rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Techniques for railway restructuring
This report was sponsored by the Union
            of African Railways, as part of a Sub-Saharan Africa
            Transport Project task aimed at defining what is involved in
            restructuring railways so that they behave more like market
            driven enterprises. The question addressed in this document
            is not whether the railway should be restructured, but how.
            The report recommends four types of action to be employed in
            the process of institutional reform : 1) a strategic plan
            which defines the environment in which the railway will
            function and focuses on the crucial policy issues that will
            guide or influence the railway's planning and actions,
            2) a contract plan which defines the roles and
            responsibilities of the railway and its owner. This plan
            flows from the strategic plan and should not be developed in
            isolation from related policy and funding objectives of the
            government and railway. 3) A management plan that clarifies
            the objectives of the senior railway executives and their
            roles and responsibilities in relation to the executive
            director, and 4)  an enabling actions plan, which lists most
            of the initiatives that must be taken in conjunction with
            implementation of the first three plans. The focus should be
            to ensure that the roles and responsibilities defined will
            actually be realized in law or enforceable agreement.
Regional disparities, targeting, and
            poverty in India
How much can India reduce poverty
            nationwide by manipulating the distribution of income
            between regions or sectors? What is the overall effect on
            the poor of targeting resources toward the poorer states of
            India - or toward the generally poorer rural sector. Given
            real constraints on policy changes, it can be argued that
            the costs and the benefits of regional policies will tend to
            be borne widely within regions. Some benefits are likely to
            leak to the nonpoor in recipient regions, and some costs to
            the poor in donor regions. This paper's simulations
            suggest that the quantitative potential for alleviating
            national poverty through purely regional redistributive
            policies is small. Even assuming no political problems, the
            maximum impact on poverty is no more than could be achieved
            simply by giving everyone a uniform (untargeted) windfall
            gain equal to about 1.5 percent of India's mean
            consumption. And other considerations - including increased
            migration to areas of higher benefits - make it unlikely
            that the maximum impact will be attained in practice.
            Greater alleviation of poverty requires supplementary
            interventions that reach the poor within regions, by
            reducing the costs borne by the poor in donor regions and
            enhancing benefits to the poor in recipient regions.
Cost recovery strategy for rural
            water delivery in Nigeria
What economic and political factors have
            made cost recovery for rural water systems so difficult in
            the Nsuuka district of Anambra State? This paper found that
            households in the region do not want to pay for water in
            advance or commit themselves to a fixed monthly payment for
            water. They want the freedom to buy water only when they use
            it - partly because they do not want to buy water in the
            rainy season and partly because they want control of their
            cash flow in the event of more pressing needs. Equally
            important, they do not trust the government to provide a
            reliable public water supply. If required to pay a fixed fee
            every month, households are willing to pay only relatively
            small amounts for improved services.  Current arrangements
            for cost recovery - fixed monthly fees for both public taps
            and unmetered private connections - are inappropriate. Kiosk
            systems or kiosk systems with metered private connections
            for some households are the most promising way to improve
            cost recovery and meet consumers's cash flow needs.
            Kiosk systems can provide less expensive, more reliable, and
            better quality water than water vendors do. It is not yet
            possible to generalize these results to other parts of
            Nigeria or other developing countries, but the advantages
            are likely to be equally valid in many other places.
Price and monetary convergence in
            currency unions : the Franc and Rand zones
Theory suggests that a currency union
            will impose significant macroeconomic disciplines on its
            members. This paper examines the two main surviving currency
            zones - the franc and rand zones in Africa - to learn
            whether and to what extent certain generally accepted theory
            is confirmed by the data. As with most fixed exchange rate
            systems, the African currency unions have a dominant or
            "core" member - France in the franc zone and the
            Republic of South Africa in the rand zone. This report
            focuses on the small members at the periphery, for whom
            inflation and interest rates are assumed to be imported from
            the core. On the whole, the facts support the following
            generally accepted theory. Price levels converge, at least
            for tradable goods. The pattern of consumer price inflation
            is determined largely by core country inflation in the long
            run, although convergence is slow. The limited evidence
            available suggests that uncontrolled interest rates also
            converge to core country levels. Finally, in most cases
            expansion of domestic credit in one small country spills
            over into its balance of payments rather than generating
            local inflation.
