rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Israel's stabilization program
In order to combat inflation, Israel
            launched a stabilization program in July 1985 which resulted
            in inflation decreasing to a low 20 percent annually as
            compared with more than 400 percent in 1984.  What
            contributed to this decline?  This paper attempts to analyze
            the major factors which made the transition to low inflation
            possible.  It deals with such issues as the role of U.S. aid
            and of domestic fiscal adjustment, of monetary and exchange
            rate policies and of the change in the rules of the game
            concerning government-labor interactions.  The paper focuses
            on the evaluation of the stabilization program from the 1987
            perspective and examines the evolution of the
            disinflationary policies in the course of the program.
            Although Israel has obviously made strides in correcting
            inflation, several problems remain for the economy.  The
            final section of the paper deals with these issues and the
            policy dilemmas which face the government.
The effects of education, health,
            and social security on fertility in developing countries
This paper analyzes the effects of
            education, health and social security on fertility in
            developing countries. Spending on education does not
            necessarily reduce fertility. For example, with small
            amounts of education fertility tends to increase before
            falling off at the level of completed primary school; its
            specific effect can only be measured by working at a
            particular population group. Health care services which
            reduce child mortality also reduce fertility when life
            expectancy reaches a level which anticipates the need for
            fewer children. Generally, this is a more costly way to
            reduce fertility than family planning. Lastly, even though
            the general effect of social security systems on fertility
            is more difficult to study and quantify, a preliminary
            estimate shows it to be the most costly method, compared
            with education, health care and family planning.
Costs, payments and incentives in
            family planning programs
A variety of monetary policies regarding
            contraception exists around the world. These range from high
            user charges in some countries, to free contraceptives in
            many, to incentives and disincentives in others. This paper
            examines these policies, focuses on charges and payments as
            they existed in early 1988, looks at the consistency of
            monetary policies within countries, and considers the
            ethical issues raised by each kind of incentive.
The size and growth of government spending
This paper reviews the size and growth
            of government spending. Section I surveys the empirical
            evidence on the growth of government expenditures. First, a
            number of measurement issues are raised, including the
            definition of the public sector, the appearance of
            off-budget expenditures, and the use of price deflators for
            government output. Section I then reviews available data on
            government expenditures for OECD and developing nations.
            Both a long term perspective, provided by several OECD
            economies, and contemporary experience, essentially since
            1960, are presented. In Section II, the determinants of the
            growth in government are considered. This literature covers
            demographic demands for expenditure growth, the changing
            relative prices of public vis-a-vis private goods, the
            income elasticity of public goods, and the arguments of the
            public choice school. Most of these explanations have been
            directed at understanding trends in industrialized nations,
            and little has been written on the relevance of these
            explanations for developing nations. This section briefly
            speculates on the determinants of government growth in
            developing countries against the backdrop provided by
            results in the advanced economies.
The shadow price of a tax inspector
The effects of tax evasion on tax rates
            and government revenues have focused fresh attention on the
            question of tax administration. Because of the difficulties
            of measuring the consequences of good or bad administration,
            policymakers cannot rely on a wide range of specific
            information on this subject. This paper presents a model
            which shows the process of auditing tax returns as a
            decision tree. Using this model, governments can verify that
            the additional power is not abused and that the
            administration is efficient. The main idea is to introduce
            economic considerations into the process of selecting and
            inspecting tax returns. By calculating the investment in the
            inspector's time at each stage (the taxpayer is likely
            to appeal), and the increase in revenue that would result,
            it is possible to calculate the minimum amount of tax
            evasion that justifies continuing the audit - the shadow
            price of the tax inspector. If the guidelines are followed
            the productivity of the inspectors will increase as well.
