rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Women's movements, plural legal
            systems and the Botswana constitution: how reform happens
Collective action by women's
            networks has been a strong driver of legislative change in
            many countries across the world. Women's groups in
            Botswana have used advocacy tools such as testing the
            implementation of gender equality principles in the national
            court system. In 1992, women's legal networks in the
            Unity Dow case successfully challenged discriminatory
            statutory citizenship laws. This victory triggered
            far-reaching reforms of the citizenship law, family law, and
            even the Constitution itself. Two decades later, another
            successful "test" case, the Mmusi case, has
            challenged the customary law practice of favoring male heirs
            as contrary to constitutional principles of equality. The
            paper explores the role that judges and national courts play
            in implementing gender equality principles and upholding
            state commitments to the Convention on the Elimination of
            Discrimination against Women. The paper also highlights the
            role of governments in taking on the concerns of their
            citizens and cementing the principle of equality in national
            legal frameworks. The backdrop to this process is a plural
            legal system where both customary and statutory laws and
            courts exist side by side. How women negotiate their rights
            through these multiple systems by coalition building and
            using "good practice" examples from other
            countries is important to understand from a policy
            perspective and how this "bottom-up" approach can
            contribute to women's economic empowerment in other
            national contexts.
Dutch disease and spending
            strategies in a resource-rich low-income country - the case
            of Niger
This paper examines spending plans
            suggested by the recent literature regarding Dutch disease
            and examines their implications to Niger relative to its
            expanding mineral sector. The key to the benefits of
            significant mineral revenue lies with the productivity and
            supply responses of spending. If significant output gain is
            ensured, then there is little difference across the spending
            plans in their effects on real consumption. The overshooting
            of relative prices of the non-tradable sector or the
            shrinking share of traded sectors in gross domestic product
            is also ameliorated with greater supply flexibility. Growth
            paths of alternative spending strategies differ markedly in
            timing and pattern when spending does not raise
            productivity. As a caution against expectations that
            exaggerate the benefits of mineral revenue under all
            circumstances, the more aggressive spending plan may result
            in a boom-bust cycle if fiscal adjustments and debt
            repayments are necessary for any significant borrowing
            against future revenue and productivity gains are not
            realized. Using extractive industries revenue for transfers
            to households would have a greater effect on poverty
            reduction in the short and medium term but the long-run
            gains from investment in human and physical capital are
            likely to offset the initial lack of pro-poor bias.
            Different strategies differ significantly with regard to
            risks and required technical implementation capacity and
            political capacity to sustain a chosen course of action.
The benefits of solar home systems
            :an analysis from Bangladesh
The Government of Bangladesh, with help
            from the World Bank and other donors, has provided aid to a
            local agency called Infrastructure Development Company
            Limited and its partner organizations to devise a credit
            scheme for marketing solar home system units and making
            these an affordable alternative to grid electricity for poor
            people in remote areas. This paper uses household survey
            data to examine the financing scheme behind the
            dissemination of these solar home systems, in particular the
            role of the subsidy; the factors that determine the adoption
            of the systems in rural Bangladesh; and the welfare impacts
            of such adoption. The paper finds that while the subsidy has
            been declining over time, the demand for solar home systems
            has seen phenomenal growth, mostly because of technological
            developments that have made the systems increasingly more
            affordable. Households with better physical and educational
            endowments are more likely to adopt solar home systems than
            poor households. The price of the system matters in
            household decision making -- a 10 percent decline in the
            price of the system increases the overall demand for a solar
            panel by 2 percent. As for the benefits, adoption of a solar
            home system improves childrens evening study time, lowers
            kerosene consumption, and provides health benefits for
            household members, in particular for women. It is also found
            to increase women's decision-making ability in certain
            household affairs. Finally, it is found to increase
            household consumption expenditure, although at a small scale.
