rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Sources of volatility in small economies
Do sources of volatility differ by
            country characteristics such as the level of development,
            country size, quality of institutions, and presence of
            restrictions on fiscal policy? This paper sets out to answer
            this question in a quarterly panel of 48 developed and
            developing countries for 1960-2015. Using individual country
            and panel vector autoregressions, the paper shows that
            factors affecting gross domestic product volatility differ
            systematically by country size, development level, and
            whether a country has adopted fiscal rule(s). The role of
            country size is particularly pronounced in developing
            countries. The paper shows that small developing countries
            are more prone to domestic output shocks, while shocks to
            the world interest rate and real exchange rate are more
            important in large developing countries. Small countries are
            also more susceptible to terms of trade shocks. These
            results suggest that stabilization policies must be designed
            with these country characteristics in mind.
Joint effects of parenting and
            nutrition status on child development : evidence from rural Cambodia
Substantial work has demonstrated that
            early nutrition and home environments, including the degree
            to which children receive cognitive stimulation and
            emotional support from parents, play a profound role in
            influencing early childhood development. Yet, less work has
            documented the joint influences of parenting and nutrition
            status on child development among children in the preschool
            years living in low-income countries. Using panel data on
            parenting, nutrition status, and early developmental
            outcomes of about 7,000 Cambodian preschool-age children,
            this paper demonstrates that inequities in early development
            associated with family wealth are evident at the start of
            preschool and increase over time. A significant share of
            these inequalities can be explained by differences in
            parental stimulation and early nutrition status. Better
            educated parents engage in better parental activities that
            stimulate children's development. However, the positive
            association between parental activities and child outcomes
            is particularly strong for non-stunted children, and
            parental activities can only explain about 8-14 percent of
            the cognitive gap between the lowest and highest wealth
            quintiles. The results highlight the need for integrated
            interventions that address both parenting and early
            nutrition, also suggesting that parenting interventions for
            the most disadvantaged families should be carefully designed
            and evaluated to ensure maximum effectiveness.
The aggregate income losses from
            childhood stunting and the returns to a nutrition
            intervention aimed at reducing stunting
This paper undertakes two calculations,
            one for all developing countries, the other for 34
            developing countries that together account for 90 percent of
            the world's stunted children. The first calculation
            asks how much lower a country's per capita income is
            today as a result of some of its workers having been stunted
            in childhood. The analysis uses a development accounting
            framework, relying on micro-econometric estimates of the
            effects of childhood stunting on adult wages, through the
            effects on years of schooling, cognitive skills, and height,
            parsing out the relative contribution of each set of returns
            to avoid double counting. The estimates show that, on
            average, the per capita income penalty from stunting is
            around 7 percent. The second calculation estimates the
            economic value and the costs associated with scaling up a
            package of nutrition interventions using the same
            methodology and set of assumptions used in the first
            calculation. The analysis considers a package of 10
            nutrition interventions for which data are available on the
            effects and costs. The estimated rate-of-return from
            gradually introducing this program over a period of 10 years
            in the 34 countries is17 percent, and the corresponding
            benefit-cost ratio is 15:1.
Does the environment matter for
            poverty reduction the role of soil fertility and vegetation
            vigor in poverty reduction
The debate on the environment-poverty
            nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify
            the causal dynamics. This paper uses a unique global panel
            data set that links (survey and census derived) poverty data
            to measures of environmental quality at the subnational
            level. The analysis uses vegetation vigor as a proxy for
            above-ground environmental quality and soil fertility as
            proxy for below-ground environmental quality. Rainfall is
            used to account for endogeneity issues in an instrumental
            variable approach. This is the first global study using
            quasi-experimental methods to uncover to what degree
            environmental quality matters for poverty reduction. The
            paper draws three main conclusions. (1) The environment
            matters for poverty reduction. The panel regression suggests
            that a 10 percent increase in vegetation vigor is associated
            with a poverty headcount ratio reduction of nearly 0.7
            percentage point in rural areas, and 1 percentage point in
            Sub-Saharan Africa. A 10 percent increase in soil quality
            leads to a roughly 2 percentage point decrease in poverty
            rates in rural areas and in Sub-Saharan Africa. (2) The
            effects of environmental quality on poverty are stronger
            than its effects on average income, suggesting that the poor
            benefit disproportionately from environmental quality. (3)
            In situ environmental quality improvements are pro-poor, in
            contrast to urbanization. Although urbanization has highly
            significant and sizable correlations with GDP per capita, it
            is not significantly correlated with poverty reduction.
