rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Payments and finance problems in the
            Commonwealth of Independent States
Payments problems constrained interstate
            trade among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
            countries in 1992-95, especially during the prolonged demise
            of the ruble zone.  Two kinds of solutions should be sought:
            1) more effective stabilization measures to improve the
            prospects of currency convertibility among CIS countries;
            and 2) strengthening of institutional arrangements to permit
            payments and settlements through correspondent bank
            accounts.  Strengthening institutions will require not only
            strengthening commercial banks but liberalizing foreign
            exchange markets and promoting the use of letters of credit
            and other mechanisms to increase the security of trade
            transactions.  A multilateral clearing arrangement operated
            among central banks would have been a useful alternative to
            the chaotic payments prevailing earlier, but such
            arrangements are no longer needed as considerable progress
            has been made toward convertibility.  Nor is a payments
            union desirable.  Trade deficits are likely to persist in
            such countries as Belarus and Ukraine.  Surplus countries
            such as Russia and Turkmenistan must develop transparent
            means of trade financing that take into account the
            recipient countries' ability to pay.  External
            financing will remain important for practically all CIS
            countries.  The best way to mobilize private financing will
            be to establish macroeconomic stability and stable,
            transparent rules on private capital inflows.  Improving the
            flow of public resources requires improving countries'
            capacity to quickly absorb the large amounts already
            committed.  Donors need to expedite procurement and other
            procedures and recipient countries must address governance
            problems and institutional weaknesses that delay
            disbursements.  Certain smaller CIS countries face
            significant debt servicing problems and often the creditors
            are other CIS countries that themselves need additional
            financing.  The smaller countries need debt relief on
            concessional terms, which is possible only if external
            assistance allows local creditors to offer such relief.
Rural finance for growth and poverty alleviation
Pakistan's rural sector accounts
            for more than 70 percent of employment, and roughly
            two-thirds of rural employment is in agriculture.  Less than
            a third of rural households get loans, only 10 percent of
            which are from institutional sources.  Pakistan's
            credit institutions are not helping the country accelerate
            agricultural growth and reduce poverty.  To improve
            performance in the rural economy and efficiency in financial
            institutions, rural credit markets must be liberalized.  The
            government needs to initiate the following reforms: 1)
            produce and price controls must be replaced by prudent
            regulation and supervision, combined with policies to
            stabilize the economy; 2) commercial banks must operate in a
            competitive environment. They must be allowed to set
            interest rates for rural lending that cover their
            transaction costs; 3) credit must be available to support
            productivity growth for agricultural smallholders and small
            producers of the rural nonformal sector, where
            Pakistan's growth potential lies; and 4) credit must be
            available to women and to the rural poor for
            consumption-smoothing and for sustainable income-generating
            activities.  Policy should be directed at developing a
            market-based financial system for rural finance, but because
            of market failures to support disadvantaged groups, a
            special-priority program may be needed to get credit to
            women, smallholders and the rural nonformal sector.
            Subsidizing interest rates is not the way to help marginal
            borrowers. Instead, they can be helped through fixed-cost
            subsidies and self-selected targeting.  Nongovernmental
            organizations (NGOs) should be encouraged to help.
            Commercial should be encouraged to lend on other bases than
            the mortgage and passbook system.  They could experiment
            with wholesaling credit through input suppliers, marketing
            agents and NGOs.  They should consider lending for such
            downstream agricultural activities as agroprocessing.  The
            biggest challenge facing rural finance is the restructuring
            of cooperatives.  The next important step for the
            Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan would be a
            portfolio audit - the results of which will determine next
            steps, such as major restructuring of its portfolio and
            changing its ownership.  To improve rural financing, the
            system of property rights, title and default enforcement
            must also be strengthened, among other reforms.
