rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
The impact of vocational training
            for the unemployed : experimental evidence from Turkey
A randomized experiment is used to
            evaluate a large-scale, active labor market policy:
            Turkey's vocational training programs for the
            unemployed.  A detailed follow-up survey of a large sample
            with low attrition enables precise estimation of treatment
            impacts and their heterogeneity. The average impact of
            training on employment is positive, but close to zero and
            statistically insignificant, which is much lower than either
            program officials or applicants expected. Over the first
            year after training, the paper finds that training had
            statistically significant effects on the quality of
            employment and that the positive impacts are stronger when
            training is offered by private providers. However,
            longer-term administrative data show that after three years
            these effects have also dissipated.
Long-term mitigation strategies and
            marginal abatement cost curves : a case study on Brazil
Decision makers facing abatement targets
            need to decide which abatement measures to implement, and in
            which order. This paper investigates the ability of marginal
            abatement cost (MAC) curves to inform this decision,
            reanalysing a MAC curve developed by the World Bank on
            Brazil. Misinterpreting MAC curves and focusing on
            short-term targets (e.g., for 2020) would lead to
            under-invest in expensive, long-to-implement and
            large-potential options, such as clean transportation
            infrastructure. Meeting short-term targets with marginal
            energy-efficiency improvements would lead to
            carbon-intensive lock-ins that make longer-term targets
            (e.g., for 2030 and beyond) impossible or too expensive to
            reach. Improvements to existing MAC curves are proposed,
            based on (1) enhanced data collection and reporting; (2) a
            simple optimization tool that accounts for constraints on
            implementation speeds; and (3) new graphical representations
            of MAC curves. Designing climate mitigation policies can be
            done through a pragmatic combination of two approaches. The
            synergy approach is based on MAC curves to identify the
            cheapest mitigation options and maximize co-benefits. The
            urgency approach considers the long-term objective (e.g.,
            halving emissions by 2050) and works backward to identify
            actions that need to be implemented early, such as public
            support to clean infrastructure and zero-carbon technologies.
Why don't poor countries do R&D
Using a global panel on research and
            development (R&D) expenditures, this paper documents
            that on average poor countries do far less R&D than rich
            as a share of GDP. This is arguably counter intuitive since
            the gains from doing the R&D required for technological
            catch up are thought to be very high and Griffith et al
            (2004) have documented that in the OECD returns increase
            dramatically with distance from the frontier. Exploiting
            recent advances in instrumental variables in a varying
            coefficient context we find that the rates of return follow
            an inverted U: they rise with distance to the frontier and
            then fall thereafter, potentially turning negative for the
            poorest countries. The findings are consistent with the
            importance of factors complementary to R&D, such as
            education, the quality of scientific infrastructure and the
            overall functioning of the national innovation system, and
            the quality of the private sector, which become increasingly
            weak with distance from the frontier and the absence of
            which can offset the catch up effect. China's and
            India's explosive growth in R&D investment
            trajectories in spite of expected low returns may be
            justified by their importing the complementary factors in
            the form of multinational corporations who do most of the
            patentable research.
Explaining gender differentials in
            agricultural production in Nigeria
This paper uses data from the General
            Household Survey Panel 2010/11 to analyze differences in
            agricultural productivity across male and female plot
            managers in Nigeria. The analysis utilizes the
            Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, which allows for
            decomposing the unconditional gender gap into (i) the
            portion caused by observable differences in the factors of
            production (endowment effect) and (ii) the unexplained
            portion caused by differences in returns to the same
            observed factors of production (structural effect). The
            analysis is conducted separately for the North and South
            regions, excluding the west of the country. The findings
            show that in the North, women produce 28 percent less than
            men after controlling for observed factors of production,
            while there are no significant gender differences in the
            South. In the decomposition results, the structural effect
            in the North is larger than the endowment at the mean.
            Although women in the North have access to less productive
            resources than men, the results indicate that even if given
            the same level of inputs, significant differences still
            emerge. However for the South, the decomposition results
            show that the endowment effect is more important than the
            structural effect. Access to resources explains most of the
            gender gap in the South and if women are given the same
            level of inputs as men, the gap will be minimal. The
            difference in the results for the North and South suggests
            that policy should vary by region.
Remittances and vulnerability in
            developing countries
This paper examines how international
            remittances are affected by structural characteristics,
            macroeconomic conditions, and adverse shocks in both source
            and recipient economies. The paper exploits a novel, rich
            panel data set, covering bilateral remittances from 103
            Italian provinces to 87 developing countries over the period
            2005-2011. Remittances are negatively correlated with the
            business cycle in recipient countries and increase
            especially strongly in response to adverse exogenous shocks,
            such as natural disasters or large terms-of-trade declines.
            Financial development in the source economy, which eases
            access to financial services for migrants and reduces
            transaction costs, is positively associated with
            remittances. Conversely, recipient-country financial
            development is negatively associated with remittances,
            suggesting that remittances help alleviate credit constraints.
