rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
The political economy of direct
            dividend transfers in resource-rich countries : a
            theoretical consideration
The acceleration of natural resource
            discoveries across many parts of the developing world has
            highlighted the urgent need for solutions to the
            mismanagement of windfalls that has blighted many countries
            over the past half-century. One proposal involves
            distributing annually a share of resource rents to citizens
            in the form of direct dividend transfers. Although many
            scholars and policy makers have discussed the potential
            economic and political ramifications of the proposal from a
            normative perspective, few have analyzed positively the
            conditions under which such a policy may emerge as a
            politically rational choice. This policy research paper
            fills that gap by modeling the decision of political leaders
            to allocate resource revenues between cash transfers, public
            goods, power-preserving activities, and personal
            consumption. The analysis finds first that propitious
            political conditions, including competitive elections,
            undeveloped patronage networks, and a high degree of
            budgetary accountability, increase the share of resource
            revenues to be spent on citizens' welfare. The paper
            then shows that a high poverty headcount and inefficient
            public institutions will each strengthen the political
            incentive to provide direct dividend transfers relative to
            public goods. This combination of conditions is rare, which
            may explain why relatively few countries have implemented or
            plan to implement direct dividend transfers.
Large farm establishment,
            smallholder productivity, labor market participation, and
            resilience : evidence from Ethiopia
Although the nature and magnitude of
            (positive or negative) spillovers from large farm
            establishment are hotly debated, most evidence relies on
            case studies. Ethiopia's large farms census together
            with 11 years of nation-wide smallholder surveys allows
            examination and quantification of spillovers using
            intertemporal changes in smallholders' proximity and
            exposure to large farms, generally or growing the same crop,
            for identification. The results suggest positive spillovers
            on fertilizer and improved seed use, yields, and risk
            coping, but not local job creation, for some crops, most
            notably maize. Most spillovers are crop-specific and limited
            to large farms' immediate vicinity. The implications
            for policy and research are drawn out.
The political economy of bank
            lending : evidence from an emerging market
This study investigates the existence of
            political rents in bank lending, using a comprehensive
            loan-level data set of the universe of commercial loans in
            Mexico from 2003 to 2012. Identification relies on changes
            in the state of origin of a senate committee chairman as a
            source of exogenous variation in firms' political
            relationship. The study finds that banks offer favorable
            loan terms to politically connected firms with larger loan
            quantities, lower loan spreads, longer maturities, and lower
            collateral requirements. Furthermore, political loans
            exhibit higher default rates. To isolate the bank supply
            channel, a rich set of fixed-effects is included with
            various specifications. The favorable lending increases with
            the strength of a firm's political connection, varies
            gradually along the political cycle, and is mainly offered
            by large and domestic banks. Consistent with the quid pro
            quo hypothesis, the study finds that banks that extend
            political loans receive significantly more government
            borrowings with better credit quality. The study also shows
            that the greater credit supply due to political connection
            leads to a large and significant increase in firm-level
            employment and assets. The study provides estimates of the
            total social cost of political lending and net revenue for
            banks that are engaged in rent provision activity. Finally,
            a series of robustness tests are performed to rule out
            alternative mechanisms and explanations.
The fiscal cost of weak governance :
            evidence from teacher absence in India
The relative return to
            input-augmentation versus inefficiency-reduction strategies
            for improving education system performance is a key open
            question for education policy in low-income countries. Using
            a new nationally-representative panel dataset of schools
            across 1297 villages in India, this paper shows that the
            large investments over the past decade have led to
            substantial improvements in input-based measures of school
            quality, but only a modest reduction in inefficiency as
            measured by teacher absence. In the data, 23.6 percent of
            teachers were absent during unannounced visits with an
            associated fiscal cost of $1.5 billion/year. There are two
            robust correlations in the nationally-representative panel
            data that corroborate findings from smaller-scale
            experiments. First, reductions in student-teacher ratios are
            correlated with increased teacher absence. Second, increases
            in the frequency of school monitoring are strongly
            correlated with lower teacher absence. Simulations using
            these results suggest that investing in better governance by
            increasing the frequency of monitoring could be over ten
            times more cost effective at increasing teacher-student
            contact time (net of teacher absence) than hiring more
            teachers. Thus, at current margins, policies that decrease
            the inefficiency of public spending in India are likely to
            yield substantially higher returns than those that augment inputs.
