rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Multi-Hazard Groundwater Risks to
            the Drinking Water Supply in Bangladesh : Challenges to
            Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Groundwater currently provides 98
            percent of all the drinking water supply in Bangladesh.
            Groundwater is found throughout Bangladesh but its quality
            (that is, arsenic and salinity contamination) and quantity
            (that is, water storage depletion) vary across hydrological
            environments, posing unique challenges to certain
            geographical areas and population groups. Yet, no
            national-scale, multi-hazard groundwater risk maps currently
            exist enabling water resource managers and policy makers to
            identify areas that are vulnerable to public health. This
            paper develops, for the first time, groundwater risk maps at
            the national scale for Bangladesh that combine information
            on arsenic, salinity, and water storage, using geospatial
            techniques, linking hydrological indicators for water
            quality and quantity to construct risk maps. A range of
            socioeconomic variables, including access to drinking and
            irrigation water supplies and social vulnerability (that is,
            poverty), are overlaid on these risk maps to estimate
            exposures.  The multi-hazard groundwater risk maps show that
            a considerable proportion of land area (5 to 24 percent
            under extremely high to high risks) in Bangladesh is
            currently under combined risk of arsenic and salinity
            contamination, and groundwater storage depletion. As few as
            6.5 million (2.2 million poor) to 24.4 million (8.6 million
            poor) people are exposed to a combined risk of high arsenic,
            salinity, and groundwater storage depletion. The
            multi-hazard groundwater risk maps reveal areas and exposure
            of population groups to water risks posed by arsenic and
            salinity contamination and depletion of water storage.
An Assessment of Water, Sanitation
            and Hygiene Access in Bangladesh's Community Health Clinics
Adequate water, sanitation and hygiene
            (WASH) in health care facilities plays a critical role in
            ensuring improved health care utilization and reducing
            disease burden due to reinfection. WASH in health facilities
            is now gaining momentum with the new SDG targets that
            governments have vowed to meet. This goal calls for a
            baseline examination of existing WASH conditions in health
            facilities. Using data collected through a census of all
            community health clinics in Bangladesh, this paper presents
            an analysis of the state of WASH in Bangladesh's rural,
            public health facilities highlighting that the lack of
            functionality of WASH facilities is a widespread problem
            across the country. The paper also identifies priority areas
            for action when considering the prevalence of poverty and
            chronic undernutrition at the upazilla level.
Beyond the S-curve : Insurance
            Penetration, Institutional Quality and Financial Market Development
This paper provides new evidence of
            factors, other than GDP per capita, that correlate with the
            development of insurance markets. Based on 20 years of
            insurance premium data from 180 countries, and a similar
            wealth of data on institutions and financial market
            development, the paper presents important correlates of
            insurance market development. Although the analysis cannot
            identify which factors directly cause insurance market
            growth, the results suggest that interventions aimed at
            stimulating insurance supply and demand should take enabling
            factors, such as the quality of institutional governance and
            the degree of financial market development, into consideration.
I Perceive Therefore I Demand : The
            Formation of Inequality Perceptions and Demand for Redistribution
This paper investigates the link between
            inequality and demand for redistribution by looking at how
            individuals form their perceptions of inequality. Most of
            the literature analyzing demand for redistribution has
            focused on objective inequality, rather than subjective
            perceptions of inequality. However, a model that links
            demand for redistribution to subjective inequality is
            needed, given that recent empirical research has shown a
            growing gap between subjective and objective inequality.
            Using data from the International Social Survey Programme
            survey, the paper focuses on explaining individuals'
            formation of inequality perceptions using objective
            variables. The paper then studies the relationship between
            these perceptions and individuals' demand for
            redistribution. The analysis finds that objective macro
            variables are associated with individuals' perceptions
            of inequality, and that individual circumstances, some of
            which relate to self-interest, like age, educational
            attainment, and income, also play an important role.
            Perceptions of equality, in turn, are significatively
            correlated to demand for redistribution and seem to
            substitute for any effect of objective variables. This
            result suggests that contextual macro variables only affect
            individuals' demand for redistribution through their
            perceptions of equality and do not have a direct effect.
