rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Glass barriers : constraints to
            women's small-scale cross-border trade in Cambodia and
            Lao PDR
Trade facilitation projects often assume
            indirect benefits for small-scale, cross-border traders.
            Recent studies have shown the challenges faced in Africa by
            this population, especially women, but it remains unknown in
            Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic,
            despite large trade facilitation investments. This paper
            fills this gap, thanks to an innovative mix of original
            qualitative and quantitative data from various checkpoints
            on the borders with Thailand and Vietnam. The quantitative
            data, collected in 2014, consist of an exhaustive list of
            trade-related border crossings during two to three days and
            a survey of 158 randomly selected small-scale, cross-border
            traders and brokers. The paper combines qualitative data and
            statistical techniques to shed light on the structure of the
            small-scale, cross-border trade economy, traders' and
            brokers' profiles, the challenges they face, and
            potential solutions, with a particular emphasis on gender.
            Key challenges pertain to taxation and poor infrastructures.
            Narrow roads, insufficient parking space, and restrictive
            border regulations on transportation means cause traffic
            jams and delays. These disproportionately affect women, who
            are more time constrained. Despite a rather moderate tax
            pressure, widespread informal payments erode traders'
            and brokers' willingness to comply with taxes. Women
            suffer from a higher tax rate and a tax schedule that deters
            them from upgrading to more profitable cross-border trade
            activities. Along with capital constraints, this finding may
            explain the lower share of women in small-scale,
            cross-border trade than among own-account workers and the
            self-employed, as evidenced by nationally representative
            data. The paper delineates policy implications and puts
            forward concrete steps.
Gender and property rights in
            Sub-Saharan Africa : a review of constraints and effective interventions
Strengthening women's ownership,
            control, and use of land, livestock, and savings assets
            matters for poverty and shared prosperity, as unequal
            property rights can lead to intrahousehold inequality in
            wealth; allocative inefficiencies, which are costly in lost
            economic output and productivity growth; and women~^!!^s
            control over household resources and spending decisions,
            with welfare implications for this generation and the next.
            Yet, there is ample evidence to show that the distribution
            and control of these key assets are skewed toward men across
            Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the underlying
            constraints that potentially give rise to these
            inequalities, assesses the impact evaluation evidence on how
            to narrow existing gaps and boost welfare, and outlines a
            set of priority research and policy questions. On land, the
            review uncovers promising evidence on joint land titling and
            notes the need for work from urban settings and
            complementary interventions that address multiple market
            failures. On savings, those products with an element of
            illiquidity and a soft commitment show promise for women in
            experimental settings. On livestock, the review points to a
            striking dearth of evidence on the causal impact of
            livestock transfer programs -- aside from bundled ultra-poor
            programs and nutrition interventions.
Mangroves as protection from storm
            surges in Bangladesh
Mangrove forests can reduce the
            vulnerability of adjacent coastal lands from storm surges by
            slowing the flow of water. Although the potential utility of
            mangroves in disaster risk reduction is increasingly
            recognized by coastal managers, efficient use of this
            ecosystem-based protection is often hindered by the scarcity
            of location-specific information on the protective capacity
            of mangroves. This paper evaluates that capacity in seven
            coastal locations of Bangladesh, where surge heights can
            range from 1.5 to 9 meters. Estimates confirm varying levels
            of protection from different species, width, and density of
            mangrove forests. The findings highlight that mangroves must
            be used along with built infrastructure such as embankments.
            However, mangroves in the foreshore of embankments will
            contribute to savings in maintenance costs by protecting the
            built infrastructure from breaching and other damages.
Microfinance and economic development
Microfinance is generally seen as a way
            to fix credit markets and unleash the productive capacities
            of poor people who are dependent on self-employment. The
            microfinance sector has grown quickly since the 1990s,
            paving the way for other forms of social enterprise and
            social investment. But recent evidence shows only modest
            average impacts on customers, generating a backlash against
            microfinance. This paper reconsiders the claims about
            microfinance, highlighting the diversity in evidence on
            impacts and the important (but limited) role of subsidies.
