rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Firm location and the determinants
            of exporting in developing countries
Using a cross-section of more than
            40,000 manufacturing and services firms in 79 developing
            countries from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys
            Database, this paper assesses how firm location determines
            the likelihood and extent of exporting in developing
            countries. Descriptive statistics confirm higher export
            participation (but not intensity) for firms in core versus
            non-core regions, despite the finding that firms in the core
            assess many aspects of the investment climate more
            negatively. Results from a probit model show that, in
            addition to firm-specific characteristics, both regional
            investment climate and agglomeration factors have a
            significant impact on export participation. Specifically,
            customs clearance and electricity quality matter for export
            participation for manufacturing firms. Although localization
            economies and export spillovers are associated with
            increased exporting, the opposite is found for urbanization
            economies for both manufacturing and services firms. The
            analysis finds that firm-level determinants of exporting
            matter more for firms located in non-core regions, while
            regional determinants and agglomeration economies play a
            larger role in core regions. The findings point to the
            presence of congestion costs in the core, and suggest that
            policy interventions to target export participation are
            likely to have a greater impact if they are focused on core
            regions over non-core regions, where firm-specific factors
            predominate. Moreover, the importance of export spillovers
            and localization economies highlights the potential value of
            efforts to remove barriers to natural agglomeration both in
            core and non-core regions, for example through investments
            in infrastructure, the provision of social services, and
            regional integration arrangements.
Framing local conflict and justice
            in Bangladesh
The institutional landscape of local
            dispute resolution in Bangladesh is rich: it includes the
            traditional process of shalish, longstanding and impressive
            civil society efforts to improve on shalish, and a somewhat
            less-explored provision for gram adalat or village courts.
            Based on a nationally representative survey, qualitative
            evidence from focus groups, and a telephone survey of 40
            Union Parishad chairpersons (a little less than 1 percent of
            the total Union Parishads), it provides both an empirical
            mapping of local conflict and justice and pointers to
            possible policy reforms. It suggests a number of
            opportunities for strengthening local justice and argues
            that the village courts may pose a useful bridge between
            Bangladesh's informal and formal justice institutions.
The impact of economics blogs
There is a proliferation of economics
            blogs, with increasing numbers of economists attracting
            large numbers of readers, yet little is known about the
            impact of this new medium. Using a variety of experimental
            and non-experimental techniques, this study quantifies some
            of their effects. First, links from blogs cause a striking
            increase in the number of abstract views and downloads of
            economics papers. Second, blogging raises the profile of the
            blogger (and his or her institution) and boosts their
            reputation above economists with similar publication
            records. Finally, a blog can transform attitudes about some
            of the topics it covers.
Does expanding health insurance
            beyond formal-sector workers encourage informality measuring
            the impact of Mexico's Seguro Popular
Seguro Popular was introduced in 2002 to
            provide health insurance to the 50 million Mexicans without
            Social Security. This paper tests whether the program has
            had unintended consequences, distorting workers'
            incentives to operate in the informal sector. The analysis
            examines the impact of Seguro Popular on disaggregated labor
            market decisions, taking into account that program coverage
            depends not only on the individual's employment status,
            but also that of other household members. The identification
            strategy relies on the variation in Seguro Popular's
            rollout across municipalities and time, with the
            difference-in-difference estimation controlling for
            household fixed effects. The paper finds that Seguro Popular
            lowers formality by 0.4-0.7 percentage points, with
            adjustments largely occurring within a few years of the
            program's introduction. Rather than encouraging exit
            from the formal sector, Seguro Popular is associated with a
            3.1 percentage point reduction (a 20 percent decline) in the
            inflow of workers into formality. Income effects are also
            apparent, with significantly decreased flows out of
            unemployment and lower labor force participation. The impact
            is larger for those with less education, in larger
            households, and with someone else in the household
            guaranteeing Social Security coverage. However, workers pay
            for part of these benefits with lower wages in the informal sector.
