rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Are public libraries improving
            quality of education when the provision of public goods is
            not enough
This paper analyzes the relation between
            public, education-related infrastructure and the quality of
            education in schools. The analysis uses a case study of the
            establishment of two large, high-quality public libraries in
            low-income areas in Bogotá, Colombia. It assesses the impact
            of these libraries on the quality of education by comparing
            national test scores (SABER 11) for schools close to and far
            from the libraries before (2000–02) and after (2003–08) the
            libraries were opened. The paper introduces a Blinder-Oaxaca
            decomposition on diﬀerence-in-diﬀerences estimates to assess
            whether variation of traditional determinants of
            mathematics, verbal, and science test scores explains the
            estimates. The analysis ﬁnds differences that are not
            statistically diﬀerent from zero that could be attributed to
            the establishment of the libraries. These results are robust
            to alternative speciﬁcations, a synthetic control approach,
            and an alternative measure of distance.
A global count of the extreme poor
            in 2012 : data issues, methodology and initial results
The 2014 release of a new set of
            purchasing power parity conversion factors (PPPs) for 2011
            has prompted a revision of the international poverty line.
            In order to preserve the integrity of the goalposts for
            international targets such as the Sustainable Development
            Goals and the World Bank’s twin goals, the new poverty line
            was chosen so as to preserve the definition and real
            purchasing power of the earlier $1.25 line (in 2005 PPPs) in
            poor countries. Using the new 2011 PPPs, the new line equals
            $1.90 per person per day. The higher value of the line in US
            dollars reflects the fact that the new PPPs yield a
            relatively lower purchasing power of that currency vis-à-vis
            those of most poor countries. Because the line was designed
            to preserve real purchasing power in poor countries, the
            revisions lead to relatively small changes in global poverty
            incidence: from 14.5 percent in the old method to 14.1
            percent in the new method for 2011. In 2012, the new
            reference year for the global count, we find 12.7 percent of
            the world’s population, or 897 million people, are living in
            extreme poverty. There are changes in the regional
            composition of poverty, but they are also relatively small.
            This paper documents the detailed methodological decisions
            taken in the process of updating both the poverty line and
            the consumption and income distributions at the country
            level, including issues of inter-temporal and spatial price
            adjustments. It also describes various caveats, limitations,
            perils and pitfalls of the approach taken.
A Coasian model of international
            production chains
International supply chains require the
            coordination of numerous activities across multiple
            countries and firms. This paper develops a theoretical model
            of supply chains in which the measure of tasks completed
            within a firm is determined by parameters that define
            transaction costs and the cost of coordinating more
            activities within the firm. The structural parameters that
            govern these costs explain variation in supply chain length
            as well as cross-country variation in
            gross-output-to-value-added ratios. The structural
            parameters are linked to comparative advantage along and
            across supply chains. The paper provides an analytical
            treatment of trade and welfare responses to trade cost
            change in a simple two-country model. To explore the
            model's implications in a richer setting, the model is
            calibrated to match key observables in East Asia, and the
            calibrated model is used to evaluate implications of changes
            in model parameters for trade, welfare, the length of supply
            chains, and countries' relative position within them.
Determinants of long-term versus
            short-term bank credit in EU countries
This paper empirically examines the
            determinants of credit at different maturities across
            European Union countries during the last decade. The paper
            documents the lengthening of maturities since the early
            2000s, and whether these patterns were driven by similar
            factors in advanced countries and in emerging market
            countries. Before the 2008 crisis, long-term credit expanded
            faster than short-term credit in most countries in the
            sample, and contracted less than short-term credit after
            2008. The paper finds that domestic deposits and foreign
            liabilities were more important sources of funding in
            emerging market countries than in advanced countries.
            Moreover, trade openness and initial banking sector depth
            matter more for emerging market countries than for advanced countries.
