rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Fear is What Weighs Most :
            Experiences of Women in Situations of Violence in Accessing
            Support Services in Brazil
This paper seeks to fill a knowledge gap
            relative to the low uptake of services for women living in
            situations of violence. The phenomenon is observed in many
            countries, including in Brazil, despite its robust legal
            framework to prevent and protect women from domestic
            violence. Through qualitative research, this paper explores
            the experience of women survivors of violence against women
            (VAW) in seeking help to exit abusive relationships, with
            the aim of identifying avenues to strengthen service
            delivery and violence prevention policies. The experiences
            of research participants demonstrate that a complex set of
            issues related to social norms, individual agency and
            institutional weaknesses serve as strong barriers for
            service uptake. These include women's personal
            preparedness to seek support; the catalyzing or constraining
            function that families, friends, peers and people in
            authority can play; external barriers to accessing services;
            and the availability and quality of services in different
            settings. Data from this research also highlight the
            importance of psycho-social support services that help
            survivors make informed decisions about how to exit abusive
            relationships, to rebuild their emotional stability and
            self-esteem, establish economic autonomy, pursue justice,
            and ultimately reconstruct their lives.
Conflict and the Composition of
            Economic Activity in Afghanistan
Despite informality being the norm in
            conflict-affected countries, most estimates of the impact of
            conflict on economic activity rely on formal sector data.
            Using high-frequency data from Afghanistan, this paper
            assesses how surges in conflict intensity affect not only
            the formal sector, but also informal and illicit activities.
            Nighttime light provides a proxy for aggregate economic
            activity, mobile phone traffic by registered firms captures
            fluctuations in formal sector output, and the land surface
            devoted to poppy cultivation gives a measure of illicit
            production. The unit of observation is the district and the
            period of reference is 2012-16. The same dynamic
            specification and controls are used for the estimation in
            the three cases, making the results comparable across
            sectors. Controls include the presence of combat troops and
            the level of foreign aid at the local level, which both
            influence local living standards in Afghanistan. The results
            show that an increase in conflict-related casualties has a
            strong negative impact on formal economic activity in the
            following quarter and a positive effect on illicit activity
            after two quarters. The impact on aggregate economic
            activity is negative, but more muted.
Estimating Resiliency Benefits of
            Road Upgradation : Case of the East Road in Malaita, Solomon Islands
Governments and their multilateral
            partners are increasingly recognizing the importance of
            incorporating climate and disaster resilience considerations
            into infrastructure development plans as well as the related
            construction and financing decisions. The potential medium-
            and long-term benefits of increased resilience must be
            considered alongside short-term costs of resilient design
            and implementation. The objective of this paper to estimate
            the resiliency benefits, in terms of key socioeconomic
            outcomes, under several road upgradation options and
            rainfall scenarios. The estimated benefits are compared
            against the related lifecycle costs to inform investment
            decisions. The analysis is based on the methodology
            developed by the World Bank and Kyoto University to
            operationalize and measure key infrastructure resilience
            concepts at the project level. The East Road in Malaita in
            the Solomon Islands is used to pilot the this methodology
            and examine its applicability. The parameters selected to
            measure resiliency are based on the key benefits the road
            provides to the people living around it: economic benefits
            proxied by travel time, access to hospitals, and access to
            markets. Due to data constraints in Malaita, the report is
            based primarily on expert inputs and geo-spatial data. It
            considers mainly technical improvements to road upgradation
            that might impact resiliency.
Determinants of International Buyout Investments
Using a comprehensive and proprietary
            data set on international private equity activity, this
            paper studies the determinants of buyout investments across
            61 countries and 19 industries over 1990-2017. The study
            finds evidence that macroeconomic conditions, development of
            stock and credit markets, and the regulatory environment in
            a country are important drivers of international buyout
            capital flows. The paper shows that countries with low
            unemployment, more active stock and credit markets, and
            better rule of law receive more buyout capital. A
            difference-in-differences approach is used to explore the
            regulatory reforms some countries have adopted over the
            sample period. The findings are that countries receive
            significantly more buyout capital following investor
            protection and contract enforcement reforms. The impact of
            regulatory reform is more pronounced in countries with
            better corporate governance standards and education. Buyout
            investment responds to these factors more so than foreign
            direct investment and gross domestic fixed investment.
