rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Inequality aversion, health
            inequalities, and health achievement
The author addresses two issues. First,
            how can health inequalities be measured so as to take into
            account policymakers' attitudes toward inequality? The
            Gini coefficient and the related concentration index embody
            one particular set of value judgments. Generalizing these
            indexes allows alternative sets of value judgments to be
            reflected. And second, how can information on health
            inequality be combined with information on the mean of the
            relevant distribution to obtain an overall measure of health
            "achievement?" Applying the approach developed by
            Wagstaff shows how much worse some countries perform when
            the focus switches from average health to an achievement
            index that also reflects the health gap between the poor and
            the better-off.
Ownership, competition, and
            corruption : bribe takers versus bribe payers
Over the past few years, many studies
            have looked at the macroeconomic, cultural, and
            institutional determinants of corruption. This study
            complements these cross-country studies by focusing on
            microeconomic factors that affect bribes paid in a single
            sector of the economy. Using enterprise-level data on bribes
            paid to utilities in 21 transition economies in Easter
            Europe and Central Asia, the authors look at how
            characteristics of the firms paying bribes (such as
            ownership, profitability, and size) and characteristics of
            the utilities taking bribes (such as competition and utility
            capacity) affect the equilibrium level of corruption in the
            sector. On the side of bribe payers, enterprises that are
            more profitable, enterprises that have greater overdue
            payment to utilities, and de novo private firms pay higher
            bribes. On the side of bribe takers, bribes paid to
            utilities are higher in countries with greater constraints
            on utility capacity, lower levels of competition in the
            utility sector, and where utilities are state-owned. Bribes
            in the utility sector are also correlated with many of the
            macroeconomic and political factors that previous studies
            have found to affect the overall level of corruption.
Improving air quality in
            metropolitan Mexico City : an economic valuation
Mexico City has for years experienced
            high levels of ozone and particulate air pollution. In
            1995-99 the entire population of the Mexico City
            metropolitan area was exposed to annual average
            concentrations of fine particulate pollution (particulates
            with a diameter of less than 10 micrometers, or PM10)
            exceeding 50 micrograms per cubic meter, the annual average
            standard in both Mexico and the United States. Two million
            people were exposed to annual average PM10 levels of more
            than 75 micrograms per cubic meter. The daily maximum
            one-hour ozone standard was exceeded at least 300 days a
            year. The Mexico Air Quality Management Team documents
            population-weighted exposures to ozone and PM10 between 1995
            and 1999, project exposures in 2010, and computes the value
            of four scenarios for 2010: A 10 percent reduction in PM10
            and ozone. A 20 percent reduction in PM10 and ozone.
            Achievement of ambient air quality standards across the
            metropolitan area. A 68 percent reduction in ozone and a 47
            percent reduction in PM10 across the metropolitan area. The
            authors calculate the health benefits of reducing ozone and
            PM10 for each scenario using dose-response functions from
            the peer-reviewed literature. They value cases of morbidity
            and premature mortality avoided using three approaches: Cost
            of illness and forgone earnings only (low estimate). Cost of
            illness, forgone earnings, and willingness to pay for
            avoided morbidity (central case estimate). Cost of illness,
            forgone earnings, willingness to pay for avoided morbidity,
            and willingness to pay for avoided mortality (high
            estimate). The results suggest that the benefits of a 10
            percent reduction in ozone and PM10 in 2010 are about $760
            million (in 1999 U.S. dollars) annually in the central case.
            The benefits of a 20 percent reduction in ozone and PM10 are
            about $1.49 billion annually. In each case the benefits of
            reducing ozone amount to about 15 percent of the total
            benefits. By estimating the magnitude of the benefits from
            air pollution control, the authors provide motivation for
            examining specific policies that could achieve the air
            pollution reductions that they value. They also provide unit
            values for the benefits from reductions in ambient air
            pollution (for example, per microgram of PM10) that could be
            used as inputs into a full cost-benefit analysis of air
            pollution control strategies.
Technology and skill demand in Mexico
The author investigates the effects of
            technology on the employment and wages of differently
            skilled Mexican manufacturing workers using firm panel data
            from 1992-99. She analyzes the relationship between
            technology and skill demand. Findings support the
            skill-biased technical change hypothesis. She then examines
            the temporal relationship of technology adoption to firm
            productivity and worker wages. The author finds that skilled
            labor increases after technology adoption. And wages of both
            skilled and semi-skilled workers exhibit markedly increased
            growth rates compared with the growth rate of low-skilled
            workers. The results show that investment in human capital
            improves technology-driven productivity gains.
