rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
How to improve public health systems
            : lessons from Tamil Nadu
Public health systems in India have
            weakened since the 1950s, after central decisions to
            amalgamate the medical and public health services, and to
            focus public health work largely on single-issue programs -
            instead of on strengthening public health systems broad
            capacity to reduce exposure to disease. Over time, most
            state health departments de-prioritized their public health
            systems. This paper describes how the public health system
            works in Tamil Nadu, a rare example of a state that chose
            not to amalgamate its medical and public health services. It
            describes the key ingredients of the system, which are a
            separate Directorate of Public Health - staffed by a cadre
            of professional public health managers with deep firsthand
            experience of working in both rural and urban areas, and
            complemented with non-medical specialistswith its own
            budget, and with legislative underpinning. The authors
            illustrate how this helps Tamil Nadu to conduct long-term
            planning to avert outbreaks, manage endemic diseases,
            prevent disease resurgence, manage disasters and
            emergencies, and support local bodies to protect public
            health in rural and urban areas. They also discuss the
            systems shortfalls. Tamil Nadus public health system is
            replicable, offering lessons on better management of
            existing resources. It is also affordable: compared with the
            national averages, Tamil Nadu spends less per capita on
            health while achieving far better health outcomes. There is
            much that other states in India, and other developing
            countries, can learn from this to revitalize their public
            health systems and better protect their peoples health.
Implications of the growth of China
            and India for the other Asian giant : Russia
Continuing rapid growth of China and
            India can be expected to raise incomes in Russia, but also
            to put adjustment pressure on Russian firms. The impacts of
            the rapid growth of China and India on the Russian economy
            are explored by examining a baseline projection using a
            global general equilibrium model, and then assessing the
            implications of higher-than-expected growth in China and
            India. The authors find that a major source of benefits to
            Russia is likely to be terms-of-trade improvements
            associated with higher energy prices - a quite different
            channel of effect from that for many developing countries
            that benefit primarily through expanded opportunities to
            trade directly with these emerging giants. Taking into
            account the likely improvements in the quality and variety
            of exports from China and India, the gains to Russia
            increase substantially. The expansion of the energy sector
            and the contraction of manufacturing and services are a sign
            of a Dutch disease effect that will increase the importance
            of policies to encourage adaptation to the changing world environment.
Demographic and socioeconomic
            patterns of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Africa
Understanding the demographic and
            socioeconomic patterns of the prevalence and incidence of
            HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is crucial for developing
            programs and policies to combat HIV/AIDS. This paper looks
            critically at the methods and analytical challenges to study
            the links between socioeconomic and demographic status and
            HIV/AIDS. Some of the misconceptions about the HIV/AIDS
            epidemic are discussed and unusual empirical evidence from
            the existing body of work is presented. Several important
            messages emerge from the results. First, the study of the
            link between socioeconomic status and HIV faces a range of
            challenges related to definitions, samples, and empirical
            methods. Second, given the large gaps in evidence and the
            changing nature of the epidemic, there is a need to continue
            to improve the evidence base on the link between demographic
            and socioeconomic status and the prevalence and incidence of
            HIV/AIDS. Finally, it is difficult to generalize results
            across countries. As the results presented here and in other
            studies based on Demographic and Health Survey datasets
            show, few consistent and significant patterns of prevalence
            by socioeconomic and demographic status are evident.
Remittance stability, cyclicality
            and stabilizing impact in developing countries
That remittances are a stable source of
            external finance seems to have become the received wisdom.
            In addition, many studies have found remittances to behave
            counter-cyclically, increasing during crises and times of
            hardship for the recipient countries. Are remittances
            reliable macroeconomic stabilizers? To answer this question,
            the present study examines the stability, cyclicality, and
            stabilizing impact of remittances in comparison with the
            same three features for other foreign-exchange inflows,
            namely foreign direct investment and official development
            aid. The analysis is performed at the country and regional
            levels rather than at the aggregate or global level (on
            which much of the received wisdom rests), because
            policymakers are concerned with the impact of remittances in
            their country rather than at the global level. The main
            findings for 1980-2007 are that in a majority of countries:
            i) official development aid is more stable than remittances,
            and remittances are more stable than foreign direct
            investment; ii) official development aid is
            counter-cyclical, while remittances are pro-cyclical,
            although less so than foreign direct investment; and iii)
            official development aid is stabilizing and remittances are
            destabilizing, although less so than foreign direct
            investment. The paper suggests that it is necessary to
            examine counter-cyclicality separately from the stabilizing
            impact, as the former does not seem to always imply the latter.
