rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Risk shifting and long-term
            contracts : evidence from the Ras Gas Project
Risk shifting and incomplete contracting
            lie at the heart of the agency relationship inherent in the
            procurement and financing of large-scale projects such as
            power plants, oil and gas pipelines, and liquefied natural
            gas (LNG) facilities. Resolving this agency problem is
            critical in structuring the nexus of long-term
            contracts--construction, operating, output sale, and
            financial contracts--commensurate with the project's
            underlying tehcnological and market organization. By
            investigating the Ras Gas bonds--the largest and most liquid
            global project bonds ever issued in an emerging market
            economy--the authors provide empirical evidence of the
            risk-shifting consequences of contractual incompleteness.
            They relate the credit spreads of Ras Gas bonds to the bond
            spreads of the Korea Electric Power Company (Kepco), the
            major customer, in the context of a 25-year supply
            agreement, the oil price index used to price the LNG,
            emerging debt market returns, and various systematic and
            unsystematic risk variables. Consistent with theoretical
            predictions, they find that the risk factors affecting the
            sales and purchase agreements drive perceptions of market
            risk for Ras Gas bonds. In particular, Ras Gas yield spreads
            reflect the market's risk assessment of Kepco. Other
            priced risks are energy price and foreign currency exposure
            (which influence Ras Gas credit spreads through their impact
            on Kepco), Korean economic variables, and spillovers from
            turbulence in European and Latin American emerging debt
            markets. The authors' analysis shows that the design of
            each contractual arrangement is not independent, because
            risk factors relevant to one contract determine the price
            and risk premium of the other. Despite heavy capitalization
            and partial guarantees by the parent companies of Ras Gas,
            the off-take agreement essentially determines the riskiness
            of the bonds. The authors interpret this as evidence of the
            nexus-of-contracts view of the firm in the presence of
            contractual incompleteness: Investors bear all residual
            risks and price their financial claims accordingly.
Banking crises in transition
            economies : fiscal costs and related issues
The authors look at strategies for
            dealing with banking crises in 12 transition economies --
            five from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): Bulgaria, the
            Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, and Poland; the three
            Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; and four
            countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS):
            Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Ukraine. Three
            types of strategies were used to deal with the crises. The
            CEE countries generally pursued extensive restructuring and
            recapitalizing of banks; most CIS countries pursued
            large-scale liquidation; and the Baltic states generally
            pursued a combination of liquidation and restructuring. The
            strategy pursued reflected macroeconomic conditions and the
            level of development in a country's banking sector.
            There were more new banks in the former Soviet Union
            (FSU-the CIS and Baltic states), but they tended to be
            small, undercapitalized, and not deeply engaged in financial
            intermediation. The CEE countries generally incurred higher
            fiscal costs than the FSU countries but ended up with
            sounder, more efficient banking systems, with many of the
            recapitalized banks being privatized to strategic foreign
            investors. The CIS countries pursued a less fiscally costly
            approach but have been left with weak banking systems and
            low levels of intermediation. The Baltic states appear to
            have struck a good balance, incurring modest fiscal costs
            while making their systems sounder and more efficient. The
            findings suggest the following: a) Operational, financial,
            and institutional restructuring should be undertaken in
            parallel. b) Financial restructuring should involve adequate
            recapitalization to deter moral hazard and repeated
            recapitalization. c) Operational restructuring should entail
            privatization to core investors (particularly to reputable
            foreign banks). d) The enterprise problems underlying
            banking problems must also be addressed. e) Fiscal costs
            were reduced when governments dealt only with bad debt
            inherited from the socialist period; when small banks that
            held few deposits were allowed to fail, where the social
            costs of such failure were low; and when only banks that got
            into trouble because of external shocks were rescued while
            those suffering from poor management were liquidated. f) The
            government, not the central bank, should undertake bank
            restructuring. Central bank refinancing is not transparent
            and could lead to hyperinflation.
Labor demand and trade reform in
            Latin America
There are concerns that trade reform and
            globalization will increase the uncertainty that the average
            worker, especially the relatively unskilled worker, faces.
