rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
The Use of Data Analytics Techniques
            to Assess the Functioning of a Government's Financial
            Management Information System : An Application to Pakistan
            and Cambodia
Public financial management enables
            government to implement policy. Financial management
            information systems are a central element of PFM in that
            they facilitate government financial transactions and
            subject them to rigorous budgetary controls. Therefore, the
            adequate use of FMIS systems supports the implementation of
            fiscal rules and provides the basis for holding the
            executive accountable for implementing the budget. Yet, the
            integrity of expenditure transactions and effectiveness of
            budget controls is rarely assessed. This paper explores the
            meaning of adequate use of FMIS systems and points to data
            analytics techniques that can shed light on how the use FMIS
            systems affects expenditure data integrity and effectiveness
            of budget controls. This methodology is applied to Pakistan
            and Cambodia, which reveals two very different problems. In
            Pakistan the analysis of the transactions profile suggests
            that a large share of the budget is not subjected to FMIS
            internal controls. In Cambodia the majority of the budget is
            channeled through the system, but the method exposes very
            large advances to commercial bank accounts that are
            subsequently drawn upon but outside the system. Both of
            these raise concerns about the effectiveness of the FMIS
            system. Deploying data analytics techniques can help assess
            whether FMIS systems serve form or function. Judging a
            system by its use is informative about governments'
            revealed preferences in expenditure management. This paper
            puts the spotlight on the foundation of expenditure data and
            advocates for a transparent, methodical and evidenced based
            approach to FMIS deployment and expenditure management reform.
Poverty Measurement in the Era of
            Food Away from Home : Testing Alternative Approaches in Vietnam
Food consumed outside the home in
            restaurants or other food establishments is a growing
            segment of consumption in many developing countries.
            However, the survey methods that are utilized to collect
            data on expenditures on food away from home are often
            simplistic and could potentially result in inaccurate
            reporting. This study addresses the potential inaccuracy of
            commonly used methods and tests potentially superior methods
            to inform best practices when collecting data on consumption
            of food away from home. A household survey experiment was
            implemented in Hanoi, Vietnam, to test these different
            methods. Using a food away from home consumption diary as a
            benchmark, the study finds that many of the alternative
            methods considered -- including asking about consumption in
            one line (the existing practice in Vietnam) or asking each
            individual about their food away from home -- lead to
            underreporting (33 and 22 percent underestimates,
            respectively). Surprisingly, using one respondent and
            helping them with recall with a simple worksheet as well as
            bounding (two-visits) results in food away from home
            estimates that are indistinguishable from those reported in
            the benchmark diary. This finding implies that there is a
            more cost-effective way to collect accurate data on food
            away from home than an intensive daily diary. Furthermore,
            it highlights the inaccuracy associated with collecting data
            on consumption of food away from home from a single question
            in a survey. Although limited analysis can be conducted on
            the implications for poverty, the study finds that the
            profiles of the poorest households differ across different
            methods of collecting information on food consumed away from home.
Measuring the Statistical Capacity
            of Nations
The international development community
            has used the World Bank's Statistical Capacity Index
            since its inception in 2004. The Sustainable Development
            Goals create new challenges for national statistical systems
            to produce high-quality and internationally comparable data.
            This paper reviews measurement methodologies, posits desired
            attributes, and presents theoretical and empirical
            frameworks for the new, improved index to monitor progress
            in the statistical capacity of nations. The paper
            illustrates the properties of the updated index with global
            data from 2016.
Institutional Fragmentation and
            Metropolitan Coordination in Latin American Cities : What
            Consequences for Productivity and Growth
This paper provides empirical evidence
            on the impact of institutional fragmentation and
            metropolitan coordination on urban productivity in Latin
            American cities. The use of night-time lights satellite
            imagery and high-resolution population data allow the use of
            a broader definition of metropolitan area. Thus,
            metropolitan area consists of the urban extent that results
            from the union between the formally defined metropolitan
            area and the contiguous patches of urbanized areas with more
            that 500,000 inhabitants. The initial results suggest that
            the presence of multiple local governments within
            metropolitan areas generates opposite effects on urban
            productivity. On the one hand, smaller governments tend to
            be more responsive and efficient, which increases
            productivity. But, on the other hand, multiple local
            governments face coordination costs that reduce productivity.