Small area estimation of child
            malnutrition in Ethiopian woredas
Reducing child undernutrition is a key
            social policy objective of the Ethiopian government. Despite
            substantial reduction over the past decade and a half, child
            undernutrition is still high. With 48 percent of children
            stunted, underweight, or wasted, undernutrition remains an
            important child health challenge. The existing literature
            highlights that the targeting of efforts to reduce
            undernutrition in Ethiopia is inefficient, in part because
            of the lack of data and updated information. This paper
            remedies some of this shortfall by estimating levels of
            stunting and underweight in each woreda for 2014. The
            estimates are small area estimations based on the 2014
            Demographic and Health Survey and the latest population
            census. It is shown that small area estimations are powerful
            predictors of undernutrition, even controlling for household
            characteristics, such as wealth and education, and hence a
            valuable targeting metric. The results show large variations
            in share of children undernourished in each region, more
            than between regions. The results also show that the
            locations with larger challenges depend on the chosen
            undernutrition statistic, as the share, number, and
            concentration of undernourished children point to vastly
            different locations. There is limited correlation between
            the shares of children underweight and stunted across
            woredas, indicating that different locations face different challenges.
Vietnam's labor market
            institutions, regulations, and interventions : helping
            people grasp work opportunities in a risky world
Over the past 30 years, Vietnam has
            experienced significant shifts of employment away from
            agriculture toward manufacturing and services, away from
            household enterprises toward registered and regulated
            businesses, and away from state-owned enterprises toward
            private firms. This paper argues that for these processes to
            continue in the future, appropriately designed and
            implemented labor market policies need to be in place,
            including labor market regulations that protect workers but
            do not inhibit creative destruction and creation of formal
            sector jobs; labor market interventions that improve
            workers' human capital, eliminate information
            asymmetries, and are fiscally sustainable; and labor market
            institutions that give voice to workers and employers. As a
            part of all of these measures, Vietnam will also have to
            renew its efforts to integrate vulnerable groups into the
            labor market.
What explains agricultural price movements
After 2005, commodity prices experienced
            their longest and broadest boom since World War II.
            Agricultural prices have now come down considerably since
            their 2011 peak, but are still 40 percent higher in real
            terms than their 2000 lows. This paper briefly addresses the
            main arguments on the causes of the agricultural price
            cycle. It broadens the scope of analysis by focusing on six
            agricultural commodities, and identifies the relative
            weights of key quantifiable drivers of their prices. It
            concludes that increases in real income negatively affect
            real agricultural prices, as predicted by Engel's Law.
            Energy prices matter most (not surprisingly, given the
            energy-intensive nature of agriculture), followed by
            stock-to-use ratios and, to a lesser extent, exchange rate
            movements. The cost of capital affects prices only
            marginally, probably because it not only influences demand,
            but also evokes a supply response.
Can electronic tax invoicing improve
            tax compliance a case study of the Republic of Korea's
            electronic tax invoicing for value-added tax
This paper reviews the Republic of
            Korea's experience with electronic tax invoices for its
            value-added tax regime from the perspectives of tax policy
            makers and administrators. The paper evaluates Korea's
            implementation of electronic tax invoicing and analyzes its
            effect on tax compliance through enhanced transparency of
            business transactions and taxpayer services. First
            implemented in 2011, mandatory electronic tax invoicing has
            been credited with lowering tax compliance costs and raising
            the transparency of business transactions. Effective policy
            design and implementation have contributed to the
            country's success with electronic tax invoicing.