Managing financial integration and
            capital mobility -- policy lessons from the past two decades
The accumulated experience of emerging
            markets over the past two decades has laid bare the tenuous
            links between external financial integration and faster
            growth, on the one hand, and the proclivity of such
            integration to fuel costly crises on the other. These crises
            have not gone without learning. During the 1990s and 2000s,
            emerging markets converged to the middle ground of the
            policy space defined by the macroeconomic trilemma, with
            growing financial integration, controlled exchange rate
            flexibility, and proactive monetary policy. The OECD
            countries moved much faster toward financial integration,
            embracing financial liberalization, opting for a common
            currency in Europe, and for flexible exchange rates in other
            OECD countries.  Following their crises of 1997-2001,
            emerging markets added financial stability as a goal,
            self-insured by building up international reserves, and
            adopted a public finance approach to financial integration.
            The global crisis of 2008-2009, which originated in the
            financial sector of advanced economies, meant that the OECD
            "overshot" the optimal degree of financial
            deregulation while the remarkable resilience of the emerging
            markets validated their public finance approach to financial
            integration. The story is not over: with capital flowing in
            droves to emerging markets once again, history could repeat
            itself without dynamic measures to manage capital mobility
            as part of a comprehensive prudential regulation effort.
Improvements in the World
            Bank's ease of doing business rankings : do they
            translate into greater foreign direct investment inflows
The World Bank's Ease of Doing
            Business reports have been ranking countries since 2006.
            However, do improvements in rankings generate greater
            foreign direct investment inflows? This study is the first
            to test such a proposition empirically with Arellano-Bond
            dynamic panel estimators using the official rankings from
            2006 to 2009. The paper shows this relationship is
            significant for the average country. However, when the
            sample is restricted to developing countries, the results
            suggest an improved ranking has, on average, an
            insignificant (albeit positive) influence on foreign direct
            investment inflows. Although robust, this result should be
            taken with caution given that it refers to the average
            developing country using data across a four-year time
            period. Finally, the paper demonstrates that, on average,
            countries that undertake large-scale reforms relative to
            other countries do not necessarily attract greater foreign
            direct investment inflows. This analysis may have important
            ramifications for developing country governments wanting to
            improve their Doing Business Rankings in the hope of
            attracting foreign direct investment inflows.
Ripe for a big bang assessing the
            political feasibility of legislative reforms in the
            Philippines' local government code
In the Philippines' highly
            decentralized political system, smooth functioning of
            inter-governmental relations is key to effective service
            delivery and good governance overall. Although considered a
            milestone, the 1991 Local Government Code, the
            Philippines' basic legislation governing
            inter-governmental relations, contains provisions that
            thwart vertical and horizontal resource equalization among
            local government units, and contributes to mismatch between
            expenditure assignments and the fiscal capacities of the
            local government units. Numerous technical reports have
            called for adjustments to the existing revenue and
            expenditure assignments, yet no tangible progress has been
            made. This paper assesses the prospects of legislative
            reforms on the revenue side of the decentralization
            framework. Using a variety of approaches ranging from a
            historical analysis to institutional analysis of the
            legislative dynamics in the Philippine congress, it assesses
            the prospects of a major overhaul of the Local Government
            Code and concludes that a significant reform is highly
            unlikely under the conditions prevailing in the late 2010s.
            By implication, any effort to improve the Philippines'
            inter-governmental framework will have to settle for
            sub-optimal incremental measures within the inefficient
            revenue assignment arrangement.
Service Export sophistication and
            Europe's new growth model
Technology has changed the nature of
            service activities and made them more productive, tradable
            and fragmented in the global supply chain. Has Europe's
            growth been benefiting from the ongoing globalization of
            services? Services dominate growth in EU-15 countries and,
            to a lesser extent, in New Member States (NMS) and Accession
            (ACC) countries. Except in the ACC region, Europe has
            maintained specialization in service exports. Service
            productivity, tradability, and exports of modern services
            are high in EU-15, growing fast in NMS while at a lower pace
            in ACC. Service export sophistication is important for
            growth across the region, but especially in NMS.
