rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Estimating the fiscal costs of
            implementing Ghana's single pay spine reform
Public sector pay policy is one of the
            main decisions facing a government, as it determines the
            ability to attract, retain, and motivate staff needed to
            fulfill its service delivery objectives. One option usually
            considered is relying on a single pay spine for all services
            into which jobs would be slotted, thus ensuring greater
            comparability of similar jobs across the public sector. This
            paper examines the single spine pay reform currently being
            considered in Ghana, highlighting the differences between
            the Ghanaian proposal and similarly named proposals
            elsewhere, and underscoring the potential cost of
            implementing the proposal -- which is expected to be
            significant.  There are three main findings: (i) the
            implementation of the single spine pay reform would raise
            the base pay wage bill (salaries plus category one
            allowances) in Ghana to GHC2.8 billion by January 1, 2010 --
            an almost 50 percent increase compared with an equivalent
            figures of GHC1.9 billion at end-2008; (ii) because these
            estimates focus narrowly on the base pay wage bill, they
            should be regarded as a lower bound estimate of the overall
            increase in the wage bill; and (iii) because these estimates
            are derived from assumptions regarding (1) the distribution
            of public sector employees across public sector services and
            institutions; (2) the minimum public sector wage; and the
            (3) the relativity of all other public sector wages with
            respect to this minimum wage, they are subject to changes
            any time these assumptions also change.
Capital requirements and business
            cycles with credit market imperfections
The business cycle effects of bank
            capital regulatory regimes are examined in a New Keynesian
            model with credit market imperfections and a cost channel of
            monetary policy. Key features of the model are that bank
            capital increases incentives for banks to monitor borrowers,
            thereby reducing the probability of default, and excess
            capital generates benefits in terms of reduced regulatory
            scrutiny. Basel I and Basel II-type regulatory regimes are
            defined, and the model is calibrated for a middle-income
            country. Simulations of supply and demand shocks show that,
            depending on the elasticity that relates the repayment
            probability to the capital-loan ratio, a Basel II-type
            regime may be less procyclical than a Basel I-type regime.
U.S. and them : the geography of
            academic research
Using a database of 76,046 empirical
            economics papers published between 1985 and 2004 in the top
            202 economics journals, the authors report two associations.
            First, per-capita research output on a given country
            increases with the country's per capita gross domestic
            product (GDP). Regressions controlling for data availability
            and quality in the country, indicators of governance and the
            use of English yield an estimated research-GDP elasticity of
            0.37; surprisingly, the United States (US) is not an outlier
            in the production of empirical research. Second, papers
            written about the US are far more likely to be published in
            the top five economics journals, even after the quality of
            research has been partially controlled for through
            fixed-effects for the authors' institutional
            affiliations; the estimates suggest that papers on the US
            are 2.6 percentage points more likely to be published in the
            top-five journals. This is a large effect because only 1.5
            percent of all papers written about countries other than the
            US are published in the top-five journals. The authors
            speculate about the interpretations of these facts, and
            invite further analysis and additions to the public release
            of the database that accompanies this paper.
International growth spillovers,
            geography and infrastructure
There is significant academic evidence
            that growth in one country tends to have a positive impact
            on growth in neighboring countries. This paper contributes
            to this literature by assessing whether growth spillovers
            tend to vary significantly across world regions and by
            investigating the contribution of transport and
            communication infrastructure in promoting neighborhood
            effects. The study is global, but the main interest is on
            Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors define neighborhoods both in
            geographic terms and by membership in the same regional
            trade association. The analysis finds significant evidence
            for heterogeneity in growth spillovers, which are strong
            between OECD countries and essentially absent in Sub-Saharan
            Africa. The analysis further finds strong interaction
            between infrastructure and being a landlocked country. This
            suggests that growth spillovers from regional "success
            stories" in Sub-Saharan Africa and other lagging world
            regions will depend on first strengthening the channels
            through which such spillovers can spread -- most importantly
            infrastructure endowments.
The impact of trade in services on
            factor incomes : results from a global simulation Model
Indian gross domestic product per capita
            increased rapidly between 2001 and 2006 in a climate of
            increasing services trade, with the export-oriented services
            sector responsible for rising shares of growth in gross
            domestic product. Due to its contribution to aggregate
            economic growth, there is a great need for empirical
            examination of the distributional consequences of this
            growth, especially in light of the challenges in obtaining
            theoretical solutions that can be generalized. This paper
            fills this gap in the literature by using a global
            simulation model to examine how sensitive factor incomes
            across different industries may have been to the historical
            changes in India's services exports and imports, and
            provides insight on the distribution of the national income
            growth attributable to the expansion of the services
            industry. Rent on capital in the service sector and wages of
            all workers would have increased as a result of greater
            services trade in this period, while income from capital
            specific to agriculture and manufacturing would have
            declined. The factors involved with the urban-based services
            sector may thus benefit from the services trade growth,
            while the total factor income involved in rural agriculture
            may decline.
