rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Public finances and economic transition
The authors analyze developments in
            general government spending and revenues for 26 former
            social economies for 1989-94.  The data show that, rather
            than uniformly converting to a "Western European"
            norm, these reforming economies have followed a variety of
            patterns.  Whether a country drifts toward heavy government
            spending seems to depend on its success at general economic
            reform and especially at dealing with the pressures for
            social protection.  The authors empirically investigate
            spending patterns and the sustainability of revenues
            required to cover current government spending.  They
            conclude that fiscal accounts will surely remain under
            pressure in most transition economies in the foreseeable
            future.  They suggest involving the private sector in
            rationalizing and providing social services.
Export prospects of Middle Eastern
            countries : a post-Uruguay Round analysis
Exports in the Middle Eastern countries
            should increase from $800 million to $900 million as a
            result of the tariff cuts agreed on in the Uruguay Round,
            according to the author. This represents an annual expansion
            of less than 1 percent. Projected gains are small because
            the erosion of tariff preferences that Middle Eastern
            countries received in OECD markets offset the positive
            effects of reduced most-favored-nation tariffs on
            nonpreference-receiving products. And petroleum, the main
            Middle Eastern export--which generally faces zero or low
            tariffs--is unaffected by the Uruguay Round reductions.
            Egypt's projected gains (about $20 million, or under
            0.5 percent of total exports) are concentrated largely in
            agricultural exports to the European Union and manufactures
            in the United States. Israel should experience net trade
            losses because of the erosion of its free trade preferences
            in the European Union and the United States. The Uruguay
            Round made major progress in removing nontariff barriers
            that Middle Eastern exports face, especially in agriculture,
            textiles, and clothing. But with the removal of the
            Multifibre Arrangement, international trade in textiles and
            clothing will become much more competitive. Middle Eastern
            countries must adopt measures to cut costs and increase
            efficiency to remain viable exporters. As a result of what
            was achieved in the Uruguay Round, the average OECD
            nontariff barrier coverage ration for Middle Eastern exports
            should fall from a current 10 percent to between 1 and 2
            percent. Net food importing countries could be adversely
            affected by the higher international food prices expected to
            result from the Uruguay Round agreement. There is a clear
            priority for net food importers to adopt reforms stimulating
            domestic production. Prospects for increased trade in the
            Middle East are constrained by the similar comparative
            advantages and export profiles of many Middle Eastern
            countries. The most favorable prospects for intraregional
            trade appear to be between countries such as Cyprus, Israel,
            Lebanon, and Turkey--net energy importers--and the rest of
            the region.
Rural poverty in Ecuador : a
            qualitative assessment
A complement to recent in-depth
            quantitative analyses of rural poverty in Ecuador, this is a
            report on the results of the Rural Qualitative Assessment in
            living conditions in rural communities in all three
            Ecuador's diverse regions. Using a variety of
            qualitative techniques, the research aimed to assess what
            poverty means to marginalized rural families, what kind of
            survival strategies families use in times of hardship, and
            what these families believe is needed to alleviate poverty.
            Several key messages emerge: 1) rural communities with the
            same characteristics (such as area, soil quality, and ethnic
            background) are actually very heterogeneous in their command
            of land resources, definition of well-being, range of
            economic activities, and recommendations for what is needed
            to overcome poverty; 2) in times of hardship, families have
            complemented income for traditional sources with earnings
            from new activities. In addition to migration, which plays a
            pivotal role in all communities, piecework and weaving are
            important to income generation in the Sierra, small
            businesses are important in the Costa, and increased
            production of cash crops is important in the Oriente.
            Families have also reduced expenditures on clothing,
            fiestas, and food. Spending less on food is alarming as
            malnutrition rates in rural Ecuador are already very high;
            and 3) poor rural families express very practical solutions
            to overcoming poverty. They don't demand sweeping
            changes. Overwhelmingly, they suggest measures that will
            make available land and human resources more productive.
