rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Dignity through discourse : poverty
            and the culture of deliberation in Indian village democracies
Employing a view of culture as a
            communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement,
            which is deeply influenced by social and economic
            inequalities, the authors argue that the struggle to break
            free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is
            political and economic. In this paper, they analyze
            important examples of discursive spaces - public meetings in
            Indian village democracies (gram sabhas), where villagers
            make important decisions about budgetary allocations for
            village development and the selection of beneficiaries for
            anti-poverty programs. They examine 290 transcripts of gram
            sabhas from South India to demonstrate how they create a
            culture of civic/political engagement among poor people, and
            how definitions of poverty and beneficiary-selection
            criteria are understood and interrogated within them.
            Through this examination, they highlight the process by
            which gram sabhas facilitate the acquisition of crucial
            cultural capabilities such as discursive skills and civic
            agency by poor and disadvantaged groups. They illustrate how
            the poor and socially marginalized deploy these discursive
            skills in a resource-scarce and socially stratified
            environment in making material and non-material demands in
            their search for dignity. The intersection of poverty,
            culture, and deliberative democracy is a topic of broad
            relevance because it sheds light on cultural processes that
            can be influenced by public action in a manner that helps
            improve the voice and agency of the poor.
Optimal devaluations
According to the conventional wisdom,
            when an economy enters a recession and nominal prices adjust
            slowly, the monetary authority should devalue the domestic
            currency to make the recession less severe. The reason is
            that a devaluation of the currency lowers the relative price
            of non-tradable goods, and this reduces the necessary
            adjustment in output relative to the case in which the
            exchange rate remains constant. This paper uses a simple
            small open economy model with sticky prices to characterize
            optimal fiscal and monetary policy in response to
            productivity and terms of trade shocks. Contrary to the
            conventional wisdom, in this framework optimal exchange rate
            policy cannot be characterized just by the cyclical
            properties of output. The source of the shock matters: while
            recessions induced by a drop in the price of exportable
            goods call for a devaluation of the currency, those induced
            by a drop in productivity in the non-tradable sector require
            a revaluation.
Is deliberation equitable evidence
            from transcripts of village meetings in south India
Deliberative decision-making processes
            are becoming increasingly important around the world to make
            important decisions about public and private goods
            allocation, but there is very little empirical evidence
            about how they actually work. In this paper the authors use
            data from India extracted from 131 transcripts of village
            meetings matched with data from household surveys conducted
            in the same villages prior to the meetings, to study whose
            preferences are reflected in the meetings. The meetings are
            constitutionally empowered to make decisions about public
            and private goods. The findings show that the more land a
            person owns, the higher the likelihood her preference is
            mentioned in the meeting, the longer the amount of time
            spent discussing this preference, and the higher the
            likelihood that a decision to provide or repair this public
            or private good is taken. At the same time, the voices of
            disadvantaged castes, while not dominating the meeting, are
            also heard. By contrast, the preferences of Muslims are
            given less time. High village literacy and the presence of
            higher level officials during village meetings mitigate the
            power of the landed, but political reservations for low
            castes for the post of village president increase the power
            of the landed.
When do Legislators pass on
            "Pork" the determinants of legislator utilization
            of a constituency development fund in India
The authors examine a unique public
            spending program that is proliferating across developing
            countries, the constituency development fund, to investigate
            when legislators exert more effort on behalf of their
            constituents. Using data from India, they find that
            legislator effort is significantly lower in constituencies
            where voters are more attached to political parties.  They
            are also lower in constituencies that are reserved for
            members of socially disadvantaged groups (lower castes),
            specifically in those reserved constituencies that are
            candidate strongholds. This result is robust to controls for
            alternate explanations and implies that legislators pass on
            pork when voters are more attached to political parties or
            influenced by identity issues. These findings have
            implications for the evaluation of constituency development
            funds. They also provide a new answer to a central issue in
            political economy, the conditions under which legislators
            seek to "bring home the pork" to constituents,
            that attaches great importance to the role of political parties.
