rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
A control function approach to
            estimating dynamic probit models with endogenous regressors,
            with an application to the study of poverty persistence in China
This paper proposes a parametric
            approach to estimating a dynamic binary response panel data
            model that allows for endogenous contemporaneous regressors.
            This approach is of particular value for settings in which
            one wants to estimate the effects of an endogenous treatment
            on a binary outcome. The model is next used to examine the
            impact of rural-urban migration on the likelihood that
            households in rural China fall below the poverty line. In
            this application, it is shown that migration is important
            for reducing the likelihood that poor households remain in
            poverty and that non-poor households fall into poverty.
            Furthermore, it is demonstrated that failure to control for
            unobserved heterogeneity would lead the researcher to
            underestimate the impact of migrant labor markets on
            reducing the probability of falling into poverty.
A control function approach to
            estimating dynamic probit models with endogenous regressors,
            with an application to the study of poverty persistence in China
WPS5400 Policy Research Working Paper 5400 A Control Function Approach to Estimating Dynamic Probit Models with Endogenous Regressors, with an Application to the Study of Poverty Persistence in China _John Giles Irina Murtazashvili_ The World Bank Development Research Group Human Development and Public Services Team August 2010
The effects of business environments
            on development : surveying new firm-level evidence
In the past decade, the World Bank has
            promoted improving business environments as a key strategy
            for development, which has resulted in a significant amount
            of investment in collecting firm-level investment climate
            surveys across countries. What lessons have emerged from the
            papers using these new data? The key finding is that the
            effects of business environments are heterogeneous and
            depend crucially on industry, initial conditions, and
            complementary institutions. Some elements of the business
            environment, such as labor flexibility, low entry and exit
            barriers, and a reasonable protection from the
            "grabbing hands" of the government, seem to matter
            a great deal for most economies. Other elements, such as
            infrastructure and contracting institutions (courts and
            access to finance), hinge on their initial status and the
            size of the market.
Novel indicators of the trade and
            welfare effects of agricultural distortions in OECD countries
Agricultural markets in OECD countries
            have long been highly distorted by government policies.
            Traditional weighted average aggregates of the price
            distortions involved, such as producer and consumer support
            estimates can be poor indicators of the trade
            restrictiveness and economic welfare losses associated with
            them, especially if a country's support estimates vary
            a lot across the product range. Certainly estimates of trade
            and welfare effects of price supports can be obtained from
            sector or economy-wide models using price elasticity
            estimates, but the results can be contentious if there is no
            consensus on what model specification and elasticity
            parameters to use. This paper shows that, if there is a
            willingness to accept simple assumptions about elasticities,
            it is possible to generate indicators of the welfare and
            trade restrictiveness of agricultural policies using no more
            than the price and quantity data needed to generate producer
            and consumer support estimates. These new indexes thus
            provide an attractive supplement to the current policy
            monitoring regime developed by the OECD Secretariat.
The DR-CAFTA and the extensive
            margin : a firm-level analysis
This paper examines the export behavior
            of Dominican Republic exporters following the implementation
            of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade
            Agreement in 2007. Using a firm-level dataset for 2002-2009,
            the authors investigate the effects of a tariff reduction on
            the extensive margin. The analysis distinguishes the impact
            on the entry of new firms, exports of new products, and
            entry into the Agreements markets. The paper analyzes
            whether the agreement prevents incumbent exporters from
            exiting the market. The results suggest that tariff cuts had
            a positive although very small effect on the extensive
            margin. A decline in tariffs also seems to reduce the
            probability of exit, but the effect is also small. The
            evidence calls for complementary policies aiming at helping
            exporters maximize the benefits of the agreement.
Second-generation biofuels :
            economics and policies
Recent increases in production of
            crop-based (or first-generation) biofuels have engendered
            increasing concerns over potential conflicts with food
            supplies and land protection, as well as disputes over
            greenhouse gas reductions. This has heightened a sense of
            urgency around the development of biofuels produced from
            non-food biomass (second-generation biofuels). This study
            reviews the economic potential and environmental
            implications of production of second-generation biofuels
            from a variety of various feedstocks. Although
            second-generation biofuels could significantly contribute to
            the future energy supply mix, cost is a major barrier to
            increasing commercial production in the near to medium term.
            Depending on various factors, the cost of second-generation
            (cellulosic) ethanol can be two to three times as high as
            the current price of gasoline on an energy equivalent basis.
            The cost of biodiesel produced from microalgae, a
            prospective feedstock, is many times higher than the current
            price of diesel. Policy instruments for increasing biofuels
            use, such as fiscal incentives, should be based on the
            relative merits of different types of biofuels.
On the Role of the Collateral
            Constraint Friction in the North-South Transmission of the
            2008-2009 Financial Crisis : Credit constraints and the
            north-south transmission of crises
This paper assesses the role of a
            popular collateral constraint based trans-mission mechanism
            in the North-South transmission of the 2008-2009 financial
            crisis. Theoretically, in the presence of collateral
            constraints, depressed asset prices caused by a negative
            shock in a large creditor country generate feedback cycles
            in a smaller debtor country, in which the decline in
            borrowing capacity and the collapses of investment and
            output reinforce each other. The author finds that although
            the mechanism has appealing qualitative features and is
            consistent with the data, quantitative results from the
            model can only account for a very small part of the actual
            output declines.