            Measured in transaction value, the electronic tax invoice
            adoption rate reached 99.8 percent in the first year and
            rose to 99.9 percent by 2013, compared with 15 percent
            before electronic tax invoicing became mandatory. According
            to a survey of taxpayers and tax practitioners in Korea that
            was conducted as part of this research study, 69.4 percent
            of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that mandatory
            electronic tax invoicing has contributed to curbing
            value-added tax evasion by raising transaction transparency,
            and 72.9 percent agreed or strongly agreed that it has
            improved taxpayer service by facilitating the convenience of
            tax filing or automating the issuance of invoices. The
            review of Korea's experiences gives credence to the
            contention that well-planned and well-executed compulsory
            electronic tax invoices can materially enhance tax
            compliance through significant institutional and perceptual
            changes in tax administration.
Impact of climate change and aquatic
            salinization on fish habitats and poor communities in
            southwest coastal Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sundarbans
Fisheries constitute an important source
            of livelihoods for tens of thousands of poor people in the
            southwest coastal region of Bangladesh living near the
            UNESCO Heritage Sundarbans mangrove forest, and they supply
            a significant portion of protein for millions. Among the
            various threats fisheries in the southwest coastal region
            and Sundarbans mangrove forest will face because of climate
            change, adverse impacts from increased aquatic salinity
            caused by sea level rise have been identified as one of the
            greatest challenges. This paper focuses on 83 fish species
            consumed by poor households in the region. Using the
            salinity tolerance range for each species, 27 alternative
            scenarios of climate change in 2050 were investigated to
            assess the possible impacts of climate change and sea level
            rise on aquatic salinity, fish species habitats, and the
            poor communities that consume the affected fish species. The
            results provide striking evidence that projected aquatic
            salinization may have an especially negative impact on poor
            households in the region. The estimates indicate that areas
            with poor populations that lose species are about six times
            more prevalent than areas gaining species.
Impact of climate change and aquatic
            salinization on fish habitats and poor communities in
            southwest coastal Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sundarbans
WPS7593 Policy Research Working Paper 7593 Impact of Climate Change and Aquatic Salinization on Fish Habitats and Poor Communities in Southwest Coastal Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sundarbans _Susmita Dasgupta Mainul Huq Md. Golam Mustafa Md. Istiak Sobhan David Wheeler_ Development Research Group Environment and Energy Team March 2016
Assessment of net mitigation in the
            context of international greenhouse gas emissions control mechanisms
This paper discusses the scope for
            market mechanisms, already established for greenhouse gas
            mitigation in Annex 1 countries that ratified the Kyoto
            Protocol, for implementing "net mitigation,"
            defined here as mitigation beyond Annex 1 countries'
            formal mitigation requirements under the Kyoto Protocol.
            Such market mechanisms could be useful for establishing and
            extending greenhouse gas mitigation targets also under the
            Paris Agreement from December 2015. Net mitigation is
            considered in two possible forms: as a "net atmospheric
            benefit," or as an “own contribution” by offset host
            countries. A main conclusion is that a “net atmospheric
            benefit” is possible at least in the short run, best
            implemented via stricter baselines against which offsets are
            credited; but it can also take the form of offset
            discounting whereby offset buyers are credited fewer
            credits. The latter, although generally inefficient, can be
            a second-best response to certain imperfections in the
            offset market, which are discussed in the paper. There is
            less merit for claiming that "own contributions"
            can lead to additional mitigation under existing mechanisms.
Mangroves as protection from storm
            surges in a changing climate
Adaptation to climate change includes
            addressing sea level rise and increased storm surges in many
            coastal areas. Mangroves can substantially reduce the
            vulnerability of the adjacent coastal land from inundation
            and erosion. However, climate change poses a large threat to
            mangroves. This paper quantifies the coastal protection
            provided by mangroves for 42 developing countries in the
            current climate, and a future climate change scenario with a
            one-meter sea level rise and 10 percent intensification of
            storms. The benefits of the coastal protection provided by
            mangroves are measured in terms of population and gross
            domestic product at a reduced risk from inundation; the loss
            of benefits under climate change is measured as the
            increased population and gross domestic product at risk. The
            findings demonstrate that although sea level rise and
            increased storm intensity would increase storm surge areas
            and the amounts of built resources at risk, the greatest
            impact is the expected loss of mangroves. Under current
            climate and mangrove coverage, 3.5 million people and
            roughly $400 million in gross domestic product of are at
            risk. In the future climate change scenario, the vulnerable
            population and gross domestic product at risk would increase
            by 103 and 233 percent, respectively. The greatest risk is
            in East Asia, especially in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar.
