rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Reconciling climate change and trade policy
There is growing clamor in industrial
            countries for additional border taxes on imports from
            countries with lower carbon prices. The authors confirm the
            findings of other research that unilateral emissions cuts by
            industrial countries will have minimal carbon leakage
            effects. However, output and exports of energy-intensive
            manufactures are projected to decline potentially creating
            pressure for trade action. A key factor affecting the impact
            of any border taxes is whether they are based on the carbon
            content of imports or the carbon content in domestic
            production. Their quantitative estimates suggest that the
            former action when applied to all merchandise imports would
            address competitiveness and environmental concerns in high
            income countries but with serious consequences for trading
            partners. For example, Chinas manufacturing exports would
            decline by one-fifth and those of all low and middle income
            countries by 8 per cent; the corresponding declines in real
            income would be 3.7 per cent and 2.4 per cent. Border tax
            adjustment based on the carbon content in domestic
            production, especially if applied to both imports and
            exports, would broadly address the competitiveness concerns
            of producers in high income countries and less seriously
            damage developing country trade.
Explaining high transport costs
            within Malawi - bad roads or lack of trucking competition
What are the main determinants of
            transport costs: network access or competition among
            transport providers? The focus in the transport sector has
            often been on improving the coverage of "hard"
            infrastructure, whereas in reality the cost of transporting
            goods is quite sensitive to the extent of competition among
            transport providers and scale economies in the freight
            transport industry, creating monopolistic behavior and
            circular causation between lower transport costs and greater
            trade and traffic. This paper contributes to the discussion
            on transport costs in Malawi, providing fresh empirical
            evidence based on a specially commissioned survey of
            transport providers and spatial analysis of the countrys
            infrastructure network. The main finding is that both
            infrastructure quality and market structure of the trucking
            industry are important contributors to regional differences
            in transport costs. The quality of the trunk road network is
            not a major constraint but differences in the quality of
            feeder roads connecting villages to the main road network
            have significant bearing on transport costs. And costs due
            to poor feeder roads are exacerbated by low volumes of trade
            between rural locations and market centers. With empty
            backhauls and journeys covering small distances, only a few
            transport service providers enter the market, charging
            disproportionately high prices to cover fixed costs and
            maximize markups.
A comparative perspective on poverty
            reduction in Brazil, China and India
Brazil, China and India have seen
            falling poverty in their reform periods, but to varying
            degrees and for different reasons. History left China with
            favorable initial conditions for rapid poverty reduction
            through market-led economic growth; at the outset of the
            reform process there were ample distortions to remove and
            relatively low inequality in access to the opportunities so
            created, though inequality has risen markedly since. By
            concentrating such opportunities in the hands of the better
            off, prior inequalities in various dimensions handicapped
            poverty reduction in both Brazil and India. Brazil's
            recent success in complementing market-oriented reforms with
            progressive social policies has helped it achieve more rapid
            poverty reduction than India, although Brazil has been less
            successful in terms of economic growth. In the wake of its
            steep rise in inequality, China might learn from
            Brazil's success with such policies. India needs to do
            more to assure that poor people are able to participate in
            both the country's growth process and its social
            policies; here there are lessons from both China and Brazil.
            All three countries have learned how important macroeconomic
            stability is to poverty reduction.
Downward nominal and real wage
            rigidity : survey evidence from European firms
It has been well established that the
            wages of individual workers react little, especially
            downwards, to shocks that hit their employer. This paper
            presents new evidence from a unique survey of firms across
            Europe on the prevalence of downward wage rigidity in both
            real and nominal terms. The authors analyse which firm-level
            and institutional factors are associated with wage rigidity.
            The results indicate that it is related to workforce
            composition at the establishment level in a manner that is
            consistent with related theoretical models (e.g. efficiency
            wage theory, insider-outsider theory). The analysis also
            finds that wage rigidity depends on the labour market
            institutional environment. Collective bargaining coverage is
            positively related with downward real wage rigidity,
            measured on the basis of wage indexation. Downward nominal
            wage rigidity is positively associated with the extent of
            permanent contracts and this effect is stronger in countries
            with stricter employment protection regulations.