Monetary cooperation in the CFA zone
The CFA or franc zone in Africa is the
            largest and most enduring of currency blocs.  This paper is
            designed as a guide to understanding how the zone works as a
            mechanism for monetary cooperation.  Unfortunately, the
            experience described in this paper is not encouraging.
            Despite fixed exchange rates and an elaborate set of rules
            for avoiding excessive credit expansion, the CFA zone has
            almost foundered in widespread bank insolvency. The paper is
            organized as follows : a) section 2 describes member
            countries of the zone, highlighting their diversity not only
            in economic structure but in the state of their financial
            system; b) section 3 shows that there is no effective
            regional money market and considers how this might be
            remedied; c) section 4 discusses how credit has been
            distributed between the member countries and highlights
            asymmetries which have arisen; d) section 5 explains how
            seignorage is divided in the unions and shows how the losses
            may fall disproportionately on non favored countries; and e)
            section 6 concludes by considering how the recent banking
            crisis has revealed deficiencies in the zone's arrangements.
Debt for nature swaps
Debt for nature swaps involve the
            exchange of a debtor country's external obligation for
            that country's agreement to use local currency
            instruments to support a specific environmental project,
            such as development of conservation management plans,
            training of park personnel, or environmental education
            activities. These agreements are often described as deals
            where everyone benefits : the debtor country reduces its
            external debt, the environmental group can leverage its
            original donation amount, and banks profit from selling
            their debt on the secondary market or from the publicity
            value of donating the debt to the environmental group.
            However, this is a too simplistic analysis of debt for
            nature agreements. This paper examines whether the debtor
            country and environmental group benefits from the swap
            compared to the alternative of a straight donation of funds
            from the environmental group to the developing country, as
            well as the incentives that commercial banks have to donate,
            rather than sell, debt to international environmental groups.
A framework for analyzing financial
            performance of the transport sector
This report presents a methodological
            framework for reviewing the financial performance of
            government agencies responsible for transport. The framework
            is applied in a detailed case study in Tanzania (the
            transport infrastructure of which is seriously run down) and
            on desk studies in 14 other countries. The report presents
            the following findings: (a) a weak revenue administration in
            Tanzania with only half of the airport user fees and road
            user charges collected; (b) an unduly complicated structure
            of user charges; (c) poorly controlled expenses; (d) out of
            line fuel prices compared with adjoining countries; (e)
            transport enterprises operating without clear financial
            objectives; and (f) financial affairs of enterprises being
            supervised by a ministry that lacked the expertise and
            authority to do so effectively. This paper outlines the
            steps recommended to strengthen financial performance and
            describes how their methodology can be used to prepare
            multiyear forward programs that can be linked to the net
            cash flow to/from the government.
Enhancing the contribution of land
            reform to Mexican agricultural development
The purpose of this paper is to consider
            whether the institutional factors associated with the
            Mexican land reform ( ejido ) sector constrain agricultural
            growth. Parting from the assumption that the ejido may be
            considered a more or less fixed element of Mexico's
            cultural and political scene, the paper focuses on the
            piecemeal changes that could help to enhance growth and
            productivity within the existing structure. The author finds
            no conclusive evidence that individual ejidos are
            significantly less productive than private farms, and hence,
            it seems unlikely that privatization of ejidos would greatly
            improve agricultural growth. He recommends the following
            improvements to the existing structure : giving the
            ejidatarios titles to their parcels of land, simplifying
            restrictions for private farmers on holding size and land
            use, ending restrictions on renting or sharecropping by
            ejidatarios, allowing ejidatarios to sell their land parcels
            to other members of their ejido, improving management of
            communal land, and extending credit directly to individual
            ejidatarios on the basis of their creditworthiness.
