rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Stimulating demand for AIDS
            prevention : lessons from the RESPECT trial
HIV-prevention strategies have yielded
            only limited success so far in slowing down the AIDS
            epidemic. This paper examines novel intervention strategies
            that use incentives to discourage risky sexual behaviors.
            Widely-adopted conditional cash transfer programs that offer
            payments conditioning on easily monitored behaviors, such as
            well-child health care visits, have shown positive impact on
            health outcomes. Similarly, contingency management
            approaches have successfully used outcome-based rewards to
            encourage behaviors that are not easily monitored, such as
            stopping drug abuse. These strategies have not been used in
            the sexual domain, so this paper assesses how incentives can
            be used to reduce risky sexual behavior. After discussing
            theoretical pathways, it discusses the use of
            sexual-behavior incentives in the Tanzanian RESPECT trial.
            There, participants who tested negative for sexually
            transmitted infections are eligible for outcome-based cash
            rewards. The trial was well-received in the communities,
            with high enrollment rates and more than 90 percent of
            participants viewing the incentives favorably. After one
            year, 57 percent of enrollees in the "low-value"
            reward arm stated that the cash rewards "very
            much" motivated sexual behavioral change, rising to 79
            percent in the "high-value" reward arm. Despite
            its controversial nature, the authors argue for further
            testing of such incentive-based approaches to encouraging
            reductions in risky sexual behavior.
Financing businesses in Africa : the
            role of microfinance
This paper evaluates how microfinance
            performed in providing business financing in 27 Sub-Saharan
            African countries. It uses data from the 2009 and 2010
            Gallup World Poll, a nationally-representative survey of at
            least 1,000 individuals per country, conducted in up to 157
            countries per year. The data, supported by rigorous
            statistical evidence in related literature on the use of
            microcredit around the world, demonstrate that economic
            gains from microcredit have been more modest than what was
            once believed. On the other hand, the analysis suggests that
            the poor save in order to start new businesses and that the
            introduction of formal products for small savings can be a
            key financial innovation. The authors also analyze the
            challenges the poor face in setting money aside to save, and
            discuss what policymakers can do to promote savings.
Using pooled information and
            bootstrap methods to assess debt sustainability in low
            income countries
Conventional assessments of debt
            sustainability in low income countries are hampered by poor
            data and weaknesses in methodology. In particular, the
            standard International Monetary Fund-World bank debt
            sustainability framework relies on questionable empirical
            assumptions: its baseline projections ignore statistical
            uncertainty, and its stress tests, which are performed as
            robustness checks, lack a clear economic interpretation and
            ignore the interdependence between the relevant
            macroeconomic variables. This paper proposes to alleviate
            these problems by pooling data from many countries and
            estimating the shocks and macroeconomic interdependence
            faced by a generic, low income country. The paper estimates
            a panel vector autoregression to trace the evolution of the
            determinants of debt, and performs simulations to calculate
            statistics on external debt for individual countries. The
            methodology allows for the value of the determinants of debt
            to differ across countries in the long run, and for
            additional heterogeneity through country-specific exogenous
            variables. Results in this paper suggest that ignoring the
            uncertainty and interdependence of macroeconomic variables
            leads to biases in projected debt trajectories, and
            consequently, the assessment of debt sustainability.
Financial literacy and the financial crisis
The ability of consumers to make
            informed financial decisions improves their chances of
            having sound personal finance. This paper uses a panel
            dataset from Russia, where consumer loans grew at an
            astounding rate -- from about US$10 billion in 2003 to over
            US$170 billion in 2008 -- to examine the importance of
            financial literacy and its relationship with behavior. The
            survey asked questions on financial literacy, consumer
            borrowing (formal and informal), and spending behavior. The
            paper studies the consequences of greater financial literacy
            on the use of financial products and financial planning.
            Even though consumer borrowing rose rapidly in Russia, only
            41 percent of the survey respondents understood how interest
            compounding worked and only 46 percent could answer a simple
            question about inflation. Financial literacy is positively
            related to participation in financial markets and negatively
            related to the use of informal sources of borrowing.
