rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Measuring up - new directions for
            environmental programs at the World Bank
The World Bank's new environment
            strategy advocates cost-effective reduction of air and water
            pollutants that are most harmful to human health. In
            addition, it addresses threats to the livelihood of over one
            billion people who live on fragile lands-lands that are
            steeply sloped, arid, or covered by natural forests. The new
            approach will require accurate information about
            environmental threats to health and livelihood, as well as
            an appropriate resource-allocation strategy. Drawing on
            recent research at the World Bank and elsewhere, this paper
            attempts to apply an optimal investment approach. It
            develops a rule for optimal cross-country resource
            allocation that reflects the Bank's investment policy.
            Using this rule, the paper estimates optimal country shares
            of the Bank's environmental investments from two sets
            of variables: threats from outdoor air pollution, water
            pollution, and fragile lands; and estimates of the
            likelihood that Bank projects will succeed. The paper
            combines the country shares with the Bank's investment
            data to estimate optimal country allocations for each
            environmental problem. Finally, it aggregates the country
            results to allocations for the major regions in which the
            Bank operates. Combining optimal investments for pollution
            and fragile lands, it finds that the largest share of total
            investment goes to East Asia (44 percent), followed by South
            Asia (21 percent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (19 percent). Other
            regions get significantly lower shares.
Further evidence on the link between
            finance and growth : an international analysis of community
            banking and economic performance
The authors contribute to both the
            finance-growth literature and the community banking
            literature by testing the effects of the relative health of
            community banks on economic growth, and investigating
            potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using
            data from 1993-2000 on 49 nations. Data from both industrial
            and developing nations suggest that greater market shares
            and efficiency ranks of small, private, domestically-owned
            banks are associated with better economic performance, and
            that the marginal benefits of higher shares are greater when
            the banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found
            for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved
            financing for small and medium enterprises or greater
            overall bank credit flows. Data from developing nations are
            also consistent with favorable economic effects of
            foreign-owned banks, but unfavorable effects from
            state-owned banks.
Does strict employment protection
            discourage job creation Evidence from Croatia
Employment protection legislation in
            Croatia is among the most strict in Europe. Firing is
            difficult and costly, and flexible forms of employment are
            limited. Is this apparent rigidity reflected-as one would
            expect based on standard economic theory-in low labor market
            dynamics? Is job creation low and hiring limited? Is the job
            security of insiders achieved at the cost of outsiders not
            being able to enter the labor market? The author attempts to
            answer these questions by examining job flows. If the
            employment protection legislation is binding, then job and
            worker turnover should be low. He shows that this is indeed
            the case. Hiring is limited and the average job tenure is
            very long in Croatia. Job destruction is low, however job
            creation is still lower. The result is accumulation of
            unemployment, in large part due to new labor market entrants
            not being able to find a job. The high degree of job
            protection also seems to strengthen the bargaining position
            of insiders and results in relatively high wages. So, wages
            in Croatia are higher than among its competitors, even after
            adjusting for productivity. These high labor costs are
            likely to contribute to limited job creation in existing
            firms, but also are likely to discourage the entry of-and
            thus job creation in-new firms. The author presents evidence
            that firm growth has been indeed limited in Croatia,
            contributing to the low employment level. The author
            examines other potential causes of high unemployment in
            Croatia (the unemployment benefit system, labor taxation,
            the wage structure, and skill and spatial mismatches). He
            argues that they do not play a substantial part in
            accounting for poor labor market outcomes in Croatia. The
            author concludes that the stringent employment protection
            legislation is the key labor market institution behind low
            job creation and high unemployment. Based on this he
            recommends specific measures aimed at liberalizing the labor
            market to foster job creation and employment.
Investing in infrastructure : what
            is needed from 2000 to 2010
The authors estimate demand for
            infrastructure services over the first decade of the new
            millennium based on a model that relates demand for
            infrastructure with the structural change and growth in
            income the world is expected to undergo between now and
            2010. It should be noted that predictions are based on
            estimated demand rather than on any absolute measure of
            "need" such as those developed in the Millenium
            Development Goals. The authors also provide estimates of
            associated investment and maintenance expenditures and
            predict total required resource flows to satisfy new demand
            while maintaining service for existing infrastructure.