            The increased competitiveness of product markets and greater
            access to foreign inputs, the argument goes, will lead to
            more elastic demand for workers. This may have adverse
            consequences for both labor market volatility and wage
            dispersion. The authors argue that while the case that trade
            liberalization should increase own-wage elasticities may be
            broadly compelling for competitive import-competing
            industries, it is less so for imperfectly competitive,
            nontradable, or export industries. They test the hypothesis
            using establishment-level panel data from three countries
            with periods of liberalization. The data provide only mixed
            support for the idea that trade liberalization has an impact
            on own-wage elasticities. No consistent patterns emerge. If
            globalization is making the lives of workers more insecure,
            it is probably working through some other mechanism.
Finance and macroeconomic volatility
Countries with more developed financial
            sectors, experience fewer fluctuations in real per capita
            output, consumption, and investment growth. But the manner
            in which the financial sector develops matters. The relative
            importance of banks in the financial system is important in
            explaining consumption, and investment volatility. The
            proportion of credit provided to the private sector, best
            explains volatility of consumption, and output. The authors
            generate their main results using fixed-effects estimates
            with panel data from seventy countries for the years
            1956-98. Their general findings suggest that the risk
            management, and information processing provided by banks,
            maybe especially important in reducing consumption, and
            investment volatility. The simple availability of credit to
            the private sector, probably helps smooth consumption, and GDP.
Revisiting the link between poverty
            and child labor - the Ghanaian experience
The link between poverty, and child
            labor has traditionally been regarded as well established.
            But recent research has questioned the validity of this
            link, claiming that poverty is not a main determinant of
            child labor. Starting from the premise that child labor is
            not necessarily harmful, the authors analyze the
            determinants of harmful child labor, viewed as child labor
            that directly conflicts with children's accumulation of
            human capital, in an effort to identify the most vulnerable
            groups. Identifying these groups might enable policymakers
            to take appropriate action. The authors estimate the
            positive relationship between poverty, and child labor.
            Moreover, they find evidence of a gender gap in child labor,
            linked to poverty. Girls as a group (as well as across
            urban, rural, and poverty sub-samples) are consistently
            found to be more likely to engage in harmful child labor,
            than boys. This gender gap may reflect cultural norms (an
            issue that calls for further research). The incidence of
            child labor increases with age, especially for girls. In
            Ghana, there are structural differences - across gender,
            between rural and urban locations, and across poverty
            quintiles of households - in the processes underlying child labor.
Implications of the currency crisis
            for exchange rate arrangements in emerging East Asia
The authors examine the implications of
            the East Asian currency crisis for exchange rate
            arrangements in the region's emerging market economies.
            They focus on the roles of the U.S. dollar, the Japanese
            yen, and the euro in the emerging East Asian economies'
            exchange rate policies. They claim that these economies are
            particularly susceptible to large exchange rate fluctuations
            because they have been pursuing financial deregulation,
            opening markets, and liberalizing capital accounts, and
            because they face increased risk of sudden capital flow
            reversals, with attendant instability in their financial
            system and foreign exchange market. The authors find that
            the dollar's role as the dominant anchor currency in
            East Asia was reduced during the recent currency crisis but
            has become prominent again since late 1998. It is too early
            for conclusions, but the economies seem likely to maintain
            more flexible exchange rate arrangements, at least
            officially. At the same time, these economies presumably
            will continue to prefer to maintain exchange rate stability
            without fixed rate commitments. They are better off choosing
            a balanced currency basket system in which the yen and the
            euro play a more important role than before. The ASEAN
            countries have a special incentive to avoid harmful
            fluctuations in exchange rates within the region, which
            could suddenly alter their international price
            competitiveness and make prospective free trade agreements
            unsuitable. So they may stabilize their exchange rates
            against similar currency baskets, to ensure intraregional
            exchange rate stability.