Economists, institutions, and trade
            restrictions : a review article
A review article on the work of
            "practitioners of contemporary economic analysis of
            trade restrictions", this report focuses on three
            questions : a) are there holes in the case of free trade? B)
            Why are trade restrictions imposed, and c) how do US policy
            actions and those of other nations interact ? On the first
            question, though difficult to identify when there is profit
            to be captured by trade intervention and to design an
            appropriate trade intervention policy, capturing a strategic
            sector and economic rents is important to equity holders
            without necessarily being of much significance to the
            economy as a whole. Further, on trade restrictions, these
            are often aimed at non economic objectives, since economic
            sanctions tend to be used only when other instruments fail.
            As for the interaction of US policy actions versus other
            nations, they are a manifestation of protectionist
            legislation in the US Congress and perhaps indictments
            against GATT as wrong headed.
Emerging issues of privatization and
            the public sector
Pressure to move toward privatization
            has mounted in the face of severe economic crises both in
            the developed and developing world.  To date, the pace of
            privatization in the developing world has been slow and its
            impact modest. This report accordingly discusses the issue
            of privatization in the context of developed and developing
            countries.  In addition, it examines certain issues that
            occur with privatization such as the effect competition and
            ownership have on performance, the tension between multiple
            objectives and the proper balance between the
            enterprise's autonomy and the government's role in
            regulating market power.  The report concludes that if these
            issues are neglected and not taken into account, the long
            term benefits of privatization will not materialize.
Black markets for foreign exchange,
            real exchange rates, and inflation : overnight versus
            gradual reform in sub-Saharan Africa
The black market foreign exchange
            premium is an important implicit tax on exports, creating a
            conflict between the fiscal goal of financing government
            spending with a limited menu of tax instruments and the
            allocative goal of stimulating exports. In this paper, the
            premium is solved for in a model that includes the portfolio
            balance approach to exchange rates, dual exchange markets,
            and seignorage for financing the fiscal deficit. The steady
            state and dynamic implications for inflation of floats as a
            vehicle for unifying official and black market rates are
            then analyzed. Inflation could rise substantially in the new
            steady state as the lost revenue from exports is replaced
            with a higher tax on money. Further, the conditions under
            which undershooting or overshooting occur are parameterized.
            The paper is motivated by and illustrated with recent
            examples from sub - Saharan Africa.
A model of cocoa replanting and new
            planting in Bahia, Brazil, 1966-85
In 1966, 90 percent of the cocoa growing
            areas in Bahia, Brazil had trees more than 30 years old. By
            1985 most of the area had been replanted or supplied with
            new trees. Throughout most of this period there were high or
            rising cocoa prices, and zero or negative interest rates.
            High prices and low interest rates directly encouraged new
            planting, but their relationship to replanting is more
            complex. In the short term, higher prices discourage
            replanting, which involves uprooting and a temporary loss of
            revenue. But over the long run, higher prices increase
            expectations of future profits and encourage replanting.
            Lowering the interest rate beloow its real level provided
            cocoa growers with a subsidy that encouraged both replanting
            and new planting.
Export promoting subsidies and what
            to do about them
This paper addresses the questions of
            what is a subsidy, which subsidies affect international
            trade, and why countries may wish to subsidize, particularly
            exporting industries. It considers the effects of these
            subsidies on other countries and why trading partners may
            wish to outlaw or countervail such export promoting
            subsidies. The paper then outlines the provisions of the
            GATT and the Subsidies Code as they relate to subsidies;
            this is followed by some data on the extent to which these
            provisions have been used, and by a consideration of the
            purposes for which they appear, in fact, to have been used.
            The question is then raised as to whether or not the
            proscribing/countervailing approach is in fact the best way
            to constrain subsidies and whether, if such control is
            desired, other approaches may be preferable and feasible.
Price and tax policy for
            semi-subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia
In the case of semi-subsistence
            agriculture where wage employment is not available, the role
            played by prices and taxes in determining production and
            consumption decisions is not clearly established by economic
            theories of household choice.  This study demonstrates that
            where choices in production, consumption, and leisure can be
            made independently, farmers will decide what to grow on the
            basis of their preferences for marketed goods. The paper
            also points out that the choice will be affected by the
            level and type of taxation imposed. The paper shows the
            impact of four taxes -- agricultural revenue, land,
            production and marketed goods consumption -- on crop
            production and tax revenues. This paper also reports on a
            model of production in Ethiopia. The results of this study
            give strong evidence of the role of producer and consumer
            prices in semi-subsistence agriculture. In addition, the
            results show the importance of production capacity,
            household and climatic factors in agricultural development.
