rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Incidence and impact of land
            conflict in Uganda
While there is a large, though
            inconclusive, literature on the impact of land titles in
            Africa, little attention has been devoted to the study of
            land conflict, despite evidence on increasing incidence of
            such conflicts. The authors use data from Uganda to explore
            who is affected by land conflicts, whether recent legal
            changes have helped to reduce their incidence, and to assess
            their impact on productivity. Results indicate that
            female-headed households and widows are particularly
            affected and that the passage of the 1998 Land Act has
            failed to reduce the number of pending land conflicts. The
            authors also find evidence of a significant and
            quantitatively large productivity-reducing impact of land
            conflicts. This suggests that, especially in Africa,
            attention to land-related conflicts and exploration of ways
            to prevent and speedily resolve them would be an important
            area for policy as well as research.
The quality of the legal system,
            firm ownership, and firm size
Employment in developing countries is
            disproportionately concentrated in very small firms. The
            authors examine the extent to which the distribution of firm
            size is related to the quality of the legal system using
            data from Mexico. They combine Lucas' (1978) model of
            firm size with Himmelberg, Hubbard, and Love's (2001)
            consideration of idiosyncratic risk in a framework in which
            the distribution of entrepreneurial talent and aversion to
            idiosyncratic risk combine to determine the optimal size of
            firms. Their data allows them to focus on the differential
            impact of the legal system on proprietorships and
            corporations. Moreover, by focusing on firms in a single
            country, the data draw attention to the importance of
            variation in the administration of justice and the
            enforcement of legal verdicts. The authors find that Mexican
            states with more effective legal systems have larger firms.
            A one-standard deviation improvement in the quality of the
            legal system increases the average firm size by about 10-15
            percent. The impact of the legal system is greatest in
            sectors in which proprietorships dominate. This pattern is
            consistent with better legal systems increasing the
            investment of firm owners by reducing the idiosyncratic risk
            they face. All of these findings are upheld when the authors
            instrument for institutional variables using the log of
            indigenous population in 1900 and the active presence of the
            drug trade in the state.
The political economy of deposit insurance
The author uses a political economy
            framework to analyze cross-country differences in deposit
            insurance coverage. He finds supporting evidence of the
            significance of private interest theories in explaining
            coverage of deposit insurance. Deposit insurance coverage is
            significantly higher in countries where poorly capitalized
            banks dominate the market and in countries where depositors
            are poorly educated. The author does not find that coverage
            is significantly related to political-institutional
            variables, such as the degree of democracy or restraints on
            the executive, or to proxies for the general level of
            institutional development, such as per capita income or
            property rights. These results provide evidence in support
            of the private interest view, according to which risky banks
            lobby for extensive coverage.
Educational expansion : evidence and
            interpretation : Educational expansion : Evidence and interpretation
The authors document the vast expansion
            of schooling over the past several decades, as well as
            convergence in schooling measures across countries. They
            make the observation that poor countries today have higher
            average education levels than countries at the same level of
            economic development had in the past. They propose a simple
            model that suggests that these trends can be attributed to
            the intertemporal expansion of the world technological
            frontier, which enhances the demand for schooling. Their
            empirical analysis supports the view that educational
            expansion has occurred because of the increase in demand,
            especially in open economies, and not because of
            cost-reducing improvements in the education sector.
Bundling services and household
            welfare in developing countries - the case of Peru
Using panel data for Peru for 1994-2000,
            the authors find that when households receive two, or more
            services jointly, the welfare increases as measured by