Downward nominal and real wage
            rigidity : survey evidence from European firms
WPS5159 Policy Research Working Paper 5159 Downward Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity Survey Evidence from European Firms _Jan Babecký Philip Du Caju Theodora Kosma Martina Lawless Julián Messina Tairi Rõõm_ The World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean Region Office of the Regional Chief Economist December 2009
International aid and financial
            crises in donor countries
The global financial crisis has already
            led to sharp downturns in the developing world. In the past,
            international aid has been able to offset partially the
            effects of crises that began in the developing world, but
            because this crisis began in the wealthy countries, donors
            may be less willing or able to increase aid in this crisis.
            Not only have donor-country incomes fallen, but the cause of
            the drop -- the banking and financial-sector crisis -- may
            exacerbate the effect on aid flows because of its heavy
            fiscal costs. This paper estimates how donor-country banking
            crises have affected aid flows in the past, using panel data
            from 24 donor countries between 1977 and 2007. The analysis
            finds that banking crises in donor countries are associated
            with a substantial additional fall in aid flows, beyond any
            income-related effects, perhaps because of the high fiscal
            costs of crisis and the debt hangover in the post-crisis
            periods. In most specifications, aid flows from
            crisis-affected countries fall by an average of 20 to 25
            percent (relative to the counterfactual) and bottom out only
            about a decade after the banking crisis hits. In addition,
            the results confirm that donor-country incomes are robustly
            related to per-capita aid flows, with an elasticity of about
            3. Because all donor countries are being hit hard by the
            current global recession, and several have also suffered
            banking-sector crises, there are reasons to expect that aid
            could fall by a significant amount (again, relative to the
            counterfactual) in the coming years -- just when aid may be
            most clearly justified to help smooth exogenous shocks to
            developing countries.
Contrasting future paths for an
            evolving global climate regime
This paper explores two different
            conceptions of how an emerging climate regime might evolve
            to strengthen incentives for more vigorous cooperation in
            mitigating global climate change. One is the paradigm that
            has figured most prominently in negotiations to this point:
            the establishment of targets and timetables for countries to
            limit their aggregate greenhouse gas emissions. The other
            approach consists of a variety of loosely coordinated
            smaller scale agreements, each one of which addresses a
            different aspect of the challenge, and is enforced in its
            own way. The primary conclusion is that an agreement of the
            first type may be more cost-effective, but that a system of
            agreements of the second type would likely sustain more
            abatement overall.
Taxes and caps as climate policy
            instruments with domestic and imported fuels
This paper develops a global model of
            climate policy, focusing on the choice between tax and
            cap-and-trade solutions. The analysis assumes that the world
            can be split into two regions, with two fuels that both lead
            to carbon emissions. Region A consumes all fuels, and is
            responsible for defining and implementing climate policy.
            Region B produces all of fuel 1 (oil), while fuel 2
            (interpreted as coal, natural gas, or renewables) is both
            produced and consumed in region A. The paper studies three
            model variants. All involve full policy coordination in each
            country block, but no coordination across blocks; and all
            involve an optimal producer tax on fuel 1 by region B. In
            model 1, region A sets two fuel consumption taxes, one for
            each fuel. The optimal region A tax on fuel 1 then exceeds
            the Pigou level as defined by the region; the tax set on
            fuel 2 is Pigouvian. The presence of a second fuel in region
            A reduces region Bs optimal tax on fuel 1. In model 2,
            region A sets a common carbon tax, which is lower (higher)
            for fuel 1 (2) than in model 1. In model 3, region A sets a
            carbon emissions cap. This enhances region Bs strategic
            position via the trade-off between fuels 1 and 2 in region
            A, following from the cap. In realistic cases, this leaves
            region A strategically weaker under a cap policy than under
            a tax policy, more so the less carbon-intensive the local
            fuel (2) is. In conclusion, a fuel-consuming and importing
            region that determines a climate policy will typically
            prefer to set a carbon tax, instead of setting a carbon
            emissions cap. The main reason is that a tax is more
            efficient than a cap at extracting rent from fuel (oil) exporters.