Costs of taxation and benefits of
            public goods with multiple taxes and goods
The recent public economics literature
            involves an apparent consensus that income effects reduce
            the costs of raising revenues and hence increase the
            desirable level of public good provision. Higher taxes can
            indeed reduce the demand for leisure -- and hence increase
            the supply of taxed labor -- through income effects.
            However, the consensus is wrong because the income effects
            of taxes must be considered symmetrically with those from
            provision of public goods. This paper uses a model with
            multiple public goods and taxes to derive consistent
            measures of the marginal benefits of publicly-provided goods
            and their marginal social costs. With this model, the
            authors show that either compensated approaches excluding
            these income effects or uncompensated approaches including
            them may be used. If an uncompensated measure of the
            marginal cost of funds is used, however, the benefits of
            providing public goods should be adjusted with a simple,
            benefit multiplier not previously seen in the literature.
            Once this is done, the optimal level of public provision is
            independent of whether compensated or uncompensated
            approaches are used. Proper accounting for these income
            effects -- or their omission using a compensated approach --
            appears to substantially raise the hurdle for government
            provision where there are substantial taxes bearing on labor.
Improving wastewater use in
            agriculture : an emerging priority
Wastewater use in agriculture is a
            growing practice worldwide. Drivers include increasing water
            stress, in part due to climate change; increasing
            urbanization and growing wastewater flows; and more urban
            households engaged in agricultural activities. The problem
            with this trend is that in low-income countries, but also in
            many middle-income countries, it either involves the direct
            use of untreated wastewater or the indirect use of polluted
            waters from rivers that receive untreated urban discharges.
            This poses substantial risks, in particular microbial risks
            to public health. To address these risks, the World Health
            Organization in 2006 issued new guidelines for the safe use
            of wastewater.This paper aims to highlight the growing
            importance of improving wastewater use in agriculture across
            the spectrum from lower to high-income countries. It
            presents an innovative approach linking key issues related
            to different aspects of wastewater irrigation to a countrys
            level of economic development. Based on data presented in
            the World Banks World Development Report, it differentiates
            between four country income levels to create a typology for
            analyzing current issues, trends, and priorities for
            improving agricultural wastewater use with a focus on
            reducing the risks to public health. It also presents the
            basic principles of the new 2006 World Health Organization
            Guidelines, and how to apply them. Beyond regulatory
            aspects, the paper also discusses other aspects that are
            important for achieving a more integrated approach to
            agricultural wastewater use, including
            institutional/planning, technological, economic/financial,
            and social issues. Finally, the paper provides
            recommendations for moving the wastewater irrigation agenda forward.
The impact of environmental
            performance rating and disclosure: an empirical analysis of
            perceptions by polluting firms' managers in China
Environmental performance rating and
            disclosure has emerged as a substitute or complement for
            traditional pollution regulation, especially in developing
            countries. Using data from China's Green Watch program,
            this study extends previous research on performance rating
            and disclosure by considering firms' perceptions of
            public and market responses to their ratings. The results
            suggest that the Green Watch has significantly increased
            market and stakeholder pressures on managers to improve
            their firms environmental performance. More specifically,
            controlling for the characteristics of locations, firms, and
            individual managers, the analysis finds that firms with
            better ratings perceive positive impacts on market
            competitiveness, overall market value, and relationships
            with different stakeholders, while the firms with bad
            ratings are more likely to perceive deterioration. Among
            these factors, managers perceive a more active role for
            markets than for stakeholder relations.
Environmental performance rating and
            disclosure : an empirical investigation of China's
            green watch program
Environmental performance rating and
            disclosure has emerged as an alternative or complementary
            approach to conventional pollution regulation, especially in
            developing countries. However, little systematic research
            has been conducted on the effectiveness of this emerging
            policy instrument. This paper investigates the impact of a
            Chinese performance rating and disclosure program, Green
            Watch, which has been operating for 10 years. To assess the
            impact of Green Watch, the authors use panel data on
            pollution emissions from rated and unrated firms, before and
            after implementation of the program. Controlling for the
            characteristics of firms and locations, time trend, and
            initial level of environmental performance, the analysis
            finds that firms covered by Green Watch improve their
            environmental performance more than non-covered firms. Bad
            performers improve more than good performers, and moderately
            non-compliant firms improve more than firms that are
            significantly out of compliance. The reasons for these
            different responses seem to be that the strengths of
            incentives that the disclosure program provides to the
            polluters at different levels of compliance are different
            and the abatement costs of achieving desired levels of
            ratings are different for different firms.