Importing, exporting and innovation
            in developing countries
Recent studies have shown that not only
            exporters but also importers perform better than firms that
            do not trade. Using a detailed firm level dataset from 43
            developing countries, I show that there are persistent
            differences in evolution of firms when they are grouped
            according to their trade orientation as: two-way traders
            (both importing and exporting), only exporters, only
            importers, and non-traders. Extending the existing models of
            firm evolution in open economies by incorporating importing
            decision, I show that: i) globally engaged firms are larger,
            more productive, and grow faster than non-traders; ii)
            two-way traders are the fastest growing and most innovative
            group who are followed by only-exporters; iii) estimating
            export premium without controlling for import status is
            likely to overestimate the actual value by capturing the
            import premium; and iv) R&D investment contributes to
            growth of traders significantly more than to non-traders.
            Finally I show the robustness of the findings by providing
            evidence from the panel data constructed from the original
            dataset and controlling for variables that are likely to
            affect firm growth.
Soil fertility, fertilizer, and the
            maize green revolution in East Africa
This paper investigates the reasons for
            the low application of external fertilizers on farms in
            Kenya and Uganda. The analysis uses a large panel of
            household data with rich soil fertility data at the plot
            level. The authors control for maize seed selection and
            household effects by using a fixed-effects semi-parametric
            endogenous switching model. The results suggest that Kenyan
            maize farmers have applied inorganic fertilizer at the
            optimal level, corresponding to the high nitrogen-maize
            relative price, in one of the two survey years and also
            responded to the price change over time. In Uganda, even the
            low application of inorganic fertilizer is not profitable
            because of its high relative price. The authors conclude
            that policies that reduce the relative price of fertilizer
            could be effective in both countries, while the efficacy of
            policies based on improving farmers' knowledge about
            fertilizer use will be limited as long as the relative price
            of fertilizer remains high.
Density and disasters: economics of
            urban hazard risk
Today, 370 million people live in cities
            in earthquake prone areas and 310 million in cities with
            high probability of tropical cyclones. By 2050, these
            numbers are likely to more than double. Mortality risk
            therefore is highly concentrated in many of the worlds
            cities and economic risk even more so. This paper discusses
            what sets hazard risk in urban areas apart, provides
            estimates of valuation of hazard risk, and discusses
            implications for individual mitigation and public policy.
            The main conclusions are that urban agglomeration economies
            change the cost-benefit calculation of hazard mitigation,
            that good hazard management is first and foremost good
            general urban management, and that the public sector must
            perform better in generating and disseminating credible
            information on hazard risk in cities.
"green stimulus," economic
            recovery, and long-term sustainable development
This paper discusses short-run and
            long-run effects of "green stimulus" efforts, and
            compares these effects with "non-green" fiscal
            stimuli. Green stimulus is defined here as short-run fiscal
            stimuli that also serve a "green" or environmental
            purpose in a situation of "crisis" characterized
            by temporary under-employment. A number of recently enacted
            national stimulus packages contain sizeable
            "green" components. The authors categorize effects
            according to their a) short-run employment effects, b)
            long-run growth effects, c) effects on carbon emissions, and
            d) "co-benefit" effects (on the environment,
            natural resources, and for other externalities). The most
            beneficial "green" programs in times of crisis are
            those that can stimulate employment in the short run, and
            lead to large "learning curve" effects via lower
            production costs in the longer term. The overall assessment
            is that most "green stimulus" programs that have
            large short-run employment and environmental effects are
            likely to have less significant positive effects for
            long-run growth, and vice versa, implying a trade-off in
            many cases between short-run and long-run impacts. There are
            also trade-offs for employment generation in that programs
            that yield larger (smaller) employment effects tend to lead
            to more employment gains for largely lower-skilled
            (higher-skilled) workers, so that the long-term growth
            effects are relatively small (large). Ultimately, the
            results reinforce the point that different instruments are
            needed for addressing different problems.
Krueger/Schiff/Valdes revisited :
            agricultural price and trade policy reform in developing
            countries since 1960
A study of distortions to agricultural
            incentives in 18 developing countries during 1960-84, by
            Krueger, Schiff and Valdes (1988; 1991), found that policies
            in most of those developing countries were directly or
            indirectly harming their farmers. Since the mid-1980s there
            has been a substantial amount of policy reform and opening
            up of many developing countries, and indicators of that
            progress have been made available recently by a new study
            that has compiled estimates for a much larger sample of
            developing countries and for as many years as possible since
            1955. The new study also covers Europes transition
            economies and comparable estimates for high-income
            countries, thereby covering more than 90 percent of world
            agricultural output and employment. This paper summarizes
            the methodology used in the new study (pointing out
            similarities and differences with those used by the OECD and
            by Krueger, Schiff and Valdes), compares a synopsis of the
            indicators from Krueger, Schiff and Valdes and the new study
            for the period to 1984, summarizes the changing extent of
            price distortions across countries and commodities globally
            since then, and concludes by evaluating the degree of
            distortion reduction over the years since 1984 compared with
            how much still remains, according to the results of a global
            economy wide model.
