rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Disclosure of environmental
            violations and the stock market in the Republic of Korea
For almost 20 years, the Ministry of
            Environment of the Republic of Korea has published on a
            monthly basis a list of enterprises that fail to comply with
            national environmental laws and regulations. In this paper,
            the authors examine the reaction of investors to the
            publication of these lists and show that enterprises
            appearing on these lists have experienced a significant
            decline in their market valuation. Firms in developing
            countries are often said to have no incentives to invest in
            pollution control because they typically face weak
            monitoring and enforcement of environmental regulations. The
            findings of the authors, however, indicate that the
            inability of formal institutions to control pollution
            through fines and penalties may not be as serious an
            impediment to pollution control as is generally argued.
            Environmental regulators in developing countries could
            harness market forces by introducing structured programs to
            release firm-specific information about environmental performance.
Linking representative household
            models with household surveys for poverty analysis : a
            comparison of alternative methodologies
The authors compare three approaches to
            linking representative-household macro models with micro
            household income data in terms of their implications for
            measuring the poverty and distributional effects of policy
            shocks. These approaches are a simple micro-accounting
            method, an extension of that method to account for changes
            in employment structure, and the Beta distribution approach.
            Even though in the authors simulation exercises the three
            methods do not lead to fundamentally different results in
            absolute terms, they show that potential differences in the
            measurement of distributional and poverty effects of policy
            shocks can be very large.
Linking representative household
            models with household surveys for poverty analysis : a
            comparison of alternative methodologies
WPS 3343

# Linking Representative Household Models with Household Surveys for Poverty Analysis A Comparison of Alternative Methodologies

Pierre-Richard Agénor<sup>∗</sup> , Derek H. C. Chen,<sup>∗</sup> and Michael Grimm<sup>∗∗</sup>

## Abstract

We compare three approaches to linking representative-household macro models with micro household income data in terms of their implications for measuring the poverty and distributional effects of policy shocks. These approaches are a simple micro-accounting method, an extension of that method to account for changes in employment structure, and the Beta distribution approach. Even though in our simulation exercises the three methods do not lead to fundamentally different results in absolute terms, we show that potential differences in the measurement of distributional and poverty effects of policy shocks can be very large.

JEL Codes: C68, D31, D58, I32, O11.

Keywords: Applied General Equilibrium Models, Poverty, Income Distribution, Policy Evaluation.

> ∗The World Bank; and ∗∗Department of Economics, University of Göttingen, and DIAL, Paris. We are grateful to various colleagues and seminar participants for comments and discussions. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent those of the World Bank.

