rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
communication comes from a third party, especially if the receiver is unsure of the circumstances under which the migrant is making this decision.

In contrast, it is easier to see how a third party offering the ability to directly send remittances to school to pay for expenses, and to provide monitoring reports on the child’s attendance and progress can add value, since there is no easy way for migrants to do this by themselves. However, this hard form of commitment could be viewed by the recipient as indicating a lack of trust from the migrant, which could have offsetting negative costs for the sender. An additional downside of hard commitments is that they reduce the flexibility of recipients to use remittances for other purposes, for example if health or other emergencies arise.

# **3. Setting, Baseline Sample, and Description of Lab-in-the-Field Experiment**

# _3.1 Setting_

Our experiment was conducted among Filipino workers in Rome, Italy. The Philippines sends workers to a very diverse set of migrant destinations. There are estimated to be approximately 113,000 Filipino migrants in Italy, remitting about US$500 million, on average, back to the Philippines each year in recent years. Education is a key desired use for these remittances, with US$233.5 million of remittances sent in expectation that this would finance the education of a relative (IOM 2010).<sup>1</sup>

# _3.2 EduPay_

We worked with the Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI) and the Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAPSCU) to develop and pilot a new remittance product, called _EduPay_ , that was intended to provide migrant workers with greater ability to control the use of remittances for education. This product allows migrants to channel tuition payments for particular students directly to those students’ educational institutions in the Philippines from a BPI remittance branch in Rome. This mechanism allowed migrants to avoid sending tuition payments via family members or others in the Philippines who might not be completely trusted to make such payments reliably. The

> 1 The remittance data are from Bangko Sentralng Pilipinas (BSP) and consistent with those also reported by IOM (2010).

6
22 Several acid deposition control plans have targeted reductions in NOx emissions in addition to substantial reductions in sulfur dioxide. Furthermore, the ten participating countries at the 1985 International Conference of Ministers on Acid Rain committed to take measures to decrease effectively the total annual emissions of nitrogen oxides from stationary and mobile sources as soon as possible [ICM 1985]. One result has been the recent NOx protocol freezing emissions at 1987 levels by 1994; several European countries have committed to an additional 30% reduction.

# **Lead**

Leaded gasoline is a major source of atmospheric lead in urban areas [Annest et al. 1983]. Several studies have shown that children with high levels of lead accumulated in their baby teeth experience more behavioral problems, lower lQs, and decreased ability to concentrate [Needleman et al. 1979]. A study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences concluded that the evidence was convincing that exposures to levels of lead commonly encountered in urban environments constituted a significant hazard of detrimental biological effects in children, especially those less than three years old. Furthermore, a small fraction of this population experienced particularly intense exposures and was at severe risk [NAS 1980]. More recently, in a study of 249 children from birth to two years of age, it was found that those with prenatal umbilical-cord blood lead levels at or above 10 micrograms per deciliter consistently scored lower on standard intelligence tests [Bellinger et al. 1987]. Evidence of adverse health effects at lower levels of lead continues to grow [Bellinger et al. 1987, USDHHS 1988]. Statistical evidence has been found to link lead in adults to increased incidence of high blood pressure [Schwartz 1983].

# **Other Toxics**

Mobile sources are a potentially significant source of toxic compounts and remain a substantial contributor to the overall health risks associated with air toxics. According to U.S. EPA, mobile sources may be responsible for between 629 and 1874 cancer cases per year in the United States [Wilson 1987]. Substantial improvements in certain toxics, however, have resulted as a by-product of the overall motor vehicle pollution control program, e.g., lower exhaust benzene and polynuclear aromatics (PNAs) from catalysts and lower diesel organics from particulate controls.

The control of exhaust and evaporative hydrocarbons generally lowers toxic emissions as well; catalytic converters tend to selectively eliminate a greater proportion of the more biologically active compounds and therefore are beneficial for toxic control. Metallic fuel additives are not desirable because of potential toxic effects and in some cases carcinogenicity. Alcohol fuel blends are of some benefit in reducing exhaust emissions, but they may actually increase aldehydes, as do neat alcohol fuels. A summary of significant toxics from mobile sources is given below, based on the work of Boyd [1986] and Carhart and Walsh [1987].
14 <!-- Start of picture text --> 100%<br>90%<br>80%<br>70%<br>60%<br>50%<br>40%<br>30%<br>20%<br>10%<br>0%<br>Will be laid off when<br>Work in the private Are more vulnerable to<br>they get married or Men are preferred<br>sector harassment<br>pregnant<br>PB 71% 43% 34% 49%<br>SN 67% 57% 56% 66%<br>BC 63% 34% 28% 46%<br><!-- End of picture text --> Figure 2: Private sector perceptions across different groups <!-- Start of picture text --> .2<br>.1<br>0<br>-.1 Social Empirical<br>Social Normative<br>Personal Belief<br>Counterpart expectation<br>-.2<br>Scatter plot of belief indices on the private sector<br>Women, Public Women, Private Non-working womenMen, working counterpartMen, non-working counterpart<br><!-- End of picture text -->
# **3. New trends in external borrowing: International bond issuances**