Trade finance in crisis : should
            developing countries establish export credit agencies
New data on export insurance and
            guarantees suggest that publicly backed export credit
            agencies have played a role to prevent a complete drying up
            of trade finance markets during the current financial
            crisis. Given that export credit agencies are mainly located
            in advanced and emerging economies, the question arises
            whether developing countries that are not equipped with
            these agencies should establish their own agencies to
            support exporting firms and avoid trade finance shortages in
            times of crisis. This paper highlights a number of issues
            requiring attention in the decision whether to establish
            such specialized financial institutions. It concludes that
            developing countries should consider export credit agencies
            only when certain pre-requirements in terms of financial
            capacity, institutional capability, and governance are met.
Developing countries, dispute
            settlement, and the advisory centre on WTO law
Critical appraisals of the current and
            potential benefits from developing country engagement in the
            World Trade Organization (WTO) focus mainly on the Doha
            Round of negotiations. This paper examines developing
            country participation in the WTO dispute settlement system
            to enforce foreign market access rights already negotiated
            in earlier multilateral rounds. The dispute data from 1995
            through 2008 reveal three notable trends: developing
            countries sustained rate of self-enforcement actions
            despite declining use of the Dispute Settlement
            Understanding (DSU) by developed countries, developing
            countries increased use of the DSU to self-enforce their
            access to the markets of developing as well as developed
            country markets, and the prevalence of disputes targeting
            highly observable causes of lost foreign market access, such
            as antidumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards. The
            paper also examines potential impacts of the Advisory Centre
            on WTO Law (ACWL) into the WTO system in 2001. A close look
            at the data reveals evidence on at least three channels
            through which the ACWL may be enhancing developing
            countries' ability to self-enforce foreign market
            access: increased initiation of sole-complainant cases, more
            extensive pursuit of the DSU legal process for any given
            case, and initiation of disputes over smaller values of lost trade.
Social impacts of climate change in
            Chile : a municipal level analysis of the effects of recent
            and future climate change on human development and inequality
This paper uses municipality level data
            to estimate the general relationship between climate,
            income, and life expectancy in Chile. The analysis finds
            that incomes are negatively related to temperature, while
            life expectancy is not significantly related to average
            temperatures. Both incomes and life expectancy are greater
            in areas with either very little rain or a lot of rain. The
            authors use the estimated relationships to simulate the
            effects of both past (1958-08) and future (2008-58) climate
            change. The findings indicate that past climate change has
            been favorable for the central, and most populous, part of
            Chile, and it has contributed to reduced poverty and reduced
            inequality of health outcomes. Whereas temperatures in the
            past have shown a downward trend for most of the Chilean
            population, climate models suggest that they will increase
            in the future, and that there will be a reduction in
            precipitation in the central part of Chile. The analysis
            simulates the likely effects of these projected climate
            changes over the next 50 years. The findings suggest that
            expected future climate will tend to reduce incomes across
            the whole country, with an average reduction of about 7
            percent, all other things equal.
Social impacts of climate change in
            Chile : a municipal level analysis of the effects of recent
            and future climate change on human development and inequality
WPS5170 Policy Research Working Paper 5170

# Social Impacts of Climate Change in Chile

A Municipal Level Analysis of the Effects of Recent and Future Climate Change on Human Development and Inequality _Lykke E. Andersen Dorte Verner_ The World Bank Sustainable Development Department Social Development Division January 2010
Sponsoring a race to the top : the
            case for results-based intergovernmental finance for merit goods
Intergovernmental finance is a
            significant source of sub-national finance in most
            countries. In both industrial and developing countries,
            formula based "manna from heaven" general purpose
            transfers dominate but co-exist with highly intrusive
            micro-managed "command and control" specific
            purpose transfers. Both these types of transfers undermine
            political and fiscal accountability. Reforms to bring in
            design elements that incorporate incentives for
            results-based accountability are resisted by both donors and
            recipients alike. This is because the donors perceive such
            reforms as attempts at chipping away at their powers and
            recipients fear such programs will be intrusive. This paper
            presents conceptual and practical underpinnings of grant
            designs that could further simplicity, objectivity, and
            local autonomy objectives while furthering citizen-centric
            results-based accountability. The paper further highlights a
            few notable recent initiatives in both industrial and
            developing countries that embrace such directions for
            reform. The paper concludes that results-based
            intergovernmental finance offers significant potential to
            minimize tradeoffs between local autonomy and accountability
            while furthering access to merit goods.
Understanding options for
            public-private partnerships in infrastructure : sorting out
            the forest from the trees : BOT, DBFO, DCMF, concession,
            lease . . .
This paper provides a methodology for
            categorizing public-private partnerships in infrastructure,
            based on the following key characteristics: whether the
            project involves new or existing business, the nature of the
            private sectors construction obligations, the need for the
            private sector to mobilize significant private funding ab
            initio, the nature of the private sectors service delivery
            obligations, and the source of the project revenue stream.
            The purpose of this methodology is to facilitate mapping,
            referencing, cross-comparison, analytical studies, and
            descriptions of public-private partnerships in
            infrastructure projects with similar key characteristics
            across sector, commercial, regional, and geopolitical lines.
            The methodology is tested against 15 case studies
            representing different infrastructure sectors, regional
            applications, and commercial approaches to public-private partnerships.