1
Where do we stand on transport
            infrastructure deregulation and public-private partnership
The evolution of transport
            public-private partnerships (PPPs) in developing and
            developed countries since the early 1990s seems to be
            following a similar path: private initiatives work for a
            while but after a shock to the sector takes place the public
            sector returns as regulator, owner or financier; after a
            while the public sector runs into problems and eventually
            finds a hybrid solution to ensure the survival of the
            sector. This paper reviews the effectiveness of transport
            infrastructure deregulation from three angles: efficiency,
            fiscal and users' viewpoint. The paper emphasizes the
            difficulties and strong political commitments required to
            make the reforms sustainable and argues that governments
            willing to make corrections to the reform path are faced
            with the need to address recurrent and emerging issues in
            transport systems: tariff structure, quality (timetable,
            safety, environment), access rules for captive shippers, the
            trend toward rebundling and decrease in intrasectoral
            competition, multimodalism and the stimulus through
            yardstick competition.
Export commodity production and
            broad-based rural development: coffee and cocoa in the
            Dominican Republic
An estimated 80,000-100,000 Dominican
            farmers produce coffee and cocoa, nearly 40 percent of all
            agricultural producers. The sectors also provide employment
            for tens of thousands of field laborers and persons employed
            in linked economic activities. The majority of coffee and
            cocoa producers are small-scale and most are located in
            environmentally sensitive watersheds. Recent trends in
            international commodity markets have challenged the survival
            of both sectors. Production is characterized by low yields
            and uneven quality, while periodic hurricanes have
            contributed to a lackluster and unstable record of output
            and exports. Despite these conditions, most experts
            acknowledge the fact that appropriate agro-ecological
            conditions exist in Dominican Republic for production of
            high-quality coffee and cocoa. To be competitive and
            sustainable, some changes must take place in the coffee and
            cocoa sectors. The objective of this study is to provide an
            overview of the coffee and cocoa sectors, to identify major
            problems, and to suggest possible strategies to deal with
            these problems. The authors conclude that if the objectives
            of the government are poverty reduction, environmental
            protection and overall well-being of rural society, it is
            critical to move beyond a commodity-specific approach to a
            broader rural development focus on households, regions and
            environments where coffee and cocoa are currently being grown.
Can duty-drawbacks have a
            protectionist bias Evidence from MERCOSUR
Duty drawback (or rebate) systems,
            reduce or eliminate the duties paid on imported intermediate
            goods, or raw materials used in the production of exports.
            When a firm imports an intermediate product for use in the
            production of an export good, tariff payments on the
            imported intermediate good are either waived (duty
            drawback), or returned to the producer once the final
            product is exported (rebate). These incentive systems are
            often justified on the grounds that they tend to correct the
            anti-trade bias imposed by high tariff levels. The problem
            with this line of reasoning is that it assumes that tariffs
            are predetermined policy variables; if they were, the
            easiest way to reduce their anti0trade bias would be to
            eliminate them. But this is rarely done because existing
            levels of protection correspond to a political economy
            equilibrium, difficult to modify in the presence of lobbying
            pressures. The authors show that in a political economy
            setting, where tariffs and duty drawbacks are endogenously
            chosen through industry lobbying, full duty drawbacks are
            granted to exporters that use imported intermediate goods in
            their production. This in turn decreases their incentives to
            counter-lobby against high tariffs on their inputs. Indeed,
            under a full duty drawback regime, tariffs on intermediate
            goods are irrelevant to exporters, because they are fully
            rebated. In equilibrium, higher tariffs will be observed on
            these goods. Creating a regional trading block, alters the
            incentives by eliminating duty drawbacks on intra-regional
            exports, which leads to lower tariffs for goods that
            intra-regional exporters use as inputs. Evidence from
            MERCOSUR suggests that eliminating duty drawbacks for
            intra-regional exports, would lead to increased
            counter-lobbying against protection of intermediate
            products. The authors estimate that without this mechanism,
            the common external tariff would have been 3.5 percentage
            points (25 percent) higher on average.
Impediments to the development and
            efficiency of financial intermediation in Brazil
Reforms to improve both the level and
            the efficiency of financial inter-mediation in Brazil should
            be high on Brazilian policymakers' agendas, because of
            the financial sector's importance to economic growth.
            This means that Brazil must also improve the legal and
            regulatory environment in which its financial institutions
            operate. Brazil is weak in important components of such
            creditors, the enforcement of contracts, and the sharing of
            credit information among intermediaries. Recent reforms,
            such as the extension of alienacao fiduciaria to housing,
            the introduction of cedula de credito bancario, the legal