Simple model frameworks for
            explaining inefficiency of the clean development mechanism :
            Simple model frameworks for explaining inefficiency of the
            clean development mechanism
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is
            an offset mechanism designed to reduce the overall cost of
            implementing a given global target for greenhouse gas (GHG)
            emissions in industrialized "Annex B" countries of
            the Kyoto Protocol. This paper discusses various ways in
            which CDM projects do not imply full offset of emissions,
            thus leading to an overall increase in global GHG emissions
            when considering the Annex-B emissions increase allowed by
            the offsets. The authors focus on two ways in which this may
            occur: baseline manipulation; and leakage. Baseline
            manipulation may result when agents that carry out CDM
            projects have incentives to increase their initial (or
            baseline) emissions in order to optimize the value of CDM
            credits. Leakage occurs because reductions in emissions
            under a CDM project may affect market equilibrium in local
            and/or global energy and product markets, and thereby
            increase emissions elsewhere. Remedies against these
            problems are discussed. Such remedies are more obvious for
            the baseline problem (where one is simply to choose an
            exogenous baseline independent of the project) than for the
            leakage problem (which is difficult to prevent, and where a
            prediction of the effect must rely on information about
            overall market equilibrium effects).
Entrepreneurship in post-conflict
            transition : the role of informality and access to finance
The authors examine the factors
            affecting the transition to self-employment in Bosnia and
            Herzegovina, using the World Bank Living Standard
            Measurement Survey panel household survey for the years
            2001-2004. In the beginning of the sample, the country
            changed its legal framework, with the primary aim to promote
            labor market flexibility and to encourage entrepreneurial
            activity. The analysis identifies individuals that switched
            to self-employment (employers and own account) during the
            sample period and the viability of this transition, in terms
            of business survival for more than one year.  The results
            suggest an important role for financing constraints.
            Specifically, wealthier households are more likely to become
            entrepreneurs and survive in self-employment.  After
            controlling for household wealth, having an existing bank
            relationship increases the likelihood of starting a business
            with hired employees and increases the chances of survival
            for the new entrepreneur. By contrast, overseas - and in
            some cases domestic - remittances decrease the likelihood of
            becoming an entrepreneur.
Uncivil societies - a theory of
            sociopolitical change
In times of crises, it is always useful
            to revisit some of the paradigms that underlie collective
            thinking and action. For nearly 200 years, most social
            science has relied on the assumption that the emergence of
            strong and nurturing social capital through a vibrant civil
            society yields all kind of positive externalities to
            society. Following intuition and anecdotal observations from
            Alexis de Tocqueville, a large body of theoretical and
            empirical research has attempted to confirm that societies
            strive politically and economically when they are able to
            build strong non-state actors and community organizations.
            Many disciplines-mainly political science, economics, law,
            and international relations-have constructed influential
            analytical frameworks in support of that general
            proposition. This paper examines the philosophical
            foundations of conventional wisdom and observes that it
            often fails to take into account the dark side of some civil
            society groups, from the mafia to Al Qaeda. While
            acknowledging the potential contribution of civil society to
            the development process, the paper also cautions again the
            rush to circumvent the state, which sometimes sustains
            community-based initiatives in poor countries. It suggests
            the possibility of the production of negative social capital
            by non-state actors.
Orphanhood and the living
            arrangements of children in sub-saharan Africa
Increasing adult mortality due to
            HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa raises considerable concerns
            about the welfare of surviving children. Studies have found
            substantial variability across countries in the negative
            impacts of orphanhood on child health and education. One
            hypothesis for this variability is the resilience of the
            extended family network in some countries to care for
            orphans-networks under increasing pressure by the sheer
            number of orphans in many settings. Using household survey
            data from 21 countries in Africa, this study examines trends
            in orphanhood and living arrangements, and the links between
            the two. The findings confirm that orphanhood is increasing,
            although not all countries are experiencing rapid rises. In
            many countries, there has been a shift toward grandparents
            taking on increased childcare responsibility-especially
            where orphan rates are growing rapidly. This suggests some
            merit to the claim that the extended network is narrowing,
            focusing on grandparents who are older and may be less able
            to financially support orphans than working-age adults.