Fertility and Parental Labor-Force
            Participation : New Evidence from a Developing Country in theBalkans
This paper examines the effect of
            fertility on parental labor force participation in a
            developing country in the Balkans, with particular attention
            to the intervening role of childcare provided by
            grandparents in extended families. To address the potential
            endogeneity in the fertility decision, the analysis exploits
            the Albanian parental preference for having sons combined
            with the siblings' sex-composition instrument as an
            exogenous source of variation. Using a repeated
            cross-section of parents with at least two children, the
            analysis finds a positive and statistically significant
            effect of fertility on parental labor supply for parents who
            are more likely to be younger, less educated, or live in
            extended families. The IV estimates for mothers show that
            they increase labor supply, especially hours worked per week
            and the likelihood of working off-farm. Similarly,
            fathers' likelihood of working off-farm and having a
            second occupation increase as a consequence of further
            childbearing. The heterogeneity analysis suggests that this
            positive effect might be the result of two plausible
            mechanisms: childcare provided by non-parental adults in
            extended families and greater financial costs of maintaining
            more children.
Taking Another Look at Policy
            Research on China's Accession to the World Trade Organization
Recent work on China's accession to
            the World Trade Organizations pays little attention to the
            wave of reforms in China in the 1980s and 1990s. These
            reforms created the preconditions for accession and strongly
            influenced its outcomes. The preeminence of processing trade
            at the time of accession sharply reduced the impact of
            accession-related tariff reductions on exports and set the
            stage for China's increases in domestic value added and
            reduction in China's involvement in global production
            sharing since that time. The assessment in this paper, based
            on export data and simulation results on the ex ante
            accession-related effects on export volumes in the
            literature, finds that the accession must have increased
            China's real export growth by at most 6 percentage
            points between 1997 and 2005. This effect is substantial,
            but not as large as suggested by the difference between the
            pre- and post-accession export growth rates in the four
            years before and after accession. This is because the
            influence of cyclical fluctuations related to the Asian
            financial crisis and the U.S. dot-com crash dampened export
            growth in the period before accession in 2001 and
            accelerated it afterward.
Inflation in Low-Income Countries
This paper studies the effects of global
            and domestic inflation shocks on core price inflation in 105
            countries between 1970 and 2016, by using a heterogeneous
            panel vector-autoregressive model. The methodology allows
            accounting for differences across groups of countries
            (advanced economies, emerging markets and developing
            economies, and low-income countries) and across groups with
            different country characteristics (such as foreign exchange
            and monetary policy regimes). The empirical results indicate
            that most of the variation in inflation among low-income
            countries over the past decades is accounted for by external
            shocks. More than half of the variation in core inflation
            rates among low-income countries is due to global core price
            shocks, compared with one-eighth in advanced economies.
            Global food and energy price shocks account for another 13
            percent of core inflation variation in low-income countries
            -- half more than in advanced economies and one-fifth more
            than in emerging markets and developing economies. This
            points to challenges in anchoring domestic inflation
            expectations, which have been most evident among low --
            income countries with floating exchange rates, especially in
            cases where central bank independence has been weak.
Women at Work : How Can Investment
            Incentives be Used to Enhance Economic Opportunities for Women
Around the world, women face persistent
            barriers in seeking to enter the labor force, attain
            leadership positions, and launch businesses. Gender
            inequality not only prevents women from achieving their full
            potential and gaining economic independence, but also
            inhibits the growth of national economies. In a context of
            growing global competition for private investment,
            policymakers face the timely challenge of ensuring that
            women are not left behind in the development agenda. This
            working paper identifies and analyzes investment incentives
            that governments can provide to businesses with the aim of
            promoting gender equality. Barriers to gender equality in
            the workplace include supply-side barriers that make it
            difficult for women to find jobs or investment financing,
            and demand-side barriers that make it more costly for firms
            or investors to hire or fund women. The paper discusses
            three main types of investment incentives that governments
            may use to address these barriers: (i) subsidies and grants,
            (ii) tax incentives, and (iii) public procurement
            incentives. Because incentives run the risk of creating
            market inefficiencies and leading to redundant outcomes,
            their use should be carefully conceived and implemented. The
            effectiveness of these instruments will depend on the
            underlying constraints to gender equality, the targeted
            policy goals, implementation features, and the broader
            enabling environment. Relevant studies and experiences from
            several countries are used to explore when and how
            governments might use investment incentives to promote
            gender equality.