The week
Is a five-day workweek followed by a
            two-day weekend a socially optimal schedule? This paper
            presents a model in which labor productivity and the
            marginal utility of leisure evolve endogenously over the
            workweek. Labor productivity is shaped by two forces:
            restfulness, which decreases over the workweek, and memory,
            which improves over the workweek. The structural parameters
            of the model are disciplined using daily variation in
            electricity usage per worker. The results suggest that
            increases in the ratio of vacation to workdays lead to
            output losses. A calibration of the model suggests that a
            2-3 day workweek followed by a 1 day weekend can increase welfare.
Effect of lengthening the school day
            on mother's labor supply
This article examines how a policy
            oriented toward a specific group within the population can
            have collateral effects on the economic decisions of other
            groups. In 1996, the Chilean government approved the
            extension of the school day from half- to full-day school.
            This article exploits the quasi-experimental nature of the
            reform's implementation by time, municipality, and age
            targeting of the program in order to examine how the
            maternal labor supply is affected by the childcare subsidy
            implicit in the lengthening of the school day. Using data
            from the Chilean socioeconomic household survey and
            administrative data from the Ministry of Education for
            1990-2011, the authors estimate that, on average, there is a
            5 percent increase in labor participation and employment
            rates of single mothers with eligible children (between 8
            and 13 years old) with no younger children, who are the
            group that would be mainly affected by the policy. No
            significant labor supply responses are detected among others
            mothers with eligible children.
Taxation, information, and
            withholding : evidence from Costa Rica
This paper studies tax withholding on
            business sales, a widely used compliance mechanism which is
            ignored by public finance theory. A withholding scheme,
            whereby the payer in a transaction collects tax from the
            payee, is introduced in a standard evasion model with
            third-party reporting. If the taxpayer can fully reclaim the
            tax withheld, withholding is irrelevant to her evasion
            decision. However, in the presence of costly reclaim, low
            salience of enforcement or extensive margin compliance gaps,
            withholding can raise tax payment. To show this empirically,
            the study exploits a ten-year panel of income tax and sales
            tax records from 400,000 firms in Costa Rica, and over 20
            million third-party information and withholding reports.
            First, an anatomy of compliance shows that firms are
            relatively compliant with third-party information on the
            extensive, intensive and payment margin. An event study then
            shows that coverage by third-party reporting leads to a
            20-50 percent increase in reported taxable income. Finally,
            a difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity
            estimation of a withholding rate increase isolates the
            impact of withholding. A doubling of the withholding rate
            leads to a 33 percent increase in sales tax payment among
            treated firms and an 8 percent increase in aggregate sales
            tax revenue. The mechanisms are reduced misreporting and
            incomplete reclaim of the tax withheld. The large compliance
            impact of withholding rationalizes its widespread use in low
            compliance contexts.
Why did poverty decline in India a
            nonparametric decomposition exercise
This paper uses panel data to analyze
            factors that contributed to the rapid decline in poverty in
            India between 2005 and 2012. The analysis employs a
            nonparametric decomposition method that measures the
            relative contributions of different components of household
            livelihoods to observed changes in poverty. The results show
            that poverty decline is associated with a significant
            increase in labor earnings, explained in turn by a steep
            rise in wages for unskilled labor, and diversification from
            farm to nonfarm sources of income in rural areas. Transfers,
            in the form of remittances and social programs, have
            contributed but are not the primary drivers of poverty
            decline over this period. The pattern of changes is
            consistent with processes associated with structural
            transformation, which add up to a highly pro-poor pattern of
            income growth over the initial distribution of income and
            consumption. However, certain social groups (Adivasis and
            Dalits) are found to be more likely to stay in or fall into
            poverty and less likely to move out of poverty. And even as
            poverty has reduced dramatically, the share of vulnerable
            population has not.