Robust decision-making in the water
            sector: a strategy for implementing Lima’s long-term water
            resources master plan
How can water resource agencies make
            smart investments to ensure long-term water reliability when
            the future is fraught with deep climate and economic
            uncertainty? This study helped SEDAPAL, the water utility
            serving Lima, Peru, answer this question by drawing on state
            of the art methods for decision making under deep
            uncertainty. These methods provide techniques for evaluating
            the performance of a water system over a wide range of
            plausible futures and then developing strategies that are
            robust across these futures. Rather than weighting futures
            probabilistically to define an optimal strategy, these
            methodologies identify the vulnerabilities of a system and
            then evaluate the key trade-offs among different adaptive
            strategies. Through extensive iteration and collaboration
            with SEDAPAL, the study used these methods to define an
            investment strategy that is robust, ensuring water
            reliability across as wide a range of future conditions as
            possible while also being economically efficient. First,on
            completion, the study helped SEDAPAL realize that not all
            projects included in the Master Plan were necessary to
            achieve water reliability, and the utility could save 25
            percent (more than $600 million) in investment costs.
            Second, the study helped focus future efforts on demand-side
            management, pricing, and soft infrastructure, a refocusing
            that is difficult to achieve in traditional utility
            companies. Third, the study helped SEDAPAL gain the support
            of regulatory and budget agencies through the careful
            analysis of alternatives. Fourth, the study allowed the
            utility to postpone lower priority investments, and to
            analyze future options based on climate and demand
            information that simply is not available now.
The impact of violence on individual
            risk preferences : evidence from a natural experiment
This study estimates the impact of
            Kenya’s post-election violence on individual risk
            preferences. Because the crisis interrupted a longitudinal
            survey of more than five thousand Kenyan youth, this timing
            creates plausibly exogenous variation in exposure to civil
            conflict by the time of the survey. The study measures
            individual risk preferences using hypothetical lottery
            choice questions, which are validated by showing that they
            predict migration and entrepreneurship in the cross-section.
            The results indicate that the post-election violence sharply
            increased individual risk aversion. Immediately after the
            crisis, the fraction of subjects who are classified as
            either risk neutral or risk loving dropped by roughly 26
            percent. The findings remain robust to an IV estimation
            strategy that exploits random assignment of respondents to
            waves of surveying.
The causal impacts of child labor
            law in Brazil : some preliminary findings
This paper investigates the causal
            impact of the change in Brazil’s child labor law of December
            1998. The change increased the minimum legal age of entry
            into the labor force from 14 to 16 years. The analysis uses
            a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the impact
            of this change in the law on labor force participation rates
            as a whole, as well as for the formal and informal sectors
            separately. The results show that the ban reduced
            participation rates for boys by 4 percentage points and that
            this effect was mostly driven by the informal sector. No
            effect is found for girls.
Modeling the marginal value of
            rainforest losses : a dynamic value function approach
A rainforest can be modeled as a dynamic
            asset subject to various risks, including risk of fire. Any
            small part of the forest can be in one of two states: either
            untouched by forest fire, or already damaged by fire, in
            which case there is both a local forest loss and increased
            dryness over a broader area. In this paper, two Bellman
            equations are constructed, one for unharmed forest and a
            second for already burnt forest. The analysis solves the two
            equations for the total expected asset values in each of the
            two states, assuming that asset returns have a constant
            growth rate over time. The equations are used for deriving
            the marginal value of standing (unburnt) rainforest,
            equivalent to the expected discounted value loss when losing
            a small additional forest patch. The paper shows that
            marginal forest value is increased by the additional dryness
            and forest fire risk that follow from forest fragmentation
            when additional forest is lost locally. Both forest fires
            and dryness here serve as “multipliers” to the basic
            services return loss, within and outside the forest. The
            paper also presents a framework for calibrating the impact
            of the forest fire risk component on forest value.