Hegelian macroeconomics -- the
            dialectics of global imbalances
Traditional narratives of external
            imbalances have focused on the analysis of national
            accounts, trade flows, and financial flows. They have
            generated two opposing views of the current situation of the
            world economy: on one side, a prudent, if not pessimistic
            view considers large imbalances as evidence of problems with
            the international monetary and financial system, and
            symptoms of domestic distortions (mainly in the United
            States and China). On the other side, a relaxed, if not
            optimistic view suggests that global imbalances are not
            anomalies but simply the predictable outcome of a world with
            increasingly globalized financial flows in search of the
            right mix of risks and returns. The former view prescribes
            that the two largest countries in the world rebalance their
            economies to avoid the potentially painful cost of
            disruption and adjustment. The latter contends that global
            imbalances will be corrected through time by the normal
            functioning of market forces. This paper offers a critical
            analysis of these competing explanations of the United
            States-China imbalances and suggests a way of reconciling
            them. Starting with an exploration of the accounting
            frameworks that underpin any discussion of current account
            deficits and surpluses, the paper argues that China and the
            United States have become economically so interdependent
            that fears of any abrupt change in their current Nash
            equilibrium situation may be exaggerated. The paper also
            uses Hegels parable of the development of
            self-consciousness to explain the dynamics between the two
            countries. Hegel may not have been a great philosopher of
            history but his analysis of lordship and bondage (also known
            as the master-slave dynamics) provides a good framework for
            analyzing the dialectics of recognition and acknowledgement
            that currently characterizes the macroeconomic relationships
            between the United States and China.
A note on the economic cost of
            climate change and the rationale to limit it below 2°C
This note highlights a major reason to
            limit climate change to the lowest possible levels. This
            reason follows from the large increase in uncertainty
            associated with high levels of warming. This uncertainty
            arises from three sources: the change in climate itself, the
            changes impacts at the sector level, and their
            macroeconomic costs. First, the greater the difference
            between the future climate and the current one, the more
            difficult it is to predict how local climates will evolve,
            making it more difficult to anticipate adaptation actions.
            Second, the adaptive capacity of various economic sectors
            can already be observed for limited warming, but is largely
            unknown for larger changes. The larger the change in
            climate, therefore, the more uncertain is the final impact
            on economic sectors. Third, economic systems can efficiently
            cope with sectoral losses, but macroeconomic-level adaptive
            capacity is difficult to assess, especially when it involves
            more than marginal economic changes and when structural
            economic shifts are required. In particular, these shifts
            are difficult to model and involve thresholds beyond which
            the total macroeconomic cost would rise rapidly. The
            existence of such thresholds is supported by past
            experiences, including economic disruptions caused by
            natural disasters, observed difficulties funding needed
            infrastructure, and regional crises due to rapid economic
            shifts induced by new technologies or globalization. As a
            consequence, larger warming is associated with higher cost,
            but also with larger uncertainty about the cost. Because
            this uncertainty translates into risks and makes it more
            difficult to implement adaptation strategies, it represents
            an additional motive to mitigate climate change.
An institutional approach to
            balancing international monetary relations : the case for a
            US-China settlement facility
Management of international monetary
            relations between China and the United States will be one of
            the crucial parameters for the stability or instability of
            the global financial system in the next decade. Although
            most of the literature suggests rebalancing through either
            adjustment of relative prices or adjustment of behavior in
            both countries, this paper explores an institutional
            approach to rebalancing. Applying the lessons from
            Keynes' 1944 plan for a United States-United Kingdom
            international clearing union, the paper explores the
            creation of a bilateral United States-China settlement
            facility as an institutional contribution to the structural
            rebalancing of global imbalances.
