rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Is infrastructure capital productive
            a dynamic heterogeneous approach
This paper offers an empirical
            evaluation of the output contribution of infrastructure.
            Drawing from a large data set on infrastructure stocks
            covering 88 countries and spanning the years 1960-2000, and
            using a panel time-series approach, the paper estimates a
            long-run aggregate production function relating GDP to human
            capital, physical capital, and a synthetic measure of
            infrastructure given by the first principal component of
            infrastructure endowments in transport, power, and
            telecommunications. Tests of the cointegration rank allowing
            it to vary across countries reveal a common rank with a
            single cointegrating vector, which is taken to represent the
            long-run production function. Estimation of its parameters
            is performed using the pooled mean group estimator, which
            allows for unrestricted short-run parameter heterogeneity
            across countries while imposing the (testable) restriction
            of long-run parameter homogeneity. The long-run elasticity
            of output with respect to the synthetic infrastructure index
            ranges between 0.07 and 0.10. The estimates are highly
            significant, both statistically and economically, and robust
            to alternative dynamic specifications and infrastructure
            measures. There is little evidence of long-run parameter
            heterogeneity across countries, whether heterogeneity is
            unconditional, or conditional on their level of development,
            population size, or infrastructure endowments.
Small area estimation-based
            prediction methods to track poverty : validation and applications
Tracking poverty is predicated on the
            availability of comparable consumption data and reliable
            price deflators. However, regular series of strictly
            comparable data are only rarely available. Price deflators
            are also often missing or disputed. In response, poverty
            prediction methods that track consumption correlates as
            opposed to consumption itself have been developed. These
            methods typically assume that the estimated relation between
            consumption and its predictors is stable over time -- an
            assumption that cannot usually be tested directly. This
            study analyzes the performance of poverty prediction models
            based on small area estimation techniques. Predicted poverty
            estimates are compared with directly observed levels in two
            country settings where data comparability over time is not a
            problem. Prediction models that employ either non-staple
            food or non-food expenditures or a full set of assets as
            predictors are found to yield poverty estimates that match
            observed poverty well. This offers some support to the use
            of such methods to approximate the evolution of poverty. Two
            further country examples illustrate how an application of
            the method employing models based on household assets can
            help to adjudicate between alternative price deflators.
Adjusting the labor supply to
            mitigate violent shocks : evidence from rural Colombia
This paper studies the use of labor
            markets to mitigate the impact of violent shocks on
            households in rural areas in Colombia. It examines changes
            in the labor supply from on-farm to off-farm labor as a
            means of coping with the violent shock and the ensuing
            redistribution of time within households. It identifies the
            heterogeneous response by gender. Because the incidence of
            violent shocks is not exogenous, the analysis uses
            instrumental variables that capture several dimensions of
            the cost of exercising terror. As a response to the violent
            shocks, households decrease the time spent on on-farm work
            and increase their supply of labor to off-farm activities
            (non-agricultural ones). Men carry the bulk of the
            adjustment in the use of time inasmuch as they supply the
            most hours to off-farm non-agricultural work and formal
            labor markets. Labor markets do not fully absorb the
            additional labor supply. Women in particular are unable to
            find jobs in formal labor markets and men have increased
            time dedicated to leisure and household chores. Additional
            off-farm supply does not fully cover the decrease in
            consumption. The results suggest that in rural Colombia,
            labor markets are a limited alternative for coping with
            violent shocks. Thus, policies in conflict-affected
            countries should go beyond short-term relief and aim at
            preventing labor markets from collapsing and at supporting
            the recovery of agricultural production.
A profile of border protection in
            Egypt : an effective rate of protection approach adjusting
            for energy subsidies
This study examines recent effective
            rates of protection across the Egyptian economy, using an ad
            valorem price wedge introduced by nontariff barriers and
            energy subsidies, and compares today's effective rates
            of protection with those of a decade ago. The study uses 23
            aggregated sectors from input-output matrix information.