            However there are also changes in childcare patterns in
            countries with stable orphan rates or low HIV prevalence.
            This suggests future work on living arrangements should not
            exclude low HIV/AIDS prevalence countries, and explanations
            for changes should include a broader set of factors.
Orphanhood and the living
            arrangements of children in sub-saharan Africa
WPS4889 Policy ReseaRch WoRking PaPeR 4889 Orphanhood and the Living Arrangements of Children in Sub-Saharan Africa _Kathleen Beegle Deon Filmer Andrew Stokes Lucia Tiererova_ The World Bank Development Research Group Poverty Team & Human Development and Public Services Team March 2009
Frame-of-reference bias in
            subjective welfare regressions
Past research has found that subjective
            questions about an individuals' economic status do not
            correspond closely to measures of economic welfare based on
            household income or consumption. Survey respondents
            undoubtedly hold diverse ideas about what it means to be
            "poor" or "rich." Further, this
            heterogeneity may be correlated with other characteristics,
            including welfare, leading to frame-of-reference bias. To
            test for this bias, vignettes were added to a nationally
            representative survey of Tajikistan, in which survey
            respondents rank the economic status of the theoretical
            vignette households, as well as their own. The vignette
            rankings are used to reveal the respondent's own scale.
            The findings indicate that respondents hold diverse scales
            in assessing their welfare, but that there is little bias in
            either the economic gradient of subjective welfare or most
            other coefficients on covariates of interest. These results
            provide a firmer foundation for standard survey methods and
            regression specifications for subjective welfare data.
Why trade facilitation matters to Africa
This paper reviews data and research on
            trade costs for Sub-Saharan African countries. It focuses
            on: border-related costs, transport costs, costs related to
            behind-the border issues, and the costs of compliance with
            rules of origin specific to preferential trade agreements.
            Trade costs are, on average, higher for African countries
            than for other developing countries. Using gravity-model
            estimates, the authors compute ad-valorem equivalents of
            improvements in trade indicators for a sample of African
            countries. The evidence suggests that the gains for African
            exporters from improving the trade logistics half-way to the
            level in South Africa is more important than a substantive
            cut in tariff barriers. As an example, improving logistics
            in Ethiopia half-way to the level in South Africa would be
            roughly equivalent to a 7.5 percent cut in tariffs faced by
            Ethiopian exporters.
Trade remedies and non-market
            economies : economic implications of the first US
            countervailing duty case on China
In 2007, the United States Department of
            Commerce altered a 23-year old policy of not applying the
            countervailing duty law to non-market economies, and
            initiated eight countervailing and antidumping duty
            investigations on Chinese imports. The change brings heated
            debate on trade remedy policies and issues of non-market
            economies. This study focuses on the first countervailing
            duty case on imported coated free sheet paper from China and
            analyzes the implications of this test case for United
            States-China bilateral trade, and industrial policies in
            transitioning market economies. The paper also provides a
            brief review of the economics of subsidies, World Trade
            Organization rules on subsides and countervailing measures,
            and United States countervailing duty laws applied to
            non-market economies. While recently acceded countries
            should review their domestic development policies from the
            perspective of economic efficiency and comply with the World
            Trade Organization rules, it is also important to further
            clarify the issues of non-market economies under the
            multilateral trading system, and pay keen attention to the
            rules negotiations in the current World Trade Organization
            Doha Development Round.
Surveying migrant households : a
            comparison of census-based, snowball, and intercept point surveys
Few representative surveys of households
            of migrants exist, limiting the analysis of the effects of
            international migration on sending families. This paper
            reports the results of an experiment designed to compare the
            performance of three alternative survey methods in
            collecting data from Japanese-Brazilian families, many of
            whom send migrants to Japan. The three surveys conducted
            were 1) Households selected randomly from a door-to-door
            listing using the Brazilian Census to select census blocks;
            2) A snowball survey using Nikkei community groups to select
            the seeds; and 3) An intercept point survey collected at
            Nikkei community gatherings, ethnic grocery stores, sports
            clubs, and other locations where family members of migrants
            are likely to congregate. The authors analyze how closely
            well-designed snowball and intercept point surveys can
            approach the much more expensive census-based method in
            terms of giving information on the characteristics of
            migrants, the level of remittances received, and the
            incidence and determinants of return migration.