What drives bank competition some
            international evidence
Using bank-level data, the authors apply
            the Panzar and Rosse (1987) methodology to estimate the
            extent to which changes in input prices are reflected in
            revenues earned by specific banks in 50 countries'
            banking systems. They then relate this competitiveness
            measure to indicators of countries' banking system
            structures and regulatory regimes. The authors find systems
            with greater foreign bank entry and fewer entry and activity
            restrictions to be more competitive. They find no evidence
            that the competitiveness measure negatively relates to
            banking system concentration. Their findings confirm that
            contestability determines effective competition, especially
            by allowing (foreign) bank entry and reducing activity
            restrictions on banks.
Dollarization of the banking system
            : good or bad
De Nicol� Honohan, and Ize assess the
            benefits and risks associated with dollarization of the
            banking system. The authors provide novel empirical evidence
            on the determinants of dollarization, its role in promoting
            financial development, and on whether dollarization is
            associated with financial instability. They find that: The
            credibility of macroeconomic policy and the quality of
            institutions are both key determinants of cross-country
            variations in dollarization. Dollarization is likely to
            promote financial deepening only in a high inflation
            environment. Financial instability is likely higher in
            dollarized economies. The authors discuss the implications
            of these findings for financial sector and monetary policies.
Production and cost functions and
            their application to the port sector : a literature survey
Seaports provide multiple services to
            ships, cargo, and passengers. These services can be
            performed by a combination of public and private
            initiatives. Usually, the role of public sector institutions
            is to regulate and supervise private firms. In performing
            that task public sector institutions require in-depth
            knowledge of firms' cost structure. This paper offers a
            review of the literature about ports' cost structure
            and of its implications for regulation. The paper argues
            that the operation of port terminals should be analyzed by
            means of multiproduct theory. This approach allows the
            calculation of several cost indicators (economies of scale,
            scope, and so forth) which are key tools to help regulators.
Policy research on migration and development
This is a survey and analysis-with
            commentary-of migration issues and the related development
            policies for the sending countries. "Migration and
            development" is considered an unsettled and unresolved
            area for good reason. The policy issues are surprisingly
            deep and run to basic issues such as the nature of
            development as opposed to simple poverty reduction.
            North-north migration (between industrial countries),
            south-south migration (between or within developing
            countries), and north-south migration (from developing to
            industrial countries) are all covered although the paper
            focuses on the north-south variety. Attention is paid to the
            question of the dynamic mechanism underlying migration being
            one of convergence or divergence. Very often the policy
            issues push one outside what would be narrowly considered as
            "migration studies." For example, policies to
            reduce the brain drain go directly to the issue of
            educational reform in developing countries while policies to
            increase the developmental impact of remittances quickly
            carry one into the nature of business development itself.
            Ronald Dore's ideas on educational reform are outlined
            as a policy approach to the brain drain problem. Jane
            Jacobs' ideas on development are outlined in greater
            length as they are little known in development economics and
            yet directly address the policy issues raised by migration
            and development.
The impact of structural reforms on
            poverty : a simple methodology with extensions
Structural reforms are often designed to
            change the prices of key goods and services. Since the
            overall intention of such reforms is the reduction of
            poverty, it is important to understand how the resulting
            price changes affect the poor. However, organizations
            seeking to provide timely advice to policymakers in
            developing countries often do not have the data and
            resources needed to undertake the most sophisticated
            approaches to such analysis. McCulloch outlines a simple
            methodology based on the analysis of household survey data
            to estimate the first-order impact of a variety of
            structural reforms. He also elaborates on the ways in which
            this methodology may be extended in a flexible way to
            account for particular features of a country in question.
            Finally, he outlines the direction of some extensions on the
            approach to tackle dynamics, risk, and qualitative poverty analysis.