            Individuals with higher rates of financial literacy are
            significantly more likely to report having more unspent
            income at the end of the month and higher spending capacity.
            The relationship between financial literacy and the
            availability of unspent income is more evident during the
            financial crisis, suggesting that better financial literacy
            may better equip individuals to deal with macroeconomic shocks.
Fiscal multipliers over the growth
            cycle : evidence from Malaysia
This paper explores the stabilisation
            properties of fiscal policy in Malaysia using a model
            incorporating nonlinearities into the dynamic relationship
            between fiscal policy and real economic activity over the
            growth cycle. The paper also investigates how output
            multipliers for government purchases may alter for different
            components of government spending. The authors find that
            fiscal policy in Malaysia has become increasingly
            pro-cyclical over the last 25 years and establish that the
            size of fiscal multipliers tend to change over the growth
            cycle. A 1 Malaysian Ringgit rise in government (investment)
            spending leads to a maximum output multiplier of around 2.7
            during growth recessions, and around 2 in normal times. The
            returns to government spending in Malaysia are greater when
            the focus is on public investment, as opposed to
            consumption. Changes in tax policy are less effective in
            stimulating economic activity than direct government
            spending. These results provide empirical backing to
            conjectures in the recent literature implying that
            procyclicality in fiscal policy reduces the effectiveness of
            fiscal actions in emerging markets.
Weather based crop insurance in India
The weather index insurance market in
            India is the world's largest, having transitioned from
            small-scale and scattered pilots to a large-scale weather
            based crop insurance program covering more than 9 million
            farmers. This paper provides a critical overview of this
            market, including a review of indices used for insurance
            purposes and a description and analysis of common approaches
            to design and ratemaking. Products should be designed based
            on sound agronomic principles and further investments are
            needed both in quantifying the level of basis risk in
            existing products, and developing enhanced products with
            lower basis risk. In addition to pure weather indexed
            products, hybrid products that combine both area yield and
            weather indices seem promising, with the potential to
            combine the strengths of the individual indices. A portfolio
            approach to pricing products, such as that offered by
            Empirical Bayes Credibility Theory, can be significantly
            more efficient than the standalone pricing approaches
            typically employed in the Indian market. Legislation for
            index insurance products, including consumer protection
            legislation, should be further enhanced, for example by
            requiring disclosure of claim payments that each product
            would have made in the last ten years. The market structure
            for weather based crop insurance products could better
            reward long-term development of improved product designs
            through product standardization, longer term contracts, or
            separating the roles of product design and delivery.
Weathering a storm : survey-based
            perspectives on employment in China in the aftermath of the
            global financial crisis
Evidence from a range of different
            sources suggests that Chinese workers lost 20-36 million
            jobs because of the global financial crisis. Most of these
            layoffs affected migrant workers, who have typically lacked
            employment protection, tend to be concentrated in
            export-oriented sectors, and were among the easiest to
            dismiss when the crisis hit. Although it was severe, the
            employment shock was short-lived. By mid-2009, the
            macroeconomic stimulus and other interventions had succeeded
            in boosting demand for migrant labor. By early 2010,
            abundant evidence pointed to scarcity in China's labor
            market, as labor demand was once again leading to brisk
            growth in wages.The paper reviews different available
            sources of evidence for the effects of the crisis, and notes
            the biases associated with alternative ex post efforts to
            measure the employment effects of the crisis. In particular,
            the paper highlights the usefulness of household surveys
            with employment histories relative to surveys based on
            sampling through firms.
Kenya's mobile revolution and
            the promise of mobile savings
The mobile revolution has transformed
            the lives of Kenyans, providing not just communications but
            also basic financial access in the form of phone-based money
            transfer and storage, led by the M-PESA system introduced in
            2007. Currently, 93 percent of Kenyans are mobile phone
            users and 73 percent are mobile money customers.