            The paper concludes by describing an evolution of thinking:
            from microfinance as narrowly construed entrepreneurial
            finance toward microfinance as broadly construed household
            finance. In this vision, microfinance yields benefits by
            providing liquidity for a wide range of needs rather than
            solely by boosting business income.
The effect of height on earnings :
            is stature just a proxy for cognitive and non-cognitive skills
This study investigates the degree to
            which the association of height and earnings in Pakistan is
            independent of other cognitive and socioemotional skills.
            While taller workers are regularly observed to earn more,
            they commonly have higher cognitive ability. Thus, there is
            debate concerning the independent contribution of stature.
            The study explores the relationship between height and
            earnings when a measure of cognitive ability -- performance
            on Raven's matrices -- and an index of socioemotional
            capacity are included. The study finds that there is only
            modest attenuation of the coefficient of height—treated as
            endogenous or exogenous—when these additional indicators of
            human capital are included.
The impacts of safety nets in Africa
            : what are we learning
Safety nets in Africa are a popular
            policy instrument to address the widespread chronic poverty
            and encourage human capital investments in the education and
            health of children. Although there have been considerable
            analyses on the impacts of safety nets globally,
            particularly in Latin America, less been done on
            synthesizing results across Sub-Saharan African programs.
            This study fills this gap by systematically extracting and
            standardizing the results across impact evaluations for
            better understanding of what has been achieved using this
            policy instrument in the continent. The study finds that
            these programs on average have significant positive impacts
            on total and food consumption. The programs show promising
            results on asset accumulation, such as livestock ownership.
            However, there is substantial heterogeneity in the impacts
            achieved across programs for some development outcomes.
            Through exploring this heterogeneity in impacts, the study
            puts forward several suggestions for better targeting
            various development outcomes through modifications in the
            design and implementation of safety net programs.
Insuring well-being buyer's
            remorse and peace of mind effects from insurance
This paper estimates the causal effects
            of index insurance coverage on subjective well-being among
            livestock herders in southern Ethiopia. The randomization of
            incentives to purchase index-based livestock insurance and
            three rounds of panel data are exploited to separately
            identify ex ante welfare gains from insurance that reduces
            risk exposure and ex post buyer's remorse effects that
            may arise after the resolution of uncertainty. Insurance
            coverage currently in force generates subjective well-being
            gains that are significantly higher than the buyer's
            remorse effect of an insurance that lapsed without paying
            out. Given the temporal correlation in insurance purchase
            propensity, failure to control for potential buyer's
            remorse effects can bias downward estimates of welfare gains
            from current insurance coverage.
A regime-based effect of fiscal
            policy : evidence from an emerging economy
In recent years, few authors have
            attempted to address the question of whether the state of
            the economy influences the impact of fiscal policy on the
            economy. Key findings have often indicated that expansionary
            fiscal intervention tends to be more effective when the
            economy is in a downturn. This favorable impact is more
            pronounced with an increase in government spending as
            opposed to a tax reduction. Despite several empirical
            attempts, the findings on the state-dependent nonlinear
            relationship of fiscal policy and output growth are often
            limited to developed economies. Building on the current
            research trend of using the threshold vector autoregression
            methodology, this paper bridges this gap and extends the
            empirical body to estimate the nonlinear relationship for an
            emerging economy, Tunisia. The paper provides empirical
            evidence that fiscal policy has a different impact on
            economic activity depending on the business cycle, the
            instrument of the fiscal policy used, and the intensity of
            the shock. The paper argues that in a downturn phase,
            government spending should be privileged particularly in the
            short run, with a gradual increase in the tax base to reduce
            the risk of worsening the budget deficit. Further, the
            monetary authority should be less inclined to raise its
            policy rate in the early stage of the recessionary period,
            as this intervention could have an adverse impact on
            economic growth. In the expansion phase, a tax cut
            intervention appears on the contrary to have a stronger
            positive impact on economic activity, especially in the
            short run, as the monetary authority is expected to
            introduce gradual policy hikes more rapidly to control for
            the inflationary expectations.
