rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
## **Figure 7. Financial development and revealed comparative advantage, 2005**

<!-- Start of picture text --> Basic & Fabricated Metals (low S) Food, Beverages & Tobacco (high S)<br>IRL DNK<br>SVK<br>SVN BRA<br>NLD<br>JPN<br>BRACZE KOR<br>ITA IDN<br>CYP<br>TUR FIN AUTCHNDEU ESP LTU BEL AUS<br>RUS<br>ROM SWE<br>POL<br>POLBGR BEL FRA<br>MEX AUS CAN LVAEST<br>FRAMLT ESPPRT<br>IND HUNUSALVA GRC LUX PRT GBRNLDDNK ROMTURSVKCZEBGRHUN GRCITA AUTCHNDEUCAN GBR<br>EST MEX SVN FIN SWELUX<br>IND USA<br>IDN CYP<br>LTU KORJPN<br>MLT IRL<br>RUS<br>0 .5 1 1.5 0 .5 1 1.5<br>Bank Private Credit/GDP Bank Private Credit/GDP<br>2 3<br>1.5<br>2<br>1<br>1<br>.5<br>RCA (based on domestic value added) RCA (based on domestic value added)<br>0 0<br><!-- End of picture text --> RCA is revealed comparative advantage. Source: Liu et al. 2017.

Note: The figures show a negative association between the manufacturing RCA (based on domestic value added) and a measure of financial development for a sector with low embodied financial services, but a positive association for a sector with high embodied financial services.

Liu et al. also consider the role of services imports in overcoming the limitations of domestic services markets. In countries with less developed services, manufacturing exports benefit more from access to foreign services inputs. Such a bypass effect is also discussed in a theoretical model by Ju and Wei (2010), which derives the conditions for financial globalization to serve as a substitute for reforms of domestic financial systems. These results suggest that lower services trade barriers can help developing countries bypass inefficient domestic services provision and promote their manufacturing exports through intersectoral linkages.

# **_Direct and indirect value-added exports of services_**

The patterns of direct and indirect domestic value-added exports of services for financial and business services reveal how goods and services value chains and comparative advantage evolve (figure 8). The horizontal axis measures direct value-added exports of services and the vertical axis measures indirect domestic value-added exports of services (the value-added exports of services embodied in exports of goods). Lines representing the median shares divide the countries into groups occupying four quadrants.

18
# **Investment in ICT, Productivity, and Labor Demand:**

# **The Case of Argentina**<sup>**1**</sup>

Irene Brambilla<sup>2</sup> Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CONICET Darío Tortarolo<sup>3</sup> University of California at Berkeley JEL CODES: J24, J31 Keywords: ICT impact on Jobs, Labor productivity, Labor demand

> 1 We thank Rita Almeida, Mark Dutz, Truman Packard, Steve O’Connell, Daniel Lederman, Siddhartha Raja and participants at the World Bank’s Workshop on Digital Technology Adoption, Skills, Productivity and Jobs in Latin America for their comments and suggestions. We thank Gustavo Arber and Lucía Tumini for access to the data and Mirtha Ortiz Ibañez for assistance with data processing. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors.

> 2 Department of Economics, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and CONICET. Email: irene.brambilla@econo.unlp.edu.ar

> 3 Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley. Email: dtortarolo@econ.berkeley.edu
Bekaert, G; Harvey, C. R., and Lundblad, C, 2005, Does Financial Liberalization Spur Growth? _Journal of Financial Economics_ 77, 3-55.

- Benfratello, Luigi, Schiantarelli, Fabio and Alessandro Sembenello, 2006, Banks and Innovation: Microeconomic Evidence on Italian Firms, _Boston College Working Paper 631._

- Bertrand, Marianne and Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003, Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences, _Journal of Political Economy_ 111, 1043-75.

- Black, B., 2001, The Corporate Governance Behavior and Market Value of Russian Firms, Emerging Markets Review, Vol. 2, 89-108.

- Black, B, Jang, H., and Woochan Kim, 2006, Does Corporate Governance Affect Firms' Market Values? Evidence from Korea, _Journal of Law, Economics and Organization_

- Blundell, R.; Griffith, R. and Van Reenan, J., 1995, Dynamic Count Data Models of Technological Innovation, _The Economic Journal_ , Vol.105 (No. 429), 333-344.

- Burkart, Mike; Panunzi, Fausto and Andrei Shleifer, 2003, Family firms, _Journal of Finance_ 58, 2167–2202.

- Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli and Vojislav Maksimovic, 1998, Law, Finance, and Firm Growth, _Journal of Finance_ 53, 2107-2137.

- Demirguc-Kunt, Asli; Love, Inessa and Vojislav Maksimovic, 2006, Business Environment and the Incorporation Decision, _Journal of Banking and Finance_ Vol. 30 (11), 2967-2993.

- Doidge, C. G., Karolyi, A. and Rene M. Stulz, 2004, Why Are Foreign Firms Listed in the U.S. Worth More? _Journal of Financial Economics 71,_ 205-238.

- Durnev, A. and E. Han Kim. 2005, To Steal or Not to Steal: Firm Attributes, Legal Environment, and Valuation, _Journal of Finance 60,_ 1461-1493.

- Gompers, P., Joy I. and Andrew Metrick. 2003, Corporate Governance and Equity Prices, _Quarterly Journal of Economics 118,_ 107-155.

Gompers, P., Kovner, A., Lerner, J. and David Scharfstein, 2006, Skill vs. Luck in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital: Evidence from Serial Entrepreneurs, _SSRN Working Paper Series_ Hart, Oliver, 1983, The Market Mechanism as an Incentive Scheme, _Bell Journal of_ 29
<!-- Start of picture text --> CEE a<br>itttt ttt ty.<br>ttt}? tt | tl 14 Elasticity of<br>-t Ete ET Ty 4.2—R8upply for EU<br>PP Ppa d tex<br>ttt ttt.<br>|_| Gping frpmy0.93 to O35) |<br>SS<br>O5 O08 11 14 #17 2 ”<br>_ age<br>Sealing of supply Slasticities for African and Rest of World<br><!-- End of picture text -->

<!-- Start of picture text --> ti}} {Ti | 2iT,<br>_<br>titi i i ty 1 Elasticity of<br>ERR 4 .258Upply for EU<br>TT TTT.<br>|salnsfrofm<br>dad tqho.da [| > Gs<br>tttTTT TTT<br>SSSESSSeas oe<br>o5 Of 1,1 14 17 2<br>Scaling of supply elasticities for African and Rest of World<br>firms<br><!-- End of picture text -->
consider using the citizens’ scorecard, targeted local household surveys, public service complaint hotline and other innovative information channels. Since citizens’ feedback may reveal weaknesses in the performance of service providers or local government agencies, it is useful to feed citizens’ feedback into the independent performance evaluation system discussed above. The system to evaluate the performance of sub-national governments and service providers could be also effective in addressing citizens’ feedback. Moreover, citizens’ feedback could help in policy evaluation and decision making. Local governments could further expand recent pilots in this direction as well.

**_This study reveals that cities in China offer a rich experience in seeking new ways to enhance public service delivery._** The analysis gives confidence that China is on the right track to harness its growing public resources and to implement governance reforms so as to make public services work well for all its citizens.

47
# 5.3 Influence of Regression Variables on CO2 Emissions

We use standardized (beta) coefficients<sup>6</sup> to provide measures of relative importance for model variables. Table 3 presents results from our 40-km radial estimates, standardized to weights that add to 100. Overall, we find influence weights of 34.3 for industrial sources, 34.5 for measures of economic development, 10.6 for population-related factors, and 20.8 for environmental variables.<sup>7</sup> Among industrial sources, the top three by influence are coal-fired power (13.2), cement (7.3) and steel (6.2). For economic development, population factors and environmental variables, the top variables are income per capita, population density and heating degree days, respectively.

Table 3: Influence of variables on CO2 emissions

|Industry|Influence(%)|
|---|---|
|Coal Power|13.2|
|Cement|7.3|
|Steel|6.2|
|Gas Power|3.9|
|Oil Power|2.8|
|Refineries|0.9|
|Subtotal|34.3|
|Economic Development||
|Income Per Capita|31.5|
|Nighttime Lights|3.0|
|Subtotal|34.5|
|Population Factors||
|Population Density|7.1|
|Population|3.5|
|Subtotal|10.6|
|Environment Factors||
|Heating|19.0|
|Fires|1.8|
|Subtotal|20.8|

> 6 A beta coefficient transforms a regression coefficient to measure the change in the dependent variable, measured in standard deviations, for a standard deviation increase in the independent variable.