## **3.1 External Public Debt Outlook in Sub-Saharan Africa**

Debt in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been on the rise and most of the concerns are focused on the sustainability of public sector net worth. Section 2 shows that the median public debt to GDP ratio in the region increased from 34 percent of GDP in 2013 to about 55 percent in 2018. During this period, general government gross debt increased more than 10 percentage points of GDP for about three-quarters of the countries in the region (32 out of 45 countries) —and, within this group, public debt grew more than 20 percentage points of GDP for 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. The recent debt build-up has culminated in the highest debt-to-GDP ratios since countries in the region received substantial debt relief through programs such as the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

**Figure 9. External Debt Stock in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1990-2016** _(% GNI)_

<!-- Start of picture text --> 70<br>60<br>50<br>40<br>30<br>20<br>10<br>0<br>Private Public<br>1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017<br><!-- End of picture text --> _Note: GNI = Gross national income. Source: The World Bank – World Development Indicators_ When looking at the evolution of external borrowing in Sub-Saharan Africa, the bulk of external debt consists of obligations of public debtors, including the national government, political subdivisions, and autonomous public bodies, and external obligations of private debtors that are 10
OIA informs on how such spending increases or decreases along a set of circumstances that make individuals more likely to enjoy a given opportunity. In doing so, OIA generates a distribution of opportunities by estimating the probability of each individual, given his or her set of circumstances, to access a particular opportunity. In presentational terms, in the same way that the distribution of incomes can be defined by quintiles (deciles or percentiles), the distribution of opportunities is proxied by the probability to access or usage and can be defined also in terms of quintiles of probability.

So, similarly to the mechanics of BIA, OIA is constructed using the following steps: **Step 1** : Approximate the value to consumers/beneficiaries of a public service—typically by equating it to the cost of providing the service.

**Step 2** : Identify all beneficiaries of the service provision.

**Step 3** : Obtain gross unitary benefits, by dividing total benefits (from step 1) among total beneficiaries (from step 2).

**Step 4** : Rank the identified beneficiaries in the household data set according to their distribution of probability of access to a particular opportunity—or by different circumstance groups. The ranking is carried out using a “logit” technique, which estimates the probabilities that different groups of individuals who share a same set of circumstances ( _types_ ) will access a specific opportunity.

**Step 5** : Assign the gross unitary benefit (as obtained in step 3) across the distribution of beneficiaries identified in the household data set and compute the shares of the services that are allocated to different portions of the population. Typically, the unit of analysis is the representative household by quintile of probability quintiles (or by circumstance group).

To calculate net benefits, two more steps are needed:

**Step 6** : Calculate the out-of-pocket household per capita spending from the household data set. **Step 7** : Subtract from the expenditure assigned the benefit, the out-of-pocket household per capita spending. The resulting figure is the net unitary benefit per individual or household after receiving a public service and subtracting their own contributions. The resulting benefit is the measure of transfer truly disposable to the household.

# **2.3 OIA and BIA: A comparison**

An important advantage of incidence methodology—for both OIA and BIA—is the simple and powerful policy message it produces. Results often identify which circumstance group—or socioeconomic group in the case of BIA—benefits the most or how different the estimated distribution fares with respect to the expected distribution based on the statutory conditions of the program. However, conceptually, BIA and OIA rest on strong operational assumptions. The BIA approach assumes that publicly provided services 7
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Policy Research Working Paper 6354

# **Abstract**

This study investigates the impact of key business environment indicators on productivity, innovation, and growth in Sri Lanka through a cluster-level productivity analysis, a firm-level total factor productivity analysis, and a firm-level innovation analysis. For the clusterlevel productivity analysis (as measured by output and value added per worker), it combines two established data sources in a novel way by importing average ‘industry-size-location’ cluster-level business environment variables from the World Bank Enterprise Survey to the comprehensive Sri Lanka Census of Industry productivity data available for similar clusters of enterprises. For the firm-level total factor productivity analysis, it compares data from the 2011 World Bank Enterprise Survey with those from 2004. For the firm-level innovation analysis, it compares findings from the 2011 World Bank Enterprise Survey with a representative sample of enterprises collected as part of the Sri Lanka Longitudinal Survey of Enterprises. The empirical findings highlight the importance—for cluster-level productivity, firmlevel total factor productivity, and innovation—of connectivity to global knowledge (reflected by one or more of export participation, directly imported inputs, foreign ownership, and use of the internet), availability of skills, access to finance, and competition. The paper also presents evidence, under the assumption that the samples are statistically representative, that both allocative and average technical efficiency have improved, with allocative efficiency increasing roughly four-fold between 2003 and 2010, and accounting for the overwhelming share of the aggregate increase in total factor productivity over this time period. Most of the improvement in allocative efficiency has occurred among larger firms, and in large rather than small cities.

