
            than borrowing. Many sales are conducted off-budget, which
            makes it easier to divert proceeds into operating budgets.
            Capital revenues from sales of land assets exert a much more
            volatile trend and could create an incentive to appropriate
            auction proceeds for financing the operating budget,
            particularly in times of budget shortfalls during economic
            downturns. Furthermore, land collateral and expected future
            land-value appreciation for bank loans can be linked with
            macroeconomic risks. It is critical to develop ex ante
            prudential rules comparable to those governing borrowing, to
            reduce fiscal risks and the contingent liabilities
            associated with the land-based revenues for financing infrastructure.
Performance of Fe y Alegria high
            school students in Colombia : is it a matter of Fe (faith)
            or Alegria (joy)
Fe y Alegria is a catholic network of
            schools that started operations in Colombia in 1971, and in
            2009 served more than 72,000 students in 61 schools. This
            paper assesses the performance of Fe y Alegria secondary
            schools in Colombia using test scores for Spanish and
            mathematics, as well as detailed information on the
            characteristics of the household to which students belong.
            Simple statistics suggest that Fe y Alegria schools perform
            worse than other schools for all years in the sample.
            However, Fe y Alegria schools also cater to poorer students
            who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Once controls are
            included for student background, Fe y Alegria schools
            actually often perform as well and in some cases better than
            other schools for mathematics and Spanish, thus partially
            reversing the previous finding.
Explaining variation in child labor statistics
Child labor statistics are critical for
            assessing the extent and nature of child labor activities in
            developing countries. In practice, widespread variation
            exists in how child labor is measured. Questionnaire modules
            vary across countries and within countries over time along
            several dimensions, including respondent type and the
            structure of the questionnaire. Little is known about the
            effect of these differences on child labor statistics. This
            paper presents the results from a randomized survey
            experiment in Tanzania focusing on two survey aspects:
            different questionnaire design to classify children work and
            proxy response versus self-reporting. Use of a short module
            compared with a more detailed questionnaire has a
            statistically significant effect, especially on child labor
            force participation rates, and, to a lesser extent, on
            working hours. Proxy reports do not differ significantly
            from a childs self-report. Further analysis demonstrates
            that survey design choices affect the coefficient estimates
            of some determinants of child labor in a child labor supply
            equation. The results suggest that low-cost changes to
            questionnaire design to clarify the concept of work for
            respondents can improve the data collected.
Economic valuation of development
            projects : a case study of a non-motorized transport project
            in India
One of the major difficulties in doing
            cost-benefit analysis of a development project is to
            estimate the total economic value of project benefits, which
            are usually multi-dimensional and include goods and services
            that are not traded in the market.  Challenges also arise in
            aggregating the values of different benefits, which may not
            be mutually exclusive. This paper uses a contingent
            valuation approach to estimate the economic value of a
            non-motorized transport project in Pune, India, across
            beneficiaries. The heads of households which are potentially
            affected by the project are presented with a detailed
            description of the project, and then are asked to vote on
            whether such a project should be undertaken given different
            specifications of costs to the households. The total value
            of the project is then derived from the survey answers.
            Econometric analysis indicates that the survey responses
            provide generally reasonable valuation estimates.
Centralization, decentralization,
            and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa
This paper examines broadly the
            intergovernmental structure in the Middle East and North
            Africa region, which has one of the most centralized
            government structures in the world. The authors address the
            reasons behind this centralized structure by looking first
            at the history behind the tax systems of the region. They
            review the Ottoman taxation system, which has been
            predominantly influential as a model, and discuss its impact
            on current government structure. They also discuss the
            current intergovernmental structure by examining the type
            and degree of decentralization in five countries
            representative of the region: Egypt, Iran, West Bank/Gaza,
            Tunisia, and Yemen. Cross-country regression analysis using
            panel data for a broader set of countries leads to better
            understanding of the factors behind heavy centralization in
            the region. The findings show that external conflicts
            constitute a major roadblock to decentralization in the region.
Bank financing for smes around the
            world : drivers, obstacles, business models, and lending practices
Using data from a survey of 91 banks in
            45 countries, the authors characterize bank financing to
            small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world. They
            find that banks perceive the SME segment to be highly
            profitable, but perceive macroeconomic instability in
            developing countries and competition in developed countries
            as the main obstacles. To serve SMEs banks have set up
            dedicated departments and decentralized the sale of products
            to the branches. However, loan approval, risk management,
            and loan recovery functions remain centralized. Compared
            with large firms, banks are less exposed to small
            enterprises, charge them higher interest rates and fees, and
            experience more non-performing loans from lending to them.
            Although there are some differences in SMEs financing across
            government, private, and foreign-owned banks - with the
            latter being more likely to engage in arms-length lending -
            the most significant differences are found between banks in
            developed and developing countries. Banks in developing
            countries tend to be less exposed to SMEs, provide a lower
            share of investment loans, and charge higher fees and
            interest rates. Overall, the evidence suggests that the
            lending environment is more important than firm size or bank
            ownership type in shaping bank financing to SMEs.
Bank financing for smes around the
            world : drivers, obstacles, business models, and lending practices
WPS4785 Policy ReseaRch WoRking PaPeR 4785

# Bank Financing for SMEs around the World

Drivers, Obstacles, Business Models, and Lending Practices _Thorsten Beck Asli Demirgüç-Kunt María Soledad Martínez Pería_ The World Bank Development Research Group Finance and Private Sector Team November 2008
Product innovation by incumbent
            firms in developing economies : the roles of research and
            development expenditures, trade policy, and the investment climate
A model of firm innovation illustrates
            the effects of the threat of imitation and product varieties
            on a representative firm's decision to invest in
            research and development to produce new product varieties.
            The model motivates two empirical questions: (1) Is research
            and development partially correlated with firms'
            propensity to introduce new products or product innovation
            in developing countries? (2) Do trade policies and the
            national investment climate affect firms' propensity
            for product innovation? The econometric evidence suggests
            that the answers are yes and yes, but the investment climate
            affects product innovation in a manner that is consistent
            with the presence of market failures and state capture.
            National trade-policy distortions appear to reduce the
            probability of product innovation, and the density of
            exporting firms at the national level also seems to
            positively affect the propensity to introduce new products
            by individual firms. The paper discusses some policy implications.
Can the introduction of a minimum
            wage in FYR Macedonia decrease the gender wage gap
This paper relies on a simple framework
            to understand the gender wage gap in Macedonia, and
            simulates how the gender wage gap would behave after the
            introduction of a minimum wage. First, it presents a new -
            albeit simple - decomposition of the wage gap into three
            factors: (i) a wage level factor, which measures the extent
            to which the gender gap is driven by differences in wage
            levels among low-skilled workers of opposite sex; (ii) a
            skills endowment factor, which quantifies the extent to
            which the gender wage gap is driven by the difference in the
            share of high-skilled workers by gender; and (iii) returns
            to education, which measures the extent to which the gender
            gap is driven by differences by gender in returns to
            education. Second, the paper presents simple set of
            simulations that indicate that the introduction of a minimum
            wage in Macedonia could contribute to decrease the gender
            wage gap by up to 23 percent. Nevertheless, in order to
            significantly improve the wage gap, a rather high minimum
            wage may be required, which may contribute to reductions in employment.