rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Measures of fixed capital in agriculture
Capital is a fundamental component of
            agricultural production, and the accumulation of capital is
            key to growth in agriculture and the process of development.
            Unfortunately, cross-country data sets on agricultural fixed
            capital are rare. Using a common methodology that allows
            comparisons across countries, as well as over time, this
            paper introduces a data series on fixed capital in
            agriculture, based on national accounts data. The fixed
            capital measure differs remarkably from the Food and
            Agriculture Organization's data series on tractors,
            which has been widely utilized as a proxy for agricultural
            fixed capital. The authors construct comparable measures of
            capital in livestock and tree stock. They examine the
            evolution of the capital stocks from 1970 to 2000, paying
            particular attention to the changing composition of
            agricultural capital, as well as differences in the
            accumulation of capital for high-income and middle and
            lower-income countries. Using the capital measures in
            agricultural productivity analyses, the data yield estimated
            input elasticities substantially different from those found
            previously in the literature. The authors show explicitly
            that this is due to the improved data set on agricultural
            capital stocks, as well as the methodology used in the study.
Financing Indian cities :
            opportunities and constraints in an Nth best world
This paper examines international
            experience with mobilizing funding for both capital and
            recurrent costs for municipal infrastructure with a view to
            identifying areas where India could improve its system of
            financing infrastructure in cities. Based on international
            data, the analysis shows that there is indeed a wide range
            of models for funding municipal infrastructure across a
            group even as relatively homogeneous as the European Union.
            Although a number of different models operate in countries
            with very good services, important features of Indias
            municipal finance system stand out. The spending per capita
            is exceptionally low, even when compared with local
            governments with few functions. The real estate sector
            generates meager tax revenues, but transfers from higher
            levels of government are also meager. Turning to cost
            recovery models for services, the paper examines
            international evidence on cost recovery. In practice, a
            surprisingly large number of countries, including
            high-income countries, subsidize basic municipal services,
            particularly in water supply and sanitation. Analysis shows
            that these subsidies often have perverse distributional
            effects. Likewise, pricing schemes designed to skew
            subsidies to low-income households often have unintended
            distributional effects. Again, evidence from urban India
            suggests that cost recovery is exceptionally low, not only
            in absolute terms but relative to the experience of other
            low and middle-income countries. The paper concludes with a
            discussion of some of the measures that should be considered
            for improving finances in Indian cities, including land
            monetization and capital grants systems designed
            specifically for reaching secondary cities and towns.
The binding constraint on
            firms' growth in developing countries
Firms in developing countries face
            numerous and serious constraints on their growth, ranging
            from corruption to lack of infrastructure to inability to
            access finance. Countries lack the resources to remove all
            the constraints at once and so would be better off removing
            the most binding one first. This paper uses data from World
            Bank Enterprise Surveys in 2006-10 to identify the most
            binding constraints on firm operations in developing
            countries. While each country faces a different set of
            constraints, these constraints also vary by firm
            characteristics, especially firm size. Across all countries,
            access to finance is among the most binding constraints;
            other obstacles appear to matter much less. This result is
            robust for all regions. Smaller firms must rely more on
            their own funds to invest and would grow significantly
            faster if they had greater access to external funds. As a
            result, a low level of financial development skews the firm
            size distribution by increasing the relative share of small
            firms. The results suggest that financing constraints play a
            significant part in explaining the "missing
            middle" -- the failure of small firms in developing
            countries to grow into medium-size or large firms.
Troubling tradeoffs in the Human
            Development Index
The 20th Human Development Report has
            introduced a new version of its famous Human Development
            Index (HDI). The HDI aggregates country-level attainments in
            life expectancy, schooling and income per capita. Each
            year's rankings by the HDI are keenly watched in both
            rich and poor countries. The main change in the 2010 HDI is
            that it relaxes its past assumption of perfect
            substitutability between its three components. However, most
            users will probably not realize that the new HDI has also
            greatly reduced its implicit weight on longevity in poor
            countries, relative to rich ones. A poor country
            experiencing falling life expectancy due to (say) a collapse
            in its health-care system could still see its HDI improve
            with even a small rate of economic growth. By contrast, the
            new HDI's valuations of the gains from extra schooling
            seem unreasonably high -- many times greater than the
            economic returns to schooling. These troubling tradeoffs
            could have been largely avoided using a different
            aggregation function for the HDI, while still allowing
            imperfect substitution. While some difficult value judgments
            are faced in constructing and assessing the HDI, making its
            assumed tradeoffs more explicit would be a welcome step.