A Light-Touch Method to Improve
            Accurate Reporting of IDP’s Food Consumption
Misreporting is a well-known challenge
            for researchers in social sciences and even more so for
            policymakers who rely on accurate data to design effective
            relief strategies. This issue is especially prevalent if
            incentives for misreporting exist, for example, if there are
            perceived social or material implications to the answer
            reported. Due to the vulnerabilities that internally
            displaced people face and their dependency on aid support,
            this challenge is particularly acute when trying to measure
            economic welfare. In contexts of emergency, the need for
            accurate information is acute, but many approaches to
            improve data are intrusive or impractical. To address this
            challenge, this paper proposes a light touch method to
            improve the accuracy of consumption data: the inclusion of
            checks and primes to emphasize the importance of accurate
            reporting. The study assesses the effectiveness of this
            method, by randomly distributing the bundle of primes across
            a survey of internally displaced persons in South Sudan. In
            line with the main hypothesis, positive and significant
            effects arise for low consumption quantiles, especially
            consumption quantities that are more susceptible to
            manipulation. The findings suggest that light touch
            approaches to improving survey design can act as a
            cost-effective tool to induce more accurate reporting.
            Further research is needed to validate the measure against a
            gold standard approach and to understand what mechanisms are
            at play.
Can government intervention make
            firms more investment-ready ? a randomized experiment in the
            Western Balkans
Many innovative start-ups and small and
            medium-size enterprises have good ideas, but do not have
            these ideas fine-tuned to the stage where they can attract
            outside funding. Investment readiness programs attempt to
            help firms to become ready to attract and accept outside
            equity funding through a combination of training, mentoring,
            master classes, and networking. This study conducted a
            five-country randomized experiment in the Western Balkans
            that worked with 346 firms and delivered an investment
            readiness program to half of the firms, with the control
            group receiving an inexpensive online program instead. A
            pitch event was then held for these firms to pitch their
            ideas to independent judges. The investment readiness
            program resulted in a 0.3 standard deviation increase in the
            investment readiness score, with this increase occurring
            throughout the distribution. Two follow-up surveys show that
            the judges' scores predicted investment readiness and
            investment outcomes over the subsequent two years. Treated
            firms attained significantly more media attention and were 5
            percentage points more likely to have made a deal with an
            outside investor, although this increase is not
            statistically significant (95 confidence interval of -4.7 to
            +14.7 percentage points).
Import substitution with labor misallocation
This paper argues that relying on major
            policy distortions to create a domestic automotive industry
            through import substitution generates significant costs for
            the economy, in terms of foregone output, lower consumption,
            and reduced overall welfare. To bring this issue into sharp
            relief, the paper focuses on the extreme case of an outright
            vehicle import ban (complemented by an export subsidy),
            which gives rise to a misallocation of resources that will
            ultimately reduce the overall productivity of labor. More
            specifically, a share of the labor force is diverted to the
            production of previously-imported vehicles, which would have
            not happened in the absence of import restrictions. In
            particular, the output of the final good goes down;
            consumption is lowered; and overall welfare is reduced.
            Importantly, the equilibrium stock of vehicles available in
            this economy is also reduced, defeating the purpose of the
            imposition of import substitution. Additionally, the
            creation of an automotive sector is not neutral with respect
            to factor prices: the resulting lower wages imply that
            revenues in the newly-created sector are generated at the
            expense of labor income. Technological change in the
            automotive industry might act as a countervailing force for
            labor misallocation, albeit only partially.
