rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Does food aid depress food
            production The disincentive dilemma in the African context
Food aid averages only ten percent of
            total financial aid to developing countries, but in certain
            African countries - Botswana, Cape Verde, Mauritius, and
            Mauritania - it represents more than half the food available
            for consumption.  The author applies vector auto-regression
            (VAR) analysis to data for sub-Saharan Africa to test these
            hypotheses.  The issue is not whether food aid is good or
            bad but how it can be used to promote economic development
            and improve the nutrition of the food-insecure. The author
            found that food aid has a significant positive effect on
            food production. Any disincentive induced by the additional
            supply of food is offset by the positive effects. Food aid
            is also more likely to have a positive effect in countries
            that use fertilizer intensively.  One possible explanation
            for this is that countries that enjoy a relative abundance
            of regular food aid can use the resources made available
            through reduced food imports to invest more in the
            agricultural sector - which is more likely when such an
            investment is a condition imposed by the aid donors.
MEXAGMKTS : a model of crop and
            livestock markets in Mexico
The genesis of the model MEXAGMKTS was
            the perception that agricultural policies in Mexico (and
            many other countries) are often second-best responses to the
            negative side effects of broad macroeconomic and
            international trade policies.  MEXAGMKTS was designed to
            allow analysis of the relationship between such agricultural
            policies and different macroeconomic and international trade
            regimes.  MEXAGMKTS is part of a set of interlinked
            macroeconomic and sectoral models of Mexico and the United
            States (with enough specifications for the rest of the world
            to close the system).  The authors discuss the historical
            context in which MEXAGMKTS was developed as well as its
            economic structure, estimates, and validation.  They present
            a stand-alone, counterfactural application of a trade
            liberalization scenario for Mexico.
A model of U.S. corn, sorghum, and
            soybean markets and the role of government programs (USAGMKTS)
This estimated model of corn, sorghum,
            and soybeans markets (USAGMKTS) serves as the U.S.
            agricultural sector in a study of the effects of U.S.
            agriculture and macroeconomic policy on Mexico's
            agricultural sector.  This model of U.S. corn, sorghum, and
            soybeans markets also includes U.S. markets for beef, hogs,
            and poultry - because of their importance and endogeneity
            with respect to U.S. feed grain policies, which are major
            determinants of corn and sorghum prices.  The model is part
            of a set of interlinked sectoral and macroeconomic models
            that link Mexico and the United States.  This paper reports
            the results of the simulations of various alternative U.S.
            agricultural policy scenarios, to estimate the effects of
            various feed grain policy instruments.  Plausible U.S.
            agricultural policy adjustments can alter border prices
            facing world trading partners by 10 to 15 percent.  The
            extent of these adjustments depends heavily on the current
            state of the U.S. agricultural economy.
Labor market participation, returns
            to education, and male - female wage differences in Peru
Using household survey data from Peru,
            the author estimates differences between male and female
            participation in the labor market, productivity (measured by
            wages), and economic returns to schooling. He tries to
            identify characteristics that enable some women to
            participate in the labor market, to determine whether the
            private returns to education vary by gender and influence
            school enrollment, and to evaluate the extent to which the
            male female wage gap is caused by differences in human
            capital. The author reaches three policy conclusions : 1)
            public schools are less effective than private schools in
            raising productivity and reducing the wage gap, 2)
            investments in education and training for girls increase
            their participation and productivity in the labor market
            more than a similar investment in boys' education
            increases theirs, and 3) households and communities are
            probably the main sources of gender bias in parental
            investment in children's education, so the government
            must identify ways to influence the household's
            decisions about education.