Public credit registries as a tool
            for bank regulation and supervision
This paper is about the importance of
            the information in Public Credit Registries (PCRs) for
            supporting and improving banking sector regulation and
            supervision, particularly in the light of the new approach
            embodied in Basel III. Against the backdrop of the financial
            crisis and the existence of information data gaps, the
            importance of complete, accurate and timely credit
            information in the financial system is evident. Both in
            normal times and during crises, authorities need a device
            that allows them to look at the universe of credits in a
            detailed and readily way. And more importantly, they need to
            develop tools that exploit as much as possible the
            information therein contained. PCR databases contain
            individual credit information on borrowers and their credits
            which makes it possible to implement advanced techniques
            that measure banks' credit risk exposure. It allows
            optimizing the prudential regulation ensuring that
            provisioning and capital requirements are properly
            calibrated to cover expected and unexpected losses
            respectively.  It also permits validating banks'
            internal rating systems, performing stress tests and
            informing macroprudential surveillance. In this respect, it
            is envisioned that the existence of a PCR will be a key
            factor to enhance the supervision and regulation of the
            financial system. Furthermore, the extent, accuracy and
            availability of the information collected by the authorities
            will determine the usefulness of the PCR as part of their
            toolkit to monitor the potential vulnerabilities not only on
            a microprudential level, but also on a macroprudential one.
Togo growth diagnostics
This paper starts by analyzing past
            growth trends and sources of growth in Togo, as well as the
            structure of the economic actors in the country. The second
            part explores the current binding constraints to rapid and
            sustainable growth. For increased international
            competitiveness and growth, Togo will need to raise efforts
            to streamline its costly and cumbersome business procedures.
            However, for this to have a sizable impact, Togo must prove
            to potential investors that political stability is permanent
            and that corruption, poor budget execution and mismanagement
            of state owned enterprises belongs to the past. As a result
            of the new government's reform agenda and the return of
            international aid, a window of opportunities for high
            returns to the still limited public investments has opened
            up. This is especially true in infrastructure and
            connectivity services, which would not only take advantage
            of Togo's geographical location as a regional hub, but
            also make growth in Togo more inclusive. And as economic
            opportunities arise for the private sector, there is a need
            to restructure the banking sector, which has already
            started, to smooth distortions in the credit market.
            Promising sectors within agriculture that are vital to
            economic growth, employment opportunities, and poverty
            reduction remain important, but will need to overcome a
            number of coordination failures. Not least due to the
            history of government interventions causing economic
            distortions, the government must allow for a stronger role
            for private operators and encourage it wherever possible.
            Finally, although education does not exhibit constraints to
            economic activity in Togo today, it is of importance to
            improve the quality of education, not least to profit from
            and catalyze the opportunities related to Togo's
            potential as a regional hub.
Can China's rural elderly count
            on support from adult children implications of
            rural-to-urban migration
This paper shows that support from the
            family continues to be an important source of support for
            the rural elderly, particularly the rural elderly over 70
            years of age. Decline in likelihood of co-residence with, or
            in close proximity to, adult children raises the possibility
            that China's rural elderly will receive less support in
            the forms of both income and in-kind instrumental care.
            Although descriptive evidence on net financial transfers
            suggests that the elderly with migrant children will receive
            similar levels of financial transfers as those without
            migrant children, the predicted variance associated with
            these transfers implies a higher risk that elderly with
            migrant children may fall into poverty. Reducing the risk of
            low incomes among the elderly is one important motive for
            new rural pension initiatives supported by China's
            government, which are scheduled to be expanded to cover all
            rural counties by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan in 2016.
Forecasting migrant remittances
            during the global financial crisis
The financial crisis has highlighted the
            need for forecasts of remittance flows in many developing
            countries where these flows have proved to be a lifeline to
            the poor people and the economy. This note describes a
            simple methodology for forecasting country-level remittance
            flows in a manner consistent with the medium-term outlook
            for the global economy. Remittances are assumed to depend on
            bilateral migration stocks and income levels in the host
            country and the origin country. Changes in remittance costs,
            shifts in remittance channels, global exchange rate
            movements, and unpredictable immigration controls in the
            migrant-destination countries pose risks to the forecasts.
            Much remains to be done to improve the forecast methodology,
            data on bilateral flows, and high-frequency monitoring of
            migration and remittance flows.
Unexploited gains from international
            diversification : patterns of portfolio holdings around the world
This paper studies how portfolios with a
            global investment scope are allocated internationally using
            a unique micro dataset on U.S. equity mutual funds. While
            mutual funds have great flexibility to invest globally, they
            invest in a surprisingly limited number of stocks, around
            100. The number of holdings in stocks and countries from a
            given region declines as the investment scope of funds
            broadens. This restrictive investment practice has costs. A
            mean-variance strategy shows unexploited gains from further
            international diversification. Mutual funds investing
            globally could achieve better risk-adjusted returns by
            broadening their asset allocation, including stocks held by
            more specialized funds within the same mutual fund family
            (company). This investment pattern is not explained by lack
            of information or instruments, transaction costs, or a
            better ability of global funds to minimize negative
            outcomes. Instead, industry practices related to
            organizational factors seem to play an important role.
Proposals for WTO reform : a
            synthesis and assessment
This paper summarizes the major
            arguments and proposals to reform the modus operandi of the
            World Trade Organization --including decision-making
            procedures, negotiating modalities, and dispute settlement.
            Much has already been done to improve the internal and
            external transparency of World Trade Organization processes.