The Future of Work in Agriculture :
            Some Reflections
As countries develop (and food
            saturation takes hold), agriculture's role as domestic
            employer declines. But the broader agri-food system also
            expands, and the scope for agriculture-related job creation
            shifts beyond the farm. Historically, technological
            revolutions have shaped and been shaped by these dynamics.
            Today, a digital revolution is taking hold, affecting
            agricultural labor and skill demands. In this process,
            societies evolve from having a surplus to a shortage of
            domestic farm labor, typically met largely by foreign
            agricultural wage workers. Yet, anti-immigration sentiments
            are flying high in migrant-destination countries, and robots
            in the fields and packing plants offer an alternative.
            Agricultural trade may be similarly challenged. In the
            world's poorest countries, particularly in Africa,
            labor productivity in agriculture remains at historically
            low levels. So, what can the role of agriculture as a source
            of employment be in the future? This viewpoint elaborates on
            these trends and reviews several policy options, including
            inclusive value chain development, better immigration
            policies, social insurance schemes, and ramp up in
            agricultural education and extension.
Demand for Information on
            Environmental Health Risk, Mode of Delivery, and Behavioral
            Change : Evidence from Sonargaon, Bangladesh
Millions of villagers in Bangladesh are
            exposed to arsenic by drinking contaminated water from
            private wells. Testing for arsenic can encourage switching
            from unsafe wells to safer sources. This study describes
            results from a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted
            in 112 villages in Bangladesh to evaluate the effectiveness
            of different test selling schemes at inducing switching from
            unsafe wells. At a price of about USD0.60, only one in four
            households purchased a test. Sales were not increased by
            informal inter-household agreements to share water from
            wells found to be safe, or by visual reminders of well
            status in the form of metal placards mounted on the well
            pump. However, switching away from unsafe wells almost
            doubled in response to agreements or placards relative to
            the one in three proportion of households who switched away
            from an unsafe well with simple individual sales.
Determinants of Global Value Chain
            Participation : Cross-Country Evidence
The past decades witnessed big changes
            in international trade with the rise of global value chains.
            Some countries, such as China, Poland, and Vietnam, rode the
            tide, while other countries, many in the Africa region,
            faltered. This paper studies the determinants of
            participation in global value chains, based on empirical
            evidence from a panel data set covering more than 100
            countries over the past three decades. The evidence shows
            that factor endowments, geography, political stability,
            liberal trade policies, foreign direct investment inflows,
            and domestic industrial capacity are very important in
            determining participation in global value chains. These
            factors affect participation in global value chains more
            than traditional exports.
Increasing Financial Inclusion in
            the Muslim World : Evidence from an Islamic Finance
            Marketing Experiment
Low utilization of household credit in
            developing countries may be partially due to religious
            considerations. In a randomized marketing experiment in
            Jordan, this paper estimates the effect of sharia-compliant
            loan features on demand for credit. To comply with Islamic
            law, the sharia-compliant product uses a bank fee rather
            than an interest payment structure, while keeping the rest
            of the product features very similar. Sharia-compliance
            increased the application rate for loans from 18 percent to
            22 percent, an increase in demand that is equivalent to a 10
            percent decrease in interest rates. This study also randomly
            varied the price of the sharia-compliant loan and finds that
            less religious individuals are twice as elastic with respect
            to price as the more religious. By comparing reasons for
            refusal across treatment groups, this paper estimates that
            survey measures that try to assess the importance of
            religious objections to conventional credit overestimate the
            importance of this type of objection by a third.