Analyzing the effects of U.S.
            agricultural policy on Mexican agricultural markets using
            the MEXAGMKTS model
This paper uses results from simulations
            of the FAIRMODEL, USAGMKTS, and MEXAGMKTS models to analyze
            the effects of changes in U.S. agricultural policy on
            Mexican agricultural markets.  The author concludes that
            under a scenario of trade liberalization for Mexico, Mexican
            agricultural production, prices, and trade are quite
            sensitive to agricultural policy changes in the U.S.  The
            genesis of the research project was the perception that
            agricultural policies in Mexico (and many other countries)
            are often second best responses to the negative side effects
            of broad economic policies aimed primarily at macroeconomic
            and international trade objectives.  The paper also
            discusses the role of agriculture in Mexican economic
            policy, and MEXAGMKTS, FAIR and USAGMKTS models.  The paper
            includes an analysis of the sensitivity of Mexican
            agricultural markets to U.S. agricultural policy and a brief
            summary of the implications of the results.
Innovative agricultural extension
            for women : a case study in Cameroon
Agricultural extension has not been
            particularly kind to Africa's women farmers.  On a
            continent where women produce 90 percent of the food and 60
            percent of total agricultural output, insensitivity and
            neglect by extension services is the norm.  Numerous case
            studies have pointed out the "gender gap" that
            exists in the provision of extension services to women
            farmers.  Compared to male farmers or farming couples, women
            farmers receive far less attention from extension services,
            thus benefiting less from improved farming techniques.
            However, in Cameroon's North West province, over the
            last five years, the Mission de Developpement de la Province
            du Nord-Ouest (MIDENO), has been implementing a project to
            improve agricultural production in the province.  In terms
            of agricultural extension, the project has hired almost 200
            new extension agents, one-fourth of whom are women.  The
            overall representation of women in the extension service is
            now 18.3 percent, among the highest in developing countries.
            The paper is organized into three Chapters : Chapter I deals
            with the agricultural and policy setting in which MIDENO was
            designed; Chapter II is devoted to the MIDENO case study;
            Chapter III attempts to generalize from the MIDENO case and
            determines the extent to which the MIDENO's experience
            and success can be sustained and replicated.
Mexico's external debt
            restructuring in 1989-90
The subject of this paper is the
            agreement reached on July 23, 1989 which offered commercial
            creditors the choice to exchange old debt instruments for
            new instruments involving debt relief, but partially secured
            with collateral; or for unsecured instruments without debt
            relief, but with a new money commitment attached. This paper
            outlines the main course of economic developments in Mexico
            leading up to the agreement. It also provides an overview of
            the economic considerations underlying the structure of the
            agreement finally reached, and a detailed description of
            that agreement. The paper also assesses the amount of debt
            relief, and asks the question whether this amount of debt
            relief represents a good return on the resources devoted to
            the deal. It provides an assessment of the market value of
            all outstanding commercial claims on Mexico before and after
            the deal by third parties and by Mexico itself, to creditors
            choosing one of the debt relief options. The paper looks at
            the likely impact on the recovery of economic growth in
            Mexico by first assessing the impact of the deal on
            Mexico's financing gap and then by using a quantitative
            framework developed for this purpose to assess the likely
            impact of the deal on Mexico's prospects for a recovery
            of economic growth.
Portfolio effects of debt-equity
            swaps and debt exchanges with some applications to Latin America
Voluntary debt reduction schemes (VDR),
            such as debt-equity swaps (DES) or collateralized debt
            conversions (CDC), are bound to play a relevant role in the
            foreign debt strategy of highly indebted countries (HICs).
            This paper assesses the impact of VDR on domestic
            macroeconomic variables. More specifically, it evaluates the
            impact of DES and CDC on inflation, equity prices and on
            sovereign debt prices. For that purpose a short-term
            portfolio balance model with domestic and foreign
            assets/liabilities is formulated. A distinctive feature of
            the model is that all current transactions take place at end
            of period prices. The model supports the view that DES are
            inflationary, and indicates that in the short-term, DES and
            CDC are likely to raise equity prices and sovereign debt
            prices. This paper shows that the impact of DES on sovereign
            debt prices depends on a host of factors: the expected trade
            surplus; the stocks of debt and foreign-held equity; the
            redemption price of debt; restrictions on profit
            remittances; the physical rate of return on equity; and the
            technology that determines it. A discussion regarding the
            dynamics of adjustment to the steady state illustrates
            possible linkages between DES subsidies, rates of return and
            investment levels. The paper concludes with a
            parametrization of the conditions under which DES can lead
            to higher debt prices in selected Latin American countries.