Urban Form and Productivity : What
            Is the Shape of Latin American Cities
This paper examines the linkages between
            urban form and city productivity, using alternative metrics
            for urban form and applying them to a comprehensive sample
            of Latin American cities. Although most of the literature
            has concentrated on the effects of population density
            (compact versus sprawling urban development), this paper
            seeks to assess whether different dimensions of a
            city's urban form, such as shape, structure, and
            land-use, affect its economic performance. The paper finds
            that the shape of the urban extent, the inner-city
            connectedness, and fullness have a statistically significant
            influence on the productivity level of the city.
Natural Resources and Total Factor
            Productivity Growth in Developing Countries : Testing A New Methodology
Estimates of total factor productivity
            growth, a measure of increases in the efficiency of
            production, have traditionally been based on a two-factor
            model of labor and fixed capital. Because profits are
            measured residually in the System of National Accounts, they
            implicitly include rents on natural resource exploitation,
            with the result that the contribution of fixed capital to
            growth in the inputs to gross domestic product is misstated,
            particularly in resource dependent developing countries.
            This leads to incorrect measures of total factor
            productivity growth. Using data on natural resources from
            the World Bank's Wealth of Nations database and methods
            combining the Solow growth accounting model with recent work
            at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
            Development, this paper makes new estimates of total factor
            productivity growth for 74 developing countries over
            1996-2014. In the aggregate, including natural resources as
            a factor of production increases estimated total factor
            productivity growth across all country income classes and
            regions of the world when compared with the traditional
            two-factor approach. In addition, the estimated total factor
            productivity growth including natural resources is less
            volatile over time in the great majority of countries
            compared with the traditional approach. The availability of
            World Bank data on natural resource quantities and rents for
            a wide range of countries suggests that natural resources
            should be included in total factor productivity growth
            estimation going forward. Further research could focus on
            the distinctive roles played by different natural resource endowments.
Subjective Well-Being and Peaceful Uprisings
This study analyzes whether subjective
            well-being measures can explain variation in peaceful
            uprisings, in addition to the objective measures typically
            used in analyses of this type of events. Using data on
            uprisings and subjective well-being for 118 countries from
            2007 to 2014 -- a period during which nonviolent conflict
            became increasingly prevalent -- the study finds evidence of
            a positive effect of life dissatisfaction on the incidence
            of peaceful uprising, but not its violent counterpart. This
            effect does not depend on the type of political regime, nor
            the stage of development, and, to a large extent, it
            reflects changes in perceived satisfaction with living
            standards and the ability to have a purposeful and
            meaningful life.
Assessing Innovation Patterns and
            Constraints in Developing East Asia : An Introductory Analysis
This paper sheds light on key innovation
            patterns and constraints within a selected set of developing
            East Asian countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Lao
            People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
            Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam). It follows a
            comprehensive approach about national innovation systems
            while highlighting the supply and demand dimensions of
            innovation as well as the markets where firms make
            accumulation decisions for different forms of capital
            (knowledge capital, human capital. and physical capital).
            The paper presents a set of empirical exercises drawing from
            various data sets. The results corroborate the idea of the
            importance of adopting a broad view of innovation policy and
            investing in missing complementary factors. Although
            investment in research and development is key to boost
            innovation, it is also crucial to have business and
            regulatory environments that are conducive to overall firm
            performance and capital accumulation (not only knowledge
            capital), as they are expected to improve innovation
            returns. In addition, the results suggest that other
            innovation inputs aside from research and development matter
            for innovation activities, such as training for innovative
            activities, acquisition/licensing of technology, and
            managerial practices.