Diffusion of the internet : a
            cross-country analysis
This paper analyzes the process of
            Internet diffusion across the world using a panel of 199
            countries during 1990-2004. The authors group countries in
            two categories-low and high-income countries-and show that
            the Internet diffusion process is well characterized by an
            S-shape curve for both groups. Low-income countries display
            a steeper diffusion curve that is equivalent to a right
            shift of the diffusion curve for high-income countries. The
            estimated diffusion curves provide evidence of a
            "catching-up" process, although a very slow one.
            The paper explores the determinants of Internet diffusion at
            the country level and across the same income groups. The
            most novel finding is that network effects seem to be
            crucial-the number of Internet users in a country in a given
            year is positively associated with the number of users in
            the previous year. The findings also show that the degree of
            competition in the provision of Internet service contributes
            positively to its diffusion, and there are significant
            positive language externalities.
The determinants of HIV infection
            and related sexual behaviors : evidence from Lesotho
This paper analyzes the socioeconomic
            determinants of HIV infection and related sexual behaviors
            using the 2004 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey. The
            authors find that in Lesotho education appears to have a
            protective effect: it is negatively associated with HIV
            infection (although not always significantly) and it
            strongly predicts preventive behaviors. The findings also
            show that married women who have extra-marital relationships
            are less likely to use a condom than non-married women. This
            is an important source of vulnerability that should be
            addressed in prevention efforts. The paper also analyzes HIV
            infection at the level of the couple. It shows that in 41
            percent of the infected couples, only one of the two
            partners is HIV infected. Therefore, there are still
            opportunities for prevention inside the couple.
Improving indoor air quality for
            poor families : a controlled experiment in Bangladesh
The World Health Organization's
            2004 Global and Regional Burden of Disease Report estimates
            that acute respiratory infections from indoor air pollution
            (pollution from burning wood, animal dung, and other
            bio-fuels) kill a million children annually in developing
            countries, inflicting a particularly heavy toll on poor
            families in South Asia and Africa. This paper reports on an
            experiment that studied the use of construction materials,
            space configurations, cooking locations, and household
            ventilation practices (use of doors and windows) as
            potentially-important determinants of indoor air pollution.
            Results from controlled experiments in Bangladesh are
            analyzed to test whether changes in these determinants can
            have significant effects on indoor air pollution.  Analysis
            of the data shows, for example, that pollution from the
            cooking area diffuses into living spaces rapidly and
            completely. Furthermore, it is important to factor in the
            interaction between outdoor and indoor air pollution. Among
            fuels, seasonal conditions seem to affect the relative
            severity of pollution from wood, dung, and other biomass
            fuels. However, there is no ambiguity about their collective
            impact. All are far dirtier than clean fuels. The analysis
            concludes that if cooking with clean fuels is not possible,
            then building the kitchen with porous construction material
            and providing proper ventilation in cooking areas will yield
            a better indoor health environment.
Comparative analysis of labor market
            dynamics using markov processes : an application to informality
This paper discusses a set of statistics
            for examining and comparing labor market dynamics based on
            the estimation of continuous time Markov transition
            processes. It then uses these to establish stylized facts
            about dynamic patterns of movement using panel data from
            Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. The estimates suggest broad
            commonalities among the three countries, and establish
            numerous common patterns of worker mobility among sectors of
            work and inactivity. As such, we offer some of the first
            comparative work on labor dynamics. The paper then
            particularly focuses on the role of the informal sector,
            both for its intrinsic interest, and as a case study
            illustrating the strengths and limits of the tools. The
            results suggest that a substantial part of the informal
            sector, particularly the self-employed, corresponds to
            voluntary entry although informal salaried work may
            correspond more closely to the standard queuing view,
            especially for younger workers.