            Additionally, 23 percent use mobile money at least once a
            day. New potential for mobile money has come with the rise
            of interest-earning bank-integrated mobile savings systems,
            beginning with the launch of the M-KESHO system in March
            2010. The authors examine the mobile savings phenomenon,
            using data collected in a special survey in late 2010. They
            show that the usage of bank-integrated mobile savings
            systems like M-KESHO remains limited and largely restricted
            to better-off Kenyans. However, what the authors term
            "basic mobile savings" -- the use of simple mobile
            money systems as a repository for funds -- is widespread,
            including among those who are otherwise unlikely to have any
            savings. Holding other characteristics constant, those who
            are registered for M-PESA are 32 percent more likely to
            report having some savings.
'Green' growth,
            'green' jobs and labor markets
The term 'green jobs' can
            refer to employment in a narrowly defined set of industries
            providing environmental services. But it is more useful for
            the policy-maker to focus on the broader issue of the
            employment consequences of policies to correct environmental
            externalities such as anthropogenic climate change. Most of
            the literature focuses on direct employment created, with
            more cursory treatment of indirect and induced job creation,
            especially that arising from macroeconomic effects of
            policies. The potential adverse impacts of green growth
            policies on labor productivity and the costs of employment
            tend to be overlooked. More attention also needs to be paid
            in this literature to how labor markets work in different
            types of economy. There may be wedges between the shadow
            wage and the actual wage, particularly in developing
            countries with segmented labor markets and after adverse
            aggregate demand shocks, warranting a bigger and
            longer-lasting boost to green projects with high labor
            content. In these circumstances, the transition to green
            growth and job creation can go hand in hand. But there are
            challenges, especially for countries that have built their
            industrial development strategies around cheap carbon-based
            energy. Induced structural change, green or otherwise,
            should be accompanied by active labor market policies.
Spillover effects of exchange rates
            : a study of the Renminbi
This paper estimates how changes in
            China's exchange rates would affect exports from
            competitor countries in third-country markets -- in other
            words, the "spillover effect." The authors use
            recent theory to develop an identification strategy, with a
            key role for the competition between China and its
            developing country competitors in specific products and
            export destinations. Using disaggregated trade data, they
            estimate the spillover effect by exploiting the variation
            across different exporters, importers, products, and time
            periods. They find a spillover effect that is statistically
            and quantitatively significant. Their estimates suggest that
            a 10-percent appreciation of China's real exchange rate
            boosts a developing country's exports of a typical
            four-digit Harmonized System product category to third
            markets by about 1.5 to 2 percent on average. The magnitude
            of the spillover effect varies systematically with the
            characteristics of products, such as the extent to which
            they are differentiated.
The demand for, and consequences of,
            formalization among informal firms in Sri Lanka
The majority of firms in most developing
            countries are informal. The authors of this paper conducted
            a field experiment in Sri Lanka that provided incentives for
            informal firms to formalize. Offering only information about
            the registration process and reimbursement for direct
            registration costs had no impact on formalization. Adding
            payments equivalent to one-half to one month's profits
            for the median firm led to registration of around one-fifth
            of firms. A larger payment equivalent to two months'
            median profits induced half the firms to register. The main
            reasons for not formalizing when offered incentives included
            issues related to ownership of land and concerns about
            facing labor taxes in the future. The degree of bureaucracy
            in the registration process also seems to matter for those
            with the incentive to register, with response to the
            incentives higher in Colombo, where the registration process
            was easier, than in Kandy. Three follow-up surveys, at 15 to
            31 months after the intervention, measure the impact of
            formalizing on these firms. Although mean profits increased,
            this appears largely due to the experiences of a few firms
            that grew rapidly, with most firms experiencing no increase
            in income as a result of formalizing. The authors also find
            little evidence for most of the channels through which
            formalization is hypothesized to benefit firms, although
            formalized firms do advertise more and are more likely to
            use receipt books. In qualitative interviews owners of
            formalized firms also feel their businesses have more
            legitimacy. Finally, formalizing is found to result in a
            large increase in trust in the state. Their focus is largely
            on the private costs and benefits of existing firms
            formalizing. Within their sample they cannot measure broader
            impacts of formalization on other firms (who may prosper
            from not having to compete against informal firms not paying
            taxes), nor impacts of easier formalization on entry of new
            firms. Nevertheless, our results suggest that although most
            informal firms do not want to formalize, given the current
            private costs and benefits of formalizing, policy efforts
            that lead to relatively modest increases in the net benefits
            of formalizing would induce a sizeable share of informal
            firms to formalize.