This paper is a product of the Economic Policy and Debt Department, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http:// econ.worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at mdutz@worldbank.org@worldbank.org.

_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 views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent._ Produced by the Research Support Team
|(_Junta de Gobierno_)|implementing the Assembly’s policies and decisions, and for<br>general maintenance and monitoring. One member is<br>appointed asTreasurer.|
|---|---|
|Irrigation Court (_Jurado_<br>_de riego_)|It judges conflicts that may arise between users, imposes<br>sanctions and defines compensations. Its practice is largely<br>based oncustomaryrules.|

# Source: Giansante (2000).

Water management methods vary substantially across irrigation communities. Some are quite modern, with pressure and drip irrigation system and electronic metering of use down to the individual farm level. Others operate aging gravity-flow systems and still allocate water based on area under cultivation, providing little incentive for farmers to conserve water or upgrade technology.

A common point among several irrigation communities is their membership in a basinwide association. The Guadalquivir Irrigation Farmers Union _(Federación de Regantes del Guadalquivir_ ), now known as Feragua, was created in 1994 and includes 85 irrigation communities in the basin. Its member communities tend to be among the larger ones in the basin, and together cover 240,000 hectares. Feragua’s purpose is to present a unified position to CH Guadalquivir and CA Andalucia on irrigation communities’ interests and concerns.

Feragua has gained in influence within CH Guadalquivir by coordinating the participation and influence of the irrigation communities. Feragua provides a forum in which irrigation communities decide upon their choices for the many irrigation positions on CH boards and commissions. Most important decisions of CH Guadalquivir are taken by consensus, so unity among irrigators can influence CH decisions in the direction favored by Feragua members.

# <u>Urban water suppliers</u>

Organizations for municipal water services in Spain—drinking water supply, sanitation and wastewater treatment, etc.—are more varied than the irrigation communities. Water services may be performed directly by the city or town, or indirectly through other arrangements. Direct management typically involves water or wastewater service provided by public utilities owned entirely by a municipality or regional government, inter-communal associations (a group of several municipal authorities), or consortia (which can include provincial or regional government involvement in addition to local councils). Indirect management is based on services being contracted out, typically to a private enterprise, with the three most common systems being mixed enterprises, concessions, and leasing.<sup>7</sup> An example of one type in the Guadalquivir basin is the large public utility EMASESA ( _Empresa Municipal de Aguas de Sevilla, SA._ ) which serves the city of Sevilla plus eleven surrounding municipalities. Another type is represented by Consortio

> 7  In recent years many water supply systems have been transferred to some form of private management; private companies participate in water service provision in about 10% of Spanish municipalities, containing about 36% of the population.

17
<!-- Start of picture text --> uo<br>Bae<br>Ps e<br>a bs a a oe = Ps =—f#<br>os °<br>i]<br>tn i<br>oe<br>*<br>es o<br>° .<br>o s s ] t<br>hat<br>my<br>SE ———————————————<br>2000 2005 2010 2015<br>Year<br>Other ECA countries ® Armenia<br>® Georgia<br><!-- End of picture text --> Source: Adopted from ECATSD calculations using ECAPO'Y and EUSILC data. Note: Aggregate: gallT (food + nonfood consumption + durables + rene + health expenditure) using ECAP OY harmonization (for more details please see ECATSD, 2014). Income is used in selected ECCUS countries (EUSILC; survey period of reference for income is used to idencify che spell). For more information on the underlying microdata used please wisit the hitpollccacataporral!. Vintage: April 18, 2017
level of safety) are not as well addressed by decentralized units of government, as they are when the decisions with respect to safety are centralized.

Direct user charges (independent of federal taxes on fuel) have been increasing over time at a rate of about DM 47 million per year. After controlling for time and statefixed effects, we see that the more local governments per GDP in a state, the higher the share of direct user charges. This result is consistent with the assumption that when the provision of public services is decentralized (fiscally and functionally as in the case of Germany) the local units of government raise more revenues from direct user charges than from general taxes.