Determinants of Participation in
            Manufacturing GVCs in Africa: The Role of Skills, Human
            Capital Endowment and Migration
This analysis assesses the role of
            skills, human capital endowment, and migration as
            determinants of Sub-Saharan Africa's participation in
            manufacturing global value chains. Due to lack of reliable
            data on skilled labor, skilled and unskilled labor contents
            in exports were generated from the Global Trade Analysis
            Project database. A panel of 23 countries for which data on
            skills and manufacturing global value chains are available
            for 19 subsectors was constructed. A fixed-effect gravity
            model was used to estimate the determinants of backward and
            forward global value chain participation. The estimates
            obtained from the sample are compared with global data
            covering 115 countries for benchmarking purposes. The
            results indicate that for economies in Sub-Saharan Africa,
            skilled labor seems to be the strongest determinant of
            participation in backward and forward global value chains.
            Similarly, initial human capital endowment has a strong
            positive impact on global value chain participation at the
            global level. However, countries with relatively high
            initial capital endowment benefit more by incorporating
            foreign value-added products in their manufacturing exports.
            Finally, countries that receive net inflows of migrants tend
            to engage better in backward and forward global value chains
            than those with net outflows of migrants. The findings
            suggest that policies to improve Sub-Saharan Africa’s
            integration in manufacturing global value chains should
            target: shifting from unskilled to skilled labor-intensive
            backward and forward global value chain activities;
            upgrading the quality of the labor force, since unskilled
            workers are so far the most available and the most used in
            manufacturing global value chains; investing in the quality
            of human capital; and promoting intraregional skills mobility.
Estimating and Calibrating MFMod : A
            Panel Data Approach to Identifying the Parameters of Data
            Poor Countries in the World Bank's Structural Macro Model
This paper summarizes the World
            Bank's approach to identifying parameters for key
            equations in its macro structural model for countries where
            short sample sizes or major structural changes render
            traditional time-series approaches infeasible or yield
            unstable estimates. To identify parameters that could be
            used in such cases, a cointegrating panel approach is
            followed that yields a common long-run estimate of
            parameters for key equations (to test the theoretical
            restrictions imposed in the model) and short-run
            disequilibrium estimates that vary by country. This approach
            is preferred to pure calibration or Bayesian estimation,
            because the functional forms imposed in the panel are
            consistent with those used in the macro structural model.
Where They Live : District-Level
            Measures of Poverty, Average Consumption, and the Middle
            Class in Central Asia
Rapid economic growth over the past two
            decades lifted millions of people out of poverty in Central
            Asia. But the uneven spread of prosperity left many
            communities struggling to catch up. To support lagging
            regions within countries, each of the region's five
            national governments has made convergence a pillar of their
            development strategies. An imperfect patchwork of household
            surveys allows policy makers to monitor progress and
            identify some spatial disparities. But these share an
            important weakness: none of the official surveys in the
            region is representative when disaggregated to the level of
            districts. Islands of poverty and prosperity are thus lost
            in the averages -- leading to targeting inaccuracies that
            can slow the pace of poverty reduction. This study partially
            addresses the challenge. The accuracy of key welfare
            indicators is sharpened well beyond what could be achieved
            for any country alone by: i) unifying survey data from
            across the region and ii) applying the techniques of
            small-area estimation. The results provide detailed measures
            of welfare that in turn can be disaggregated for each
            district in Central Asia. Comprehensive maps of where the
            poor and the middle class live are presented, for the entire
            region and individually for each country.