The stockmarket as a source of
            finance : a comparison of U.S. and Indian firms
In seeking funding, a firm's main
            choice is between external and internal financing.  And,
            says the author, the evidence suggests that the stock market
            plays only a limited role providing finance for both U.S.
            and Indian firms.  The author finds that internal finance
            plays less of a role for Indian firms than for U.S. firms -
            and external debt a bigger role.  This is consistent with
            theoretical predictions, given that information and agency
            problems are less severe for Indian firms than for U.S.
            firms.  (India's financial system is predominantly
            bank-oriented, more like German and Japanese financial
            systems than American and British systems.)  The
            author's estimate of the role of the stock market as a
            source of finance is lower than other estimates, partly
            because of methodological approach: he studied sources and
            uses of funds, rather than the financing of net asset growth
            and capital expenditures.  To the extent that these findings
            for India are generalizable to the other developing
            countries - analysis was restricted to the stock
            market's role in providing finance - the author
            concludes that the development of stock markets is unlikely
            to spur corporate growth in developing countries.  And there
            is a caveat: foreign investors have played only a limited
            role in the slow-paced privatization of India's
            state-owned enterprises - although in recent years, despite
            delayed reform of the securities market, foreign
            institutional investors have begun to invest more.  In
            emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Latin America,
            foreign investors have played a much more active role in
            privatization, chiefly by investing in those stock markets.
Social insurance in the transition
            to a market economy : theoretical issues with application to Moldova
Social security systems in Eastern
            Europe and the former Soviet Union devote most of their
            resources to earnings-related pensions and neglect
            "targeted" interventions to aid losers from the
            transition to a market economy.  As social insurance
            systems, they have the characteristic weaknesses of the
            insurance model, paying benefits on the basis of past
            contributions or work history rather than need.  Yet
            contributions and benefits are not closely enough related to
            enable the system to operate as social insurance in a market
            economy.  More attention must be paid to the total impact of
            high payroll taxes on employment in a market economy.  Some
            analysts have argued that contributors to the system (future
            pensioners) should receive their contributions as
            "savings," in addition to which unemployment
            benefits and new social assistance system could be
            developed.  Such a two-tier system would distinguish between
            social insurance and social assistance.  The author
            discusses an alternative prescription - a "unified
            system," in which the earning-related system would be
            curtailed, making it as "flat" as possible,
            thereby establishing a universal categorical age benefit.
            Other benefits, including unemployment benefits and family
            allowances, could also form part of the system.  In
            principle, benefits in a unified system could be
            means-tested, but means-testing is not integral to the
            system, whereas it is the defining feature of social
            assistance in the two-tier model. Some analysts have arugued
            for a unified system in the short term (because of fiscal
            constraints), moving to a two-tier system later in the
            transition.  Both types of systems exist in capitalist
            economies.  Indeed, systems in many countries are an untidy
            mix of insurance and assistance.  The author examines some
            of the issues that arise from the relationship between
            insurance and assistance in the transition and beyond.  She
            derives three criteria for determining whether the two-tier
            model is viable, then applies the criteria to the small
            republic of Moldova.  She concludes that Moldova probably
            does not fulfill the three criteria because it has
            experienced a severe economic shock and adjustment has been
            a long drawn-out process.  The two-tier prescription may be
            more problematic for countries of the former Soviet Union
            than for the Eastern European states.
The analysis of emerging policy
            issues in development finance
The author makes a case for improving
            capacity in developing countries to monitor and analyze data
            on private capital flows, especially portfolio investment
            flows (through both debt and non-debt instruments).  He
            surveys recent economic literature and identifies unanswered
            international finance-related policy questions being
            grappled with in developing countries.  From this he deduces
            the tremendous need for better data to analyze important
            economic issues (with a focus on data related to external
            debt and financial flows).  The author also provides an
            overview of recent trends in financial flows to developing
            countries, highlighting the surge of private capital flows
            to a few such countries in the 1990s.  He traces some of the
            major policy issues dealt with in the 1980s and describes
            the analysis and discussions behind policy decisions.  He
            concludes by suggesting some policy issues that are
            important today in development finance - and which research
            agenda might be fruitful for examining changing debt
            structure and financial flows.