All in the family : state capture in Tunisia
This paper examines the relationship
            between entry regulation and the business interests of
            former President Ben Ali's family using firm-level data
            from Tunisia. Connected firms account for a disproportionate
            share of aggregate employment, output and profits,
            especially in sectors subject to authorization and
            restrictions on FDI. Quantile regressions show that profit
            and market share premia from being connected increase along
            the firm-size distribution, especially in highly regulated
            sectors. These patterns are partly explained by Ben
            Ali's relatives sorting into the most profitable
            sectors. The market shares of connected firms are positively
            correlated with exit and concentration rates in highly
            regulated sectors. Although causality is difficult to
            establish, the results are consistent with the hypothesis
            that the Ben Ali clan abused entry regulation for private
            gain at the expense of reduced competition.
Engineers, Innovative Capacity and
            Development in the Americas
This paper offers the first evidence on
            the prevalence of a central actor in modern growth
            theory—the engineer. Using newly collected sub-national, and
            international data as well as historical case studies, it
            then argues that differences in innovative capacity,
            captured by the density of engineers and patents at the dawn
            of the Second Industrial Revolution, in fact, are important
            to explaining present income differences across US counties,
            states within countries, and between the US and Latin
            America. This remains the case after controlling for
            literacy, other higher order human capital, and demand side
            elements that might be confounded with engineering or
            patenting. Instrumenting engineering using the Land Grant
            Colleges program further limits remaining endogeneity. A 1
            SD increase in engineers at the turn of the 20th century
            accounts for a 16 percent increase in US county income
            today, and patenting capacity contributes another 10
            percent. This can partly explain why countries with similar
            levels of income in 1900, but ten fold differences in
            engineering density diverged in their growth trajectories
            over the next century.
River salinity and climate change :
            evidence from coastal Bangladesh
In a changing climate, saltwater
            intrusion is expected to worsen in low-lying coastal areas
            around the world. Understanding the physical and economic
            effects of salinity ingress, and planning adaptation, are
            key to the long-term development of countries for which sea
            level rise has been identified as a major risk from climate
            change. This paper presents a study conducted in Bangladesh,
            which quantifies the prospective relationship between
            climate-induced changes in sea level, temperature, rainfall,
            and altered riverine flows from the Himalayas, and the
            spread and intensity of salinization on river water in the
            coastal zone for 2050. The research takes into account the
            projected land subsidence of the Ganges Delta, as well as
            alternative scenarios of upstream withdrawal of freshwater.
            The findings indicate that climate change will cause
            significant changes in river salinity in the southwest
            coastal area of Bangladesh by 2050. These changes are likely
            to lead to significant shortages of drinking water in the
            coastal urban areas, scarcity of water for irrigation for
            dry-season agriculture, and significant changes in the
            coastal aquatic ecosystems. Changes in the availability of
            freshwater fish will likely affect the composition of
            capture fishery, although the increase in brackish water
            will enhance opportunities for brackish water aquaculture.
            Assessment of location-specific economic impacts of the
            changes in river salinity, identification of suitable
            adaptation alternatives, and costing of adaptation are high
            priorities for further analysis.
Growing through cities in developing countries
This paper examines the effects of
            urbanization on development and growth. It begins with a
            labor market perspective and emphasizes the importance of
            agglomeration economies, both static and dynamic. It then
            argues that more productive jobs in cities do not exist in a
            void and underscores the importance of job and firm
            dynamics. In turn, these dynamics are shaped by the broader
            characteristics of urban systems. A number of conclusions
            are drawn. First, agglomeration effects are quantitatively
            important and pervasive. Second, the productive advantage of
            large cities is constantly eroded and must be sustained by
            new job creation and innovation. Third, this process of
            creative destruction in cities, which is fundamental for
            aggregate growth, is determined in part by the
            characteristics of urban systems and broader institutional
            features. The paper highlights important differences between
            developing countries and more advanced economies. A major
            challenge for developing countries is to reinforce the role
            of their urban systems as drivers of economic growth.
Tinker, taper, QE, bye the effect of
            quantitative easing on financial flows to developing countries
This paper examines gross financial
            inflows to developing countries between 2000 and 2013, with
            a particular focus on the potential effects of quantitative
            easing policies in the United States and other high-income
            countries. The paper finds evidence for potential
            transmission of quantitative easing along observable
            liquidity, portfolio balancing, and confidence channels.
            Moreover, quantitative easing had an additional effect over
            and above these observable channels, which the paper argues
            cannot be attributed to either market expectations or
            changes in the structural relationships between inflows and
            observable fundamentals. The baseline estimates place the
            lower bound of the effect of quantitative easing at around 5
            percent of gross inflows (for the average developing
            economy), which suggests that of the 62 percent increase in
            inflows during 2009-13 related to changing global monetary
            conditions, at least 13 percent of this was attributable to
            quantitative easing. The paper also finds evidence of
            heterogeneity among different types of flows; portfolio
            (especially bond) flows tend to be more sensitive than
            foreign direct investment to our measured effects from
            quantitative easing. Finally, the paper performs simulations
            that explore the potential effects of the withdrawal of
            quantitative easing on financial flows to developing countries.