Banks and microbanks
Using two new datasets, the authors
            examine whether the presence of banks affects the
            profitability and outreach of microfinance institutions.
            They find evidence that competition matters. Greater bank
            penetration in the overall economy is associated with
            microbanks pushing toward poorer markets, as reflected in
            smaller average loans sizes and greater outreach to women.
            The evidence is particularly strong for microbanks relying
            on commercial funding and using traditional bilateral
            lending contracts (rather than the group lending methods
            favored by microfinance nongovernmental organizations). The
            analysis  considers plausible alternative explanations for
            the correlations, including relationships that run through
            the nature of the regulatory environment and the structure
            of the banking environment; but it fails to find strong
            support for these alternative hypotheses.
How will changes in globalization
            impact growth in south Asia
The current global crisis may change
            globalization itself, as both developed and developing
            countries adjust to global imbalances that contributed to
            the crisis. Will these changes help or hinder economic
            recovery and growth in South Asia? This is the focus of this
            paper. The three models of globalization--trade, capital,
            and economic management--may not be the same in the future.
            Changes in globalization could change the composition of
            trade flows, capital flows, and economic management, which
            in turn, could accelerate or restrain growth. South Asia is
            somewhat peculiar and different from other regions in how it
            has globalized, although there is a lot of diversity within
            the region. Its trade characteristics are different.
            India's growth has been spearheaded by exports of
            modern services and less by goods exports. Modern service
            trade tends to be more resilient compared with goods trade.
            Globalization of services is still at an early stage. So, as
            consumers pull back in the United States, service trade is
            likely to be less impacted compared to goods trade. Trade
            also contributes to growth through knowledge spillovers,
            externalities, and learning. The global crisis has not
            reduced the stock of global knowledge. Changes in capital
            flows are also not likely to have a big impact on growth in
            South Asia, as South Asia's investments are largely
            driven by domestic savings. Its dependence on foreign
            capital is low. South Asia has attracted capital flows that
            are less volatile. Remittances, which are more resilient,
            have been the dominant form of capital inflows, exceeding
            foreign direct investment and other inflows.This global
            downturn calls for counter-cyclical economic management. But
            South Asia has limited room for fiscal stimulus, given high
            debt-to-gross domestic product ratios. Nevertheless, reduced
            commodity prices have created some fiscal space that can be
            used for growth enabling infrastructure and safety nets. As
            South Asia undergoes structural transformation, the region
            is well positioned to bounce back with global economic recovery.
Assessing the adjustment
            implications of trade policy changes using TRIST (tariff
            reform impact simulation tool)
TRIST is a simple, easy to use tool to
            assess the adjustment implications of trade reform. It
            improves on existing tools. First, it is an improvement in
            terms of accuracy because projections are based on revenues
            actually collected at the tariff line level rather than
            simply applying statutory rates. Second, it is transparent
            and open; runs in Excel, with formulas and calculation steps
            visible to the user; and is open-source and users are free
            to change, extend, or improve according to their needs.
            Third, TRIST has greater policy relevance because it
            projects the impact of tariff reform on total fiscal revenue
            (including VAT and excise) and results are broken down to
            the product level so that sensitive products or sectors can
            be identified. And fourth, the tool is flexible and can
            incorporate tariff liberalization scenarios involving any
            group of trading partners and any schedules of products.
            This paper describes the TRIST tool and provides a range of
            examples that demonstrate the insights that the tool can
            provide to policy makers on the adjustment impacts of
            reducing tariffs.