Anti-corruption policies and
            programs : a framework for evaluation
The anti-corruption strategy the World
            Bank announced in September 1997 defined corruption as the
            "use of public office for private gain" and called
            for the Bank to address corruption along four dimensions: 1)
            Preventing fraud and corruption in Bank projects; 2) Helping
            countries that request Bank assistance for fighting
            corruption; 3) Mainstreaming a concern about corruption in
            Bank work; and 4) Lending active support to international
            efforts to address corruption. The menu of possible actions
            to contain corruption (in both countries and Bank projects)
            is very large, so the authors develop a framework to help
            assign priorities, depending on views of what does and does
            not work in specific countries. Their framework, based on
            public officials' incentives for opportunistic
            behavior, distinguishes between highly corrupt and largely
            corruption-free societies. Certain conditions encourage
            public officials to seek or accept corruption: a) The
            expected gains from undertaking a corrupt act exceed the
            expected costs. b) Little weight is placed on the cost that
            corruption imposes on others. In a country with heavy
            corruption and poor governance, the priorities in
            anti-corruption efforts would then be to establish rule of
            law, strengthen institutions of participation and
            accountability, and limit government interventions to focus
            on core mandates. In a country with moderate corruption and
            fair governance, the priorities would be decentralization
            and economic reform, results-oriented management and
            evaluation, and the introduction of incentives for
            competitive delivery of public services. In a country with
            little corruption and strong governance, the priorities
            might be explicit anti-corruption agencies and programs,
            stronger financial management, increased public and
            government awareness, no-bribery pledges, efforts to fry the
            "big fish," and so on.
Contractual savings, stock, and
            asset markets
The authors study the relationship
            between the development of insurance, and contractual
            savings, (the assets and portfolio composition of pension
            funds, and life and non-life insurance companies) and the
            development of stock markets (market capitalization and
            value traded). Their contribution lies in providing
            cross-country, and time-series on a hypothesis that is very
            popular - but had not been substantiated - among supporters
            of funded pension systems, and insurance in which reserves
            are largely invested in tradable securities (equities and
            bonds). The authors present a three-assets model (money,
            quasi money, and shares) to study the effects of the
            development of contractual savings (pension funds and life
            insurance companies) and non-life insurance companies on
            assets market equilibrium, and on stock market development.
            They use an unbalanced panel of 21 OECD, and 5 developing
            countries, and an error components two-stage least squares
            (EC2SLS) estimator, including a test for endogeneity of
            these institutional investors. The results support the
            hypothesis that contractual savings, and non-life insurance
            companies can be treated as exogenous to the development of
            stock markets; that contractual savings and non-life
            insurance companies, as well as their portfolio policies,
            promote stock market development as measured by stock market
            capitalization, and value traded as a share of GDP. The
            results show that stock market capitalization is positively
            correlated with the return on stocks, the assets of
            contractual savings and non-life insurance companies, the
            shares of stocks in the portfolios of contractual savings
            and non-life insurance companies, and the value traded
            stocks. Stock market capitalization is negatively correlated
            with the real interest rate, the real return on money
            (measured by the inverse of inflation), and stock market
            volatility. Stock market value traded is positively
            correlated with the shares of stocks in the portfolios of
            contractual savings and non-life insurance companies, and
            the real return on money. It is negatively correlated with
            the real interest rate. The authors conclude that insurance
            and contractual savings are powerful instruments for
            developing stock markets, providing depth and liquidity.
            Higher liquidity, in turn, further promotes market capitalization.
Intersectoral dynamics and economic
            growth in Ecuador
The authors analyze sectoral growth in
            Ecuador, using multivariate co-integration analysis. They
            find significant long-run relationships between the
            agricultural, industrial, and service sectors. Moreover,
            they are able to derive dynamic sector models that combine
            the short-run links between the three sectors with long-run
            dynamics. When disaggregate the three sectors into their
            intra-sectoral components, they discover many interesting
            relationships that contribute to a better understanding of
            inter- and intra-sectoral dynamics in the context of
            Ecuadorian economic growth. Their findings suggest that more
            attention should be paid to inter-dependencies in sectoral
            growth, since an improved understanding of inter-sectoral
            dynamics may facilitate the implementation of policy aimed
            at increasing economic growth in Ecuador. There appears to
            be no direct link between the oil sector, and the non-oil
            industrial sectors. But strong evidence supports
            co-integration between the oil industry, and financial
            services, as well as between the oil industry, and public
            services. This means, among other things, that the oil
            industry is likely to affect other sectors through the
            financial sector, the public sector, or both.