Study on public debt management
            systems and results of a survey on solutions used by debt
            management offices
A debt management system is the backbone
            of any sovereign debt management office. A robust,
            well-functioning and user-friendly system allows governments
            to strengthen their debt management environment. This study
            aims to contribute to the literature on (i) the essential
            requirements of a debt management system, (ii) the selection
            criteria for software that fits the system modernization and
            integration needs of a debt management office, and (iii) how
            the solutions currently used by governments meet those
            requirements. It also contains the results of a survey that
            shows the current landscape of solutions used by a sample of
            debt management offices from 31 countries. The target
            audience is emerging and developing countries that seek to
            strengthen the information technology platform they use for
            debt management. The study concludes that it is fundamental
            for a debt management system to meet the debt management
            office's evolving needs, while at the same time
            differentiating among functions and coverage that are
            mandatory, relevant, and desirable. This differentiation
            provides a helpful guide for debt managers deciding between
            building a tailored debt management system from scratch or
            purchasing an off-the-shelf system. The survey results
            suggest that current systems can handle the critical
            functions and instruments of debt management offices.
            However, if the nature of respondents' debt portfolios
            evolves over time, system limitations may present
            challenges. One clear takeaway is that debt managers should
            consider the ability of their debt management system to
            interact with external (for example, financial management
            information system) information technology platforms as an
            essential characteristic of their information ecosystem.
Lassoing Welfare Dynamics with
            Cross-Sectional Data
This paper introduces, validates, and
            applies a Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator
            with multiple imputation by Predictive Mean Matching
            (LASSO-PMM) method to estimate intra-generational welfare
            dynamics using cross-sectional data. Compared to previous
            welfare dynamic prediction methods, the LASSO-PMM makes
            fewer and less restrictive assumptions and allows estimating
            poverty transitions and income changes. We validate the
            method using 36 harmonized panel data sets in four Latin
            American countries and then apply it to cross-section data
            from 43 countries across the world. To the best of our
            knowledge, this is the first paper that uses these many
            datasets to validate and estimate welfare and mobility
            predictions. Validation results indicate that LASSO-PMM
            predictions are in general statistically indistinguishable
            from actual household poverty rates, mobility indicators,
            and income or consumption changes; results which are further
            supported by a series of sensitivity tests and robustness
            checks. These findings are sufficiently encouraging to
            suggest that estimating economic mobility using a LASSO-PMM
            approach may accurately approximate actual welfare dynamics
            in settings where panel data are unavailable. This
            application provides useful policy information on the
            dynamics of individual welfare in countries where two or
            more rounds of cross-section data are available.
Mobility and congestion in urban India
This paper uses a popular web mapping
            and transportation service to generate information for more
            than 22 million counterfactual trip instances in 154 large
            Indian cities. It then develops a methodology to estimate
            robust indices of mobility for these cities. The estimation
            allows for an exact decomposition of overall mobility into
            uncongested mobility and the congestion delays caused by
            traffic. The paper first documents wide variation in
            mobility across Indian cities. It then shows that this
            variation is driven primarily by uncongested mobility.
            Finally, the paper investigates correlates of mobility and
            congestion. Denser and more populated cities are slower, in
            part because of congestion, especially close to their
            centers. Urban economic development is generally correlated
            with better uncongested mobility, worse congestion, and
            overall with better mobility.
Heterogeneous impacts of main and
            feeder road improvements : evidence from Ethiopia
Rural access is among the most important
            infrastructure constraints in rural Africa. Using the
            results from comprehensive household surveys and other data
            from Ethiopia, the paper recasts light on the heterogeneous
            impacts of road accessibility on agriculture and
            nonagricultural growth. It is found that crop production is
            increased by major and feeder road improvements. Significant
            synergy is also found. When investigating further into this
            effect, there are two impacts: farmers' access to the
            input market, especially fertilizer, was improved mainly by
            major corridor improvement. And output market access was
            improved by feeder road improvement. In addition, the
            household's nonagricultural income is somehow increased
            by improved road connectivity. There must be secondary
            effects. The transport demand function estimated with
            additional data indicates that as the road network improves,
            people's mobility increases. Furthermore, local
            business employment is found to increase with road
            improvements. To meet the increasing demand for mobility,
            efficiency and frequency of transport services are important.