Why do countries participate in
            international large-scale assessments The Case of PISA
The number of countries that regularly
            participate in international large-scale assessments has
            increased sharply over the past 15 years, with the share of
            countries participating in the Programme for International
            Student Assessment growing from one-fifth of countries in
            2000 to over one-third of countries in 2015. What accounts
            for this increase? This paper explores the evidence for
            three broad explanations: globalization of assessments,
            increasing technical capacity for conducting assessments,
            and increased demand for the microeconomic and macroeconomic
            data from these assessments. Data were compiled from more
            than 200 countries for this analysis, for six time periods
            between 2000 and 2015, yielding more than 1,200
            observations. The data cover each country’s participation in
            each of six cycles of PISA as it relates to the country’s
            level of economic development, region, prior experience with
            assessment, and OECD membership. The results indicate that
            the odds of participation in PISA are markedly higher for
            OECD member countries, countries in the Europe and Central
            Asia region, high- and upper-middle-income countries, and
            countries with previous national and international
            assessment experience; the paper also finds that regional
            assessment experience is unrelated to PISA participation.
The effect of metro expansions on
            air pollution in Delhi
The Delhi Metro (DM) is a mass rapid
            transit system serving the National Capital Region of India.
            It is also the world’s first rail project to earn carbon
            credits under the Clean Development Mechanism of the United
            Nations for reductions in CO2 emissions. Did the DM also
            lead to localized reduction in three transportation source
            pollutants? Looking at the period 2004–2006, one of the
            larger rail extensions of the DM led to a 34 percent
            reduction in localized CO at a major traffic intersection in
            the city. Results for NO2 are also suggestive of a decline,
            while those for PM25 are inconclusive due to missing data.
            These impacts of pollutant reductions are for the short run.
            A complete accounting of all long run costs and benefits
            should be done before building capital intensive metro rail projects.
Understanding poverty reduction in
            Sri Lanka : evidence from 2002 to 2012/13
This paper quantifies the contributions
            to poverty reduction observed in Sri Lanka between 2002 and
            2012/13. The methods adopted for the analysis generate
            entire counterfactual distributions to account for the
            contributions of demographics, labor, and non-labor incomes
            in explaining poverty reduction. The findings show that the
            most important contributor to poverty reduction was growth
            in labor income, stemming from an increase in the returns to
            salaried nonfarm workers and higher returns to self-employed
            farm workers. Although some of this increase in earnings may
            point to improvements in productivity, defined as higher
            units of output per worker, some of it may simply reflect
            increases in food and commodity prices, which have increased
            the marginal revenue product of labor. To the extent that
            there have been no increases in the volumes being produced,
            the observed changes in poverty are vulnerable to reversals
            if commodity prices were to decline significantly. Finally,
            although private transfers (domestic and foreign) helped to
            reduce poverty over the period, public transfers were not as
            effective. In particular, the reduction in the real value of
            transfers of the Samurdhi program during 2002 to 2012/13
            slowed down poverty reduction.
Exporter behavior, country size and
            stage of development : evidence from the exporter dynamics database
This paper presents new data on the
            micro structure of the export sector for 45 countries and
            studies how exporter behavior varies with country size and
            stage of development. Larger countries and more developed
            countries have more exporters, larger exporters, and a
            greater share of exports controlled by the top 5 percent.
            The extensive margin (more firms) plays a greater role than
            the intensive margin (average size) in supporting exports of
            larger countries. In contrast, the intensive margin is
            relatively more important in explaining the exports of
            richer countries. Exporter entry and exit rates are higher
            and entrant survival is lower at an early stage of
            development. The paper discusses the results in light of
            trade theories with heterogeneous firms and the empirical
            literature on resource allocation, firm size, and
            development. An implication from the findings is that
            developing countries export less because the top of the
            firm-size distribution is truncated.
Jobs and land use within cities : a
            survey of theory, evidence, and policy
Over the last century, the urban spatial
            structure of cities has transformed dramatically from the
            traditional monocentric configuration to varying forms of
            decentralized organization. This paper reviews the theory
            and empirical evidence to understand the urban morphology of
            jobs and land use within a city. This survey highlights four
            broad insights: (i) The evolution of monocentric to
            polycentric centers has been accompanied by structural
            changes in the city. (ii) The internal geography of a city
            is an outcome of the trade-off between the pull from
            agglomeration economies and the push from congestion. (iii)
            The presence of externalities implies that the equilibrium
            spatial organization achieved by profit-maximizing firms may
            not necessarily be optimal. This justifies the role of
            public policy in addressing the associated market failures.