Asset prices and macroeconomic
            outcomes : a survey
This paper surveys the literature on the
            linkages between asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes. It
            focuses on three major questions. First, what are the basic
            theoretical linkages between asset prices and macroeconomic
            outcomes? Second, what is the empirical evidence supporting
            these linkages? And third, what are the main challenges to
            the theoretical and empirical findings? The survey addresses
            these questions in the context of four major asset price
            categories: equity prices, house prices, exchange rates and
            interest rates, with a particular focus on their
            international dimensions. It also puts into perspective the
            evolution of the literature on the determinants of asset
            prices and their linkages with macroeconomic outcomes, and
            discusses possible future research directions.
The internet and Chinese exports in
            the pre-Alibaba era
This paper uses the dramatic expansion
            of access to the Internet in China to analyze the impact of
            the Internet on firm performance. The paper combines
            firm-level production data with province-level information
            on Internet penetration to examine how the rollout of the
            Internet across Chinese provinces between 1999 and 2007
            influenced firms' export behavior. The econometric
            strategy enables identifying the impact of the Internet on
            firm performance in China. The paper shows that the rollout
            of the Internet boosted manufacturing exports of firms in
            China, even before the rise of major e-commerce platforms in
            the country such as Alibaba. The paper takes a closer look
            at why, focusing on three questions: what aspects of firm
            performance were affected, what types of firm communication
            were facilitated, and what dimensions of the new
            communication medium were relevant? The paper finds that the
            Internet not only enhanced trade, but also improved overall
            firm performance. The results are consistent with
            improvements in communication with buyers and input
            suppliers. The benefits arose not just from better
            communication, but from establishing a visible virtual
            presence, and were enhanced by, but not contingent on,
            access to broadband.
Association of World Bank policy
            lending with social development policies and institutions
Do World Bank policy loans that are
            focused on social policy reform help improve social policies
            and institutions in borrower countries? To help answer this
            question, this paper provides new empirical evidence of the
            association between World Bank policy lending and measures
            of the quality of borrower countries' social policies
            and institutions that such lending supports. Results from
            estimating a two-stage least squares model indicate that the
            World Bank's policy lending has a significantly
            positive effect on the quality of social policies and
            institutions. The analysis also finds tentative evidence
            that loan conditions related to social protection and
            environmental sustainability are more effective in
            influencing social policies and institutions than those
            related to equity of public resource use and health and
            education. In general, the findings are confirmed when
            estimating a model with a lagged variable of interest. The
            results suggest that the right kind of conditionality can
            help improve social policies, therefore providing an
            important lever for reaching the twin goals of ending
            extreme poverty and stimulating shared prosperity.
Change management that works :
            making impacts in challenging environments
Achieving better governance has been a
            central problem for development. When public services are
            not delivered as intended, reform action becomes necessary
            and that involves deliberate activities to change laws,
            structures, and processes to improve public sector
            performance and benefit public service users. The key
            challenge is that changes in the design of the institution
            or its procedures do not necessarily translate into
            immediate changes in the behavior of relevant actors. A
            central problem of public sector reform is ensuring that
            changes in laws and policies also prompts changes in the way
            that people work, so that service delivery improves. There
            is no one-size-fits-all approach ensuring that change
            happens the desirable way; however, experiences from the
            field suggest that a useful combination of political economy
            analysis with change management tools can help to maximize
            positive impacts. Different contexts will require different
            approaches to change management, and therefore political
            economy analysis can be used productively to design a
            targeted change management strategy that builds on existing
            strengths and opportunities. Greater integration of
            political economy analysis into change management
            assessments has been helpful in deepening understanding of
            attitudes to change within these particular contexts. This
            has allowed more effective leveraging of the opportunities
            for reform through the more systematic tailoring of change
            management strategies to different sets of issues emerging
            among particular groups of actors.  Cambodia and Indonesia,
            the case studies presented in the paper, help to illustrate this.