Financial deregulation and the
            globalization of capital markets
Financial deregulation in recent years
            has vastly increased the ability of the financial markets to
            allocate international capital efficiently. It has also
            sparked explosive growth in financial transactions and
            resulted in a restructured, more competitive, and less
            costly financial services industry. But the deregulation has
            proceeded so rapidly that the volume of purely financial
            transactions now greatly exceeds that of transactions driven
            by international trade in goods and services.  This new
            pattern has led to growing economic uncertainty and
            instability. Markets now run around the clock and respond to
            change so rapidly that there is a growing danger of chain
            reactions that could precipitate global market failure.
            Regulators in the major trading nations need to address the
            possibility of a full-scale breakdown of the financial system.
Government pay and employment
            policies and government performance in developing economies
The aim of this paper is to offer a
            systematic examination of government pay and employment
            trends in developing nations. In section I, the difficulties
            inherent in analyzing government pay and employment policies
            are considered. Special attention is given to weaknesses in
            public expenditure theory and to the non-market character of
            government output. Section II highlights the problems
            generated by inappropriate government pay and employment
            policies. Most attention is given however to how government
            performance as a provider of goods and services is affected
            by inappropriate pay offers or the pursuit of independant
            government employment objectives. Section III presents the
            available evidence on recent trends in government pay and
            employment in developing nations. Movements in real
            government pay, wage compression, public sector employment
            growth and the wage bill are considered. Section IV offers a
            brief conclusion.
Urban property taxation in
            developing countries
The property tax is the most widely used
            source of municipal tax revenue in the developing world, but
            its current yield is often insubstantial. This paper has two
            objectives. The first is to assess the policy arguments for
            the use of property taxes as a municipal revenue source. The
            second is to review the revenue performance of property
            taxation and define practical ways to improve it. Tax policy
            must ensure that the rates are set high enough to make tax
            collecting worthwhile.  Administrative reforms should
            support simple procedures for property discovery and
            valuation, suited to the characteristics of the local tax
            base and the skills of the local authorities. Central
            governments can achieve reform on a nationwide scale, even
            where the property tax is locally administered, by
            delivering standardized packages of training and technical
            assistance to local governments.
Fiscal stabilization and exchange
            rate instability
The aim of this paper is to examine the
            implications for certain key macroeconomic variables in
            relation to reductions in public spending. In particular,
            the paper looks at; the rate of inflation, the interest
            rate, and the rate of growth of real GNP. The paper develops
            an intertemporal general equilibrium model that is used to
            analyze reductions in government spending and the
            implications for the exchange rate and the balance of
            payments of these reductions. Section II gives a brief
            review of background literature and provides an intuitive
            explanation of our model. Section III formally derives the
            analytics of the model, while Section IV sketches a proof of
            the existence of an intertemporal equilibrium. Section V
            gives some policy simulations using Mexican data, and
            finally, Section VI concludes the paper.
Improving the allocation and
            management of public spending
If a country's planning and
            budgeting system is dilapidated, an important first step is
            to rehabilitate basic budgetary and accounting functions and
            to generate public expenditure data that can provide a
            starting point for rational planning.  This paper makes the
            point that many of the necessary reforms to the planning and
            budgetary systems are very simple (which is not to say that
            they are easily accomplished). Chapter II provides an
            overview of planning and budgeting processes and Chapter III
            discusses recurring budgeting issues. The financial woes of
            a country increase the value of external aid and the
            leverage exercised by aid agencies. In Chapter IV, the
            effects of these factors are discussed and ideas for
            effective aid management and coordination are suggested.