            separation of principal and interest, and improvements in
            credit information system, are useful steps in strengthening
            the framework. But more is needed. Reforms that will
            significantly increase the level and efficiency of financial
            inter-mediation, and have a positive impact on economic
            growth include: 1) A more efficient judicial sector and
            better enforcement of contracts. 2) Stronger rights for
            secured and unsecured creditors. 3) Stronger accounting
            standards and practices, to improve the quality of
            information available about borrowers. 4) The development of
            a legal and regulatory framework that facilitates the
            exchange among financial institutions of both negative and
            positive information about borrowers.
When the bureaucrats move out of
            business : a cost-benefit assessment of labor retrenchment
            in China
The author estimate the costs and
            benefits of labor retrenchment in state-owned industrial
            enterprises in China. Their results indicate the prevalence
            of low and stagnant labor productivity, low capital
            productivity, and excessively high wages in the state sector
            for the period reviewed (1994-97). The private sector
            exhibited consistently greater productivity. The
            authors' most striking finding: A greater gain could be
            realized from capital transfer than is being gained from
            labor retrenchment. Their simulation results for 1996
            estimate that 43 percent of the workers in state enterprises
            and 70 percent of the capital are redundant. By itself, a
            transfer of labor from the public to the private sector at
            the current magnitude (20 percent of the labor force) would
            secure only two percent gains in output. A transfer of ten
            percent of both capital and labor would achieve a greater
            efficiency gain than transferring the full 43 percent of
            redundant workers. This is partly because the private sector
            uses capital more efficiently than the public sector and
            partly because it needs capital to hire workers transferred
            from the public sector. Their results suggest that reform in
            state enterprises should concentrate more on the efficiency
            of capital allocation, not just on labor retrenchment. More
            efficient capital allocation would reduce the pressure on
            labor and would bring larger gains at a lower social cost.
Currency substitution in Latin
            America - lessons from the 1990s
The authors study how agents in Latin
            America allocate their balances between dollar-denominated
            and domestic currency-denominated accounts. They empirically
            determine the causes of currency substitution, its
            significance in recent banking crises, and the link between
            currency substitution, and volatility in macroeconomic
            aggregates. Their findings: The ratio of dollar deposits to
            broad money is strongly influenced by expectations of
            depreciation. They show that depositors in Latin America
            face some uncertainty and frictions when making their
            portfolio decisions. They explore the macroeconomic
            consequences of a dollarized economy. In particular, they
            find that, in the presence of currency substitution, past
            banking crises are good predictors of future crises. In
            other words, having a highly dollarized economy, increases
            the response of the banking system when there is a bad
            shock, which halts the outflow of capital. Once an economy
            is in crisis, however, having more dollar-denominated
            deposits in the banking system, increases the probability of
            a longer crisis in the future, because it increases exchange
            rate exposure in an already weak banking system. Finally,
            they show that the volatility of macroeconomic variables
            linked to the financial system, increases whenever the
            economy becomes more dollarized, which in turn makes the
            choice of monetary targets more difficult.
Reducing structural dominance and
            entry barriers in Russian industry
Many industrial firms in Russia have
            undergone changes in ownership, but relatively few have been
            competitively restructured. Using survey and other data, the
            author suggests that much of Russian industry is immune from
            robust competition because of heavy vertical integration,
            geographic segmentation, and the concentration of buyers and
            sellers, in selected markets. Moreover, regulatory
            constraints protect incumbent firms from competition with
            new entrants, both domestic and foreign. The author sketches
            a reform agenda for Russia's post-privatization
            program, which emphasizes the restructuring of
            anti-competitive structures and the reduction of barriers to
            entry. The author's proposed reform agenda calls
            broadly for strengthening Russia's nascent rules-based
            framework for competition policy to reduce discretion,
            increase transparency, and improve accountability.
Ten years of transformation -
            macroeconomic lessons
After surveying the facts and distilling
            the voluminous literature on the transition to market
            economies, the author arrives at several conclusions: with
            hindsight, the old debate - Big Bang versus gradualism - was
            really a problem of feasibility, although many of the
            arguments in favor of the Big Bang have now been proven
            right. Once more, inflation has been found to be
            incompatible with growth and the importance of a good
            microeconomic structure - especially an effective banking
            system - has been confirmed. The decline of the state in
            transition economies is both spectacular and puzzling -
            combining features that are both desirable and dangerous.