Social sector expenditures and
            rainy-day funds
Gonzalez and Paqueo examine the effects
            of budget stabilization funds--often called rainy-day
            funds--on the volatility of social spending and, for
            contrast, on nonsocial sector spending. They analyze the
            rainy-day funds of U.S. states. The authors find that
            rainy-day funds are ineffective in reducing the volatility
            of nonsocial sector expenditures but are effective in
            reducing the volatility of social sector expenditures. The
            authors also find that states that have stringent deposit
            and withdrawal rules have higher rainy-day fund balances,
            and thus are more effective in reducing the volatility of
            social sector expenditures. Finally, for long-term
            effectiveness, stabilization funds depend obviously on
            sustained economic growth.
Regional integration and technology
            diffusion : the case of the North America free trade agreement
The literature on regional integration
            agreements (RIAs) is vast and deals with political,
            economic, and political economy issues. The literature on
            the economics of RIAs deals mostly with static effects, and
            concludes that these effects are, in general, ambiguous. So
            far there has been no empirical analysis of the dynamic
            effects of RIAs based on their impact on technology
            diffusion from partner and nonpartner countries. Schiff and
            Wang's paper is a first attempt in this direction. The
            authors examine the impact of the North America Free Trade
            Agreement (NAFTA) on total factor productivity in Mexico
            through its impact on trade-related technology transfers
            from OECD countries. They estimate trade-related technology
            diffusion by using a measure of trade-related foreign
            research and development (R&D). Foreign R&D is
            constructed based on industry-specific R&D in the OECD,
            OECD-Mexico trade patterns, and input-output relations in
            Mexico. The authors find that: Mexico's trade with its
            NAFTA partners had a large and significant impact on
            Mexico's total factor productivity, while trade with
            the rest of the OECD did not. Simulating the impact of NAFTA
            has led to a permanent increase in total factor productivity
            in Mexico's manufacturing sector of between 5.5 percent
            and 7.5 percent and to some convergence with the economies
            of Canada and the United States.
Institutional reform and the
            judiciary : which way forward
The author presents some general lessons
            in institution-building that has relevance for judiciary
            reform. She emphasizes the value of simplicity in design
            commensurate with country capacity, the importance of
            innovation and experimentation, and of economic openness in
            effective institution-building. The author underscores how
            the incentives of individuals depend on both the details of
            institutional design within the judiciary and also some
            critical institutions external to the judiciary. Finally she
            argues for the need to ground reform initiatives on a solid
            empirical and comparative approach. The author illustrates
            some of these issues by drawing on a recent project
            conducted by the World Bank and other institutions.
Restoring economic growth in Argentina
The author reviews the debate on the
            causes of Argentina�s economic collapse in late 2001 and
            2002 and examines the measures needed to help restore
            sustainable growth. Some analysts stress fiscal imbalances,
            others overvaluation of the peso under the convertibility
            plan, and others external shocks. Cline judges that all
            three contributed substantially, but that it was their
            inflammatory interaction with domestic political unraveling
            that forced the bad-equilibrium outcome. He reviews the
            nascent recovery since the second half of 2002 and the
            important success of avoiding hyperinflation. Looking
            forward, the author�s analysis underscores the importance of
            strengthening fiscal performance, in part by increasing
            relatively low collections of value added taxes. He stresses
            the need for reform of the system of revenue sharing with
            the provinces; the importance of strengthening the banking
            system, which was severely weakened by asymmetric conversion
            of assets and liabilities from dollars to pesos; and the
            need to arrive at equitable restructuring of utility tariffs
            to reestablish confidence of foreign direct investors in the
            rules of the game. Restructuring government debt is also
            central to restoring growth. A simple model indicates that a
            relatively ambitious target for the primary fiscal surplus
            and a restricted set of senior-status debt will be needed to
            limit the haircut on junior debt to amounts compatible with
            longer-term creditor perceptions of fairness. The author
            also considers the new dynamics of bargaining with the
            International Monetary Fund (IMF). He judges that although
            conditionality is arguably appropriately less stringent as
            only rollover is involved, and despite the large outstanding
            debt to the IMF, there are limits to how lenient the Fund
            can and should be in key areas with potential for setting
            international precedents.