            Almost half the suggestions from poor rural families have to
            do with infrastructure. Many families also want training
            courses (both agricultural and nonagricultural).
Averting the old-age crisis :
            technical annex
"Averting the old age crisis:
            policies to protect the old and promote growth," the
            publication for which this technical annex provides
            supporting documentation, is the third in a series of major
            World Bank policy research reports.  Unlike its
            predecessors, "The East Asian miracle" and
            "Adjustment in Africa," it does not concentrate on
            a specific region but focuses rather on the general topic of
            income security for old age.  More than two years of
            research were required to gather data, review the
            theoretical literature, examine empirical evidence, and
            write the book that represents the Bank's most
            important study of the issue to date.  This annex explains
            in detail the data sources, concepts, and definitions used
            in the book and provides additional information.  It
            describes the demographic data used in the report and
            discusses data about public and privately managed pension
            schemes around the world (giving specific sources for
            individual countries).
The peace dividend : military
            spending cuts and economic growth
Conventional wisdom suggests that
            reducing military spending may improve a country's
            economic growth, but empirical studies have produced
            ambiguous results on this point. Extending a standard growth
            model, the authors exploit both cross-section and
            time-series dimensions of available data to get consistent
            estimates of the growth-retarding effects of military
            spending. Military spending is growth-retarding because of
            its adverse impact on capital formation and resource
            allocation. Model simulation results suggest a substantial
            long-term peace dividend - in the form of higher capacity
            output per capita - that may result from: 1) markedly lower
            military spending in most regions in the late 1980s; and 2)
            future cuts in military spending if global peace is secured.
North-South customs unions and
            international capital mobility
The primary distinction in a North-South
            trade accord is likely to be that the Southern nation
            experiences more capital scarcity than its Northern trade
            partner. So the trade accord's impact on the Southern
            trading partner's ability to attract capital may have
            welfare implications for both nations. The authors extend
            the traditional analysis of customs unions to allow for
            international capital movements. Their results indicate that
            trade accords may affect the ability of Southern nations to
            attract capital and may divert capital between Southern
            nations. Moreover, the welfare implications of North-South
            trade accords may differ from those that predict the North
            American Free Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) minor
            third-country effects, holding factor endowments constant.
            The key implications of North-South trade accords such as
            NAFTA are generally perceived to involve their impact on
            investment flows. The authors try to understand the channels
            through which trade accords can affect North-South
            investment flows. A potential link between trade accords and
            investment flows may be how the accords affect the ability
            of the Southern partner government to make commitments about
            the treatment of foreign investment. They show that these
            accords can affect both the magnitude and pattern of inward
            foreign investment and production, implying the possibility
            that both trade and financial diversion can stem from a
            bilateral regional trade accord. Novel effects that emerge
            under sovereign risk must be addressed when assessing the
            welfare implications of trade accords. The greatest gains
            from integration are still achieved when integration takes
            place between the countries with the greatest potential
            gains from trade. But the authors make a distinction: these
            gains now include both current trade and inter-temporal
            trade through foreign investment.
Housing finance in transition
            economies : the early years in Eastern Europe and the former
            Soviet Union
The transition to markets dominates the
            development agenda of the 1990s. Financial sector reforms
            are central to a successful transition to a market economy.
            The author focuses on one dimension of these reforms:  the
            development of housing finance institutions and services. He
            presents a progress report for the years since 1989, when
            the road to change opened with the collapse of communist
            regimes in most countries.  Rather than a detailed account
            of reform in 25 countries, he offers a general framework for
            analyzing change and evaluating the prospects for rapid
            development of market-based housing finance systems.   To
            understand why sound housing finance systems have not yet
            developed, one must consider factors in four key reform
            areas:  the macroeconomic policies adopted to liberalize the
            economy and stabilize prices; privatization policies, in
            particular in housing and real estate; the strategies
            adopted - whether by design or by default - to reform the
            financial sector; the nature of the financial priorities and
            institutional constraints affecting housing finance reform
            strategies followed in different countries. Housing finance
            policy development has been somewhat haphazard in many
            countries. But the evidence suggests that the transition
            economies that have achieved low inflation, have adopted
            radical banking reforms, and seriously reformed and
            liberalized their real estate sector should be among the
            first to develop a modern system of housing finance.