Cargo dwell time in Durban : lessons
            for Sub-Saharan African ports
Based on quantitative and qualitative
            data, this paper attempts to identify the main reasons why
            cargo dwell time in Durban port has dramatically reduced in
            the past decade to a current average of 3-4 days. A major
            customs reform; changes in port storage tariffs coupled with
            strict enforcement; massive investments in infrastructure
            and equipment; and changing customer behavior through
            contractualization between the port operator and shipping
            lines or between customs, importers, and brokers have all
            played a major role. The main lesson for Sub-Saharan Africa
            that can be drawn from Durban is that cargo dwell time is
            mainly a function of the characteristics of the private
            sector, but it is the onus of public sector players, such as
            customs and the port authority, to put pressure on the
            private sector to make more efficient use of the port and
            reduce cargo dwell time.
Assessing the direct economic
            effects of reallocating irrigation water to alternative uses
            : concepts and an application
Irrigation water reallocations are
            playing an increasingly important role in both developed and
            developing countries. With growing urban and environmental
            water demands, rising costs for the development of new water
            supplies, and irrigated agriculture usually including the
            least economically valuable use of water, transfers of
            irrigation water to alternative uses are increasing.
            However, such reallocations are often controversial, and it
            is often questioned whether the benefits resulting from
            these transactions are large enough to outweigh the
            associated costs. This paper reviews the experience with
            irrigation water transfers, including the involvement of the
            World Bank. It discusses the problems of assessing the
            direct economic effects of reallocations, with a focus on
            the foregone direct benefits in irrigated agriculture.
            Because foregone direct benefits cannot easily be directly
            observed, they need to be estimated. However, assessments
            have shown widely differing estimates -- even when the same
            methodology was used. The paper reviews the methodologies
            and model specifications used for estimating foregone direct
            benefits; illustrates the impact of different model
            specifications on the magnitude of estimates of foregone
            direct benefits based on an application in an example case;
            and draws conclusions with regard to future efforts in
            assessing reallocation effects, including calculating
            adequate compensation for farmers. Because estimating the
            direct benefits of irrigation expansion is methodologically
            equivalent to estimating foregone direct benefits from
            reduced irrigation water supplies, the findings have
            implications for a broader range of water allocation decisions.
Unpacking the causal chain of
            financial literacy
A growing body of literature examines
            the causal impact of financial literacy on individual,
            household, and firm level outcomes. This paper unpacks the
            mechanism of impact by focusing on the first link in the
            causal chain. Specifically, it studies the experimental
            impact of financial literacy on three distinct dimensions of
            financial knowledge. The analysis finds that financial
            literacy does not immediately enable individuals to discern
            costs and rewards that require high numeracy skills, but it
            does significantly improve basic awareness of financial
            choices and attitudes toward financial decisions. Monetary
            incentives do not induce better performance, suggesting
            cognitive constraints rather than lack of attention are a
            key barrier to improving financial knowledge. These results
            illuminate the strengths and limitations of financial
            literacy training, which can inform the design and
            anticipated effects of such programs.
Do Phoenix miracles exist firm-level
            evidence from financial crises
This paper provides empirical evidence
            on firm recoveries from financial system collapses in
            developing countries (systemic sudden stops episodes), and
            compares them with the experience in the United States in
            the 2008 financial crisis. Prior research found that
            economies recover from systemic sudden stop episodes before
            the financial sector. These recoveries are called Phoenix
            miracles, and the research questioned the role of the
            financial system in recovery. Although an average of the
            macro data across a sample of systemic sudden stop episodes
            over the 1990s appears consistent with the notion of Phoenix
            recoveries, closer inspection reveals heterogeneity of
            responses across the countries, with only a few countries
            fitting the pattern. Micro data show that across countries,
            only a small fraction (less than 31 percent) of firms follow
            a pattern of recovery in sales without a recovery in
            external credit, and even these firms have access to
            external sources of cash. The experience of firms in the
            United States during the 2008 financial crisis also suggests
            no evidence of credit-less recoveries. An examination of the
            dynamics of firms' financing, investment and payout
            policies during recovery periods shows that far from being
            constrained, the firms in the sample are able to access
            long-term financing, issue equity, and significantly expand
            their cash holdings.