Can subjective questions on economic
            welfare be trusted evidence for three developing countries
While self-assessments of welfare have
            become popular for measuring poverty and estimating welfare
            effects, the methods can be deceptive given systematic
            heterogeneity in respondents' scales. Little is known
            about this problem. This study uses specially-designed
            surveys in three countries, Tajikistan, Guatemala, and
            Tanzania, to study scale heterogeneity. Respondents were
            asked to score stylized vignettes, as well as their own
            household. Diverse scales are in evidence, casting
            considerable doubt on the meaning of widely-used summary
            measures such as subjective poverty rates. Nonetheless,
            under the identifying assumptions of the study, only small
            biases are induced in the coefficients on widely-used
            regressors for subjective poverty and welfare.
Stunted growth : why don't
            African firms create more jobs
Many countries in Africa suffer high
            rates of underemployment or low rates of productive
            employment; many also anticipate large numbers of people to
            enter the workforce in the near future. This paper asks the
            question: Are African firms creating fewer jobs than those
            located elsewhere? And, if so, why? One reason may be that
            weak business environments slow the growth of firms and
            distort the allocation of resources away from
            better-performing firms, hence reducing their potential for
            job creation. The paper uses data from 41,000 firms across
            119 countries to examine the drivers of firm growth, with a
            special focus on African firms. African firms, at any age,
            tend to be 20-24 percent smaller than firms in other regions
            of the world. The poor business environment, driven by
            limited access to finance, and the lack of availability of
            electricity, land, and unskilled labor have some value in
            explaining this difference. Foreign ownership, the export
            status of the firm, and the size of the market are also
            significant determinants of firm size. However, even after
            controlling for the business environment and for
            characteristics of firms and markets, about 60 percent of
            the size gap between African and non-African firms remains unexplained.
Estimating informal trade across
            Tunisia's land borders
This paper uses mirror statistics and
            research in the field to estimate the magnitude of
            Tunisia's informal trade with Libya and Algeria. The
            aim is to assess the scale of this trade and to evaluate the
            amount lost in taxes and duties as a result as well as to
            assess the local impact in terms of income generation. The
            main findings show that within Tunisian trade as a whole,
            informal trade accounts for only a small share (5 percent of
            total imports). However, informal trade represents an
            important part of the Tunisia's bilateral trade with
            Libya and Algeria, accounting for more than half the
            official trade with Libya and more than total official trade
            with Algeria. The main reasons behind this large-scale
            informal trade are differences in the levels of subsidies on
            either side of the border as well as the varying tax
            regimes. Tackling informal trade is not simply a question of
            stepping up the number of controls and sanctions, because
            differences in prices lead to informal trade (and to an
            increase in corruption levels among border officials) even
            in cases where the sanctions are severe. As local
            populations depend on cross-border trade for income
            generation, they worry about local authorities taking action
            against cross-border trade. At the same time, customs
            officials are concerned about the risk of local protests if
            they strictly enforce the tariff regimes in place. This
            issue will become even more significant if fuel prices in
            Tunisia rise again as a result of a reduction in the levels
            of domestic subsidies.
Outcomes, opportunity and
            development : why unequal opportunities and not outcomes
            hinder economic development
This paper studies the relationship
            between inequality of opportunity and development outcomes
            in a cross-country setting. Scholars have long debated the
            impact of inequality on growth, development, and the quality
            of institutions in a society. The empirical relationships
            are however confounded by the notion that
            "inequality" can be seen as a composite of
            inequality arising from differences in effort and ability,
            which would tend to encourage competition and productivity,
            and inequality attributable to unequal opportunities,
            particularly in terms of access to basic goods and services,
            which might translate to wasted human potential and lower
            levels of development. The analysis in this paper applies a
            measure of educational opportunities that incorporates
            inequality between "types" or circumstance groups.
            Theories from economic history are used to instrument for
            this type of inequality in a large cross-country dataset.
            The results seem to confirm the hypothesis that this measure
            of inequality of opportunity is a better fit for structural
            inequality than the Gini index of income. The results
            suggest that inequality of  endowments at the outset of
            history led to unequal educational opportunities, which in
            turn affected development outcomes such as institutional
            quality, infant mortality, and economic growth. The findings
            are robust to several checks on the instrumental variable specification.