            changes in consumption are larger than when services are
            provided separately. The increases appear to be more than
            proportional, as F-tests on the coefficients of the
            corresponding regressors confirm. Thus, the authors find
            that bundling services may help realize welfare effects.
Latvia's macroeconomic options
            in the medium term : fiscal and monetary challenges of
            European Union membership : Latvia's macroeconomic
            options in the medium term : Fiscal and monetary challenges
            of European Union membership
Latvia's experience over the past
            decade shows that economic growth and real convergence can
            no longer be assumed to be exogenously driven processes
            determined by given technological improvements and
            relatively higher factor returns. Instead, it is an
            endogenously driven process led by many variables, including
            policy variables. European Union membership clearly brings
            enormous economic benefits to Latvia. However, it also
            brings important challenges on the macroeconomic front,
            especially prior to the adoption of the euro. Substantial
            progress has been made toward fiscal consolidation since the
            mid-1990s but several risks remain. Given the facts that
            domestic demand remains buoyant and that Latvia will have to
            accommodate the expenditure commitments associated with NATO
            and EU membership while simultaneously aiming to fulfill the
            medium-term goal of a balanced budget, a more prudent fiscal
            policy should be the main short-term policy objective. The
            authorities should therefore reassess their current
            medium-term budget framework and strengthen their fiscal
            rules so that off-budget spending is eliminated and controls
            over spending ministries and local government finances are
            reinforced. They should also rethink any further tax
            reductions until a clear strategy is designed for
            compensating for projected losses in government revenues.
            Monetary policy can contribute to sustainable growth and job
            creation in Latvia in the medium and long term by providing
            an environment for price stability. It will have to be
            complemented by further microeconomic reforms and prudent
            wage developments aligned with productivity growth.
Fiscal decentralization in
            developing and transition economies: progress, problems, and
            the promise
The author discusses the revolution in
            public sector thinking that is transforming the public
            sectors of developing and transition countries. Countries
            are reconsidering their fiscal systems and searching for the
            right balance between central government control and
            decentralized governance. Political decentralization has
            advanced in most countries. Subnational expenditures in
            developing countries as a percentage of total public
            expenditures have also increased over the past two decades.
            However, the process is far from complete. In many
            countries, the central government is still involved in the
            delivery of local services, local governments have few
            sources of own-revenues, local governments have limited
            access to borrowing for capital projects, and the design of
            intergovernmental transfers does neither address regional
            fiscal equity nor convey appropriate incentives for fiscal
            discipline, improved service delivery performance, and
            accountability to citizens. Decentralized public governance
            can help realign public sector incentives through greater
            accountability to citizens, and attenuate the
            "democracy deficit" caused by globalization and
            the role of supranational institutions and regimes. However,
            this requires careful examination of the entire fiscal
            system. Elements of a comprehensive package of fiscal system
            reforms would include: (a) Clarifying roles of various
            levels of government in public service delivery; (b)
            Reassigning taxing responsibilities to ensure local revenue
            autonomy, accountability, and efficiency without endangering
            an internal common market; (c) Designing fiscal transfers to
            ensure regional fiscal equity and to create an enabling
            environment for innovative and competitive service delivery;
            (d) Facilitating responsible credit market access to
            subnational governments; (e) Designing institutional
            arrangements for intergovernmental fiscal relations to
            better coordinate policies; and (f) Aligning operational
            capacity with the authorizing environment through the
            "accountability for results" framework of public management.
Fiscal decentralization in
            developing and transition economies: progress, problems, and
            the promise
WPS 3282