Growth oriented adjustment programs
            : a statistical analysis
After the fall in average per capita GDP
            growth that took place in the 1980s, adjustment lending
            programs supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
            and the World Bank (WB) were launched in response to the
            deteriorating external environment. The purpose of this
            paper is to evaluate and to assess statistically the extent
            to which adjustment programs supported by the IMF and the WB
            have restored growth. The evaluation relied on a large
            sample of countries (93) and controls for some of the
            statistical difficulties associated with measuring the
            effectiveness of adjustment programs. The paper reviews the
            environment under which IMF-WB lending took place, the
            rationale for adjustment lending, and the distribution of
            adjustment loans through time. The results of the
            statistical evaluation suggest that, after controlling for
            external factors and for initial conditions, growth is not
            higher in countries that receive IMF-WB funds, but that
            investment was significantly lower than for non-recipient
            countries. The paper also examines further long-term growth prospects.
The political economy of inflation
            and stabilization in middle-income countries
In a number of middle-income developing
            countries, the severe inflationary crises of the 1980s
            coincided with political liberalization and an expansion of
            the arena of distributive politics. This wave of
            democratization raises questions that have recurred
            throughout the post-World War II period. This paper provides
            a comparative analysis of the politics of inflation and
            stabilization in seventeen Latin American and Asian
            countries, paying particular attention to social movements
            and governments that seek to mobilize the popular sector.
            The paper reviews the arguments linking political
            constraints to macroeconomic policy and inflation,
            especially the role that populism might play in propagating
            inflation. It examines the inflation histories of three
            groups of middle-income countries: those that have
            maintained relatively stable macroeconomic policies over the
            long-run; those that have periodically experienced severe
            difficulties, but managed to adjust; and those that
            experienced recurrent cycles of very high inflation over an
            extended period. The paper draws more extensively on case
            studies of particular inflation episodes to examine the
            conditions under which inflation has been brought down,
            paying particular attention to the effect of regime type on
            stabilization efforts.
Ghana's cocoa pricing policy
Ghana's cocoa production has
            declined in the past 25 years from half the world market
            share to about one tenth of the market.  This has been
            partly due to policies that overvalued the domestic currency
            and heavily taxed cocoa exports.  This study addresses the
            dilemma Ghana's government faces: how to provide enough
            producer incentives to stimulate the cocoa exports Ghana
            need for foreign exchange while maintaining the government
            revenues needed to avoid unmanagable fiscal deficits.  The
            key may be identifying acceptable revenue alternatives to
            cocoa export taxes.  Among the conclusions reached in this
            study are: (a) the exchange rate regime should be
            liberalized; (b) the government should explore shifting
            taxes from cocoa producers to all consumers by increasing
            taxes on appropriate consumer goods; (c) taxing cocoa
            farmers directly lowers their income, indirectly lowers the
            income of food producers, and transfers incomes from those
            farmers to food consumers, thereby worsening income
            distribution; (d) yearly cocoa buying price should always be
            set above 140 cedis (in 1987 prices) to stimulate growth;
            and (e) COCOBOD should terminate its marketing activities
            for coffee, and all taxes on coffee exports should cease.
Relative price changes and the
            growth of the public sector
Policy recommendations to reduce the
            growth of public spending are haunted by the inevitability
            of two factors. First Wagner's law, the hypothesis that
            with economic development an increasing share of GDP is
            devoted to public spending, and secondly, Baumol's
            effect, that as economies develop, public sector prices rise
            faster than prices in the general economy. Neither of these
            hypotheses has adequately been tested, largely because
            consistent public sector prices are unavailable for most
            developing countries. This paper proposes that the
            unavailability of consistent public sector price deflators
            can be overcome by econometrically estimating these series
            with the help of data on public spending and the widely
            available GDP deflator. This paper presents an anaylsis of
            time series data from 71 countries. The paper finds that
            although data support Wagner's law in the majority of
            developing countries, the degree of support varies with the
            level of development. Similarly, the average income
            elasticity of public spending drops from the low income
            economies through to the industrial economies. In the long
            run, the size of the public sector tapers off as the
            economies develop.