The Latvian banking crisis : lessons learned
In the spring of 1995, Latvia
            experienced the largest banking crisis in the Former Soviet
            Union to date, involving the loss of about 40 percent of the
            banking system's assets and liabilities.  The authors
            outline the Latvian authorities' strategy for
            developing the banking system and identify how and why it
            unraveled.  They discuss the World Bank's role and the
            lessons to be learned from the crisis, including the
            following: 1) banking systems are exposed to stress in
            several major ways.  Enterprises - the main borrowers - are
            subject to hard budget constraints and are privatized.
            Inflation declines so enterprises can't rely on rapidly
            increasing revenues to service bank debts.  Economic reform
            tends to produce banking systems that are mainly privately
            owned - making them vulnerable to withdrawals, as the public
            does not assume that failing banks will be bailed out; 2)
            the government must protect against this vulnerability by
            establishing a proper legal framework for banking,
            developing effective bank supervision and regulation, and
            implementing solid accounting, disclosure, and auditing
            standards.  It must also develop effective ways to handle
            problem banks and to close insolvent banks promptly; 3) for
            banks in the state sector to be a source of strength to the
            banking system, they must have strong effective management
            and be relatively free from political influence; 4)
            "outlier" banks - those expanding assets very
            quickly or offering particularly high deposit rates - should
            be subject to intense supervision; and 5) four things must
            be done to prevent fraud, incompetent management and
            excessive risk taking: 1) careful screen those who want to
            get into banking; 2) subject all banks to thorough, frequent
            onsite examinations and assign the best examiners to the
            largest banks; 3) require annual audits of all banks by
            reputable auditing firms; and 4) act decisively when fraud
            or bank difficulties are detected or suspected.
Did external barriers cause the
            marginalization of sub-Saharan Africa in world trade
OECD barriers did not play a significant
            role in sub-Saharan Africa's declining position in
            world trade over the last three decades. The detrimental
            effects of the African countries' own policies, such as
            those that influence international transport costs, were
            considerably more important. However, OECD countries have
            policy options available that could further improve the
            external environment for, and competitive position of,
            African exports. Given the dimensions of rural poverty
            throughout Africa, and the potential contribution increased
            agricultural exports could make toward its alleviation,
            initiatives relating to this sector should have the highest
            priority. The first chapter of the paper discusses trade and
            African development prospects. Chapter 2 reviews the
            destination and composition of African exports. Chapter 3
            addresses the OECD tariff barriers facing Africa and chapter
            4 the nontariff barriers. Finally, chapter 5 discusses some
            issues relating to transport costs.
Stock market and investment : the
            governance role of the market
Institutional investors have become
            tremendously important in U.S. capital markets in recent
            years.  But a study of 557 U.S. manufacturing firms
            (1985-90) shows the role of such investors to be mixed.
            Results show the following: 1) institutional ownership has a
            positive effect on capital spending but apparently a
            negative effect on research and development spending and no
            effect on advertising expenditures.  So, institutional
            ownership might contribute to a firm's underinvestment
            in intangible assets and hence exacerbate managerial myopia;
            2) institutional investors are complex institutions, so the
            regulatory and investment environment in which they operate
            must be carefully designed.  The institutionalization of the
            stock market happened gradually in the U.S. and some other
            industrial countries and may happen gradually in developing
            countries as their financial markets are reformed and
            deepened; 3) there is a fundamental conflict between
            liquidity and control as objectives on institutional
            investment.  In the U.S., liquidity has been the dominant
            objective and "exit" rather than "voice"
            has been the preferred option of institutional investors on
            corporate governance issues.  But recently "voice"
            has begun to be a more important objective; 4) institutional
            investors' monitoring and disciplinary activities may
            (through corporate governance) substitute for the
            disciplinary and signaling roles of debt.  But there is no
            definite evidence that institutional ownership by itself
            improves firm performance.  Still, activism by institutional
            investors has replaced takeovers as the central mechanism of
            corporate government in the U.S. in the 1990s.  The
            implication for developing countries: encourage
            institutional ownership of equity, and promote activism
            among institutional investors.  The U.S. experience cannot
            always be generalized to other countries, but it does
            demonstrate that such activism can be a viable alternative
            to takeovers as a vehicle for corporate governance.  It is
            also important for curbing the excesses of managerial
            discretion and maximizing shareholder values.