> 7 The four subtotals have a total of 100.2 because of rounding to the first decimal point.
|**Table 6: R**<br>|**obustness of**<br>|**IV results**<br><br>|
|---|---|---|
|(1)|(2)|(3)<br>(4)|
|Variable<br>coefficient|_Law_|_LAC_<br>Hansen Test|
|_Initial variables: Law and_|.291<sup>***</sup>|.217<sup>***</sup><br>1.39|
|_LAC_|(.000)|(.000)<br>(.500)|
|_Continent_|.297<sup>***</sup>|.249<sup>***</sup><br>1.40|
||(.000)|(.000)<br>(.497)|
|_Latitude_<br>-.044|.294<sup>***</sup>|.213<sup>***</sup><br>1.34|
|(.810)|(.000)|(.000)<br>(.512)|
|_GDP_<br>-.045|.325<sup>***</sup>|.238<sup>***</sup><br>2.47|
|(.533)|(.004)|(.000)<br>(.291)|
|_Power_<br>-.032|.343<sup>***</sup>|.245<sup>***</sup><br>.856|
|(.231)|(.000)|(.000)<br>(.652)|
|_Roads_<br>-.063**|.318<sup>***</sup>|.228<sup>***</sup><br>.502|
|(.031)|(.000)|(.000)<br>(.778)|
|_Pop_<br>.002|.293<sup>***</sup>|.220<sup>***</sup><br>1.39|
|(.879)|(.000)|(.000)<br>(.500)|
|_All variables above_|.322<sup>***</sup>|.173<br>2.77|
||(.003)|(.113)<br>(.250)|
|Base regression for_Skill_|.280<sup>***</sup>|.263<sup>***</sup><br>.184|
|(Sample=71)<br>_Skill_<br>-.0094|(.000)<br>.291<sup>***</sup>|(.000)<br>(.192)<br>.275<sup>***</sup><br>.176|
|(.853)<br>p values in brackets. Sample size for<br>second stage IV results from separat<br>variables; column (2) shows the estima<br>of_LAC_dummy, column (4) provide<br>(instrumented)_Law_and_LAC_as explan|(.002)<br>each regression i<br>e regressions. Co<br>te of_Law_coeffici<br>s the Hansen tes<br>atory variables.|(.003)<br>(.916)<br>n the upper panel is 103. Each row shows the<br>lumn (1) shows the estimates of the various<br>ent, column (3) shows the estimated coefficient<br>t statistic. Base regression for_Skill_includes|

21
immediate purchase with a promise of installment payments (called _bai bithaman ajil_ ).<sup>15</sup> Debate is also ongoing about _murabaha_ structure with underlying assets that are not related to the primary use of capital, although the last few years saw an increase in its use (figure 5).

Figure 5. Sukuk Issuance by Type <!-- Start of picture text --> 90<br> 80<br> 70<br> 60<br> 50<br> 40<br> 30<br> 20<br> 10<br> -<br>2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013<br>Murabaha Al Ijara<br>Musharaka Mudharaba<br>Wakala Others (including BBA)<br>$ billion<br><!-- End of picture text --> _Source:_ Islamic Finance Information Service (http://www.islamicfinanceservice.com) _Note:_ BBA = _bai bithaman ajil_ .

The market has been calling for standardization of acceptable structures and practices. Despite a universal concept of Sharia and AAOIFI guidelines, specific details of transactions and their structures depend on the actual interpretation and decision of the applicable Sharia boards. The industry, in its attempts to find ways for transaction structures to comply with Sharia principles while being acceptable to investors, has produced several innovative transactions. Although innovation is generally good, transaction structures are seldom comparable. This manifests in higher transaction costs (for structuring, investor analysis, etc.), which is not supportive of industry growth.

Recently, a significant, continuous effort has been made to standardize sukuk. Standard-setting bodies and joint initiatives have been established to address standardization issues impeding the growth of the market. These include AAOIFI, International Islamic Financial Markets (IIFM), the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM), and the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB). Despite these efforts, universal and international agreement on many Sharia issues has not been achieved, although evidence is seen of convergence in some of the issues. In some

> 15Although the proceeds from sukuk are used to purchase the assets, the structure includes a sale and an immediate purchase of assets between the issuer/obligor and investors (via SPVs); thus, taken liberally, the assets themselves are not relevant so long as the obligor pays the sukuk holders in installments as promised. This, in essence, represents a guaranteed return by the obligor.