Social security finance in
            developing countries
This paper presents a survey of the
            financial nature of social security schemes in developing
            countries, their implications for public sector finance as a
            whole, and for the process of economic development. Chapter
            1 discusses what social security is and in what various ways
            it is implemented in developing countries. Chapter 2
            considers in detail the specific provisions and financing of
            social security programs in a sample of 41 developing
            countries. Chapter 3 discusses the implications, including
            potential dangers, of social security systems for public
            sector finance generally, and Chapter 4 considers the
            effects of social security systems on capital and labor
            markets, and thus on the process of economic development.  A
            final chapter sums up the implications of the analysis for
            public policy in developing countries and for the research
            agenda for the World Bank.
Does Japan import less than it should
Japan's continuing large current
            account surpluses have promoted a series of investigators to
            examine the volume and the structure of the goods that Japan
            imports. The usual charge is that Japan's level of
            manufactured imports is too low and that it is low because
            Japan has erected a wall of trade barriers that limits
            access by foreign suppliers of manufactured goods. Recent
            studies have looked at this question to see if Japan's
            overall imports are lower than they should be, and
            specifically if Japan imports fewer manufactures than other
            industrial countries. This paper presents a review of the
            econometric literature and these give diverse results.
            Additionally, if Japan does import a lower volume of
            manufactures, why is that so? Is it because of trade and
            tariff barriers, the Japanese marketing system, or the
            tastes of Japanese consumers? None of the studies resolved
            these questions.
Fiscal policy in low-income Africa
This paper reviews the literature and
            country experience on the macroeconomics of fiscal policy in
            low income Africa. Given the experience of the 70's and
            80's, the ultimate focus of the discussion must be the
            interaction of fiscal policy with the challenges of
            stabilization and structural adjustment. Two dominant themes
            emerge for fiscal policy. The first is the importance of
            overall fiscal restraint as a precondition for success of
            stabilization and structural adjustment efforts. The second
            is the importance of improved public sector performance in
            delivering infrastructural services.
Slowing the stork : better health
            for women through family planning
Each year 500,000 women die from causes
            related to pregnancy - 99 percent of them in developing
            countries. While many of those pregnancies are unwanted and
            could have been prevented by family planning, only a
            minority of developing country couples use effective
            contraceptive methods. For some women, pregnancy represents
            a major health risk. Others, of lower risk, do not want any
            more children. This paper discusses the factors which
            determine women's use of contraceptives, and how family
            planning programs reach the large numbers of women at risk
            from further pregnancies. The most successful family
            planning policies offer women a variety of contraceptive
            methods tailored to specific age groups and educational
            levels. Much program experience suggests that family
            planning is one of, if not the most cost-effective means of
            averting maternal deaths. The savings generated by family
            planning services could be invested in saving the lives and
            health of women who do want to have more children.
Fiscal policy in commodity-exporting LDCs
Revenues in countries that rely heavily
            on one or two primary commodities tend to fluctuate widely
            with prices in international markets. This fluctuation is
            especially wide when export taxes are a large part of the
            total tax base but also when the private sector reaps most
            of the gains from booming prices. Most developing countries
            have over consumed in response to windfalls from surges in
            world prices. In many cases government spending has
            outstripped the gain in revenues. These sharp increases in
            government spending are difficult to reverse when the boom
            ends and often lead to large fiscal deficits rather than
            surpluses. Several countries, however, whose policies
            emphasize conservative fiscal management, have generally
            benefitted from booms. Clearly, good fiscal control during
            periodic boom episodes enables these booms to temporarily
            accelerate the rate of economic development.
Municipal development funds and intermediaries
Municipal development funds have the
            basic purposes of channelling more investments in urban
            infrastructure through municipal governments and of
            strengthening the capacity of these institutions in the
            process. They have attracted the support of the
            international aid donors because they offer a mechanism for
            "wholeselling" urban investment, i.e. for the
            provision of aid funds to widely diffused investments, often
            of a minute scale by donor standards. This paper seeks to
            describe these developments in funding channels and their
            intended institutions. Judgement, however is extremely
            tentative, as most of the recent round of innovations and
            aid projects are at an early stage.