Dynamic effects of microcredit in Bangladesh
This paper uses long panel survey data
            spanning over 20 years to examine the dynamics of
            microcredit programs in Bangladesh. With the phenomenal
            growth of microfinance institutions representing 30 million
            members with over $2 billion of annual disbursement over the
            past two decades, it is important to understand the dynamics
            of microcredit expansion and its induced impact on household
            welfare. A dynamic panel model is used to address a number
            of issues, such as whether credit effects are declining over
            time, whether market saturation and village diseconomies are
            taking place, and whether multiple program membership, which
            is rising as a consequence of microcredit expansion, is
            harming or benefiting the borrowers. The paper's
            results confirm that microcredit programs have continued to
            benefit the poor by raising household welfare. The
            beneficial effects have also remained higher for female than
            male borrowers. There are diseconomies of scale caused by
            higher levels of village-level borrowing, especially for
            male members. Multiple program membership is also growing
            with competition from microfinance institutions, but this
            has rather helped raise assets and net worth more than it
            has contributed to indebtedness.
HIV testing, behavior change, and
            the transition to adulthood in Malawi
For young adults living in countries
            with AIDS epidemics, getting an HIV test may influence
            near-term decisions, such as when to leave school, when to
            marry, and when to have a first child. These behaviors,
            which define the transition from adolescence to adulthood,
            have long-term implications on well-being and directly
            affect a person's risk of contracting HIV. Using an
            experimental design embedded in a panel survey from Malawi,
            this study assesses the impact of voluntary counseling and
            testing of young adults for HIV on these decisions. The
            results show negligible intent-to-treat effect of HIV
            testing on behaviors. There is some suggestive evidence on
            differential response by wealth and by prior beliefs about
            one's status.
Cash transfers and child labor
Cash transfer programs are widely used
            in settings where child labor is prevalent. Although many of
            these programs are explicitly implemented to improve
            children's welfare, in theory their impact on child
            labor is undetermined. This paper systematically reviews the
            empirical evidence on the impact of cash transfers,
            conditional and unconditional, on child labor. The authors
            find no evidence that cash transfer interventions increase
            child labor in practice. On the contrary, there is broad
            evidence that conditional and unconditional cash transfers
            lower both children's participation in child labor and
            hours worked and cushion the effect of economic shocks that
            may lead households to use child labor as a coping strategy.
            Boys experience particularly strong decreases in economic
            activities, girls in household chores. The findings
            underline the usefulness of cash transfers as a relatively
            safe policy instrument to improve child welfare, but also
            point to knowledge gaps, for instance regarding the
            interplay between cash transfers and other interventions,
            that should be addressed in future evaluations to provide
            detailed policy advice.
Private equity and venture capital
            in smes in developing countries : the role for technical assistance
This paper discusses the constraints for
            private equity financing of small and medium enterprises in
            developing economies.  In addition to capital, private
            equity investors bring knowledge and expertise to the
            companies in which they invest. Through active participation
            on the board of directors or in partnership with management,
            private equity investors equip companies with critical
            improvements in governance, financial accounting, access to
            markets, technology, and other drivers of business success.
            Although private equity investors could help to create,
            deepen, and expand growth of small and medium enterprises in
            developing economies, the vast majority of private equity in
            such markets targets larger or more established enterprises.
            Technical assistance, when partnered with private equity,
            can unlock more investor commitments and considerably
            enhance the ability of small and medium enterprises in
            emerging markets to raise private equity capital. Technical
            assistance provides funding that allows private equity funds
            to extend their reach to smaller companies. Technical
            assistance can mitigate some level of risk and increase the
            probability of successful investments by funding targeted
            operational improvements of investee companies. Dedicated
            technical assistance facilities financed by third parties,
            such as development finance institutions, governments, or
            other parties, have emerged to fill this critical need. The
            paper discusses the provision of investment capital twinned
            with technical assistance, which is now more accepted by
            limited partners and general partners or fund managers and
            is becoming more of a market model for private equity
            finance focused on small and medium enterprises.
Trust and identity in a small,
            post-socialist, post-crisis society
The principal focus in the substantial
            literature on impediments to economic development has been
            on the inadequacies of policies and governance. However,
            successful economic development requires effectiveness of
            markets and incentives for investment, which in turn require
            trust. This paper reports on trust in a development context.
            The paper uses trust experiments, a post-experiment survey,
            and econometric analysis relating trust to identity and
            other personal attributes in the setting of Montenegro, a
            small, recently-independent, post-socialist, post-crisis
            society. External validity was sought by providing
            sufficient material reward to balance identity-related
            expressive motives and by having two groups of subjects, one
            usual university students and another group that, while also
            students, was somewhat older and had had greater market or
            commercial experience. The paper reviews cultural priors
            that can be expected to affect trust and distinguishes
            between generalized trust that can be socially beneficial
            and particularized trust that can be disadvantageous for
            development. The empirical results suggest that trust among
            private individuals is not an impediment to development in
            Montenegro. As a result, policy reform can improve economic
            and social outcomes. However, the results redirect the focus
            to issues of governance and political entrenchment as
            potential explanations for impediments to development.