rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
What do governments buy? The
            composition of public spending and economic performance
The authors develop a simple analytical
            framework that shows how the composition of public spending
            affects economic growth.  Distinguishing between productive
            and unproductive government spending (that which complements
            private sector productivity and that which does not), they
            show that increasing the share of productive spending leads
            to a higher steady-state economic growth rate.  They use
            data from 69 developing countries over 20 years to determine
            which components of public spending are productive. They
            find that an increase in the share of current spending has
            positive and statistically significant effects on growth.
            Otherwise, the news is mainly negative.  The relationship
            between the capital component of public spending and per
            capita growth is negative.  The same is true of the share of
            spending on transport and communications.  The shares spent
            on health and education have no significant impact, although
            parts of those shares - the parts spent on preventative care
            and "other education" - do.  The results raise the
            question whether public spending actually leads to a flow of
            public goods and services.
How trade liberalization affected
            productivity in Morocco
The economic literature now accepts
            theoretical arguments that liberal, outward-oriented trade
            policy is better than restrictive, inward-oriented policies.
            Traditionally such arguments for the gains from trade have
            rested on the concept of allocative efficiency. But a new
            argument for liberal trade has emerged: increased technical
            efficiency or productivity. The best-known attempts to link
            trade policy and productivity are based on X-efficiency,
            economies of scale, capacity use, increased competition, and
            technological catch-up. The author estimates total factor
            productivity (TFP) at the firm level using panel data from
            the Moroccan industrial census in a production-funtion
            framework during Morocco's period of trade
            liberalization (1984-89). The author corrected for several
            problems that usually bias the estimate of productivity. The
            use of panel data allowed her to take into account the
            heterogeneity across firms. These firm-specific effects were
            tested for randomness. Differences between large firms and
            small firms were checked. She also corrected for errors in
            measuring capital stock, so common in data from developing
            countries, and for simultaneity bias because of the
            endogeneity of factor inputs or because managers have some
            knowledge about the noise in the production function. The
            author then estimated the effect of various trade and
            market-structure variables on the level of TFP, as well as
            on the deviation of firm TFP from the efficiency frontier.
            The results are not very sensitive to the different measures
            of TFP and show that trade openness has a significant
            positive effect on firm productivity through: outward
            orientation from export promotion; import liberalization;
            and more direct foreign investment. By splitting the sample
            into protected and unprotected sectors, the author showed
            lower productivity in protected sectors. The results are
            clear. Trade liberalization in Morocco improved productivity
            in manufacturing firms, so they could exploit their
            comparative advantage and compete better with foreign firms.
Are failproof banking systems
            feasible Desirable
In recent years, instability of the
            banking system has returned as a major problem in many
            countries, particularly in the developing world.  In many
            cases, this instability has been so threatening to financial
            intermediation and the functioning of the payments system
            that governments have felt compelled to intervene and
            restructure banks, often at considerable cost to the public
            budget.  One response to these problems has been a proposal
            to create failproof banking systems - to radically transform
            the structure, priorities, and operation of the banking and
            financial system.  Banks would be limited to issuing
            deposits, holding essentially riskless portfolios, and
            operating the payments system.  To minimize the resulting
            disruptions to the financial system, banks would be
            authorized (and encouraged) to set up holding companies and
            then transfer to holding company affiliates all the
            functions - including lending - that banks would no longer
            be permitted to perform.  So while the failproof banking
            proposal would severely restrict the activity of banks, it
            would not restrict the activities of banking organizations
            that convert to a holding company form of organization.