Trade preferential agreements in
            Latin America : an ex-ante assessment
In the past decade a sea change has
            taken place in trade policies in Latin America: within a few
            years, most of the region's economies have changed from
            restrictive to open policies. But unlike trade
            liberalization in Europe, most trade barriers in Latin
            America have been reduced unilaterally. Recently bilateral
            or multilateral agreements have been considered, especially
            preferential trade agreements within the region. The author
            evaluates the relevance and desirability of multilateral
            free trade agreements (such as NAFTA) for the Latin American
            continent and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on how they
            affect trade flows. Is a preferential trade agreement among
            some Latin American countries more or less likely to be
            meaningful than others - important in intensity of impact,
            or beneficial, or both? The evidence strongly suggests
            little likelihood that these agreements will succeed in
            Latin America. Paradoxically, the intense liberalization in
            recent years has made it less likely that such agreements
            would be beneficial - except possibly for agreements between
            some countries and Brazil, Mexico, or (to a lesser extent)
            Argentina. When the level of tariffs and nontariff barriers
            is already low, a preferential agreement is more likely to
            have an adverse impact than a beneficial one (although in
            any case only a slight impact). Between countries, the
            patterns of exports and imports are similar, suggesting a
            potential for trade diversion. Most countries would benefit
            from a preferential agreement with the United States,
            however. And U.S. agreements with blocks of Latin American
            countries are no more beneficial to those countries than are
            U.S. agreements with individual countries.
Stock market development and
            long-run growth
The authors empirically evaluate the
            relationship between stock market development and long-term
            growth. The data suggest that stock market development is
            positively associated with economic growth. Moreover,
            instrumental variables procedures indicate a strong
            connection between the predetermined component in the long
            run. While cross-country regressions imply a strong link
            between stock market development and economic growth, the
            results should be viewed as suggestive partial correlations
            that stimulate additional research rather than as conclusive
            findings. Careful case studies might help identify causal
            relationships and further research could be done on the
            time-series property of such relationships.
Where has all the education gone
Cross-national data on economic growth
            rates show that increases in educational capital resulting
            from improvements in the educational attainment of the labor
            force have had no positive impact on the growth rate of
            output per worker.  In fact, contends the author, the
            estimated impact of growth of human capital on conventional
            nonregression growth accounting measures of total factor
            productivity is large, strongly significant, and negative.
            Needless to say, this at least appears to contradict the
            current conventional wisdom in development circles about
            education's importance for growth.  After establishing
            that this negative result about the education-growth linkage
            is robust, credible, and consistent with previous
            literature, the author explores three possible explanations
            that reconcile the abundant evidence about wage gains from
            schooling for individuals with the lack of schooling impact
            on aggregate growth: 1) that schooling creates no human
            capital.  Schooling may not actually raise cognitive skills
            or productivity but schooling may nevertheless raise the
            private wage because to employers it signals a positive
            characteristic like ambition or innate ability; 2) that the
            marginal returns to education are falling rapidly where
            demand for educated labor is stagnant.  Expanding the supply
            of educated labor where there is stagnant demand for it
            causes the rate of return to education to fall rapidly,
            particularly where the sluggish demand is due to limited
            adoption of innovations; and 3) that the institutional
            environments in many countries have been sufficiently
            perverse that the human capital accumulated has been applied
            to activities that served to reduce economic growth.  In
            other words, possibly education does raise productivity, and
            there is demand for this more productive educated labor, but
            demand for educated labor comes from individually
            remunerative but socially wasteful or counterproductive
            activities - a bloated bureaucracy, for example, or
            overmanned state enterprises in countries where the
            government is the employer of last resort - so that while
            individuals' wages go up with education, output
            stagnates, or even falls.