Human capital and earnings
            inequality in Brazil, 1988-98 : quantile regression evidence
The authors undertake an empirical
            examination of rates of return to human capital for men in
            Brazil, through the period of macroeconomic stabilization
            and trade liberalization, using data from the 1988, 1992,
            and 1998 Brazilian household surveys (Pesquisa Nacional por
            Amostra de Domic�os, PNAD). The authors estimate
            simultaneous quantile equations to gain an insight on the
            impact of human capital on wages across the hourly earnings
            distribution. They conclude that there is evidence of
            growing inequality in rates of return to education in
            Brazil. But the authors find evidence that education is no
            longer used as a screening device in the labor market, but
            rather rewarded for its innate association with higher
            productivity. Although increases in rates of return to
            education have been more pronounced at the top of the
            earnings distribution, this has not led to increased
            inequality. This is because the levels of education and
            other labor market-rewarded endowments have increased and
            offset the rate of return effect.
Gender wage differentials in Brazil
            : trends over a turbulent era
Since the late 1980s, macroeconomic and
            trade reform in Brazil appears to have been accompanied by a
            substantial improvement in the position of women compared
            with men in the labor market, despite only modest changes to
            labor market institutions. The authors examine movements in
            the gender wage gap from 1988 to 1998. Their findings
            indicate that, over this period, the gender wage gap fell
            mainly because of reduced discrimination against women. But
            the authors find evidence to suggest that, more recently,
            since the elimination of high inflation, human capital
            investments and other earnings-related enhancements have
            begun to improve women's condition.
Does judicial efficiency lower the
            cost of credit:
The authors investigate the effect of
            judicial efficiency on banks' lending spreads for a
            large cross section of countries. They measure bank interest
            rate spreads for 106 countries at an aggregate level, and
            for 32 countries at the level of individual banks. The
            authors find that-after controlling for a number of other
            country characteristics-judicial efficiency, in addition to
            inflation, is the main driver of interest rate spreads
            across countries. This suggests that in addition to
            improving the overall macroeconomic climate in a country,
            judicial reforms, through a better enforcement of legal
            contracts, are critical to lowering the cost of financial
            intermediation for households and firms.
On the use of transparent formulae
            to allocate federal education transfers
One of the key questions that arise in
            discussions of education decentralization, is how federal
            education resources should be allocated among the various
            states, and within states, among communities or schools. In
            general, there are two approaches: (1) bilateral
            negotiations between the federal government and states with
            little transparency as to the rules, and (2) formula-based
            distribution. The authors show that, based on econometric
            analysis on federal education transfers data in Mexico, the
            former approach can lead to allocation results that appear
            contrary to stated policy objectives like equity improvement
            and greater social inclusion in education. The authors then
            argue that contrary to common belief, the use of capitation,
            or per student allocation can improve not only efficiency
            but also equity. They present a theoretical model to analyze
            this hypothesis. The authors discuss several variations of
            the capitation formula, and present an analysis of the
            characteristics of the winners, and losers of their
            application, using Mexico as an illustration.
Direct support to private firms -
            evidence on effectiveness
Governments use a variety of instruments
            to provide direct support to private enterprises. These
            include the provision of finance (subsidized and/or directed
            credit) and business development services (management and
            marketing advice to small businesses, agricultural extension
            services, support for enterprise level training and support
            to technology development). These interventions are distinct
            from those that support enterprises indirectly by
            establishing a policy and legal environment conducive to
            enterprise development. How effective have these direct
            support schemes been? This paper attempts to provide some
            answers to this question by surveying the available
            literature on the effectiveness of direct support
            interventions. Where available, impact evaluations suggest
            that the performance has been mixed at best. The evidence
            indicates that active intervention does not work unless the
            basic environment for private sector development is sound.
            Public policy thus needs to focus on creating an enabling
            environment, key elements of which include a sound legal and
            judicial system which supports low-cost contract
            enforcement, good infrastructure, a policy playing field
            which is level in terms of ease of registration, taxes and
            investment incentives for all enterprises-large and small,
            domestic and foreign.