            Some proposals for structural reform ignore incentive
            constraints and the fact that the World Trade Organization
            is an incomplete contract that must be self-enforcing.
            Others -- such as calls for a "critical mass"
            approach to negotiations --can already be pursued (and have
            been). The agenda for international cooperation increasingly
            revolves around "behind-the-border" regulatory
            externalities that do not necessarily lend themselves to
            binding commitments in a trade agreement. This suggests a
            focus on strengthening notification/surveillance and
            developing more effective mechanisms for dialogue on
            regulatory policies that may create negative spillovers.
Shrinking classroom age variance
            raises student achievement : evidence from developing countries
Large classroom variance of student age
            is prevalent in developing countries, where achievement
            tends to be low. This paper investigates whether increased
            classroom age variance adversely affects mathematics and
            science achievement. Using exogenous variation in the
            variance of student age in ability-mixing schools, the
            author finds robust negative effects of classroom age
            variance on fourth graders' achievement in developing
            countries. A simulation demonstrates that re-grouping
            students by age in the sample can improve math and science
            test scores by roughly 0.1 standard deviations. According to
            past estimates for the United States, this effect size is
            similar to that of raising expenditures per student by 26 percent.
Saving and growth in Egypt
This study illustrates the mechanisms
            linking national saving and economic growth, with the
            purpose of understanding the possibilities and limits of a
            saving-based growth agenda in the context of the Egyptian
            economy. This is done through a simple theoretical model,
            calibrated to fit the Egyptian economy, and simulated to
            explore different potential scenarios. The main conclusion
            is that if the Egyptian economy does not experience progress
            in productivity -- stemming from technological innovation,
            improved public management, and private-sector reforms --
            then a high rate of economic growth is not feasible at
            current rates of national saving and would require a saving
            effort that is highly unrealistic. For instance, financing a
            constant 4 percent growth rate of gross domestic product per
            capita with no improvement in total factor productivity
            would require a national saving rate of around 50 percent in
            the first decade and 80 percent in 25 years. However, if
            productivity rises, sustaining and improving high rates of
            economic growth becomes viable. Following the previous
            example, a 2 percent growth rate of total factor
            productivity would allow a 4 percent growth rate of gross
            domestic product per capita with national saving rate in the
            realistic range of 20-25 percent of gross domestic product.
Chronic diseases and labor market
            outcomes in Egypt
By causing a sizeable reduction in
            employment 6 percent and labor supply 19 percent, chronic
            diseases are responsible for a major efficiency loss in the
            Egyptian economy. Furthermore the impact of chronic diseases
            on the labor market is not uniformly distributed. The older
            and the less educated suffer a larger drop in the
            probability of being employed and in their supply of working
            hours. The authors estimate the reduced form equations of
            individual employment status, labor supply and the usual
            wage equation. They control for unobserved ability and
            individual preferences by means of a within-siblings
            estimator. Measurement errors in our self-reported health
            variable have been accounted for.
On multidimensional indices of poverty
There has been a growing interest in
            what have come to be termed "multidimensional indices
            of poverty." Advocates for these new indices correctly
            point out that command over market goods is not all that
            matters to peoples' well-being, and that other factors
            need to be considered when quantifying the extent of poverty
            and informing policy making for fighting poverty. However,
            the author argues that there are two poorly understood
            issues in assessing these indices. First, does one believe
            that any single index can ever be a sufficient statistic for
            poverty assessments? Second, when aggregation is called for,
            should it be done in the space of "attainments,"
            using prices when appropriate, or that of
            "deprivations," using weights set by the analyst?
            The paper argues that the goal for future poverty monitoring
            efforts should be to develop a credible set of multiple
            indices, spanning the dimensions of poverty most relevant to
            a specific setting, rather than a single multidimensional
            index. When weights are needed, they shouldn't be set
            solely by an analyst measuring poverty. Rather, they should
            be, as much as possible, consistent with well-informed
            choices made by poor people.
Petroleum subsidies in Yemen :
            leveraging reform for development
Petroleum subsidy reform is increasingly
            seen as an opportunity for consolidating public finances and
            fostering sustainable economic development. Yemen, as the
            country with the lowest per capita income in the group of
            countries with a high level of energy subsidies, started to
            reduce subsidies in 2010 and is discussing further options
            for reform. The results of this paper support a
            comprehensive petroleum subsidy reform in Yemen. Economic
            growth is projected to accelerate between 0.1 and 0.8
            percentage points annually as a result of reform. Yet, the
            design of the reform is critically important, especially for
            the poor. Outcomes of alternative reform scenarios range
            from an increase in poverty of 2 to 6 percentage points. A
            promising strategy combines subsidy reduction with direct
            transfers of 13,800 to 19,700 Yemeni rials annually to the
            poorest 30 percent of households and enhanced public
            investments. Investments should focus on the utilities,
            transport, trade, and construction sectors to integrate
            economic spaces and create the platform for a restructuring
            of agricultural, industrial, and service value chains, which
            should encourage private sector led and job creating growth
            in the medium term.