Impact of hospital provider payment
            reforms in Croatia
Croatia began to implement case-based
            provider payment reforms in hospitals beginning in 2002,
            starting with broad-based categories according to
            therapeutic procedures. In 2009, formal diagnostic related
            groups were introduced, known locally as dijagnosticko
            terapijske skupine. This study examines the efficiency and
            quality impacts of these provider payment reforms globally
            on the Croatian health system by analyzing data on five
            procedures in acute health care for 10 years, between
            January 2000 and December 2009. The five procedures are
            cataracts, pneumonia, coronary bypass, appendectomy, and hip
            replacement. Using data from the Croatian Institute for
            Health Insurance, this study finds that both broad-based and
            detailed case-based payment systems have improved efficiency
            as measured by a reduction in average length of stay, with
            little impact on the number of cases. These provider payment
            reforms have had no adverse impact on quality as measured by
            readmissions. While it is still too early to quantify the
            impact of Croatia's introduction of formal diagnostic
            related groups, it appears that the introduction of both
            broad and detailed case-based payment systems has improved
            efficiency in acute hospital care.
Governance and public service
            delivery in Europe and Central Asia : unofficial payments,
            utilization and satisfaction
Using data from the 2010 Life in
            Transition Survey, this paper examines the levels of
            citizens' satisfaction with public service delivery in
            Europe and Central Asia and identifies some factors that may
            help explain variation in utilization and levels of
            satisfaction with service delivery. It finds satisfaction
            with public service delivery in Europe and Central Asia to
            be relatively high, and, despite the adverse economic and
            social impact of the recent global economic crisis, to have
            risen since 2006 in most countries in the region. However,
            the level of satisfaction with public service delivery in
            Eastern European and Central Asian countries in 2010 remains
            lower than in Western European comparator countries.
            Although the Life in Transition Survey does not provide
            specific objective measures of service delivery quality and
            efficiency, the data provide three important clues that may
            help explain why satisfaction is lower in transition
            countries than in western comparators: (i) relatively higher
            utilization of public services in Eastern European and
            Central Asian countries, (ii) relatively higher reported
            prevalence of unofficial payments, and (iii) relatively
            underdeveloped mechanisms for grievance redress.
Governance and public service
            delivery in Europe and Central Asia : unofficial payments,
            utilization and satisfaction
WPS5994 Policy Research Working Paper 5994 Governance and Public Service Delivery in Europe and Central Asia Unofficial Payments, Utilization and Satisfaction _Mame Fatou Diagne Dena Ringold Salman Zaidi_ The World Bank Europe and Central Asia Region Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit March 2012
Sexual behavior change intentions
            and actions in the context of a randomized trial of a
            conditional cash transfer for HIV prevention in Tanzania
Information, education, communication
            and interventions based on behavioral-change communication
            have had success in increasing the awareness of HIV. But
            these strategies alone have been less successful in changing
            risky sexual behavior. This paper addresses this issue by
            exploring the link between action and the intention to
            change behaviors. In Africa, uncertainty in the lives of
            those at risk for HIV may affect how intentions are formed.
            Characterize this uncertainty by understanding the reasons
            for discrepancies between intentions and actions may help
            improve the design of HIV-prevention interventions. Based on
            an incentives-based HIV prevention trial in Tanzania, the
            longitudinal dataset in this paper allows the exploration of
            intended strategies for changing sexual behaviors and their
            results. The authors find that gender, intervention groups
            and new positive diagnoses of sexually transmitted
            infections can significantly predict the link between intent
            and action. The paper examines potential mediators of these relationships.