Catching up with Eastern Europe The
            European Union's Mediterranean free trade initiative
Many countries in the Middle East and
            North Africa that are considering liberalizing, privatizing,
            and deregulating markets face difficult policy issues.
            Gradual, piecemeal reform efforts have had limited success.
            The option of a Euro-Mediterranean Agreement (EMA) offers a
            new opportunity to implement structural reform. Two
            questions can be posed: (1) Why pursue regional integration?
            and (2) Is an EMA sufficient? Justifications for regional
            integration include the following: The EMA may offer a
            stronger mechanism for locking in economic reform than does
            the World Trade Organization (WTO), while the preferential
            nature of an EMA might help overcome domestic resistance to
            liberalization. Harmonization of regulatory regimes and
            administrative requirements could facilitate trade. Market
            access could be more secure if countries agreed not to
            impose contingent protection, such as antidumping actions.
            Transfers from the European Union to partner countries
            (financial or technical assistance) would help offset lost
            tariff revenue and the costs of trade diversion. The EMA
            signed between Tunisia and the European Union does not go
            significantly beyond existing multilateral (WTO)
            disciplines. The long 12-year transition path may reduce
            incentives to initiate rapid restructuring and may create
            problems in implementing future tariff reductions. While the
            EMA option gives the Mediterranean countries a unique
            opportunity to pursue far-reaching trade liberalization
            credibly and gradually, the economic benefits will be
            limited if trade liberalization is restricted to
            manufactured products. Service markets and foreign
            investment must also be liberalized to ensure a supply
            response and create new employment opportunities. Equally
            important are factors that cannot be "imported"
            through an agreement with the European Union: efficient
            public institutions, domestic competition, investment in
            education, high rates of private savings and investments, a
            stable economy, and openness to the world economy. The
            greater the extent to which the EMA-based preferential
            liberalization is extended to non-European countries, the
            greater the benefits for participating Mediterranean countries.
Improving water resource management
            in Bangladesh
As populations expand and make various
            uses of water, its growing scarcity becomes a serious issue
            in developing countries such as Bangladesh. Water can no
            longer be considered a totally free resource and plans must
            be developed for its efficient use through better management
            and rules that preserve everybody's access to it and
            interest in its development. Because it is a common
            resource, its development and management should involve all
            beneficiaries. The government's role in this process is
            to establish the ground rules for water use and conservation
            through a policy and legal framework and a monitoring system
            that ensure its continued safety of supply to--and
            responsible water use by--every sector and user in the
            economy.  National water policy must set the ground rules
            for allocation to different users, water rights, pricing,
            and environmental safety. Bangladesh's water strategy
            should start with a national water policy that spells out
            key objectives such as priority of use by critical economic
            sectors, approaches to water pricing and cost recovery for
            development, and shared public- and private-sector water
            management. An apex public planning organization is needed
            to perform overall planning for water resources and to
            advise the National Water Counsel on policy and legislation.
            Also needed are agencies to implement public water plans for
            the development of infrastructure, the monitoring of water
            regimes, and the enforcement of regulations.