Taxation of financial intermediation
            : measurement principles and application to five African countries
The purpose of this study is to set out
            a practical method for analyzing how inflation, interest
            ceilings, reserve requirements and like impositions have had
            tax-like effects and how they can be compared with explicit
            taxes. Using this method estimates of the varying magnitudes
            of the total taxation of financial intermediation in five
            African economies during recent years are computed.  The
            paper explores the macroeconomic and fiscal dynamics which
            have contributed to the use of heavy taxation on the
            financial sector in certain countries and for certain
            periods.  The likely impact of these taxes on efficiency is
            also examined.
Making Bank irrigation investments
            more sustainable
This paper is about sustainability of
            irrigation investments in both the financial and physical
            senses.  Finance provides the claim on resources necessary
            to accomplish physical operations in an economic system,
            while physical operations provide a flow of services for
            which beneficiaries are willing to pay in terms of claims on
            resources.  This paper discusses two polar models of
            irrigation finance, followed by a discussion of quality
            control in irrigation and reviews of World Bank irrigation
            pricing policy, irrigation cost recovery and operations and
            maintenance funding conditionality experience.  It includes
            a discussion of reasons for noncompliance with Bank
            irrigation lending conditionality.  A  framework for the
            design of sustainable irrigation investments is presented
            and a summary of results and recommendations is given.
Supporting safe motherhood : a
            review of financial trends : summary
An estimated 500,000 women, 99 percent
            of them from the developing world, die each year from
            pregnancy-related causes. About three quarters of these
            deaths are the direct result of obstetrical complications --
            hemorrhage, infection, toxemia, obstructed labor, and
            abortion (under primitive and illegal conditions). An
            estimated equivalent number of infants do not survive their
            mother's death. For surviving mothers, the consequences
            of pregnancy have a severe impact on health and family
            economics. The strategy for safe motherhood is based on two
            approaches. First, the encouragement of activities that
            indirectly improve maternal health. These include education,
            policies to improve women's rights and working
            conditions, health care and nutrition, transportation and
            communication systems, water and sanitation facilities, and
            increases in family income and food production. The second
            approach targets activities to reduce maternal deaths. These
            activities include reducing unwanted pregnancies through the
            provision of family planning services, and through national
            policies that recognize the importance of this issue. A
            second objective is to reduce the risks of pregnancy through
            providing community-based family planning and prenatal
            services to identify high-risk cases' adequate referral
            services for the complications of pregnancy, and
            communication and transport systems to support patient
            referral procedures.
Efficiency and equity in social
            spending : how and why governments misbehave
A hot issue in development economics is
            how much to rely on user charges and private organizations
            to provide such social services as health and education.
            Most analysts arguing on either side of the issue assume
            that any policy decisions involve a tradeoff between equity
            and efficiency. The authors argument is that in many
            settings in the developing world that assumption is
            incorrect. In many countries, they argue, the current
            situation is inefficient partly because it is inequitable;
            more equitable social spending would be more efficient in
            reducing mortality, for example, or in maximizing social
            returns to spending on education. The model they use assumes
            that the degree of efficiency and redistribution is
            endogenous, so the real problem is : how does one break into
            the chain of causes and bring about a new, more efficient
            and equitable equilibrium? The authors argue for a policy
            that concentrates government funding on public goods and
            encourages the market to do what it does best : fund and
            produce private goods. They recommend ten political
            strategies for reallocating government funds in the public
            sector in a way that maximizes the benefits of targeting,
            reduces costs, and minimizes resistance to change and the
            withdrawal of the middle and upper classes' political
            and tax support.