Inequalities in health in developing
            countries - swimming against the tide
Inequalities in health have recently
            started to receive a good deal of attention in the
            developing world. But how large are they? An how large are
            the differences across countries? Recent data from a
            42-country study, show large, but varying inequalities in
            health across countries. The author explores the reasons for
            these inter-country differences, and concludes that large
            inequalities in health, are not apparently associated with
            large inequalities in income, or with small shares of
            publicly financed health spending. But they are associated
            with higher per capita incomes. Evidence from trends in
            health inequalities - in both the developing, and the
            industrial world - supports the notion that health
            inequalities rise with rising per capita incomes. The
            association between health inequalities, and per capita
            incomes is probably due in part, to technological change
            going hand-in-hand with economic growth, coupled with a
            tendency for the better-off to assimilate new technology
            ahead of the poor. Since increased health inequalities,
            associated with rising per capita incomes is a bad thing,
            and increased average health levels associated with rising
            incomes are a good thing, the author outlines a way of
            quantifying the tradeoff between health inequalities, and
            health levels. He also suggests that successful
            anti-inequality policies can be devised, but that their
            success cannot be established simply by looking at
            "headline" health inequality figures, since these
            reflect the effects of differences, and changes in other
            variables, including per capita income. The author
            identifies four approaches that can shed light on the
            impacts of anti-inequality policies on health inequalities:
            cross-country comparative studies, country-based
            before-and-after studies with controls, benefit-incidence
            analysis, and decomposition analysis. The results of studies
            based on these four approaches do not give as many clear-cut
            answers as one might like on how best to swim against the
            tide of rising per capita incomes, and their apparent
            inequality-increasing effects. But they ought at least to
            help us build our stock of knowledge on the subject.
Fever and its treatment among the
            more and less poor in Sub-Saharan Africa
The author empirically explores the
            relationship between household poverty and the incidence and
            treatment of fever--as an indicator of malaria--among
            children in Sub-Saharan Africa. He uses household
            Demographic and Health Survey data collected in the 1990s
            from 22 countries in which malaria is prevalent. The
            analysis reveals a positive, but weak, association between
            reported fever and poverty. The geographic association
            becomes insignificant, however, after controlling for the
            mother's education. There is some evidence that higher
            levels of wealth in other households in the cluster in which
            the household lives are associated with lower levels of
            reported fever in Eastern and Southern Africa. Poverty and
            the type of care sought for an episode of fever are
            significantly associated: wealthier households are
            substantially more likely to seek care in the modern health
            sector. In Central and Western Africa those from richer
            households are more likely to seek care from all types of
            sources: government hospitals, lower-level public facilities
            such as health clinics, as well as private sources. In
            Eastern and Southern Africa the rich are primarily more
            likely to seek care from private facilities. In both regions
            there is substantial use of private facilities--use that
            increases with wealth. Like the incidence of fever,
            treatment-seeking behavior is strongly associated with the
            level of wealth in the cluster in which the child lives.
Telecommunication reforms, access
            regulation, and Internet adoption in Latin America
The authors review the stylized facts on
            regulatory reform in telecommunications and its effects on
            telecommunications development and Internet penetration in
            Latin America. Relying on data from the International
            Telecommunication Union, the Information for Development
            Program (InfoDev), and the World Bank for 1990-99, the
            authors then test econometrically the determinants of the
            differences in Internet penetration rates across Latin
            America. The results show that effective implementation of
            the reform agenda in telecommunications regulation could
            accelerate adoption of the Internet in Latin America-even
            though it is only part of the solution (income levels,
            income distribution, and access to primary infrastructure
            are the main determinants of growth in Internet connections
            and use). Regulation will work by cutting costs. Cost
            cutting will require that regulators in the region take a
            much closer look at the design of interconnection rules and
            at the tradeoffs that emerge from the complex issues
            involved. It will also require a commitment to developing
            analytical instruments, such as cost models, to sort out
            many of the problems. Appropriate cost models will generate
            benchmarks that are much more consistent with the local
            issues and with the local cost of capital than international
            benchmarks will ever be for countries in unstable
            macroeconomic situations. Cost cutting will require an
            equally strong commitment to imposing regulatory accounting
            systems that reduce the information asymmetrics that
            incumbents use to reduce the risks of entry. All these
            changes will ultimately require a stronger commitment by
            competition agencies, since in many countries a failure to
            negotiate interconnection agreements will raise competition
            issues just as often as it will raise regulatory questions.
Corporate governance, investor
            protection, and performance in emerging markets
Recent research studying the link
            between law, and finance has concentrated on country-level
            investor protection measures, and focused on differences in
            legal systems across countries, and legal families. The
            authors extend this literature, and provide a study of
            firm-level corporate governance practices across emerging
            markets, and a greater understanding of the environments
            under which corporate governance matters more. Their
            empirical tests show that better corporate governance is
            highly correlated with better operating performance, and
            market valuation. More important, the authors provide
            evidence showing that firm-level corporate governance
            provisions, matter more in countries with weak legal
            environments. These results suggest that firms can partially
            compensate for ineffective laws, and enforcement by
            establishing good governance, and providing credible
            investor protection. The authors' tests also show that
            firm-level governance, and performance is lower in countries
            with weak legal environments, suggesting that improving the
            legal system, should remain a priority for policymakers.
Goals for development : history,
            prospects and costs
The Millennium Development Goals set
            quantitative targets for poverty reduction and improvements
            in health, education, gender equality, the environment, and
            other aspects of human welfare. At existing rates of
            progress many countries will fall short of these goals.