Poverty and public celebrations in
            rural India
The author examines the paradox of very
            poor households, spending large sums on celebrations. Using
            qualitative, and quantitative data from South India, the
            author demonstrates that spending on weddings, and festivals
            can be explained by integrating an anthropological
            understanding of how identity is shaped in Indian society,
            with an economic analysis of decision-making under
            conditions of extreme poverty, and risk. The author argues
            that publicly observable celebrations have two functions:
            they provide a space for maintaining social reputations, and
            webs of obligation, and, they serve as arenas for
            status-making competitions. The first role is central to
            maintaining the networks essential for social relationships,
            and coping with poverty. The second is a correlate of
            mobility that may become more prevalent as incomes rise.
            Development policies that favor individual over collective
            action, reduce the incentives for the networking function,
            and increase the incentives for status-enhancing functions -
            thus reducing social cohesion, and increasing conspicuous
            consumption. Market-driven improvements in urban employment,
            for example, could reduce a family's dependence on its
            traditional networks, could reduce incentives to maintain
            these networks, and could reduce social cohesion within a
            village, and thus its capacity for collective action. In
            contrast, micro-finance programs, and social funds try to
            retain, and even build a community's capacity for
            collective action.
Mutual fund investment in emerging
            markets - an overview
International mutual funds are one of
            the main channels for capital flows to emerging economies.
            Although mutual funds have become important contributors to
            financial market integration, little is known about their
            investment allocation, and strategies. The authors provide
            an overview of mutual fund activity in emerging markets.
            First, they describe international mutual funds'
            relative size, asset allocation, and country allocation.
            Second, they focus on fund behavior during crises, by
            analyzing data at the level of both investors, and fund
            managers. Among their findings: Equity investment in
            emerging markets has grown rapidly in the 1990s, much of it
            flowing through mutual funds. Collectively, these funds hold
            a sizable share of market capitalization in emerging
            economies. Asian, and Latin American funds achieved the
            fastest growth, but are smaller than domestic U.S. funds and
            world funds. When investigating abroad, U.S. mutual funds
            invest more in equity than in bonds. World funds invest
            mainly in developed nations (Canada, Europe, Japan, and the
            United States). Ten percent of their investment is in Asia,
            and Latin America. Mutual funds usually invest in a few
            countries within each region. Mutual fund investment was
            very responsive to the crises of the 1990s. Withdrawals from
            emerging markets during recent crises were large, which
            squares with existing evidence of financial contagion.
            Investments in Asian, and Latin American mutual funds are
            volatile. Because redemptions, and injections are large,
            relative to total funds under management, fund's flows
            are not stable. The cash held by managers during injections,
            and redemptions does not fluctuate significantly, so
            investors' actions are typically reflected in emerging
            market inflows, and outflows.
Vocational secondary schooling,
            occupational choice, and earnings in Brazil
Empirical studies on the efficacy of
            vocational education, mainly in developing countries - a
            literature now comprising dozens of evaluation studies -
            have been fairly unanimous in recording a negative verdict
            on the costs and benefits of vocational secondary education,
            particularly compared with traditional academic school. The
            authors, in this study set in Brazil, reach a different
            conclusion. Like a number of recent evaluation studies (for
            Hong Kong, Israel, and the United States), this one
            challenges the established orthodoxy by reporting findings
            far more supportive of vocational schooling. Unlike
            traditional approaches, it focuses on the relationship
            between field of vocational study and subsequent occupation.
            The authors report that students who complete vocational
            school and work in related fields have significant earnings
            advantages over students who do not work in fields related
            to what they studied and over students who complete academic school.