Owe a Bank Millions, the Bank Has a
            Problem : Credit Concentration in Bad Times
This paper studies the dynamics of
            credit supply when a negative shock impacts a substantial
            share of bank loans. The analysis exploits the 2014 collapse
            of energy prices, using the universe of Mexican commercial
            bank loans. The findings show that, after the drop in energy
            prices, the credit default swap spreads (CDS) of firms in
            the energy sector soared, and banks that were more exposed
            to the energy sector increased even more their exposure ex
            post, by supplying loans to their larger debtors in the
            energy sector at lower interest rates. An increase of one
            standard deviation in ex-ante exposure to the energy sector
            increased loan volume to borrowers in the sector by 18
            percent and reduced loan rates charged by 6 percent, even
            though borrower’s CDS spreads were widening. Highly exposed
            banks amplified this sector-specific shock to the rest of
            the economy by contracting lending to other sectors, with
            important real effects, as the borrowers could not switch
            credit suppliers. Finally, the energy price shock had a
            large negative impact on macro outcomes, especially in the
            capital-intensive secondary sector. Quantitatively, a one
            standard deviation increase in the exposure of a
            state's banks to the energy sector reduces its GDP by
            1.8 percent.
Multidimensional Poverty Assessment
            of Internally Displaced Persons in Iraq
Decades of conflict have contributed to
            high flows of internal displacement in Iraq. The incidence
            of these flows on the welfare of internally displaced
            persons is not well understood. This paper attempts to fill
            this gap in the literature by investigating the link between
            internal displacement and multidimensional poverty, using
            one of the most comprehensive household surveys for poverty
            analysis in Iraq. The results show crucial differences
            between internally displaced and non-displaced households
            with respect to multidimensional poverty. Furthermore,
            instrumental variable regression analysis suggests that the
            relationship is causal, that is, the probabilities of
            multidimensional and monetary poverty are higher because of
            internal displacement.
Financial Inclusion and Inclusive
            Growth : What Does It Mean for Sri Lanka
This paper uses data from the National
            Financial Inclusion Survey 2018 to understand the
            determinants of financial inclusion in Sri Lanka and their
            significance for inclusive growth. The findings highlight
            that gender, education, and formal employment are important
            determinants of financial inclusion in the country. The
            results indicate that being a male, having better education,
            and having formal employment increase a person's access
            to, and usage of, formal finance. The results also suggest
            that despite high levels and gender parity in education, Sri
            Lankan women seem to access more informal finance (and less
            formal finance) compared with men. There is a general lack
            of familiarity and low use of digital finance among women.
            Comparative analysis using the World Bank Group’s Global
            Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database 2017 indicates
            that although Sri Lanka leads its regional peers in access
            to finance, it lags its more aspirational East Asian
            counterparts in usage of savings and credit products as well
            as digital finance. The paper's findings complement
            recent policy initiatives such as the National Financial
            Inclusion Strategy for Sri Lanka. The findings also help in
            designing targeted actions to address the remaining gaps in
            financial inclusion in Sri Lanka.
What Do 50 Years of Census Records
            and Household Survey Data Tell Us about Human Opportunities
            and Welfare in Latin America
To comprehend how development really
            happens, it is necessary to understand the evolution of its
            drivers and their relationship with individuals'
            income. This paper analyzes the expansion of access to
            education and basic services in Latin America and its
            association with the evolution of incomes in the region. The
            paper focuses on the importance of access to opportunities
            as one of the drivers of development and highlights the role
            of policy making. The findings suggest that access to
            education and basic public services early in life are
            positively correlated with incomes in adulthood. The
            analysis also suggests that countries follow a dissimilar
            path to increase access to education and basic services. The
            paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of historic census
            records to add granularity to the assessment of the
            development of countries, matched with detailed
            individual-level information from household surveys of
            several countries in the region. The paper widens an ongoing
            area of research on the long-run relationship between access
            to opportunities during childhood and incomes in adulthood.
What Do 50 Years of Census Records
            and Household Survey Data Tell Us about Human Opportunities
            and Welfare in Latin America
Policy Research Working Paper 9205 What Do 50 Years of Census Records and Household Survey Data Tell Us about Human Opportunities and Welfare in Latin America?

_Oscar Calvo-Gonzalez_ _German D. Caruso R. Andres Castaneda Aguilar Eduardo A. Malasquez_ Poverty and Equity Global Practice April 2020
The Globalization of Refugee Flows
This paper analyzes the spatial
            distribution of refugees over 1987-2017 and establishes
            several stylized facts about refugees today compared with
            past decades. Refugees still predominantly reside in
            developing countries neighboring their country of origin.
            However, compared to past decades, refugees today (i)
            travel longer distances, (ii)  are less likely to seek
            protection in a neighboring country, (iii) are less
            geographically concentrated, and (iv) are more likely to
            reside in a high-income OECD country. The findings bring new
            evidence to the debate on refugee responsibility-sharing.