            This proposal would produce major public benefits. It would
            assure a nation of a smoothly functioning banking and
            payments system, would substantially reduce the resources
            committed to banking supervision, would prevent bank-type
            regulation from expanding to the rest of the financial
            system, and would place banking and nonbanking organizations
            on a level playing field for the financial activities in
            which they compete. There are two major problems with the
            proposal.  First, it might be difficult to implement because
            of too few riskless assets in a nation's financial
            system.  (The author suggests several modifications that
            would alleviate this problem in some countries.)  Second,
            the proposal might hurt the financial market by:  (a)
            increasing interest rates for higher-risk borrowers, forcing
            them out of the market; and (b) transfering greater risk to
            the nonbank sector of the financial system, making it more
            susceptible to crisis.  Although the proposal would benefit
            developing countries (more prone to banking instability)
            more than industrial countries, it would also be more
            difficult to implement in developing countries.  And the
            adverse effects of the proposal would be felt more severely
            in the financial markets of developing countries than in
            industrial countries, which have deeper, more responsive
            financial markets.
Exchange rate based stabilization :
            tales from Europe and Latin America
There is convincing empirical evidence
            that the cycle for exchange-rate-based disinflation in
            high-inflation Latin American economies typically begins
            with expansion and ends in recession - a surprising pattern.
            The authors explore whether a similar cycle can be observed
            in exchange-rate-based disinflation in low-inflation
            economies. They draw on empirical evidence from stabilizaton
            programs in three European countries in the early 1980s: in
            Denmark (1982), Ireland (1982), and France (1983). In these
            programs, the authorities fixed the central parity of the
            exchange rate band against the European currency unit (ECU).
            This represented a break from previous years when this rate
            was often realigned to accommodate inflation. They find that
            the Irish and French programs followed the more traditional
            pattern. In the initial phase, there was a recession
            accompanied by a continuous, gradual reduction in inflation
            - followed by a second, more expansionary, phase. The
            initial recession was attributable to a lack of credibility
            about the pace of disinflation (reflected in an increase in
            real wages) and a reduction in aggregate demand resulting
            from tight monetary and fiscal policies. Stabilization in
            Denmark, on the other hand, was expansionary. The key
            question is whether this expansion was similar to that in
            the high-inflation Latin American economies, in origins and
            characteristics. It has been argued that expansion in the
            high-inflation economies was caused by the perception that
            the program was temporary. Expectations of a future reversal
            led to an increase in spending and output. By contrast,
            expansion in Denmark appears to have been driven by opposite
            forces - by overconfidence about the speed of disinflation.
            These findings support the view that the high-inflation
            economies are a group to themselves. In particular,
            disinflation in these economies is likely to face obstacles
            inherently different from those observed in most industrial,
            low-inflation countries. In addition, the costs of
            exchange-rate-based disinflation are typically experienced
            at different times. The recession appears upfront in
            industrial countries, and at a later stage in the
            high-inflation economies.
Finance and growth : Schumpeter
            might be right
Joseph Schumpeter argued in 1911 that
            the services provided by financial intermediaries -
            mobilizing savings, evaluating projects, managing risk,
            monitoring managers, and facilitating transactions
            -stimulate technological innovation and economic
            development.  The authors present evidence that supports
            this view.  Examining a cross-section of about 80 countries
            for the period 1960-89, they find that various measures of
            financial development are strongly associated with both
            current and later rates of economic growth. Each measure has
            shortcomings but all tell the same story: finance matters.
            They present three main findings, which are robust to many
            specification tests: The average level of financial
            development for 1960-89 is very strongly associated with
            growth for the period.  Financial development precedes
            growth. For example, financial depth in 1960 (the ratio of
            broad money to GDP) is positively and significantly related
            to real per capita GDP growth over the next 30 years even
            after controlling for a variety of country-specific
            characteristics and policy indicators.  Financial
            development is positively associated with both investment
            rate and the efficiency with which economies use capital.
            Much work remains to be done, but the data are consistent
            with Schumpeter's view that the services provided by
            financial intermediaries stimulate long-run growth.