How Indonesia's monetary policy
            affects key variables
The objective of this paper is to
            examine the determination of interest rates, inflation and
            nominal exchange rates in Indonesia, and investigate the
            role of monetary policy in affecting these variables. In the
            short term, monetary policy can be used to protect domestic
            interest rates from the destabilizing influence of
            speculative capital flight. In the long run, monetary policy
            can help lower domestic nominal interest rates by
            maintaining low inflation and dampening expectation about
            depreciation. The potential for reducing interest rates
            through monetary expansion is limited. Domestic inflation is
            partly a monetary phenomenon but structural factors also
            affect it. The effects of international inflation are
            immediate and strong; the effects of wage pushes are smaller
            and less immediate. Inflation can be reduced to some extent
            by slowing the growth of money - which strengthens the
            secondary influence of a slower crawling exchange rate. A
            managed float is appropriate for maintaining a competitive
            exchange rate, given the gap between world and domestic
            inflation caused by structural and monetary factors. Real
            depreciation of the exchange rate will be necessary to
            compensate for unanticipated decline in oil income (from
            lower than expected oil prices).
The evolution of credit terms : an
            empirical study of commercial bank lending to developing countries
This paper studies changes in spreads on
            bank loans to developing countries during 1968-81. It found
            that a borrower's experience had a significant impact
            on spreads. Spreads started at high values at low levels of
            loan experience and decreased as experience increased.
            Spreads at initial-experience levels were about 30 percent
            above benchmark, with experience. The impact of experience
            became negligible with 30 prior loans. The paper also
            suggests that a greater role for international organizations
            in collecting and disseminating information about potential
            borrowers. Indeed, international institutions have been
            doing more of this fact-finding since the onset of the debt crisis.
How commodity prices respond to
            macroeconomic news
This paper analyzes the immediate,
            delayed and group responses of 20 commodity prices in four
            commodity groups (foods and livestock, crops, energy and
            metals) to macroeconomic "news" (unexpected
            announcements) in the United States between 1985 and 1989.
            It finds that macroeconomic news generally affects
            commodities within groups in the same direction - but there
            is no clear evidence that the prices of largely unrelated
            commodity groups react in the same way to macroeconomic
            shocks. The paper also notes that the business cycle must be
            carefully considered in analyzing the impact of
            macroeconomic news on commodity prices. It looks at
            variables such as inflation, exchange rates, interest rates,
            money stock and real activity. For each of the variables,
            the immediate impact of news is often different from the
            one-day-lagged impact - and different for different
            commodity groups.
A survey of recent estimates of
            price elasticities of demand for transport
This paper reviews 70 estimates of the
            price elasticity of demand for many different transport
            modes and market situations. The paper presents figures
            separately for passenger and freight transport and include
            estimates of both own-price and mode choice elasticities. It
            also presents some elasticity estimates on demand for
            gasoline, together with selected cross-price elasticities.
            In addition, it includes a brief exposition on the different
            concepts of elasticity - compensated, uncompensated, price,
            cross-price and mode choice - and discusses the relations
            between them. This paper shows that, since transportation is
            a derived demand, it tends to be inelastic. Although the
            review is confined to estimates of price elasticities, it
            notes that quality variables are often more important than
            price, particularly in the air, motor freight, and container
            markets. Finally, most of the estimates relate to developed
            countries, reflecting the availabilty of data, research
            resources, and domicile of the researchers. The elasticity
            estimates are nevertheless thought to be relevant to
            developing countries as well. But since intermodal
            competition is generally less intense in developing
            countries, this tends to make transport demand more
            inelastic, although the lower income levels in such
            countries may partly offset this effect.
How industry - labor relations and
            government policies affect Senegal's economic performance
Senegal is in a long-term economic
            crisis. Senegalese industry suffers from a highly
            adversarial system of industrial and labor relations,
            excessive government regulations in some areas and
            inadequate government support in others, and many
            misperceptions about the ethnically diverse labor force and
            enterprise ownership. Since the late 1970s, the Senegalese
            government has recognized the need to embark on a sustained
            and long-term adjustment program and has searched for
            appropriate policies to pursue this goal. The main aim of
            this paper is to provide an understanding of the functioning
            of the industrial labor market and evaluate the effects of
            the employment and wage setting practices on enterprise
            efficiency. In undertaking this task, the paper pays
            particular attention to: (a) government wage and employment
            regulations; (b) the role of trade unions and the
            organizational characteristics of firms; (c) the national
            and skill composition of the labor force and the
            corresponding labor productivity and wage differentials; (d)
            the existence of training schemes and skill bottlenecks; (e)
            the effects of education, experience, and training on worker
            earnings; and (f) the relationship between a worker's
            income and the migration of family members from the countryside.