Can you help someone become
            financially capable a meta-analysis of the literature
This paper presents a systematic and
            comprehensive meta-analysis of the literature on financial
            education interventions. The analysis focuses on financial
            education studies designed to strengthen the financial
            knowledge and behaviors of consumers. The analysis
            identifies 188 papers and articles that present impact
            results of interventions designed to increase
            consumers' financial knowledge (financial literacy) or
            skills, attitudes, and behaviors (financial capability).
            These papers are diverse across a number of dimensions,
            including objectives of the program intervention, expected
            outcomes, intensity and duration of the intervention,
            delivery channel used, and type of population targeted.
            However, there are a few key outcome indicators where a
            subset of papers are comparable, including those that
            address savings behavior, defaults on loans, and financial
            skills, such as record keeping. The results from the meta
            analysis indicate that financial literacy and capability
            interventions can have a positive impact in some areas
            (increasing savings and promoting financial skills such as
            record keeping) but not in others (credit default).
Economic growth in Ghana :
            determinants and prospect
This paper employs a simple
            cross-country panel framework to assess the determinants of
            growth in Ghana's gross domestic product over the past
            four decades. A set of standard covariates is used to
            explain growth rates. Natural resource variables are
            included because the effects of natural resource rents in
            gross domestic products are of particular interest for
            Ghana. Using the preferred specification, Ghana's
            growth potential is predicted for the upcoming decades under
            different scenarios. The results indicate that under the
            most pessimistic scenario of no improvements in the
            determinants of growth compared with the period 2005-09,
            Ghana's gross domestic product per capita growth rates
            will stagnate at approximately 4.5 percent during the next
            decade and decrease thereafter. If the policy measures and
            country characteristics improve in the way they did in the
            past three decades, average per capita growth rates of
            roughly 5.5 percent could be reached during 2015-34. Taking
            into account the expected oil production until 2034 adds 0.6
            percentage points to projected gross domestic product growth
            rates on average.
Housing finance across countries :
            new data and analysis
This paper presents new data on the
            depth and penetration of mortgage markets across countries.
            There is a large variation across both dimensions of
            mortgage market development, across countries, but also --
            in terms of depth -- within countries. Mortgage markets seem
            to develop only at relatively high levels of gross domestic
            product per capita. Policies associated with financial
            system development are also associated with mortgage market
            development, including price stability and the efficiency of
            contractual and information frameworks. The development of
            the insurance sector and the stock market, sources of
            long-term funding, is strongly associated with mortgage
            market development, while government subsidies and support
            are not. A benchmarking exercise compares the actual values
            of mortgage market development to values predicted by
            structural country factors and shows a large variation
            across countries and over time in the gap between predicted
            and actual values, related to specific policies but also
            mortgage boom and bust cycles.
Financial development in Asia :
            beyond aggregate indicators
This paper documents the major trends in
            financial development in Asia since the early 1990s and the
            spillovers to firms. It compares Asia with advanced and
            emerging countries and uses both aggregate and disaggregate
            indicators. Financial systems in Asia remain less developed
            than in advanced countries but more developed than in
            Eastern Europe and Latin America. Bond and stock markets
            play a larger role and institutional investors have gained
            importance. Nonetheless, capital-raising activity has not
            expanded. A few large companies capture most of the
            issuances. Many secondary markets remain illiquid. The
            public sector captures a significant share of bond markets.
            The largest advancements in Asia occurred in China and
            India. But still in these countries, few large companies use
            capital markets to expand and grow, becoming much larger
            than nonuser firms. In sum, Asia's financial systems
            remain less developed than aggregate measures suggest, with
            few spillovers to many firms.