Trade policy reform in Latin America
            and the Caribbean in the 1980s
The authors examine the wide-ranging and
            fundamental trade reforms undertaken in 16 Latin American
            and Caribbean countries in the 1980s. These reforms have
            dramatically altered the nature of the trade regimes in
            these countries and are particularly significant because
            they were undertaken during severe economic crisis and
            uncertainty. The authors show that the average levels and
            the growth rates of imports and exports were substantially
            higher during the reform period. But imports did not show
            the surge many had expected, possibly because of low
            domestic demand. Domestic demand was low because of
            stabilization and structural adjustment policies, real
            exchange rate devaluations, and limited access to foreign
            loans. All the trade reforms were preceded or accompanied by
            restrictive fiscal and monetary policies and by devaluations
            of the real exchange rate. The reform period also moved
            toward the unification and floating of exchange rates. The
            trade reforms were associated with changes in the political
            regimes. In most countries, the reforms began under the
            auspices of democratically elected governments, despite
            resistance - belying the conventional wisdom that democratic
            leaders are particularly vulnerable to powerful
            special-interest groups and are thus less able to sustain
            reforms. Crucial to the success in implementing these
            reforms was the boldness with which the governments pursued
            them. The authors point out that the success of the trade
            reforms lies in ensuring their domestic viability through
            macroeconomic stability and growth. A successful conclusion
            of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations
            would also enable the countries to realize greater benefits
            from their trade reforms, making them more sustainable.
Fiscal aspects of developing country
            debt problems and debt and debt-service reduction operations
            : a conceptual framework
The causes and implications of the
            developing country debt crisis - as well as its solution -
            all have an important fiscal dimension. The crisis was
            triggered by the widespread perception that the public
            sectors in many heavily indebted countries were effectively
            insolvent in the international environment of the early
            1980s. The actual fiscal response to the resulting liquidity
            crisis involved increased reliance on domestic financing,
            the inflation tax, and the curtailment of public investment.
            This created adverse adjustment incentives for policymakers
            and resulted in credit rationing, capital flight, assumption
            of private external claims by the public sector, and poor
            domestic investment performance. Solutions involve restoring
            fiscal health through a combination of debt relief and
            efficient fiscal adjustment, aimed at mitigating the burden
            associated with public sector debt service and minimizing
            the liquidity problems facing the indebted public sector.
            The debt and debt-service reduction (DDSR) programs
            implemented so far under the Brady Plan have provided only
            partial solutions, closing without eliminating the gap
            between the face value of the external debt and the present
            value of prospective public sector debt service. They have
            done so partly by reducing the former and partly by
            increasing the latter. Their contribution toward easing the
            immediate liquidity problems of the debtors has not been
            encouraging. The amount of debt relief embodied in Brady
            Plan programs enacted so far has not in itself been
            sufficient to restore fiscal solvency. Better-quality fiscal
            adjustment could greatly help improve the situation. The
            most important potential contribution of such programs,
            then, may have been the reduction - through the policy
            conditionality associated with resources provided by the
            international financial institutions - of the secondary
            burden associated with the internal transfer of resources to
            the public sector.
Many paths to skilled employment : a
            reverse tracer study of eight occupations in Colombia
The authors use the reverse tracer study
            technique to identify alternative training paths for
            selected skilled and semi-skilled occupations in Colombia.
            The study, confirming earlier research for the United
            States, shows that workers pursue many different training
            paths to acquire the skills they need in a given occupation.
            The authors provide an occupational training map format to
            analyze these training paths.  They conclude that strong
            public intervention that narrows the effective range of
            available training should be discouraged; such intervention
            will not only reduce choices but will also lead to a less
            flexible and efficient training system.  A reduction in
            training alternatives is the result of the manpower
            requirements forecasting approach to planning for the
            provision of national vocational education and training -
            yet that approach is still popular in the planning
            ministries in developing countries.  The more training
            options available to workers, the better they can arrange
            their own training packages.