            However, if developing countries take steps to improve their
            policies and increased financial resources are made
            available, significant additional progress toward the goals
            is possible. The suthors provide a preliminary estimate of
            the additional financial resources which would be required
            if countries would work vigorously toward meeting the
            Millennium Development Goals. Two estimates of the resource
            gap are developed, one by estimating the additional
            resources necessary to increase economic growth so as to
            reduce income poverty, the other by estimating the cost of
            meeting specific goals in health, education, and the
            environment. Both estimates yield a figure in the range of
            $40-$70 billion in additional assistance per year, which is
            in line with estimates from other international development
            agencies and which would roughly represent a doubling of
            official aid flows over 2000 levels. While the authors
            believe this is a reasonable first approximation of the
            costs associated with achieving the Millennium Development
            Goals, it should be interpreted with caution for several
            reasons, including the lack of empirical data in many
            countries to estimate the relationship between expenditures
            on health or education and related outcomes, or the
            relationship between investment and growth, the sensitivity
            of the results to changes in the policy environment (both at
            the macroeconomic and sector level, and with respect to
            international trade), and opportunities for increased-and
            more efficient-domestic resource mobilization.
The spatial distribution of poverty
            in Vietnam and the potential for targeting
The authors combine household survey and
            census data to construct a provincial poverty map of Vietnam
            and evaluate the accuracy of geographically targeted
            antipoverty programs. First, they estimate per capita
            expenditure as a function of selected household and
            geographic characteristics using the 1998 Vietnam Living
            Standards Survey. Next, they combine the results with data
            on the same household characteristics from the 1999 census
            to estimate the incidence of poverty in each province. The
            results show that rural poverty is concentrated in 10
            provinces in the Northern Uplands, 2 provinces in the
            Central Highlands, and 2 provinces in the Central Coast. The
            authors use Receiver Operating Characteristics curves to
            evaluate the effectiveness of geographic targeting. The
            results show that the existing poor communes system excludes
            large numbers of poor people, but there is potential for
            sharpening poverty targeting using a small number of
            easy-to-follow measure household characteristics.
An econometric analysis of IBRD creditworthiness
The author econometrically ascertains
            the determinants of default to the International Bank for
            Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) through panel logit
            analysis. Creditworthiness with a lag of one period is
            determined by the extent of arrears to private creditors,
            the proportion of total debt service that is being paid, the
            government budget deficit, the extent of military
            involvement in the government of a country, and by the
            G7's current account balance. Default to the IBRD falls
            into a graduated hierarchy, whereby default occurs first to
            Paris Club and commercial bank creditors, with subsequent
            default triggered by portfolios with high proportions of
            IBRD and short-term debt, as well as the factors mentioned
            above. Default to these other creditor groups can be
            explained by more traditional country risk variables,
            although Mckenzie's analysis highlights the importance
            of political and external factors in explaining default to
            all creditors studied. He finds sovereign default to be a
            state-dependent process, whereby the repayment behavior of a
            country changes once it enters into default. Operationally,
            the author arrives at a model that can be used to assess
            short-term creditworthiness, although data imperfections and
            availability still limit the usefulness of the model for
            some countries. Longer-term risk assessment proves more
            difficult, which raises operational questions for the IBRD.
Poverty and survival prospects of
            Vietnamese children under Doi Moi
By international standards, and given
            its relatively low per capita income, Vietnam has achieved
            substantial reductions in, and low levels of, infant and
            under-five mortality. The authors review existing evidence
            and provide new evidence on whether, under the economic
            liberalization program known as Doi Moi, this reduction in
            child mortality has been sustained. They conclude that it
            has, but that the gains have been concentrated among the
            better-off. As a result, socioeconomic inequalities in child
            survival are evident in Vietnam-a change from the early
            1990s when none were apparent. The authors develop survival
            models to find the causes of this differential decline in
            child mortality, and conclude that a number of factors have
            been at work, including reductions among the poor (but not
            among the better-off) in coverage of health services and in
            women's educational attainment. They argue that if the
            experience of the late 1990s is a guide to the future, the
            lack of progress among the poor will jeopardize
            Vietnam's chances of achieving the international
            development goals for child mortality. The authors examine
            various policy scenarios, including expanding coverage of
            health services, water and sanitation, and find that such
            measures, while useful, will have only a limited effect on
            the mortality of poor children. They find that programs
            aimed at narrowing the gap between the poor and better-off
            may have large beneficial effects on the various
            determinants of child survival.
Contractual savings in countries
            with a small financial sector
Countries with small financial systems
            are generally small economies with a reduced dimension of
            institutional relationships, a greater concentration of
            wealth, and a relatively less independent civil service.
            These characteristics facilitate concentration of functions
            and, more generally, weak governance. Only small economies
            with a relatively high level of per capita income, minimum
            core of sound banks and insurance companies, sound and
            credible macroeconomic policies, and open capital accounts
            can benefit from the development of contractual savings.
            This can increase the options to obtain sound coverage
            against contingencies, increase the supply of long term
            savings, promote financial deepening, and improve financial
            risk management.