rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
The role of policy driven incentives
            to attract PPPs in renewable-based energy in developing
            countries : a cross-country analysis
This paper presents new global evidence
            on the key determinants of public-private partnership
            investment in electricity generated by renewable energy
            based on a panel data analysis for 105 developing countries
            over a period of 16 years from 1993 to 2008. It aims to
            identify the key factors affecting the private
            investor's decision to enter renewable-based energy
            generation, through a probit analysis and the amount of
            investment sunk in this market segment, based on
            Heckman's sample selection analysis. One of the key
            results of the paper is that the market for renewable-based
            energy is strongly driven by supportive policies. Support
            policies serve not only to attract the entry of private
            investors, but also to determine the level of investment. In
            the latter case, its impact is less significant, suggesting
            the need over time to revisit the power of the incentive
            schemes, as well as the implied allocation of risks between
            the public and private sector to ensure that feed-in tariffs
            produce the desired amount of investment. In contrast,
            broader economy-wide governance factors, including control
            for corruption and degree of political competition, are
            considered by private investors mainly for taking the
            decision to enter into renewable-based generation. This
            reinforces the expectation that private investors seem to be
            adequately protected against their risks, so that once they
            have entered the market, they can accommodate the governance
            environment. Private investors in renewable-based energy
            also require technical and regulatory certainty about the
            availability of renewable-ready transmission resources, if
            they are to finance investments. Private investors entering
            the market look more at the size of the market rather than
            the income level, whereas when determining the level of
            investment they assess both the size and
            "affordability" level. This raises some concerns
            on the sustainability of support mechanisms and their
            financing, particularly when the incremental costs implied
            by renewable-based generation are passed through to consumers.
The role of regulatory governance in
            driving PPPs in electricity transmission and distribution in
            developing countries : a cross-country analysis
This paper presents new global evidence
            on the key determinants of public-private partnership
            investment in electricity transmission and distribution,
            based on a panel data analysis of 105 developing countries
            over a period of 16 years from 1993 to 2008. It aims to
            identify the key factors affecting the private
            investor's decision to enter electricity transmission
            and distribution, through a probit analysis and the amount
            of investment sunk in this market segment, based on
            Heckman's sample selection analysis. One of the key
            results of the analysis is that sector regulatory governance
            affects only the entry of private investors in electricity
            transmission and distribution. It is not significantly
            linked to higher investment in transmission and
            distribution. The result implies that the power of the
            incentive has not been so strong as to affect the volume of
            investment. Similarly, economy-wide governance factors,
            including control for corruption and degree of political
            competition, are factored in by private investors only in
            the initial stage of the game when the decision to enter
            into the transmission and distribution market is taken. This
            reinforces the expectation that private investors seem to be
            adequately protected against risks, so that once they have
            entered the market, they can accommodate the governance
            environment. Finally, the introduction of renewables in the
            power system enhanced overall public-private partnership
            investment in transmission and distribution. Renewable-based
            energy also requires technical and regulatory certainty
            about the availability of renewable-ready transmission resources.
Implementing energy subsidy reforms
            : an overview of the key issues
Poorly implemented energy subsidies are
            economically costly to taxpayers and damage the environment.
            This report describes the emerging lessons that could help
            policy makers to address implementation challenges,
            including overcoming political economy and affordability
            constraints. The analysis provides strong evidence of the
            success of reforms in reducing the associated fiscal burden.
            For the selected sample of 20 developing countries, the
            average energy subsidy recorded in the budget was reduced
            from 1.8 percent in 2004 to 1.3 percent of gross domestic
            product in 2010. The reduction of subsidies is particularly
            remarkable for net energy importers. In spite of the
            relatively price inelastic demand for gasoline and diesel,
            fossil fuel consumption in the road sector (per unit of
            gross domestic product) declined in the 20 countries
            examined from 53 (44) in 2002 to about 23 kilotonnes oil
            equivalent per million of gross domestic product in 2008 in
            the case of gasoline (diesel). The most notable decline in
            consumption was recorded in the low-income and
            lower-middle-income countries. This reflects the much higher
            rate of growth in gross domestic product in this group of
            countries. And it underlines the opportunities to influence
            future consumption behavior rather than modifying the
            existing consumption patterns, overcoming inertia and vested
            interests. Similar trends are recorded for power
            consumption. While there is no one-size-fits-all model for
            subsidy reform, implementation of compensatory social
            policies and an effective communication strategy, before the
            changes were introduced, made a difference in securing the
            successful implementation of reforms.