# **Fiscal Decentralization in Developing and Transition Economies**

## **Progress, Problems, and the Promise**

## **By**

**Anwar Shah**<sup>**1**</sup>

**World Bank**

**Washington, DC USA**

## World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3282, April 2004

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org._

> 1 Lead Economist, World Bank Institute.  An earlier abridged version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Federalism 2002 in St. Gallen, Switzerland, August 27-30, 2002. The author is grateful to Dr. Raoul Blindenbacher, Professors Richard Bird, Bernard Dafflon and Claude Jeanrenaud for comments.  Please address comments to Anwar Shah, World Bank, Mail Stop J4-403, 1818 H St., N.W., Washington, D.C., 20433, U.S.A. Email: ashah@worldbank.org.
How does the impact of an HIV/AIDS
            information campaign vary with educational attainment
            Evidence from rural Uganda
The responsiveness to information is
            thought to be one channel through which education affects
            health outcomes. The author tests this hypothesis by
            examining the effectiveness of an information campaign that
            aims at preventing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Previous
            studies in the epidemiological literature have generally
            concluded that, in Africa, there was either a positive
            association or no association between HIV infection and
            schooling levels. Using individual level data from a cohort
            study following the general population of a cluster of
            villages in rural Uganda over 12 years, the author shows
            that, after more than a decade of prevention campaigns about
            the dangers of the epidemic, there has been a substantial
            evolution in the HIV/education gradient. Early in the
            epidemic, in 1990, there was no robust relation between
            HIV/AIDS and education. In 2000, among young individuals, in
            particular among females, education lowers the risk of being
            HIV positive. Results on HIV incidence in a duration
            framework confirm that finding by establishing that, for
            young individuals, education reduces the probability of
            seroconversion. These findings reveal that educated
            individuals have been more responsive to the HIV/AIDS
            information campaigns. The analysis of sexual behavior
            reinforces that conclusion: condom use is associated
            positively with schooling levels.
Regulatory instruments and their
            effects on investment behavior
Regulatory instruments have long been
            understood to have a powerful effect on investment, and part
            of the motivation for introducing higher-powered regulatory
            regimes and contracts was to reduce incentives for
            inefficiency and over-investment (gold plating) inherent in
            cost-plus regulatory schemes. In practice, the mix of
            incentives and the institutional framework that make up a
            higher-powered regulatory regime can also lead to unintended
            distortions on investment behavior. The authors examine the
            key drivers of investment behavior and provide some examples
            of how these drivers have affected investment in practice.
            They conclude with a set of key areas and interrelationships
            that are at the core of a regulatory settlement, and
            therefore need to be designed appropriately to drive
            efficient investment behavior.
Is there room for foreign exchange
            interventions under an inflation targeting framework
            Evidence from Mexico and Turkey
The salient characteristics of emerging
            market economies coupled with the increasing adoption of
            inflation targeting in these countries has stimulated much
            debate about the role of the exchange rate in inflation
            targeting regimes. The authors aim at shedding more light on
            this issue by investigating whether central bank foreign
            exchange interventions have had any impact on the volatility
            of the exchange rate in Mexico and Turkey since the adoption
            of the floating regime. To this end, their study, using
            daily data on foreign exchange intervention, employs an
            Exponential GARCH framework. Empirical results suggest that
            both the amount and frequency of foreign exchange
            interventions have decreased the volatility of the exchange
            rates in these countries. The authors' findings
            corroborate the notion that if foreign exchange
            interventions are carried out with finesse and sensibly-that
            is, not to defend a particular exchange rate-they could play
            a useful role in containing the adverse effects of temporary
            exchange rate shocks on inflation and financial stability.
Is there room for foreign exchange
            interventions under an inflation targeting framework
            Evidence from Mexico and Turkey
WPS 3288

**Is There Room for Foreign Exchange Interventions under an Inflation Targeting Framework?**

**Evidence from Mexico and Turkey**

by

**Ilker Domaç**<sup>†</sup> **and Alfonso Mendoza**<sup>‡</sup>

# **Abstract**

The salient characteristics of emerging market economies coupled with the increasing adoption of inflation targeting in these countries has stimulated much debate about the role of the exchange rate in inflation targeting regimes. The paper aims at shedding more light on this issue by investigating whether central bank foreign exchange interventions have had any impact on the volatility of the exchange rate in Mexico and Turkey since the adoption of the floating regime. To this end, the study, using daily data on foreign exchange intervention, employs an Exponential GARCH framework. Empirical results suggest that both the amount and frequency of foreign exchange interventions have decreased the volatility of the exchange rates in these countries. The findings corroborate the notion that if foreign exchange interventions are carried out with finesse and sensibly—i.e., not to defend a particular exchange rate—they could play a useful role under an inflation targeting framework in containing the adverse effects of temporary exchange rate shocks on inflation and financial stability.