            Although trade liberalization since the late-1990s has had a
            considerable impact in reducing protection of some
            industries, some sectors, such as the food and tobacco
            sector, remain relatively highly protected, due to tariff
            escalation and nontariff barriers, and due to energy
            subsidies. Energy subsidies are not formally sector specific
            but do favor sectors that are energy intensive (of
            particular note is the electricity sector).  It appears that
            energy pricing is part of a strategy to subsidize and
            promote certain industries and in effect offset the
            dis-protection or taxation that results from tariffs on
            intermediate inputs. The case of the cement sector is
            notable because energy subsidies appear to almost exactly
            offset the negative impacts of tariffs and indirect taxes.
            The fertilizer sector has zero nominal tariffs, benefiting
            agriculture, and so a negative effective rate of protection
            due simply to tariffs on intermediate inputs. However, the
            fertilizer sector ends up with a very high a positive total
            effective rate of protection due to energy subsidies.
Mali's infrastructure : a
            continental perspective
Despite external shocks, Mali's
            economy grew by 5.3 percent per year between 2003 and 2006,
            driven primarily by the telecommunications sector. But
            Mali's landlocked condition, together with the uneven
            distribution of population and economic activities between
            the arid north and the much richer south, defy the
            country's ability to sustain this pace of growth. Mali
            depends heavily on regional infrastructure and transport
            corridors. A strategic focus on regional integration has
            paid off, and critical institutional decisions are bringing
            many positive developments. But Mali still faces
            infrastructure challenges, the starkest of which lies in the
            power sector. The cost of producing power in Mali is among
            the highest in the region, with the result that only around
            17 percent of the population has access to electricity, much
            lower than in other low-income African countries. The water
            and sanitation sectors also represent a challenge, as the
            nation works to separate the power and water-and-sanitation
            functions of EDM, the multisector utility. Mali spent about
            $555 million per year on infrastructure during the late
            2000s. A total of $200 million is lost annually to
            inefficiencies. Assessing spending needs against existing
            spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual
            funding gap of $283 million per year.Mali will likely need
            more than a decade to reach the illustrative infrastructure
            targets outlined in this report. Under business-as-usual
            assumptions for spending and efficiency, it would take over
            50 years for Mali to reach these goals. Yet with a
            combination of increased finance, improved efficiency, and
            cost-reducing innovations, it should be possible to reduce
            that time to 15 years.
Benin's infrastructure : a
            continental perspective
Between 2000 and 2005 infrastructure
            made an important contribution of 1.6 percentage points to
            Benin's improved per capita growth performance, which
            was the highest among West African countries during the
            period. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment
            to that of the region's middle-income countries could
            boost annual growth by about 3.2 percentage points. Benin
            has made significant progress in some areas of its
            infrastructure, including roads, air transport, water, and
            telecommunications. But the country still faces important
            infrastructure challenges, including improving road
            conditions and port performance and upgrading deteriorating
            electrical infrastructure. The nation must also improve the
            quality and efficiency of its water and sanitation systems.
            Benin currently spends about $452 million a year on
            infrastructure, with almost $101 million lost to
            inefficiencies. Comparing spending needs with existing
            spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual
            funding gap of $210 million per year. Benin has the
            potential to close that gap by adopting alternative
            technologies in water supply, transport, and power, which
            could save as much as $227 million a year. The nation would
            also benefit from raising tariffs to cost-recovery levels
            and reducing inefficiencies, which could substantially boost
            financial flows to the infrastructure sectors.
Making services work : indicators,
            assessments, and benchmarking of the quality and governance
            of public service delivery in the human development sectors
Improving governance is central to
            improving results in human development. It is clear that
            money is not enough: improved outcomes from service delivery
            require better governance, including mechanisms for holding
            service providers accountable and appropriate incentives for
            performance. There is therefore a growing demand for
            indicators to measure how and whether these processes work,
            and how they affect health and education results. This paper
            makes the case for measuring governance policies and
            performance, and the quality of service delivery in health
            and education. It develops a framework for selecting and
            measuring a set of indicators and proposes options, drawing
            from new and innovative measurement tools and approaches.