Potential gains and losses of
            Biofuel production in Argentina: a computable general
            equilibrium analysis
Argentina is one of the world's
            largest biodiesel producers and the largest exporter, using
            soybeans as feedstock. Using a computable general
            equilibrium model that explicitly represents the biofuel
            industry, this study carries out several simulations on two
            sets of issues: (i) international markets for biofuel and
            feedstock, such as an increase in prices of soybean, soybean
            oil, and biodiesel, and (ii) domestic policies related to
            biofuels, such as an introduction of biofuel mandates. Both
            sets of issues can have important consequences to the
            Argentinean economy. The simulations indicate that increases
            in international prices of biofuels and feedstocks would
            increase Argentina's gross domestic product and social
            welfare. Increases in international prices of ethanol and
            corn also can benefit Argentina, but to a lesser extent. The
            domestic mandates for biofuels, however, would cause small
            losses in economic output and social welfare because they
            divert part of biodiesel and feedstock from exports to
            lower-return domestic consumption. An increase in the export
            tax on either feedstock or biodiesel also would lead to a
            reduction in gross domestic product and social welfare,
            although government revenue would rise.
Shifting comparative advantages in
            Tajikistan : implications for growth strategy
The future development of the Tajik
            economy will be shaped by its comparative advantage on world
            markets. Exploiting comparative advantage enables an economy
            to reap gains from trade. Tajikistan's most important
            comparative advantage is its hydropower potential, which is
            far larger than the economy's domestic requirements.
            Yet, high capital costs of building hydropower plants and
            the unstable geopolitical situation in the transit region to
            reach South Asian export markets are constraining the
            realization of this potential. In the short term, the
            sector, which provides the greatest opportunity for
            Tajikistan to diversify its exports, appears to be
            agro-industry and, to a lesser extent, clothing. For both
            sectors, the main export market is likely to be the regional
            market. Tajikistan also has a comparative advantage in labor
            exports, which it has successfully exploited since the
            mid-2000s. To harness the full potential for labor exports
            will require improving the skills base of migrant workers
            and, in particular, their command of the Russian language.
            In the medium term, the paper argues that an export
            diversification strategy should tap the agglomeration
            economies generated by cities. More specifically,
            establishing Tajikistan's two leading cities, Dushanbe
            and Khujand, and their surroundings as enclave economies,
            linked to each other and to major regional markets through
            improved transport infrastructure so as to minimize
            production and transportation costs. The two enclave
            economies should provide the supporting services (finance,
            logistics, transport and storage) for private sector
            businesses. In the long term, regional cooperation on trade
            and transport facilitation could be pursued to reduce
            transport costs to attractive regional markets such as
            China, India, Russia and Turkey.
A global perspective on
            effectiveness of aid for trade : A global perspective on
            effectiveness of aid for trade
Recent global initiatives on debt relief
            and development assistance call for increasing aid for trade
            to the poorest countries. The paper applies a multi-country
            computable general equilibrium model to measure the
            effectiveness of alternative aid for trade categories. The
            findings show that aid for trade policies expand trade and
            alleviate international income inequalities in the recipient
            countries, that will benefit mainly from aid for trade
            adjustment and technical assistance.