**Table 15: Impact of Number of Local Governments in Resource Costs in Germany**

|Variable|State Level Un|it Costs ($/km)|District Level U|nit Costs ($/km)|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Maintenance|Construction|Maintenance|Construction|
|year|;0(1||||
|# local governments<br>per GDP|<br>0.0002<br>(1.24)**|.<br>(|0.0006<br>(1.41)*|-0.001<br>(-1.29)**|
|Schleswigholstein|-0.002|0.005|!<br>)J§<br>4|-0.012|
||(-1.30)*|<br>(1.1I9)|<br>(3O)(-1.|06)|
|Niedersachsen|0.**0**0<br>I .08<br>3)|..**...**||)|
|Nordrheinwestfalen|-0.0007<br>(-0.64)|0.0008<br>(0.29)|-<br>-|.<br>--|
|Hessen|10-0.002||||
||(5.760-.3||(-0.66)(-29||
|Rheinlandpfal|00<br>04|-<br>2|-0.002|0|
||_1~.45)*_|35)(-0.34)||(<br>7|
|Saarland||||-<br>007|
|Badenwurttemberg|..<br>(~~~~~-1.3|-0.003<br>3)|....<br>-|<br>0.002<br>(0.43)|
|constant<br>-||1.04||5|
|R-square|0.78|0.91|0.82|0.75|
|Observations|103|103|103|103|

Shaded coefficients significant at the 90% level of confidence.

* significant at the 85% level of confidence.

** significant at the 80% level of confidence.

The GDP per capita variable was dropped as the measure of depth of decentralization is a ratio of the number of local governments per state GDP.

36
require exit from the labor force (e.g., McGeary, 2009). To gauge the potential importance of these factors in China, Indonesia and Korea we next estimate model (3) below: where _LS_  _i_ is an indicator or whether or not a spouse is employed, and **ADL**  _i_ are measures of spouse health status. As the labor supply decisions of husbands and wives are likely to be determined jointly and have a dynamic relationship with health and shocks to health and employment, we view these models as purely descriptive but informative of the extent to which joint labor supply decisions may affect the timing of retirement. As the HRS-type surveys mature into full panel studies, it will be feasible to control for unobservables and to unlock directions of causality among these variables.<sup>28</sup>

# **Determinants of “Retirement” in China, Indonesia and Korea**

**_Employment and Pension Availability_ .** Descriptive patterns of employment in productive activity across urban and rural areas of China, Indonesia and Korea (Figure 5) are suggestive of the role that eligibility for a pension may play in retirement of older workers and elderly. In these figures, the line shows the share of population in two-year age cohorts that is employed in some productive activity (salaried work, informal sector wage labor, casual work, self-employed activities or unpaid employment in family-run enterprises) and the bars represent the pension eligible share. In urban China, the employed share decreases sharply with increases in the pension-eligible share. In rural areas of China, one does not observe a similar decline in employment, and shares of workers with access to pensions are quite low. In Indonesia and Korea, where pension coverage rates at young ages are lower than for urban China, one observes

> 28In estimating (2) and (3), it should be noted that for each country there are subsamples of the population for which there is no spouse or for which spouse information is not available, and this may lead us to concerns about biases introduced by selection into marriage. In the models presented in this paper, we have handled this problem by including indicator variables for marital status and for absence of spouse information, and then set spouse information to zero for those observations in which no data on a spouse are available (for ADL z-scores, of course, this corresponds to the mean). We have also estimated these models on the subset of the data for which we have information on both spouses. We take comfort in the fact that there is no appreciable difference in the coefficients of interest across models using the full sample and the one estimated on married couples with spouse information.

18
13 risks at **alj.,*** 2 Table 4 presents the results of Mesa-Lago's (1986) study of social security coverage in Latin America. 3 For the most part extent of coverage varies directly with per-capita income, although the countries of northern South America and Central America have lower coverage than countries of comparable income further south. Several higher-income countries provide more extensive coverage for sickness and maternity benefits than for pensions. Among the lower-income countries sickness and maternity benefits are available less widely than pensions.

Unfortunately there are (apparently) no comparable studies for other developing countries. Brief, sometimes imprecise descriptions of the covered population are, however, provided in the United States Social Security Administration's biennial report Social Security Programs Throughout the World. These descriptions make it clear that there are substantial restrictions even on the extent of coverage of urban wage labor in (among our sample of developing countries) Ghana, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, and Singapore. 4 In these cases only larger employers or a limited range of industries are covered. In many other of our sample countries, social security does not apply to domestic workers or casual workers. Family workers - usually a substantial portion of urban (as well as - rural) workers are seldom covered. The urban self-employed are covered in Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, Portugal, and Yugoslavia; they are also covered voluntarily or in a limited range of occupations