**_Keywords_ :** Inflation targeting; exchange rate volatility; central bank intervention; E-GARCH.

**JEL** **_classification_** : C32; E58; F31; G15

# World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3288, April 2004

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org._

> † Corresponding author. The World Bank. Email: idomac@worldbank.org.

> ‡ University of York **.** Email: amv101@york.ac.uk.
Youth at risk, social exclusion, and
            intergenerational poverty dynamics : A new survey instrument
            with application to Brazil
This paper addresses the underlying
            causes of problems and risks faced by poor and excluded
            youth of 10-24 years of age. The authors develop a survey
            instrument that addresses poverty in a broad sense,
            including hunger, early pregnancy and fatherhood, violence,
            crime, drug use, low levels of social capital, and low
            educational attainment. The authors also shed light on
            intergenerational transfer of risks that are considered to
            induce poverty. They document findings based on the survey
            data gathered in three poor urban neighborhoods in Fortaleza
            in Northeast Brazil. Their main findings show that: (i) Poor
            youth are at considerable risk of growing up without their
            father. Only 7 percent grow up with their father present in
            the household. (ii) The intergenerational transmission of
            low education attainment is at play, but it is diminishing.
            (iii) The risk of early pregnancy and fatherhood is large
            among poor and excluded youth-31 percent of the youth had
            their first child before age 16, triple that of the adult
            population. (iv) The risk of sexual abuse and violence
            within the household exists-6 percent of the youth answered
            that they had their first sexual relationship with a family
            member, and 13 percent grow up in households with violence.
            (v) The social capital levels are low-only 5 percent of the
            youth and 9 percent of the adults have measurable social
            capital. (vi) The risk of growing up in a violent
            neighborhood is large-59 percent of the youth claim that
            they live in a violent neighborhood, 80 percent feel unsafe
            in their neighborhood, and 50 percent feel unsafe at home.
Bargaining for a new fiscal pact in Mexico
The authors consider the malaise with
            the present set-up of fiscal federalism in Mexico from the
            points of view of the main players-the federal government,
            the states, the municipalities, and the citizen voters-in
            order to identify the areas of potential common interest as
            well as the direct conflicts. There is a zero-sum game on
            some issues, like the size of aggregate transfers, but not
            on others, like raising tax collection and improving
            accountability for service delivery. The authors consider
            bargain packages that combine mutually beneficial changes
            and thus might obtain broad enough political support. They
            analyze the bargaining packages in two main tracks-one
            concerning tax assignments, revenue sharing, and tax
            administration, and another concerning the conjunction of
            earmarked transfers and accountability for service
            provision. An important result is that almost all states
            would find it fiscally attractive to impose a sales tax that
            replaced part of the federal value-added tax (VAT), even if
            the federal government reduced revenue sharing enough to
            cover half the cost of reducing the VAT rate to make room
            for the state tax.
The home as factory floor :
            employment and remuneration of home-based workers
Home-based work, defined as
            nonprofessionals who perform market work from their homes,
            is an increasingly recognized form of employment in Latin
            America. The majority of the research on this segment of the
            labor force relies on small sample, qualitative data, which
            find that home-based workers are women, children, and adults
            with disabilities with low skills who work long hours for
            low wages. The authors use a large random sample of control
            groups of non-home-based workers, including men, in their
            analysis and examine the home-based work sector in Brazil,
            Ecuador, and Mexico in 1999. Their results show that in all
            three countries, women are overrepresented among home-based
            workers, particularly older women, those with low levels of
            education, and those with children or spouses, unlike men
            for whom these factors do not matter. Female home-based
            workers earn 25-60 percent less an hour than do
            non-home-based working women and they work one-third to
            one-half as many hours each week. Home-based working men, on
            the other hand, earn 0-17 percent less than do men who do
            not work from their homes, and they only work 10 percent
            fewer hours a week. The wage and work hour gaps for women
            are largely related to marital status, not the presence of
            children, suggesting that simply being the primary caregiver
            in the household, regardless of the actual time constraints
            (children) is the key factor to differences between
            home-based working women and those who work outside of their homes.