Evaluating SME support Programs in
            Chile using panel firm data
This paper evaluates small and medium
            enterprise (SME) support programs in Chile using a
            firm-level panel for the 1992-2006 period on two groups of
            firms  a treatment group that participated in SME programs
            and a control group that did not. These unique panel data
            provide an unprecedented opportunity to address several
            issues that have plagued impact evaluations of SME programs
             selectivity bias from observed and unobserved firm
            heterogeneity, identification of an appropriate control
            group, and inability to track firms over a long enough
            period of time for performance outcomes to be realized.
            Using difference-in-differences models combined with
            propensity score matching methods, the paper finds evidence
            that participation in SME programs in Chile is associated
            with improvements in intermediate outcomes (training,
            adoption of new technology and organizational practices),
            and causally with positive and statistically significant
            impacts on sales, production, labor productivity, wages and
            exports. The mixed results of previous studies may be
            attributable in part to the confounding effects of
            unobserved heterogeneity motivating selection into programs
            of firms with relatively low productivity levels, and in
            part to time-effects of program participation occurring in
            years after the time horizon of most impact evaluation studies.
Competitiveness assessment of
            tourism in Sierra Leone : a cluster-based approach
Seven years out of brutal conflict,
            Sierra Leone is now a peaceful and stable country. Yet, its
            strides toward economic recovery and competitiveness have
            been modest even in sectors such as tourism, which used to
            be a major generator of foreign exchange revenues prior to
            the conflict. This paper presents a cluster-based analysis
            of the tourism sector in Sierra Leone. The analysis shows
            that tourism in Sierra Leone draws entirely on basic factor
            conditions such as natural endowments; high-end lodging,
            catering, and entertainment services are virtually
            nonexistent. The cluster mapping exercise reveals that
            several non-profit organizations are present and active
            within the Sierra Leone tourism cluster but that the role of
            commercial enterprises has been somewhat limited. A critical
            mass of basic service providers has emerged over time, but
            their functions are often hindered by the absence of a
            market-based incentive regime and weaknesses in backbone
            infrastructure services. There is a mismatch of effort by
            the public and private sectors. An important policy
            implication arising from the analysis is for Sierra Leone to
            initiate a joint action among tourism entrepreneurs and
            policymakers to develop a coherent business strategy toward
            overcoming the bottlenecks of skill deficiency, policy
            ineffectiveness, and lack of infrastructure and market access.
Creative destruction and policy
            reforms : changing productivity effects of firm turnover in
            Moroccan manufacturing
How important is firm turnover to
            national productivity growth? The literature points to the
            contribution of creative destruction being strongest in more
            developed countries or where market institutions are
            strongest. This paper looks at the case of Morocco, spanning
            16 years, during which reform initiatives aiming to
            strengthen market forces were introduced. The paper argues
            that it is important to take into account i) the timing of
            how decompositions are structured (capturing the effects of
            high growth among young firms as part of the benefit of
            increased entry) and ii) the additional indirect impacts of
            firm dynamics on agglomeration externalities and
            competition. The paper shows there are striking differences
            in the productivity paths of entering and exiting firms
            compared with incumbents, and that restricting the time
            horizon of productivity decompositions to the actual year of
            entry or exit underestimates the productivity effects of
            turnover. Although it has been hypothesized that conducting
            decompositions over longer horizons would increase the
            positive contribution of net turnover, this is not the case
            in Morocco as losses from exiting firms rise too. Nor has
            the net contribution of turnover increased with market
            reforms; if anything, the contribution has declined over
            time. But the allocation of resources has improved. Both
            technical and allocative efficiency have risen since the
            mid-1990s. The paper also shows that firm turnover affects
            productivity through additional channels. It is closely
            correlated with measures of agglomeration that are
            associated with higher rates of exit among unproductive
            firms, and turnover itself is positively associated with
            subsequent productivity growth of incumbents.