Nutrition, religion, and widowhood
            in Nigeria
It is known that Muslim women in Nigeria
            have significantly worse nutritional status than their
            Christian counterparts. The paper first shows that this
            difference is explained by covariates including geographic
            location, ethnicity, household wealth, and women’s
            education. However, on accounting for observable
            characteristics, Muslim widows enjoy a higher nutritional
            status than Christian widows, particularly in rural areas.
            The patterns are robust to including village fixed effects
            and are confirmed for mixed religion ethnic groups. The data
            are consistent with more favorable processes following
            widowhood among Muslims, namely inheritance practices and
            remarriage options. Data on inheritance and violence
            patterns by religion confirm that Muslim widows are
            significantly less likely to be dispossessed of their late
            husband's property or to be mistreated upon widowhood
            by in-laws. Muslim women are more likely to be chronically
            undernourished but less nutritionally vulnerable to this
            marital shock.
The consequences of political
            interference in bureaucratic decision making : evidence from Nigeria
This paper investigates the consequences
            of granting politicians power over bureaucrats in the
            implementation of small-scale public infrastructure
            projects. While potentially bolstering the incentive for the
            executive to perform, increased legislative oversight may
            lead to distortions in the technocratic process for
            political gain. By assembling a nationally representative
            data set from Nigeria that tracks public projects from
            inception to audit, the paper finds evidence of a clear
            trade-off between political oversight and bureaucratic
            autonomy. Using an instrumental variables strategy in which
            early career choices of politicians are key determinants of
            legislative committee membership, the analysis finds that
            legislative influence increases the likelihood that a
            project is launched by 18 percent, but at the cost of
            reducing project quality by 15 percent and increasing the
            reported misuse of funds. The results highlight the
            fundamental tension between bureaucratic inaction and
            political corruption.
Effects of corporate governance on
            the performance of state-owned enterprises
State-owned enterprises play an
            important role in economic growth and the delivery of
            critical public services such as health, education, water,
            and energy. The underperformance of state-owned enterprises
            can lead to significant challenges in overall national
            growth and competitiveness and pose a fiscal risk to the
            government. Consequently, improving the performance of
            state-owned enterprises remains an important issue for
            policy makers and development practitioners. More recently,
            efforts to strengthen corporate governance have been gaining
            international momentum as a means to improve the performance
            of state-owned enterprises. This study aims to examine the
            relationship between corporate governance and the
            performance of state-owned enterprises. Using data from 320
            state-owned enterprises in the Republic of Korea, the study
            examines the effects of corporate governance on various
            measures of state-owned enterprise performance, including
            performance evaluation results, customer satisfaction, and
            financial performance. The empirical results indicate that
            board size, corporatization, and transparency and disclosure
            are positively related to the performance of state-owned
            enterprises, suggesting that they have an impact on the
            efficiency of state-owned enterprises. Independence of the
            board of directors and separation between the positions of
            board chair and chief executive officer have an
            insignificant or negative impact on specific measures of
            performance. These results suggest that a larger board,
            corporatization of state-owned enterprises, and more
            transparent disclosure practices can be beneficial for the
            performance of state-owned enterprises.
Selective control : the political
            economy of censorship
In recent years, alongside democratic
            backsliding and security threats, censorship is increasingly
            used by governments and other societal actors to control the
            media. Who is likely to be affected by censorship and why?
            Does censorship as a form of punishment coexist with or act
            as a substitute for reward-based forms of media capture such
            as market concentration or bribes? First, this argues that
            censors employ censorship only toward certain targets that
            provide information to politically consequential audiences,
            while allowing media that caters to elite audiences to
            report freely. Second, the paper hypothesizes that coercion
            and inducements are substitutes, with censorship being
            employed primarily when bribes and ownership fail to control
            information. To test these hypotheses, a new data set was
            built of 9,000 salient censorship events and their
            characteristics across 196 countries between 2001 and 2015.
            The study finds strong empirical support for the theory of
            media market segmentation.