Winning hearts and minds through
            development evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan
In areas afflicted by civil conflict,
            development projects can potentially serve an important
            counterinsurgency function by redressing grievances of
            marginalized groups and reducing violence. Using a
            large-scale randomized field experiment in Afghanistan, this
            paper explores whether the inclusion of villages in the
            country's largest development program alters
            perceptions of well-being, attitudes toward government, and
            violence in surrounding areas. The results indicate that the
            program generally has a positive effect on all three
            measures, but has no effects in areas with high levels of
            initial violence. These findings demonstrate that
            development programs can buttress government support and
            limit the onset of insurgencies in relatively secure areas,
            but that their effectiveness is more constrained in areas
            where insurgents are already active.
Green prices
"Getting the prices right" is
            a good starting point but is not sufficient for achieving
            environmentally efficient outcomes. Other policy
            interventions are often necessary to complement pricing
            policies. Moreover, when pricing is not at all feasible,
            regulatory and command-and-control policies must be used
            instead. This paper focuses on three interrelated themes at
            the core of the pricing problem. First, there is the
            incorporation of non-marketed activities with environmental
            consequences into aggregate measures of economic
            performance: the so-called "green-GDP." Second,
            there is the problem regarding the reliable estimation of
            the valuation of the shadow prices that properly reflect
            environmental externalities. Third, there is the issue of
            full-cost pricing that requires the pricing of environmental
            externalities for guiding both individual and public decision-making.
Direct democracy and resource
            allocation : experimental evidence from Afghanistan
Direct democracy is designed to better
            align public resource allocation decisions with citizen
            preferences. Using a randomized field experiment in 250
            villages across Afghanistan, this paper compares outcomes of
            secret-ballot referenda with those of consultation meetings,
            which adhere to customary decision-making practices. Elites
            are found to exert influence over meeting outcomes, but not
            over referenda outcomes, which are driven primarily by
            citizen preferences. Referenda are also found to improve
            public satisfaction, whereas elite domination of allocation
            processes has a negative effect. The results indicate that
            the use of direct democracy in public resource allocation
            results in more legitimate outcomes than those produced by
            customary processes.
Economic implications of reducing
            carbon emissions from energy use and industrial processes in
            Brazil : Economic implications of reducing carbon emissions
            from energy use and industrial processes in Brazil
The overall impacts on the Brazilian
            economy of reducing CO2 emissions from energy use and
            industrial processes can be assessed using a recursive
            dynamic general equilibrium model and a hypothetical carbon
            tax. The study projects that in 2040 under a
            business-as-usual scenario, CO2 emissions from energy use
            and industrial processes would be almost three times as high
            as in 2010 and would account for more than half of total
            national CO2 emissions. Current policy aims to reduce
            deforestation by 70 percent by 2017 and emissions intensity
            of the overall economy by 36-39 percent by 2020. If policy
            is implemented as planned and continued to 2040, CO2
            emissions from energy use and industrial processes would not
            have to be cut until 2035 as reductions of emissions through
            controlling deforestation would be enough to meet emission
            targets. The study also finds evidence that supports the
            double dividend hypothesis: using revenue from a
            hypothetical carbon tax to finance a cut in labor income tax
            significantly lowers the gross domestic product impacts of
            the carbon tax. Using carbon tax revenue to subsidize wind
            power can effectively increase the output of wind power in
            the country, although the impact of the tax on gross
            domestic product would be somewhat increased.
Matching reforms to institutional
            realities : a framework for assessing social service
            delivery reform strategies in developing countries
The paper is based on the premise that
            effective institutional reforms for service delivery require
            a carefully-considered institutional "fitting"
            process as opposed to transplantation of "international
            best practices." The paper asks how the specific
            institutional contexts of a given country limit options for
            service delivery reforms, and therefore how a feasible set
            of reform options may vary systematically across countries.
How close is your government to its
            people worldwide indicators on localization and decentralization
This paper is intended to provide an
            assessment of the impact of the silent revolution of the
            last three decades on moving governments closer to people to
            establish fair, accountable, incorruptible and responsive
            governance. To accomplish this, a unique data set is
            constructed for 182 countries by compiling data from a wide
            variety of sources to examine success toward decentralized
            decision making across the globe. An important feature of
            this data set is that, for comparative purposes, it measures
            government decision making at the local level rather than at
            the sub-national levels used in the existing literature.