The value of reference letters
This paper shows that reference letters
            from former employers alleviate information asymmetries
            about workers' skills and improve both match quality
            and equity in the labor market. A resume audit study finds
            that using a reference letter in the application increases
            callbacks by more than 60 percent, with women driving the
            effect. Letters are effective because they provide valuable
            information about workers' skills that employers use to
            select applicants of higher ability. A second experiment,
            which encourages job seekers to obtain and use a reference
            letter, finds consistent results. In particular, employment
            rates for women encouraged to obtain a letter increase by 49
            percent, closing the gender gap in the sample.
Appraisal econometrics for proposed
            transport corridors : optimal placement, intervention
            design, and wider economic benefits
Transport corridors to stimulate
            regional integration and trade have become a popular
            development tool. But when they fail to generate the
            expected wider economic benefits, they can become wasteful
            or unequitable investments. This paper evaluates the
            relative strengths and weaknesses of econometric methods as
            applied today to appraise the proposed placement of
            transport corridors and the project design to distribute
            benefits more widely; the future potential of these methods;
            and an emerging synthesis in some recent studies. The review
            focuses on network, reduced-form, and structural (general
            equilibrium) econometrics. At the current juncture, from the
            policy-making perspective, combining network econometrics
            based on the notion of centrality with reduced-form
            regressions comprising interactive effects could be the most
            practical approach. Future research could focus on advancing
            structural general equilibrium econometrics to cover
            multiple markets together with network econometrics to
            consider the interaction of heterogeneous agents.
Mission and the bottom line :
            performance incentives in a multi-goal organization
The impact of performance pay in
            institutions with multiple goals depends on
            complementarities in the disutility cost of effort and how
            different tasks interact to achieve each goal. Workers of a
            mission-oriented nonprofit were randomly assigned to one of
            two bonus schemes, each incentivizing one of its two main
            operational goals: the performance of its microcredit
            program and the strengthening of community institutions of
            the poor. This study finds that the credit bonus improved
            credit-related outcomes but it undermined the social
            outcome. In contrast, the social bonus advanced the social
            mission as well as the microcredit program, but only for
            employees working alone, undermining the performance of
            employees working in teams. These results cannot be
            explained by a standard multitask principal-agent model
            featuring only complementarities in the disutility cost of
            effort. Instead, they suggest that production
            complementarities are also relevant.
A GEM for streamlined dynamic CGE
            analysis : structure, interface, data, and macro application
This paper provides an overview, macro
            application, and detailed documentation of GEM-Core, a
            dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model designed
            for medium- and long-run policy analysis. GEM stands for
            General Equilibrium Model. GEM-Core can address the issues
            that typically are relevant for CGE analysis for developing
            countries, including fiscal space (with its spending, tax,
            and foreign aid aspects), public investment, social safety
            nets, trade, jobs, demography, poverty, and inequality. The
            model is a template model in the sense that, given an
            appropriately formatted database, applications for different
            countries can quickly be developed. The data needed for
            macro applications are very limited, making it possible to
            apply the model on short notice to virtually any country,
            including fragile and low-income countries. GEM-Core comes
            with a user-friendly Excel-based interface through which the
            analyst may choose between alternative country databases
            and, for the selected database, do the analysis (define and
            analyze simulations, including adjustment of selected data
            and assumptions). The interface lowers entry barriers to CGE
            modeling and provides a platform around which training may
            be organized, making it possible to focus courses on
            economics instead of computer programming.
Building macro SAMs from
            cross-country databases : method and matrices for 133 countries
Social accounting matrices (SAMs) are
            the key data input for computable general equilibrium (CGE)
            models. After a brief introduction to SAMs, this paper
            presents a method and related computer program for
            constructing macro SAMs from cross-country databases. The
            method is demonstrated in an appendix where it is used to
            build such a SAM for Guinea in Excel. With the help of the
            program, macro SAMs were built for 133 countries, including
            many low-income and/or fragile countries. The SAMs and the
            code for the program are available in electronic form. A
            companion paper presents a CGE model with a user-friendly
            interface for which such SAMs provide the bulk of the data
            needed for macro applications.