            The paper proposes the adoption of a more systematic
            approach that will both facilitate the work of health and
            education policymakers and allow for cross-country
            comparisons and benchmarking.
Exports and international logistics
Do better international logistics reduce
            trade costs, raising a developing country's exports?
            Yes, but the magnitude of the effect depends on the
            country's size. The authors apply a gravity model that
            accounts for firm heterogeneity and multilateral resistance
            to a comprehensive new international logistics index. A
            one-standard deviation improvement in logistics is
            equivalent to a 14 percent reduction in distance. An
            average-sized developing country would raise exports by
            about 36 percent. Most countries are much smaller than
            average however, so the typical effect is 8 percent. This
            difference is chiefly due to multilateral resistance: it is
            bilateral trade costs relative to multilateral trade costs
            that matter for bilateral exports, and multilateral
            resistance is more important for small countries.
Together we will : experimental
            evidence on female voting behavior in Pakistan
In many emerging democracies women are
            less likely to vote than men and, when they do vote, are
            more likely to follow the wishes of household males. The
            authors assess the impact of a voter awareness campaign on
            female turnout and candidate choice. Geographic clusters
            within villages were randomly assigned to treatment or
            control, and within treated clusters, some households were
            left untreated. Compared with women in control clusters,
            both treated and untreated women in treated clusters are 12
            percentage points more likely to vote, and are also more
            likely to exercise independence in candidate choice,
            indicating large spillovers. Data from polling stations
            suggest that treating 10 women increased turnout by about 9
            votes, resulting in a cost per vote of US$ 2.3. Finally, a
            10 percent increase in the share of treated women at the
            polling station led to a 6 percent decrease in the share of
            votes of the winning party.
Disaster risk financing and
            contingent credit : a dynamic analysis
This paper aims to assist policy makers
            interested in establishing or strengthening financial
            strategies to increase the financial response capacity of
            developing country governments in the aftermath of natural
            disasters, while protecting their long-term fiscal balance.
            Contingent credit is shown to increase the ability of
            governments to self-insure by relaxing their short-term
            liquidity constraints. In many situations, contingent credit
            is most effectively used to facilitate risk retention for
            middle layers, with reserves used for bottom layers and risk
            transfer (for example, reinsurance) for top layers.
            Discussions with governments on the optimal use of
            contingent credit instruments as part of a sovereign
            catastrophe risk financing strategy can be guided by the
            output of a dynamic financial analysis model specifically
            developed to allow for the provision of contingent credit,
            in addition to reserves and/or reinsurance. This model is
            illustrated with three country case studies: agricultural
            production risks in India; tropical cyclone risk in Fiji;
            and earthquake risk in Costa Rica.
The success of infrastructure
            projects in low-income countries and the role of selectivity
This research analyzes the success of
            the infrastructure projects financed by the World Bank,
            focusing on the causal link between the quality of project
            implementation and its outcome. The results show that the
            success of infrastructure projects depends fundamentally on
            the quality of implementation. Although bad implementation
            can harm structurally solid projects, good implementation
            cannot make structurally weak projects successful. This
            leads to the conclusion that governance and selection of
            well-designed projects are essential for success and, in
            order to improve project outcomes, multilateral development
            banks may need to align their incentives toward this
            objective and invest more in governance and capacity building.
The silence of corruption :
            identifying underreporting of business corruption through
            randomized response techniques
Research on the economic consequences of
            corruption has been hampered by the inability to directly
            measure corruption. Using an innovative methodology that
            allows respondents to report individual experiences with
            corruption while minimizing self-incrimination and an
            objective diagnostic to evaluate lying (false responses),
            this paper explores the extent of business corruption in
            Bangladesh. The analysis shows that traditional measures of
            corruption underreport the extent of business corruption in
            Bangladesh and existing strategies to evaluate and elicit
            truthful responses have limited effectiveness. The authors
            identify the types of firms that are associated with false
            responses and nonresponses to survey questions on corruption.