Costs of alternative treatments for
            incomplete abortion
Unsafely performed abortion is one of
            the five leading causes of maternal deaths worldwide. Many
            women who have undergone unsafe abortions enter the
            healthcare system to seek help for the resulting
            complications, including incomplete abortion. This human and
            financial cost of this health problem is tremendous,
            especially in the developing world. This study examined the
            potential for reducing costs to healthcare systems by
            changing the standard method of treatment for incomplete
            abortion. Vacuum aspiration (VA) has been shown to be safer
            than dilation and curettage (D&C) for uterine
            evacuation; the World Health Organization includes VA as an
            essential service at the first referral level. The technique
            most commonly used for treating first-trimester incomplete
            abortion in developing countries, however, is D&C. This
            study examined the hypothesis that use of manual vacuum
            aspiration (MVA) - a variation of VA - would be less costly
            than D&C and thus advantageous to healthcare systems
            with limited resources. The purpose of the study was to
            identify and, where possible, to explain the factors that
            contributed to cost differences between MVA and D&C for
            treatment of first-trimester incomplete abortion. To achieve
            this objective, researchers observed patient management and
            documented resource use at hospital sites in Ecuador, Kenya,
            and Mexico. In most cases, treatment with MVA required a
            shorter patient stay and fewer hospital resources than
            D&C, as the two techniques were practiced at the various
            study sites. The policy decision to adopt MVA, supported by
            procurement of instruments and incorporation of training in
            its use, is the chief prerequisite for achieving these
            improvements. But the full advantages of MVA are realized
            only if it is introduced in conjunction with certain changes
            in patient-management practices, such as offering outpatient
            treatment of incomplete abortion. Further, decentralizing
            MVA services can maximize the benefits of the technique,
            facilitating (hospitals' and) healthcare systems'
            efforts to decrease the cost of delivery service and improve
            the quality of care.
A new regional price index for Cote
            d'Ivoire using data from the international comparisons project
The authors report on an exercise in
            economic statistics. They develop a regional price index for
            Cote d'Ivoire building on the strengths of two
            independent data sources: the Cote d'Ivoire Living
            Standards Survey (CILSS) and the International Comparisons
            Project (ICP). The CILSS collected detailed information on
            household incomes, spending, employment, and so on, but its
            coverage of prices left much to be desired. The ICP
            collected a wealth of information on prices across the
            country, but collected no information on household spending
            patterns or other socioeconomic data. The authors bring
            together these two sources to produce a regional price index
            that they argue is superior to previous estimates based
            solely on the Living Standards Survey. The procedures they
            follow should be of interest to practitioners faced with
            similar data shortcomings, particularly when working on
            Africa. They show this to be no mere statistical exercise.
            Using the new price index can have a significant effect on
            earlier evaluations of poverty in Cote d'Ivoire. They
            also use the new price information to construct
            disaggregated indices by commodity category and by poverty group.
Correcting for sampling bias in the
            measurement of welfare and poverty : the case of the Cote
            d'Ivoire living standards survey
Over the years, household surveys have
            become a popular, valuable data source for empirical
            research in microeconomics. In developing countries,
            household survey data have become more available in the past
            decade, as a result of several international programs. This
            has spurred interest in the economics of the household in
            the context of development economics. Many analysts give
            little attention to the sampling design of the surveys they
            use, taking the data produced by statisticians and survey
            practitioners as is. At best, sampling weights are applied
            to ensure that the results are representative. The authors
            illustrate the need to pay close attention to the sampling
            aspects of a household survey used in applied microeconomic
            analysis - particularly for comparisons over time. This case
            study shows that observed changes in household welfare and
            in the incidence of poverty in Cote d'Ivoire between
            1985 and 1988 vanish when corrections are applied to the
            data for changes in sampling procedures; even the direction
            of the trend is reversed. Similarly, the cross-sectional
            patterns of welfare and poverty observed in earlier analyses
            for 1985-86 prove to be incorrect. The Cote d'Ivoire
            Living Standards Survey, conducted between 1985 and 1988,
            has provided a popular, fruitful data set for policy
            analysis. But according to the authors, the recorded decline
            in mean household size during this period is due to sampling
            bias in the early years of the survey. If this is true, the
            robustness of the analyses based on these data is questionable.