The value of statistical life : a
            contingent investigation in China
Economic analyses of development
            projects and policies often involve assigning an economic
            value to changes in the risk of loss of human life. A
            typical term used in the economic analyses is the value of
            statistical life, which reflects the aggregation of
            individuals' willingness to pay for fatal risk
            reduction and therefore the economic value to society to
            reduce the statistical incidence of premature death in the
            population by one. Studies on the value of a statistical
            life have been extensively conducted in the developed world;
            however, few such studies can be found for developing
            countries. This paper presents a study that estimates
            individuals' willingness to pay for cancer risk
            prevention in three provinces of China. The results imply
            that the mean value of willingness to pay for a cancer
            vaccine that is effective for one year is 759 yuan, with a
            much lower median value of 171 yuan. The estimated income
            elasticity of willingness to pay is 0.42. Using data on the
            incidence of cancer illness and death in the population,
            these willingness to pay figures imply that the marginal
            value of reducing the anticipated incidence of cancer
            mortality by one in the population is 73,000 yuan and an
            average value of 795,000 yuan, which are about six and 60
            times average household annual income, respectively. The big
            difference between the marginal value and the average value
            of fatal risk reduction corresponds to a very low estimated
            elasticity of willingness to pay with respect to fatal risk
            reduction. This finding challenges the validity of previous
            studies of the value of a statistical life, which are mostly
            based on average willingness-to-pay values of mortality risk reduction.
Political economy of infrastructure
            spending in India
This paper examines a puzzle in the
            political economy of infrastructure in India -- the
            co-existence of relatively low shares of capital spending in
            public budgets alongside evidence of large demand for
            village infrastructure from poor voters. It argues that this
            pattern is due to infrastructure projects being used at the
            margin for political rent-seeking, while spending on
            employment and welfare transfers are the preferred vehicles
            to win votes for re-election. New suggestive evidence on the
            variation of public spending composition across states, and
            within states over time is offered that is consistent with
            this argument. This evidence underscores a growing argument
            in the development literature that the level and composition
            of public spending per se may not be sufficient metrics to
            assess the quality of public goods policies -- greater
            infrastructure spending in some contexts may go to political
            rents rather than to the actual delivery of broad public
            goods for growth and poverty reduction.
Liability structure in small-scale
            finance : evidence from a natural experimen
Microfinance, the provision of small
            individual and business loans, has witnessed dramatic
            growth, reaching over 150 million borrowers worldwide. Much
            of its success has been attributed to overcoming the
            challenges of information asymmetries in uncollateralized
            lending. Yet, very little is known about the optimal
            contract structure of such loans -- there is substantial
            variation across lenders, even within a particular setting.
            This paper exploits a plausibly exogenous change in the
            liability structure offered by a microfinance program in
            India, which shifted from individual to group liability
            lending. The analysis finds compelling evidence that
            contract structure matters: for the same borrower, required
            monthly loan installments are 6 percent less likely to be
            missed under the group liability setting, relative to
            individual liability. In addition, compulsory savings
            deposits are 19 percent less likely to be missed under group
            liability contracts.
Microeconomic consequences and
            macroeconomic causes of foreign direct investment in
            southern African economies
The causes and consequences of foreign
            direct investment (FDI) in developing countries remains a
            subject of debate among researchers and policymakers alike.
            The authors use international data and a new micro-data set
            of firms in thirteen Southern African Developing Countries
            (SADCs) to investigate the benefits and determinants of FDI
            in this region. FDI appears to have facilitated local
            development in the SADC region. Foreign firms tend to
            perform better than domestic firms, tend to be larger, are
            located in richer and better-governed countries and in
            countries with more competitive financial intermediaries,
            and they are more likely to export than domestic firms. They
            also exhibit positive spillover effects to domestic firms.
            Relying on a standard model to predict the country-level FDI
            inflows per capita, the authors find that SADC is attracting
            their expected level of FDI inflows, at least relative to
            its income level, human capital, demographic structure,
            institutions, and economic track record. There are some
            differences between SADC and the rest of the world in FDI
            behavior: in SADC, the income level is less important and
            openness more so. The authors use two comparison groups to
            compare with SADC to shed light on why other regions have
            attracted more FDI per capita than SADC. The factors that
            explain SADCs low FDI inflows are economic fundamentals
            (e.g., previous growth rates, average income, phone density,
            and the adult share of population).
Macroprudential stress-testing
            practices of central banks in central and south eastern
            Europe : an overview and challenges ahead
Stress tests are the main practical
            tools of macroprudential oversight. This paper reviews the
            stress-testing practices of central banks in Central and
            South Eastern Europe (CSEECBs) and outlines the challenges
            in the area of stress testing going forward. The authors
            discuss good practice and the applied approaches by CSEECBs
            focusing on the main components of a typical macroprudential
            stress test, i.e. constructing the baseline and stress
            scenarios, mapping macroeconomic scenarios and microeconomic
            factors to risk factors, calculating risk exposures to
            different risk indicators, and estimating outcome indicators
            to inform macroprudential policy. The main challenges for
            the CSEECBs going forward involve needed improvements in
            data reliability, consideration of quantitative
            microprudential indicators in macroprudential stress tests,
            explicit incorporation of dynamics in stress tests to
            include reaction functions of banks and macroprudential
            policy, institutionalization of macroprudential policy
            responses to alarming stress-test results, use of the
            top-down and bottom-up stress test results in supervisory
            communication, cooperation of macroprudential and
            microprudential supervision, and information exchange for
            better cross-border supervision of international banking groups.