Do labor statistics depend on how
            and to whom the questions are asked results from a survey
            experiment in Tanzania
Labor market statistics are critical for
            assessing and understanding economic development. In
            practice, widespread variation exists in how labor
            statistics are measured in household surveys in low-income
            countries. Little is known whether these differences have an
            effect on the labor statistics they produce. This paper
            analyzes these effects by implementing a survey experiment
            in Tanzania that varied two key dimensions: the level of
            detail of the questions and the type of respondent.
            Significant differences are observed across survey designs
            with respect to different labor statistics. Labor force
            participation rates, for example, vary by as much as 10
            percentage points across the four survey assignments. Using
            a short labor module without screening questions on
            employment generates lower female labor force participation
            and lower rates of wage employment for both men and women.
            Response by proxy rather than self-report yields lower male
            labor force participation, lower female working hours, and
            lower employment in agriculture for men. The differences
            between proxy and self reporting seem to come from
            information imperfections within the household, especially
            with the distance in age between respondent and subject
            playing an important role, while gender and educational
            differences seem less important.
New structural economics : a
            framework for rethinking development
As strategies for achieving sustainable
            growth in developing countries are re-examined in light of
            the financial crisis, it is critical to take into account
            structural change and its corollary, industrial upgrading.
            Economic literature has devoted a great deal of attention to
            the analysis of technological innovation, but not enough to
            these equally important issues. The new structural economics
            outlined in this paper suggests a framework to complement
            previous approaches in the search for sustainable growth
            strategies. It takes the following into consideration:
            First, an economy's structure of factor endowments
            evolves from one stage of development to another. Therefore,
            the optimal industrial structure of a given economy will be
            different at different stages of development. Each
            industrial structure requires corresponding infrastructure
            (both "hard" and "soft") to facilitate
            its operations and transactions. Second, each stage of
            economic development is a point along the continuum from a
            low-income agrarian economy to a high-income industrialized
            economy, not a dichotomy of two economic development stages
            ("poor" versus "rich" or
            "developing" versus "industrialized").
            Industrial upgrading and infrastructure improvement targets
            in developing countries should not necessarily draw from
            those that exist in high-income countries. Third, at each
            given stage of development, the market is the basic
            mechanism for effective resource allocation. However,
            economic development as a dynamic process requires
            industrial upgrading and corresponding improvements in
            "hard" and "soft" infrastructure at each
            stage. Such upgrading entails large externalities to
            firms' transaction costs and returns to capital
            investment. Thus, in addition to an effective market
            mechanism, the government should play an active role in
            facilitating industrial upgrading and infrastructure improvements.
To what extent are Bangladesh's
            recent gains in poverty reduction different from the past
The poor in Bangladesh are more likely
            to belong to households with a larger number of dependents
            and lower education among household members, be engaged in
            daily wage labor, own little land, and be less likely to
            receive remittances. This poverty profile for 2005 is
            similar to the profile in the mid-1980s and hence at first
            glance it would appear that little has changed over time. A
            closer look at national household survey data suggests a
            more nuanced story. This paper uses the latest two rounds of
            the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey to
            decompose the micro-determinants of poverty reduction
            between 2000 and 2005, closely following a similar analysis
            using five earlier rounds of the Survey. The comparison of
            results shows that the spatial distribution of poverty seen
            in earlier decades has changed with time and the drivers of
            poverty reduction are different in several respects.
What are the implications for global
            value chains when the market shifts from the north to the south
Rapid growth in many low-income
            economies was fuelled by the insertion of producers into
            global value chains feeding into high-income northern
            markets. This paper charts the evolution of financial and
            economic crisis in the global economy and argues that the
            likely outcome will be sustained growth in the two very
            large Asian Driver economies of China and India and
            stagnation in the historically dominant northern economies.
            Given the nature of demand in low-income southern economies,
            it is likely to be reflected in sustained demand for
            commodities, with other southern economy producers in global
            value chains being forced into lower levels of value added.
            Standards are likely to be of considerably reduced
            significance in value chains feeding into China and India.