Preferred and Non-Preferred Creditors
International financial institutions
            (IFIs) generally enjoy preferred creditors treatment (PCT).
            Although PCT rarely appears in legal contracts, when
            sovereigns restructure bilateral or commercial debts they
            normally pay IFIs in full. This paper presents a model where
            a creditor, such as an IFI, that can commit to lend limited
            amounts at the risk-free rate and can refrain from lending
            into arrears is always repaid and adds value. The analysis
            suggests that IFIs should not mimic commercial lenders, but
            exploit their complementarity, even if banning commercial
            borrowing can sometimes be optimal. IFIs should also focus
            on countries with limited market access and should not be
            forced into debt restructurings.
What We Learn about Girls'
            Education from Interventions that Do Not Focus on Girls
Despite dramatic global gains in access
            to education, 130 million girls of school age remain out of
            school. Among those who do enter, too many do not gain the
            essential skills to succeed after they complete their
            schooling. Previous efforts to synthesize evidence on how to
            improve educational outcomes for girls have tended to focus
            on interventions that are principally targeted to girls,
            such as girls' latrines or girls' scholarships.
            But if general, non-targeted interventions -- those that
            benefit both girls and boys -- significantly improve
            girls' education, then focusing only on girl-targeted
            interventions may miss some of the best investments for
            improving educational opportunities for girls in absolute
            terms. This review brings together evidence from 270
            educational interventions from 177 studies in 54 low- and
            middle-income countries and identifies their impacts on
            girls, regardless of whether the interventions specifically
            target girls. The review finds that to improve access and
            learning, general interventions deliver gains for girls that
            are comparable to girl-targeted interventions. At the same
            time, many more general interventions have been tested,
            providing a broader menu of options for policy makers.
            General interventions have similar impacts for girls as for
            boys. Many of the most effective interventions to improve
            access for girls are household-based (such as cash transfer
            programs), and many of the most effective interventions to
            improve learning for girls involve improving the pedagogy of
            teachers. Girl-targeted interventions may make the most
            sense when addressing constraints that are unique to girls.
Casting a Shadow : Productivity of
            Formal Firms and Informality
Using firm-level survey data for a large
            cross section of countries, the paper assesses the gap in
            labor productivity between formal and informal firms in
            developing countries for which comparable data are
            available. It also investigates the impact of competition
            from informal firms on the labor productivity of formal
            firms. The results show that on average, the labor
            productivity of informal firms is about one-fourth that of
            formal firms. Moreover, the labor productivity of formal
            firms that face competition from informal firms is about 75
            percent of the average labor productivity of formal firms
            that do not experience informal competition. This suggests
            that competition from the informal sector can erode formal
            firms' market share and the resources available to
            boost productivity where formal firms shoulder the
            additional cost of regulatory compliance. These findings are
            robust to a range of firm and country characteristics as
            well as checks for endogeneity concerns.
Policy and Regulatory Issues with
            Digital Businesses
Advances in digital technology are
            expanding the boundaries of firms. Digital platform firms,
            which leverage a "platform" to create value
            through facilitating exchanges between two or more
            interdependent groups, are the new disrupters in the market.
            They exhibit distinct features such as scale without mass,
            positive network effects, accumulation of tremendous data,
            and a convoluted value creation process with user
            participation. Meanwhile, they bring more opportunities to
            traditional businesses by closely connecting suppliers and
            customers and reducing transaction frictions. Such a
            changing business landscape calls for adaptive policies and
            regulations. This policy paper lays out the key policy and
            regulatory issues around digital businesses. Competition
            laws need to be revisited to address the winner-take-all
            tendency of digital platform businesses. Tax systems should
            also be updated to close the loopholes available to digital
            platform businesses so that they pay their fair share to
            society. This paper also provides the first analysis of the
            World Bank's Digital Business Indicators initiative,
            which collects information on the existence and quality of
            regulations in broadband connectivity, digital payment, data
            privacy and security, as well as logistics, in 21 pilot
            countries. It aims to explore the possibilities for
            developing the regulatory and policy indicators that
            governments can work with to promote the digital economy.