Notes on patents, distortions, and development
The idea behind patent policies is to
            increase the output of commercially useful innovations by
            creating a transitory propertyy right that allows the
            inventor to appropriate part of the returns from his
            invention. In developing countries, two types of
            considerations need to be addressed. First, there are issues
            of designing an appropriate patent system. This includes
            considerations of administrative efficiency, the impact on
            government expenditures, and the legal administration of
            intellectual property rights. Second, and more
            fundamentally, the investments that patent incentives
            trigger in research and development are one of many uses for
            scarce savings. Returns to investments protected by patents
            depend on the productivity of the inventive process and the
            industrial applicability of innovations. In situations where
            the innovative processes might be low, care should be taken
            that scarce investment resources are not wasted in
            unproductive research and development endeavors. The paper
            also argues that in unstable and protected economies, the
            social returns of patented innovations might be low. The
            analysis suggests a sequencing of policies where patent
            protecion should be strengthened once developing countries
            have achieved a level of savings compatible with investments
            in risky research and development projects, relative
            economic stability and competition through open market policies.
Cost of living differences between
            urban and rural areas in Indonesia
It is commonly assumed that the cost of
            living is much higher in cities than in the country because
            housing rents are higher in urban areas and food staples
            cost more. This assumption has important implications for
            sectoral comparisons of welfare levels and distributions.
            The authors suspect that comparisons of housing rent and
            food prices overstate the cost-of-living differential. For
            one thing, the quality of dwelling stock is better on the
            whole in urban areas, reflecting income differences. For
            another, the urban consumer is able to substitute in favor
            of other goods and services which do not cost any more in
            urban areas. This paper finds that the true cost of living
            in cities is substantially overestimated by conventional
            methods. This is more pronounced at low incomes, since the
            marginal cost of utility is larger (relative to
            expenditures) in urban areas - implying that the relative
            cost of urban living increases with income. In a
            neighborhood on the poverty line, the results suggest that
            an urban-rural cost-of-living difference of about 10 percent
            is closer to the truth than the values (as high as 66
            percent) used in past work on Indonesia.
The old and the new in heterodox
            stabilization programs : lessons from the 1960s and the 1980s
The objective of this paper is to gain
            new insights about the strengths and weaknesses of the
            heterodox approach for stopping inflation based on the
            experience of programs implemented in some Latin American
            countries and Israel in the sixties and eighties. The most
            important income policies supported stabilization programs
            in recent years were those launched in Argentina in June
            1985, in Israel in July 1985, in Brazil in February 1986 and
            most recently by Mexico in 1987 - 88. The authors point out
            that tight fiscal policy is critical to the success of a
            heterodox program, particularly during the flexibilization
            period in which price and wage controls are removed. In the
            failures of the 1960s and the 1980s, the budget situation
            had already deteriorated when controls were removed. A
            relaxed fiscal stance during the freeze led to a sharp
            acceleration of inflation later. Heterodox programs fail not
            because income policies are poorly designed but because the
            fiscal effort does not persist.
Earmarking government revenues :
            does it work
Earmarking is the practice of assigning
            revenues from specific taxes or groups of taxes to specific
            government activities or to broader areas of government
            activity. As such, it contrasts with general fund financing
            where monies are pooled to be used for various government
            purposes. In practice, earmarking has come into being via
            statute or via constitutional clauses mandating that certain
            revenues only be used for specified activities. Governments
            often circumvent the intentions of earmarking by withholding
            funds or failing to change prices  or taxes or, if need be,
            simply suspending the earmarking arrangements. One section
            of this report reviews the Bank's attitude toward
            earmarking and then summarizes its experience with a number
            of road funds in developing countries.