            Among useful lessons learned: 1) It has paid to start early
            and move fast. The Big Bang is highly desirable but
            impractical, and gradualism is unavoidable but ought to be
            compressed as much as possible. The countries that bit the
            bullet early and hard have done better over the past decade.
            2) Stabilize first; growth next. Macroeconomic stabilization
            is a prerequisite for growth. The budget deficit need not be
            eliminated, but the link between deficits and money growth
            must be severed. 3) Structural reform is important, and
            microeconomic policies, often overlooked, should be started
            as soon as possible. This means establishing property
            rights, hardening budget constraints, building a healthy
            banking system, and ensuring true domestic competition. 4)
            The choice of an exchange rate regime, another early
            controversy, is apparently less important than adherence to
            a strict monetary policy. The floaters have tightly managed
            their exchange rates, while the fixers have repeatedly
            devalued and have often ended up floating. Some form of
            monetary targeting is needed, but it matters little which
            target is chosen so long as it is adhered to. 5) Creating
            irreversibilities early on allows governments to change
            without seriously affecting the transition. The less stable
            the economy, the more politics matters. A shaky economic
            basis is fertile ground for policy reversals that set the
            clock back several years (Bulgaria, Romania, Russia).
Liquidity constraints and investment
            in transition economies - the case of Bulgaria
The authors use firm level data on
            Bulgaria to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints
            on firms' investment performance. Internal funds are a
            important determinant of investment in most industrial
            economies. The authors use a simple accelerator model of
            investment to test whether liquidity constraints are
            relevant in Bulgaria's case. Their estimates are based
            on data for 1993-95, before Bulgaria's financial crisis
            of 1996-97. It turns out that Bulgarian firms are
            liquidity-constrained and that firms' size and
            financial structure help to distinguish between firms that
            are more and less liquidity-constrained. In the
            authors' view, liquidity constraints in transition
            economies should be interpreted in different ways than those
            in industrial economies. In Bulgaria, liquidity constraints,
            and hence access to external funds should be seen in the
            context of soft budget constraints and the financial
            system's failure to enforce the efficient allocation of
            funds. The relationship between liquidity constraints and
            firm characteristics may actually be the opposite of what is
            normally the case in industrial countries. In Bulgaria, lack
            of liquidity constraints may be a sign of financial weakness.
An international statistical survey
            of government employment and wages
This paper complements a separate study
            in this Series ("Government Employment and Pay: A
            Global and Regional Perspective," Policy Research
            Working Paper 1771, May, 1997) by providing the detailed
            statistical and econometric evidence on which that separate
            study is based. The authors briefly summarize the key
            findings of the earlier paper for the reader's
            convenience and to permit this paper to stand alone.
            However, the purpose of the paper is to provide the
            couintry-by-country statistics. The reader is referred to
            the companion paper for a description and analysis of the
            main findings.
Regulating privatized rail transport
Traditionally, transport regulation has
            been viewed as an exercise in second-best optimization,
            acknowledging the existence of huge information problems.
            Then the rail industry was deeply restructured worldwide to
            halt erosion of the sector's share of transportation
            markets. Restructuring took different forms in different
            countries, ranging from simple reorganization measures to
            extreme restructuring -with the private sector increasingly
            participating in the sector and with the provision of
            infrastructure separated from the provision of services. The
            authors argue that regulation of the rail industry cannot
            remain unaffected by these changes. New regulatory scenarios
            and issues have emerged. For example, contracts have to be
            defined for private participation and quality surveillance
            instruments must be defined. Traditional price controls have
            to be adapted to, and mechanisms designed to manage and plan
            infrastructure investments in, the new environment.
            Restructuring has brought new problems, too. Where licenses
            have been used, for example, several concessionaires have
            been unable to meet the objectives spelled out in the
            concession contract. Contracts should be flexible enough to
            take account of novel situations that may affect company
            performance. And yet, for the system to be credible, there
            cannot be systematic, unjustified deviations from the
            franchise objectives. Regulation of the sector should be
            simple and flexible, with license contracts designed to
            include the private sector and with industry organization
            adapted to local circumstances. Regulation should be
            governed by principles that foster competition and market
            mechanisms, wherever possible. At the same time, it should
            provide a stable legal and institutional framework for
            economic activity. Otherwise, regulators should refrain from
            intervening in the market-unless the goal of economic
            efficiency (subject to the socially demanded level of
            equity) is in jeopardy.