            The data are used to rank countries on political, fiscal and
            administrative dimensions of decentralization and
            localization. These sub-indexes are aggregated and adjusted
            for heterogeneity to develop an overall ranking of countries
            on the closeness of their government to the people. The
            resulting rankings provide a useful explanation of the Arab
            Spring and other recent political movements and waves of
            dissatisfaction with governance around the world.
Can participation be induced some
            evidence from developing countries
The World Bank has allocated close to
            $80 billion towards participatory development projects over
            the last decade. A comprehensive review of the evidence on
            the efficacy of the approach conducted by the authors for
            the forthcoming Policy Research Report, Localizing
            Development: Does Participation Work?, finds that while
            participatory projects have been reasonably effective in
            improving access to basic services, there is far less
            evidence of their effectiveness in improving household
            income or in building sustainable participatory institutions
            at the local level. A key issue is that the institutional
            culture in development agencies such as the World Bank lacks
            the flexibility and long-term commitment necessary for
            effective externally induced participatory development.
            Induced participation -- driven by large-scale
            bureaucratically managed processes, is quite different from
            more organic types of participation endogenously organized
            by civic groups. It requires a very different approach to
            development, one that pays close attention to contextual
            variation and to uncertain trajectories of change. In order
            to be effective, induced participatory projects need a
            strong focus on learning-by-doing; on monitoring and
            evaluation and a willingness to learn from failure. A review
            of the World Bank's practices in monitoring and
            evaluation, and of its incentives to learn from failure,
            reveals that without significant changes, including changes
            in the incentive structures facing management, the Bank
            cannot be effective in inducing participation.
Performance of skilled migrants in
            the U.S. : a dynamic approach
The initial occupational placements of
            male immigrants in the United States labor market vary
            significantly by country of origin even when education and
            other individual factors are taken into account. Does the
            heterogeneity persist over time? Using data from the 1980,
            1990, and 2000 Censuses, this paper finds that the
            performance of migrants from countries with lower initial
            occupational placement levels improves at a higher rate
            compared with that of migrants originating from countries
            with higher initial performance levels. Nevertheless, the
            magnitude of convergence suggests that full catch-up is
            unlikely. The impact of country specific attributes on the
            immigrants' occupational placement occurs mainly
            through their effect on initial performance and they lose
            significance when initial occupational levels are controlled
            for in the estimation.
Measuring intangible assets in an
            emerging market economy: an application to Brazil
This paper measures intangible
            investment in Brazil. It estimates that during 2000-2008,
            annual business spending on intangible assets or
            knowledge-based capital in Brazil averaged about 4 percent
            of gross domestic product. While this is significantly lower
            than comparable rates for the United States, Japan and the
            United Kingdom, which hover around 11 percent, it is not too
            far below estimates for other developed countries such as
            Italy and Spain. Of the total expenditure on intangible
            assets in 2006, about 23 percent was spent on computer
            software and databases, 43 percent on innovative property
            (predominantly research and development and new product
            development in financial services), and 34 percent on
            economic competencies (which comprises branding, employee
            training and organization improvement). Brazil's share
            of spending on economic competencies is markedly lower than
            that observed in the United States and the United Kingdom,
            and the analysis finds it to be the slowest growing of the
            major intangible categories. Finally, having extended the
            intangible investment estimation methodology to produce more
            disaggregated (industry-level) estimates, the authors show
            that intangible investment is positively correlated with
            recent export growth and total factor productivity estimates
            across manufacturing industries. This suggests that
            intangible or knowledge-based capital, as measured here, can
            account for part of the hitherto unexplained component of
            productivity growth.
Measuring intangible assets in an
            emerging market economy: an application to Brazil
WPS6142 Policy Research Working Paper 6142 Measuring Intangible Assets in an Emerging Market Economy

# An Application to Brazil

_Mark A. Dutz Sérgio Kannebley Jr. Maira Scarpelli Siddharth Sharma_ The World Bank Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network Economic Policy and Debt Department July 2012