7
This paper considers how fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental transfers affect poverty alleviation policy in Viet Nam. By way of background, Section II briefly reviews the poverty profile in Viet Nam and highlights both the prevalence of poverty throughout the country as well as its geographic concentration in certain regions. It also emphasizes the critical role of local public expenditures in ensuring the accessibility to social and economic services that is needed to address poverty. ' Section III reviews the present assignment of taxes and expenditures and intergovernmental fiscal arrangements and notes a number of shortcomings in the design and implementation of intergovernmental transfers. Finally, Section IV contains some sugeostions for reforming intergovernmental fiscal arrangements and hence improving poverty alleviation policies.

# Il. Poverty, Public Policy, and Fiscal Decentralization!

The Viet Nam Living Standards Survey (VLSS) highlights four important features of poverty in Viet Nam:

- The overall incidence of poverty is extremely high; the consumption level of 51 % of the population is below a widely used international poverty line<sup>5</sup> . Even in the relatively prosperous Mekong Delta, half the population survive at per capita consumption levels below this poverty line.

- There are significant regional disparities in living standards throughout the country. Poverty incidence ranges from 33% in the southeast to 717% on the north central coast.

- 4 Viet Nam has three levels of sub-central government: provinces, districts, and communes. We shall refer to all of these as "local governments" although for the most part our analysis will focus solely on the most important of these levels, namely, the 53 provinces.

- 5 The poverty line constructed on the basis of a basket of goods in which the food items contain 2.100 calories per person per day and the non-food items reflect the cost of basic goods consumed by people who just reach the poverty line.

4
became more serious in the 1990s. Using provincial trade flow data to investigate the engagement of the PRC’s provinces in domestic and international trade, she finds that international trade barriers dropped but domestic trade barriers (between provinces) increased between 1987 to 1997. Interprovince trade flows fell between 1987 and 1997. Barriers to trade between the provinces in the PRC were as high as those between international borders within the European Union, or between Canada and the US.

However, evidence based on more refined data supports increasing regional specialization and product market integration over time. <mark>Bai et al. (2004)</mark> use a panel data set of 32 two-digit industries in 29 provinces between 1985 and 1997. They look at the patterns of regional specialization of industries, and examine how regional protectionism affected the patterns of regional specialization between 1985 and 1997. They find that in provinces with higher shares of SOEs, because benefits of local protection would be higher (i.e., jobs and direct control benefits), there was lower specialization amongst these industries. They also find that industries in provinces that have higher profit and tax margins have lower specialization. The higher profitability and tax revenue provided benefits and incentives to local governments to shield them from competition. However, contrary to Young (2000), they find that regional specialization rose over time, implying greater regional integration in the product market. Consistent with Bai et al. (2004), Holz (2009) presents evidence in support of an increasingly integrated domestic product market. Similarly, Huang, Rozelle and Chang (2004), using the rice market as an example, offer evidence that the PRC’s commodity markets are becoming more integrated.

# **E. Capital Market Integration**

The literature summarized below suggests that formal financial markets are still at their early development stage and inefficiency abounds, but informal channels of finances fill some of the gaps in inadequate formal financial intermediation. There is no strong evidence yet of increasing financial market integration.

Critics of the PRC’s financial system find various indications of inefficiency in financial allocation. The PRC’s financial system is dominated by state-owned banks (Cull and Xu 2000) that tend to favor certain sectors and types of firms (such as SOEs). Protection of local jobs also restricts capital from moving beyond the local boundary. Boyreau-Debray and Wei (2003), using regional 10
**Figure 1.4: World Interest Rate Shocks and Capital Flows**

<!-- Start of picture text --> r_us shock<br>.004<br>.002<br>0<br>-.002<br>0 5 10 15 20<br>1994q3 1999q1 2003q3 2008q1 2012q3 quarters<br>TB/GDP Reat int. rate, world 95% CI IRF<br>Graphs by irfname, impulse variable, and response variable<br>(a)<br>(b) response of TB/GDP to world int rate shock<br> Source: authors.<br>.06 .15<br>.04<br>.1<br>.02<br>.05<br>0 TB/GDP<br>Reat int. rate, world<br>-.02 0<br>-.04 -.05<br><!-- End of picture text --> Second, it is likely that the world interest rate shocks affect the Paraguayan economy through their influence on world commodity prices. Several recent studies have emphasized the existence of a theoretical link between world real interest rates and commodity prices. For instance, Frankel (2008) argues that higher world real interest rates will reduce speculative demand for commodities and lead to lower prices for them. Higher interest rates also can make holding commodity inventories more costly, inducing a further fall in their prices. Indeed, he finds that real interest rates are important determinants of the prices of agricultural and mineral commodities. In the same spirit, Calvo (2008) argues that low interest rates, by inducing portfolio reallocation away from liquid assets by the sovereign wealth funds, can drive up commodity prices.