Microfinance tradeoffs : regulation,
            competition, and financing
This paper describes important
            trade-offs that microfinance practitioners, donors, and
            regulators navigate. Drawing evidence from large, global
            surveys of microfinance institutions, the authors find a
            basic tension between meeting social goals and maximizing
            financial performance. For example, non-profit microfinance
            institutions make far smaller loans on average and serve
            more women as a fraction of customers than do commercialized
            microfinance banks, but their costs per dollar lent are also
            much higher. Potential trade-offs therefore arise when
            selecting contracting mechanisms, level of
            commercialization, rigor of regulation, and the extent of
            competition. Meaningful interventions in microfinance will
            require making deliberate choices - and thus embracing and
            weighing tradeoffs carefully.
The dynamic effects of
            countercyclical fiscal stimulus on output in Tunisia
With the global financial crisis hitting
            many countries, policymakers around the world have been
            weighing different countercyclical policies to support
            aggregate demand and restore growth. The analysis in this
            paper estimates a Structural Vector Error Correction model
            for Tunisia in order to identify the impact of fiscal policy
            shocks on real output. The authors find that public
            investment has a small impact on output in the short run but
            is an important medium-term growth-enhancing countercyclical
            instrument that has a robust impact on growth. Raising
            public investment by 1 dinar yields 0.12 dinar the first
            year, 0.30 dinar the second year, half a dinar the third
            year, and 1.08 dinars the sixth year. An increase in
            recurrent expenditure has a smaller but positive and
            persistent impact on real output. For Tunisia to obtain a
            larger short-term impact of public spending on output,
            procurement processes should be made faster and simpler.
            Finally, the analysis finds a countercyclical pattern of
            real public investment vis-à-vis real output and a relative
            rigidity/inelasticity of recurrent expenditures to output fluctuations.
Achieving urban climate adaptation
            in Europe and Central Asia
Many cities across Europe and Central
            Asia are experiencing the impacts of climate change, but
            most have not integrated climate adaptation into their
            agendas. This paper examines the threats faced and measures
            that can be taken by cities in the region to protect
            buildings, heritage sites, municipal functions, and
            vulnerable urban populations. In general, local governments
            must be proactive in ensuring that existing buildings are
            climate ready, paying particular attention to emerging
            technologies for retrofitting the prefabricated, panel style
            buildings that dominate the landscape while assessing the
            viability of homes situated in flood plains, coastal areas,
            and steep slopes. They also must ensure that new
            developments and buildings are designed in ways that account
            for climatic fluctuations. Although the resilience of all
            populations needs to be considered, historical patterns of
            discrimination require that special provisions are made for
            the poor and for ethnic minorities such as the Roma because
            these groups will be most at risk, but are least likely to
            have access to adequate resources. Urban climate adaptation
            requires national-level support and local commitment.
            However, centralized planning and expert-led decision-making
            under the former regimes may affect the ability of cities to
            pursue programmatic approaches to adaptation. Therefore,
            while national governments need to make adaptation a policy
            priority and ensure that municipalities have adequate
            resources, local government agencies and departments must be
            transparent in their actions and introduce participatory and
            community-based measures that demonstrate respect for
            diverse stakeholders and perspectives.
The short-term impacts of a
            schooling conditional cash transfer program on the sexual
            behavior of young women
Recent evidence suggests that
            conditional cash transfer programs for schooling are
            effective in raising school enrollment and attendance.
            However, there is also reason to believe that such programs
            can affect other outcomes, such as the sexual behavior of
            their young beneficiaries. Zomba Cash Transfer Program is a
            randomized, ongoing conditional cash transfer intervention
            targeting young women in Malawi that provides incentives (in
            the form of school fees and cash transfers) to current
            schoolgirls and recent dropouts to stay in or return to
            school. An average offer of US$10/month conditional on
            satisfactory school attendance  plus direct payment of
            secondary school fees  led to significant declines in early
            marriage, teenage pregnancy, and self-reported sexual
            activity among program beneficiaries after just one year of
            program implementation. For program beneficiaries who were
            out of school at baseline, the probability of getting
            married and becoming pregnant declined by more than 40
            percent and 30 percent, respectively. In addition, the
            incidence of the onset of sexual activity was 38 percent
            lower among all program beneficiaries than the control
            group. Overall, these results suggest that conditional cash
            transfer programs not only serve as useful tools for
            improving school attendance, but may also reduce sexual
            activity, teen pregnancy, and early marriage.