Optimal Pricing of a New Utility
            Service : The Case of Piped Water in Vietnam
As utility services expand throughout
            the developing world, providers must grapple with how to set
            prices to recover average costs. Data from a multi-year
            randomized pricing experiment among nearly 1500
            recently-connected piped water customers in Vietnam reveal
            month-to-month demand persistence. Based on structural
            demand estimation, the authors document how endogenous
            preferences, if unaccounted for, can lead to low take-up and
            thereby threaten the financial viability of the new water
            utility. They also show that such demand persistence, while
            distinct from credit constraints, calls for pricing schemes
            that similarly defer payment, effectively allowing future
            consumers to subsidize their present selves.
Moving Up the Ladder : An Analysis
            of IDA Graduation Policy
This paper analyzes the factors that
            affect countries' graduation from International
            Development Association (IDA) assistance and develops a
            statistical model of graduation. IDA provides concessional
            financing (credits, grants, and guarantees) to the
            world's poorest countries to help reduce poverty and
            improve living standards. IDA's eligibility criteria
            include (a) absence of International Bank for Reconstruction
            and Development (IBRD) creditworthiness and (b) gross
            national income (GNI) per capita below the IDA operational
            cutoff. Following several 'reverse graduations'
            during the 1990s, the set of factors affecting graduation
            decisions broadened to include an assessment of the
            country's macroeconomic prospects, risk of debt
            distress, vulnerability to shocks, institutional
            constraints, and levels of poverty and social indicators.
            Through a pooled logit estimation using panel data covering
            IDA-eligible countries for 1987-2016, the authors determine
            the factors that influenced IDA graduation decision making
            for FY1989-FY2018. They find that throughout the sample the
            probability of being a graduate is positively and
            statistically significantly associated with income per
            capita, creditworthiness, and country size. They account for
            the shift of policy after 1998. Using an interaction dummy
            variable to capture the pre-FY1999 period, they find that
            life expectancy, reduced poverty, urbanization, and
            institutional development have been positive and significant
            predictors of graduation status in the later period.
Distributional Effects of
            Intergovernmental Transfers in Mexico
A rigorous understanding of the
            developmental effect of fiscal transfers to subnational
            governments remains an important policy research issue
            globally. This paper exploits a novel dataset of 20 years of
            municipal poverty maps and local public finances to study
            the effects on local welfare of a large fiscal transfer fund
            earmarked for social investment in more than 2,000 Mexican
            municipalities. Results show a positive but modest effect on
            the average household income, and positive effects on seven
            nonmonetary welfare measures. In contrast, these funds have
            no significant impact on extreme and moderate monetary
            poverty. These results provide important lessons for policy
            on the effects of earmarked funds to reduce territorial
            poverty and inequality in terms of incentives to design
            formulas to distribute earmarked fiscal resources to
            subnational governments.
The Potential Impact of COVID-19 on
            GDP and Trade : A Preliminary Assessment
The virus that triggered a localized
            shock in China is now delivering a significant global shock.
            This study simulates the potential impact of COVID-19 on
            gross domestic product and trade, using a standard global
            computable general equilibrium model. It models the shock as
            underutilization of labor and capital, an increase in
            international trade costs, a drop in travel services, and a
            redirection of demand away from activities that require
            proximity between people. A baseline global pandemic
            scenario sees gross domestic product fall by 2 percent below
            the benchmark for the world, 2.5 percent for developing
            countries, and 1.8 percent for industrial countries. The
            declines are nearly 4 percent below the benchmark for the
            world, in an amplified pandemic scenario in which
            containment is assumed to take longer and which now seems
            more likely. The biggest negative shock is recorded in the
            output of domestic services affected by the pandemic, as
            well as in traded tourist services. Since the model does not
            capture fully the social isolation induced independent
            contraction in demand and the decline in investor
            confidence, the eventual economic impact may be different.
            This exercise is illustrative, because it is still too early
            to make an informed assessment of the full impact of the
            pandemic. But it does convey the likely extent of impending
            global economic pain, especially for developing countries
            and their potential need for assistance.