Can Environmental Cash Transfers
            Reduce Deforestation and Improve Social Outcomes A
            Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Mexico’s National
            Program (2011-2014)
Environmental conditional cash
            transfers, or "payments for ecosystem services"
            are a centerpiece of global efforts to protect biodiversity,
            safeguard watersheds, and mitigate climate change by
            reducing forest loss. This paper evaluates the impacts of
            Mexico's national payments for ecosystem services
            program, which provides five years of payments to landowners
            in exchange for maintaining and managing natural land cover.
            Using a regression discontinuity design, the paper studies
            impacts on environmental, socioeconomic, and social capital
            outcomes for the 2011-14 program cohorts. The analysis finds
            that treated communities increased management activities to
            protect land cover, such as patrolling for illegal
            conversion or combatting soil erosion (by 48 percent
            compared to controls). The program reduced the loss of tree
            cover in areas at high risk of deforestation (by 29 percent
            compared to controls), with effects being larger for those
            that have been in the program the longest (38 percent
            compared to controls). These results are similar to
            estimates of impact for earlier program cohorts and continue
            to highlight the importance of targeting the program to
            areas of high risk of land cover loss to increase
            environmental effectiveness. The program continued to reach
            poor communities and households, but estimated impacts on
            household wealth indicators are small in magnitude and not
            statistically significant. These results indicate that
            community-level conditional payments did not harm
            household-level socioeconomic indicators, a key safeguard
            requirement of conservation policies of the United Nations
            Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
            Forest Degradation. The data also show that payments for
            ecosystem services significantly increased community social
            capital -- the institutions, attitudes, and values that
            govern human interactions -- (by 9 percent compared to
            controls), and these externally provided incentives did not
            crowd out household contributions to other community work.
Using Referenda to Improve Targeting
            and Decrease Costs of Conditional Cash Transfers
Cost-effective allocation of conditional
            cash transfers (CCT) requires identifying recipients with
            low opportunity costs who might change behavior. This paper
            develops a low-cost approach for improving program
            implementation by using a stated preference,
            referendum-style survey question to calculate willingness to
            accept (WTA) for CCT contracts. This is illustrated in the
            context of Mexico's Payments for Ecosystem Services
            Program, with the paper finding that the estimated social
            cost based on WTA is substantially lower than actual
            payments. Simulation of three geographic targeting
            approaches shows that joint selection using deforestation
            risk and WTA could increase program impact under the same
            budget. The paper also simulates modified payment schedules
            based on predicted WTA and demonstrates that these could
            reduce program cost.
A New Tail-Based Correlation Measure
            and Its Application in Global Equity Markets
The co-dependence between assets tends
            to increase when the market declines. This paper develops a
            correlation measure focusing on market declines using the
            expected shortfall (ES), referred to as the ES-implied
            correlation, to improve the existing value at risk
            (VaR)-implied correlation. Simulations which define
            period-by-period true correlations show that the ES-implied
            correlation is much closer to true correlations than is the
            VaR-implied correlation with respect to average bias and
            root-mean-square error. More importantly, this paper
            develops a series of test statistics to measure and test
            correlation asymmetries, as well as to evaluate the impact
            of weights on the VaR-implied correlation and the ES-implied
            correlation. The test statistics indicate that the linear
            correlation significantly underestimates correlations
            between the US and the other G7 countries during market
            downturns, and the choice of weights does not have
            significant impact on the VaR-implied correlation or the
            ES-implied correlation.
Highway Politics in a Divided
            Government : Evidence from Mexico
This paper combines local election
            results and geo-referenced road construction data over
            1993-2012 to investigate political bias in road
            infrastructure investment in a democratic setting, focusing
            on the case of Mexico. Using a regression discontinuity
            design, the paper finds strong evidence of partisan
            allocation of federally-funded highways to municipalities
            that voted for the president's party in legislative
            races, nearly doubling the stock of highways compared to
            opposition municipalities. The extent of political
            favoritism in highway provision is stronger under divided
            government when the president has no majority in the
            legislature, suggesting political efforts to control the Congress.