Capital markets, financial
            intermediaries, and corporate governance : an empirical
            assessment of the top ten voucher funds in the Czech Republic
Voucher privatization was expected to
            result in widely dispersed ownership with little effect on
            firms' governance.  But in the first wave of
            privatization, more than 70 percent of Czech vouchers went
            to investment funds and the 10 largest Czech and Slovak
            investment funds (surveyed for this study) acquired roughly
            half of all voucher points.  And the large funds can
            influence corporate governance.  Also, a fund's actual
            role depends on the sponsoring institution's or
            individual's incentives structure.  Banks and
            investment funds lack the skills and incentives to initiate
            corporate restructuring, but funds with significant stakes
            can readily compare managers' performance and remove
            underperforming executives and can counterbalance the
            control of management and employees.  Funds can also
            effectively monitor firms on behalf of groups of small
            investors.  After privatization, most Czech assets are now
            owned by funds affiliated with banks.  In market economies,
            a close relationship between banks and enterprises can be
            seen as a conflict of interest.  In transition economies,
            banks and funds have spontaneously developed a relationship
            as a way for banks to get information about firm
            performance.  Bank-sponsored funds reduce banks'
            information and monitoring costs and hence lending risk and
            costs.  They also facilitate the informal workout of problem loans.
Sequencing social security, pension,
            and insurance reform
For both economic and regulatory
            reasons, most developing countries have underdeveloped
            pension funds and insurance sectors, and their social
            security systems face many financial and organizational
            problems. Wide-ranging reform would produce considerable
            economic and social benefits. A restructured social security
            system would avoid financial involvency and be better able
            to meet its objectives of redistribution. The development of
            pension funds and insurance business would generate
            long-term financial resources that could stimulate the
            growth of capital markets and might help provide adequate,
            affordable long-term benefits to members and policyholders.
            The main objectives of an ambitious reform program should be
            to: a) prevent the insolvency of the social security system
            (a longer run problem for developing countries with young
            populations) and thus ensure adequate but affordable,
            sustainable pension generate long-term financial resources
            that could stimulate the growth of capital markets and might
            help provide adequate, affordable long-term benefits to
            members and policyholders. The main objectives of an
            ambitious reform program should be to: a) prevent the
            insolvency of the social security system (a longer run
            problem for developing countries with young populations) and
            thus ensure adequate but affordable, sustainable pension
            benefits; b) remove incentives that encourage the strategic
            manipulation, and hamper the efficient functioning, of labor
            markets; c) control the occurrence of perverse, capricious
            redistribution by removing the many design faults that
            afflict security systems in most developing countries; and
            d) generate long-term financial savings that can help
            stimulate the modernization and growth of capital markets,
            finance long-term investments, and facilitate privatization.
            Although there is no single optimal way to sequence and pace
            a reform program, the full benefits of reform will not be
            realized until social pension systems are restructured and
            downsized, contribution rates lowered, and the scope for
            private pension funds (whether voluntary or mandatory)
            increased. One often-ignored imperative is to defer indexing
            the pension system until its many design flaws are
            corrected. Finally, reform of the insurance sector is
            essential for the whole program to succeed, because of the
            close links between pension reform and the provision of
            life, disability, and annuity insurance services.
Spatial correlations in panel data
In many empirical applications involving
            combined time-series and cross-sectional data, the residuals
            from different cross-sectional units are likely to be
            correlated with one another. This is the case in
            applications in macroeconomics and international economics
            where the cross-sectional units may be countries, states, or
            regions observed over time. Spatial correlations among such
            cross-sections may arise for a number of reasons, ranging
            from observed common shocks such as terms of trade oil
            shocks, to unobserved contagion or neighborhood effects
            which propagate across countries in complex ways. The
            authors observe that presence of such spatial correlations
            in residuals complicates standard inference procedures that
            combine time-series and cross-sectional data since these
            techniques typically require the assumption that the
            cross-sectional units are independent. When this assumption
            is violated, estimates of standard errors are inconsistent,
            and hence are not useful for inference. And standard
            correction for spatial correlations will be valid only if
            spatial correlations are of particular restrictive forms.
            The authors propose a correlation for spatial correlations
            that does not require strong assumptions concerning their
            form and how show it is superior to a number of commonly
            used alternatives.