Equilibrium parallel import policies
            and international market structure
In a North-South vertically
            differentiated duopoly, the analysis in this paper derives
            equilibrium government policies towards parallel imports. By
            incorporating strategic interaction at the policy-setting
            stage and the product market, the model sheds new light on
            (i) the effects of parallel import policies on pricing
            behavior of firms and (ii) the interdependence of national
            parallel import policies. If demand asymmetry across
            countries is sufficiently large, the North forbids parallel
            imports to ensure its firm sells in the South thereby
            generating international price discrimination -- the
            South's most preferred market outcome -- as the
            equilibrium. When demand structures are relatively similar
            across countries, the North permits parallel imports and
            uniform pricing -- its most preferred market outcome -- obtains.
Is small beautiful financial
            structure, size and access to finance
Combining two unique data sets, this
            paper explores the relationship between the relative
            importance of different financial institutions and their
            average size and firms' access to financial services.
            Specifically, the authors explore the relationship between
            the share in total financial assets and average asset size
            of banks, low-end financial institutions, and specialized
            lenders, on the one hand, and firms' access to and use
            of deposit and lending services, on the other hand. Two
            findings stand out. First, the dominance of banks in most
            developing and emerging markets is associated with lower use
            of financial services by firms of all sizes. Low-end
            financial institutions and specialized lenders seem
            particularly suited to ease access to finance in low-income
            countries. Second, there is no evidence that smaller
            institutions are better in providing access to finance. To
            the contrary, larger specialized lenders and larger banks
            might actually ease small firms' financing constraints,
            but only at low levels of gross domestic product per capita.
A dynamic model of extreme risk
            coverage : resilience and efficiency in the global
            reinsurance market
This paper presents a dynamic model of
            the reinsurance market for catastrophe risks. The model is
            based on the classical capacity-constraint assumption.
            Reinsurers choose every year the quantity of risk they cover
            and the level of external capital they raise to cover these
            risks. The model exhibits time dependency and reproduces a
            market dynamics that shares many features with the real
            market. In particular, market price increases and
            reinsurance coverage decreases after large shocks, and a
            series of smaller losses may have a deeper impact than one
            larger loss. There is a significant oligopoly effect
            reducing reinsurance supply, and the market is segregated
            into strategic large actors that influence market prices and
            price-taker smaller firms. A regulation trade-off between
            market efficiency and resilience is identified and
            quantified: improving the ability of the market to cope with
            exceptional events increases the cost of reinsurance. This
            model provides an interesting basis to analyze further
            capacity needs for the insurance industry in view of growing
            worldwide exposure to catastrophic risks and climate change.
How do the poor cope with shocks in
            Bangladesh evidence from survey data
This paper uses household survey data
            collected in September-October 2009 on a nationally
            representative sample of 2,000 households in Bangladesh to
            examine the nature of shocks experienced by households over
            the preceding 12 months and the type of coping mechanisms
            that were adopted. The analysis finds that more than half
            the sample claimed to have faced a shock -- economic,
            health, climatic, or asset related -- over the previous
            year. Surprisingly, the non-poor face a larger share of
            these shocks compared with the poor. A closer look at this
            result shows that the non-poor report a significantly larger
            share of "asset-related" shocks, which is
            consistent with the fact that the poor have fewer assets to
            lose. Health-related shocks dominate and households appear
            to have coped with these shocks through savings and loans,
            help from friends, and depletion of assets. The results show
            that households, when faced with covariate shocks due to
            climatic reasons, are less able to cope. As would be
            expected, the poor are less able to cope with shocks
            compared with the non-poor; the poor are more likely to use
            coping mechanisms that could have negative welfare
            implications in the longer term, including the depletion of
            assets, reduction of essential consumption, and use of
            high-interest loans. Econometric analysis suggests that
            geographical location, socio-economic status, and access to
            microfinance all affect the ability to cope with shocks.
            Policy implications include the importance of developing
            safety nets that take into account the vulnerability to
            climate-related shocks and further developing the links
            between micro-finance and safety net programs.