When the Cycle Becomes the Trend :
            The Emerging Market Experience with Fiscal Policy during the
            Last Commodity Super Cycle
Fiscal buffers have shrunk across the
            world. This paper argues that limited fiscal room in
            emerging market economies today is partly due to the
            commodity super cycle of 2000-15. The super cycle created
            the mirage that economic performance had structurally
            improved, mistaking a long, commodity-fueled uptick in the
            business cycle for higher trend growth. This thinking
            supported fiscal expansions. When the commodity boom ended,
            it became apparent that countries had saved less than they
            should have, and that fiscal policy had, perhaps
            inadvertently, been pro-cyclical. It left countries with
            depleted fiscal buffers and large budgets when the cycle
            came to an end, limiting room for fiscal stimulus when
            needed. The paper illustrates the argument with reference to
            the South African experience.
Interest Rate Pass-Through : A
            Meta-Analysis of the Literature
The interest rate pass-through describes
            how changes in a reference rate (the monetary policy, money
            market, or T-bill rate) transmit to bank lending rates. This
            paper reviews the empirical literature on the interest rate
            pass-through and systematizes it by means of meta-analysis
            and meta-regressions. The paper finds systematically lower
            estimated pass-through coefficients in studies that focus on
            transmission to long-term lending rates, consumer lending
            rates, and average lending rates. The interest rate
            pass-through is significantly influenced by country
            macro-financial and institutional factors. The estimated
            pass-through tends to be stronger for economies with deeper
            capital markets (measured by market capitalization).
            Interestingly, central bank independence rising from lower
            levels can reduce interest rate pass-through, while central
            bank independence rising from already high levels can boost
            the pass-through.
Enforcing Competition and Firm
            Productivity : Evidence from 1,800 Peruvian Municipalities
This paper uses a unique data set that
            captures the elimination of subnational regulatory barriers
            to firm entry and competition across 1,800 municipalities
            and matches it with establishment census panel data to
            estimate the impact on establishment productivity and
            markups. The elimination of local barriers that were
            inconsistent with national legislation was the result of
            legal reforms that strengthened the mandate of Peru's
            competition authority. Legislative changes in 2013/14
            empowered the competition authority to enforce the
            elimination of illegal, sector-specific subnational
            regulatory barriers to firm entry and competition,
            conditional on the existence of a precedence. The changes
            provide a unique quasi-experimental setting to identify the
            impact of enforcing competition within the controlled
            institutional environment of a single country. The paper
            finds that the elimination of subnational barriers to entry
            boosted the (revenue) productivity of establishments
            operating in reform municipalities and sectors relative to
            establishments in nonreform municipalities/sectors. But it
            did not raise the establishments' markups, which, if
            anything, declined, suggesting that physical productivity
            improved. The paper provides a wide range of evidence
            supporting a causal interpretation of this finding. The
            results suggest that strengthening the mandate of
            institutions enforcing competition is critical to raise productivity.
Paid Maternity Leave and Female
            Employment : Evidence Using Firm-Level Survey Data for
            Developing Countries
The relationship between the length of
            paid maternity leave and the proportion of female workers in
            the private sector is explored using firm-level survey data
            for 66 mostly developing countries. The paper finds a large,
            positive, and statistically significant relationship between
            the two. According to the most conservative estimate, an
            increase of one week of paid maternity leave is associated
            with a 2.6 percentage points increase in the share of
            workers in a typical firm that are female. As expected, the
            stated relationship is much larger when the government pays
            for maternity leave versus the employer. The results are
            robust to several controls for firm and country
            characteristics and other possible heterogeneities in the
            maternity leave and female workers relationship.