Decomposition of gender
            differentials in agricultural productivity in Ethiopia
This paper employs decomposition methods
            to analyze differences in agricultural productivity between
            male and female land managers in Ethiopia. It employs data
            from the 2011-2012 Ethiopian Rural Socioeconomic Survey. An
            overall 23.4 percent gender differential in agricultural
            productivity is estimated at the mean in favor of male land
            managers, of which 10.1 percentage points are explained by
            differences in land manager characteristics, land
            attributes, and unequal access to resources (the endowment
            effect). The remaining 13.4 percentage points are explained
            by unequal returns to productive components, but cannot be
            easily tied to specific covariates. These results are mainly
            driven by non-married female managers (mainly single and
            divorced). Married female managers do not display such
            disadvantages. Further analysis along the productivity
            distribution reveals that gender differentials are more
            pronounced at mid-levels of productivity and that the share
            of the gender gap explained by the endowment effect declines
            as productivity increases. Detailed decomposition of
            estimates at selected points of the agricultural
            productivity distribution provides valuable information for
            policy intervention purposes.
Making informed investment decisions
            in an uncertain world : a short demonstration
Governments invest billions of dollars
            annually in long-term projects. Yet deep uncertainties pose
            formidable challenges to making near-term decisions that
            make long-term sense. Methods that identify robust decisions
            have been recommended for investment lending but are not
            widely used. This paper seeks to help bridge this gap and,
            with a demonstration, motivate and equip analysts better to
            manage uncertainty in investment decisions. The paper first
            reviews the economic analysis of ten World Bank projects. It
            finds that analysts seek to manage uncertainty but use
            traditional approaches that do not evaluate options over the
            full range of possible futures. Second, the paper applies a
            different approach, Robust Decision Making, to the economic
            analysis of a 2006 World Bank project, the Electricity
            Generation Rehabilitation and Restructuring Project, which
            sought to improve Turkey's energy security. The
            analysis shows that Robust Decision Making can help decision
            makers answer specific and useful questions: How do options
            perform across a wide range of potential future conditions?
            Under what specific conditions does the leading option fail
            to meet decision makers' goals? Are those conditions
            sufficiently likely that decision makers should choose a
            different option? Such knowledge informs rather than
            replaces decision makers' deliberations. It can help
            them systematically, rigorously, and transparently compare
            their options and select one that is robust. Moreover, the
            paper demonstrates that analysts can use the same data and
            models for Robust Decision Making as are typically used in
            economic analyses. Finally, the paper discusses the
            challenges in applying such methods and how they can be overcome.
Measuring the impact of
            debt-financed public investment
While debt-financed productive public
            investment raises a countrys debt ratios in the short run,
            it can also generate higher growth, revenues, and exports,
            leading over time to lower debt ratios. This paper develops
            a framework to assess whether countries meet the conditions
            for realizing the net benefits over the costs of public
            investment debt financing. While it is possible to achieve
            debt sustainability with an appropriate mix of concessional
            and non-concessional financing, this is a necessary but not
            sufficient condition. It is also important to ensure the
            operational viability of public investment projects by
            having in place adequate project management: (i) project
            screening and appraisal, (ii) a clear connection between
            capital and recurrent expenditures once the projects are
            launched, and (iii) safeguards for appropriate project
            implementation and facilities operations. To illustrate the
            strength of these results, the paper carries out three
            measurement exercises: (a) a simulation of the degree to
            which the ratio of optimal public investment responds to
            changes in key parameters related to project management in a
            general equilibrium model; (b) application of the public
            investment management (PIMa) index to benchmark a
            country's public investment management capacity; and
            (c) presentation of the results of the Investment, Savings,
            and Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities tool aimed at tracking
            country choices in public finance and the impact of public
            projects on private investments.
"Crowding in" and the
            returns to government investment in low-income countries
This paper estimates the effect of
            government investment on private investment in a sample of
            39 low-income countries. Fluctuations in a predetermined
            component of disbursements on loans from official creditors
            to developing country governments are used as an instrument
            for fluctuations in public investment. The analysis finds
            evidence of "crowding in": an extra dollar of
            government investment raises private investment by roughly
            two dollars, and output by 1.5 dollars. To understand the
            implications for the return to public investment, a CES
            production function with public and private capital as
            inputs is calibrated. For most countries in the sample, the
            returns to government investment exceed the world interest
            rate. However, for some countries that already have high
            government investment rates, the return to further
            investment is below the world interest rate.