            (iv) The productive edge and competitiveness of a city can
            be enhanced by introducing policies that increase the
            overall connectivity to take advantage of economic
            opportunities across the metropolitan area. The survey also
            puts together a wide range of policy instruments that are
            useful in closing the gap between equilibrium urban spatial
            structure and the optimal outcome.
Exploring the sources of downward
            bias in measuring inequality of opportunity
This study analyzes the extent of
            downward bias in the calculation of inequality of
            opportunity for continuous outcomes such as income. A
            typically recognized source of bias is the unobserved
            circumstances as there is a limited set of variables
            available in household and labor force surveys. Another
            previously overlooked source is the likely unobservable
            nature of top incomes. Using Monte Carlo simulations where
            the underlying inequality of opportunity is predetermined at
            various levels, the study presents three key findings.
            First, the omission of a relevant circumstance can bias the
            inequality of opportunity estimate by as much as 80 percent,
            depending on how much variation of the outcome such
            circumstance explains. Second, not observing the top 5
            percent of the income distribution can lead to downward
            biases of anywhere between 12 and 35 percent, and the
            combination of missing the most favored population and even
            one relevant circumstance exacerbates the bias of the
            empirical estimates. The third key result is that the
            estimated inequality of opportunity is strongly correlated
            with the amount of variation in the outcome variable
            explained by the combination of circumstances (measured by
            the R2). This result suggests that in empirical
            applications, the inequality of opportunity estimate can be
            roughly (and quickly) approximated using simple econometric techniques.
Are the children of uneducated
            farmers doubly disadvantaged farm, nonfarm and
            intergenerational educational mobility in rural China
This paper relaxes the single-factor
            model of intergenerational educational mobility and analyzes
            heterogeneous effects of family background on children’s
            education in villages, with a focus on the role of nonfarm
            occupations. The analysis uses data from rural China that
            cover three generations, and are not subject to coresident
            sample selection. Evidence from a battery of econometric
            approaches shows that the mean effects of parents’ education
            miss substantial heterogeneity across farm-nonfarm
            occupations. Having nonfarm parents, in general, has
            positive effects, but children of low educated non-farmer
            parents (with higher income) do not enjoy any advantages
            over the children of more educated farmer parents. Estimates
            of cross-partial effects without imposing functional form
            show little evidence of complementarity between parental
            education and nonfarm occupation. The role of family
            background remains relatively stable across generations for
            girls, but for boys, family background has become more
            important after the market reform. The paper explores
            causality using three approaches: Rosenbaum sensitivity
            analysis, minimum biased inverse propensity weighted
            estimator, and heteroscedasticity-based identification. The
            analysis results suggest that the advantages of having more
            educated parents, especially with nonfarm occupations, are
            unlikely to be due solely to selection on genetic
            transmissions. However, the estimated positive effects of
            nonfarm over farmer parents among the low educated
            households may be driven entirely by moderate selection on
            genetic endowment.
Deep trade agreements and vertical
            FDI : the devil is in the details
Recent data show that the institutional
            content of preferential trade agreements has evolved over
            time. Although pre-1990s preferential trade agreements
            mostly focused on tariff liberalization, recent agreements
            increasingly contain deep provisions in diverse areas, such
            as intellectual property rights, investment, and standards.
            At the same time, there has been a remarkable increase in
            the internationalization of production through foreign
            direct investment and outsourcing. This paper employs the
            Antràs and Helpman (2008) model of contractual frictions and
            global sourcing to study how deep trade agreements affect
            the international organization of production. The paper
            constructs new measures of the depth of preferential trade
            agreements and of vertical foreign direct investment to test
            the theory. Consistent with the model, the analysis finds
            evidence that the depth of trade agreements is correlated
            with vertical foreign direct investment, and that this is
            driven by the provisions that improve the contractibility of
            inputs provided by suppliers, such as regulatory provisions.
            Because this implication of the model is specific to the
            so-called “property rights” theory of the multinational
            firm, the findings provide empirical support to this
            approach vis-à-vis alternative theories of firm boundaries.