On the other hand, since changes in commodity prices will pass-through into domestic price inflation or affect inflationary expectations (even in the longer term) (see Celasun, Ratnovski and Mihet (2012) for evidence on this in the U.S.), the reverse effect from commodity prices to world interest rates is likely to be present as well.<sup>9</sup> The above discussion makes it clear that there exists a complex interaction between world interest rate and commodity prices.

We attempted to capture this relationship between world interest rates and commodity prices by including the terms of trade variable and the U.S. real T-bill rate in our SVAR model. However, our recursive identification scheme does not allow for a contemporaneous correlation between the two variables.<sup>10</sup> Thus it is possible that some of the effects of commodity price changes on Paraguayan economy are subsumed in the world interest rate shocks.

To illustrate the interrelation between the two variables, consider Figure 1.5 which plots the U.S. real T-bill rate together with the terms of trade variable. It is easy to see the negative relationship between the two. Indeed, the correlation is equal to -0.44 during our sample period. These results highlight the fact that even a country that is not deeply integrated in the world capital markets may

> 9 For further empirical analysis of the relationship between international interest and commodity prices see Byrne, Fazio, and Fiess (2012) and Frankel and Rose (2010).

> 10 Note that changing the order of the two variables in the SVAR will not resolve the simultaneity problem. In fact, the results remain robust to a change in the ordering of the two variables.
<!-- Start of picture text --> 120<br>105 million<br>100<br>5 8 72 million<br>=<br>5<br>zg=2 60 i ae - TT eee a-=56 million<br>: -=— eine<br>~ 40 wee<br>& i ee =<.<br>8 million<br>20<br>0<br>1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015<br><!-- End of picture text -->
**Labor income inequality in Romania is notably pronounced, as exemplified by a Gini index of 0.42.**<sup>**22**</sup> Within this framework, the lower half of the population owns only 18.9% of aggregate labor income, while the middle 40% has a share of 46.8%. Simultaneously, the top 10% of earners account for 25.56% of the overall income distribution. The highest 1% income earners also possess 8.7% of the total labor income.

**Minimum wage regulations exert differing effects across distinct sectors of the labor market** . Typically, a more significant proportion of individuals earning the minimum wage can be found among younger workers, small enterprises, and sectors characterized by lower skill levels. Evaluating the influence of the minimum wage on the labor market requires a broader perspective that extends beyond average effects, including the repercussions experienced by various market segments. Therefore, analyzing the demographic and employment characteristics of minimum wage earners in Romania as of January 2020 is important to identify which groups could benefit directly from raising the statutory minimum wage.

**In January 2020, approximately 28% of the employees earned the minimum wage, while 2% received incomes lower than the minimum wage threshold** . Interestingly, the prevalence of minimum wage earners was notably higher among part-time workers, with around 34.7% falling into this category, compared to 25.93% among full-time employees.

**Furthermore, more women (30.0%) earned the minimum wage than men (24.3%).** This outcome is influenced, at least in part, by the distinct distribution of male and female employees across various sectors of the economy. For instance, in the case of part-time employees, who more frequently earn the minimum wage exclusively, the proportion of women slightly surpasses that of men, with figures of 20.4% for women and 18.4% for men.

**Minimum wage earners are overrepresented in the construction sector.** Individuals who are taxpayers within the construction sector earn a higher minimum wage (3,000 RON). Consequently, the proportion of individuals earning the minimum wage within the construction sector exceeds that in other sectors of the economy by more than two-fold. Specifically, a substantial 54.6% of employees eligible for fiscal benefits within the construction industry fall into the category of minimum wage earners. In contrast, among employees not employed in the construction sector, the percentage of minimum wage earners stands at 25.1%. The generous tax incentives granted to the construction sector starting in 2019 could have contributed to reducing the informal economy. Still, ex-post analyses are needed to confirm this hypothesis, given the sector's high volatility and the growth recorded from 2019, which follows three years of decline.

> 22 This is based on total earnings from labor before tax deductions (gross labor income), based on individual tax records.

28