Exporting from a small landlocked
            economy : an assessment of firm-product-destination survival
            rates in the Lao PDR
This paper analyzes previously
            unreleased firm-level customs transaction data from the Lao
            PDR in order to assess the determinants of cohort survival
            among exporters. The authors find that export flows in value
            terms are dominated by the intensive margin, with large
            firms continuing to supply the same products to the same
            markets. On the extensive margin, new export spells for
            firms, products and firm-product-destination units are very
            small and short-lived, suggesting that although there is
            significant experimentation and discovery by firms, there is
            only limited capacity to stay in markets once an entry is
            made. Regression analyses of the factors that influence
            survival past the first year reveal that this is positively
            correlated with the initial dollar value (starting big makes
            a difference) and is helped by the firm's experience
            with the product and the destination, but hindered by a lack
            of focus. Agglomeration of exporters in the same destination
            with the same product is beneficial, an effect analogous to
            external economies of scale. The authors conclude by
            recommending that the focus of export promotion activity
            should be on helping existing exporters find and stay in new markets.
The Central African Republic's
            infrastructure : a continental perspective
Between 2000 and 2005, infrastructure
            contributed less than 1 percentage point to the Central
            African Republic's annual per capita GDP growth,
            despite substantial spending in the road sector. Raising the
            country's infrastructure endowment to that of the
            region's middle-income countries could boost annual
            growth by about 3.5 percentage points. The CAR has made
            significant progress in the transport, water, power, and
            information and communications technology (ICT) sectors. But
            the high cost of fuel, which raises transportation and
            energy costs, has been a vexing issue across all
            infrastructure sectors. The CAR's most pressing
            infrastructural challenge lies in the transport sector,
            which relies heavily on neighboring countries and could
            benefit from improved road conditions and enhanced
            performance at the port of Douala in Cameroon. In the power
            sector, the country suffers from a deteriorating
            infrastructure stock that it can no longer afford to
            maintain, and an inefficient and unreliable power supply.
            Additional challenges include a need for improved
            infrastructure in the water and sanitation and ICT sectors.
            Addressing the CAR's infrastructure challenges will
            require sustained expenditure of $346 million per year over
            the next decade. The nation already spends around $134
            million per year on infrastructure, with $37 million a year
            lost to inefficiencies of various kinds. If those
            inefficiencies were fully eliminated, the country's
            annual infrastructure funding gap would be $183 million per
            year. Improvements in funding, coupled with the prospect of
            an economic rebound and prudent policies, could lift the
            country from its fragile state back to and beyond the
            prosperity standards it once enjoyed.
Niger's infrastructure : a
            continental perspective
Between 2000 and 2005 infrastructure
            made a net contribution of less than a third of a percentage
            point to the improved per capita growth performance of
            Niger, one of the lowest contributions in Sub-Saharan
            Africa. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment
            to that of the regions middle-income countries could boost
            annual growth in Niger by about 4.5 percentage points. Niger
            has made significant progress in some areas of its
            infrastructure, including water and telecommunications. But
            the country still faces a number of important infrastructure
            challenges, the most pressing of which is probably in the
            water and sanitation sector, as 82 percent of Nigeriens
            still practice open defecation, the highest in the
            continent. Niger also faces significant challenges in the
            power sector, as only 8 percent of the population is
            electrified. Niger currently spends about $225 million per
            year on infrastructure, leaving an annual funding gap of
            $460 million even after savings from curing inefficiencies
            are taken into account. Niger can close that gap by tapping
            alternative sources of financing or by adopting lower-cost
            technologies. There is plenty of room for private-sector
            participation in Niger's infrastructure sectors, and
            the adoption of lower-cost technologies could reduce the
            funding gap by almost half.