rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Public sector pricing policies : a
            review of Bank policy and practice
Nearly a decade has passed since the
            Bank codified its position on cost recovery policies (OMS
            2.25) for public sector projects. In a review of 13 sectors,
            the authors find that the Bank guidelines are followed
            fairly closely in seven sectors: coal, irrigation, oil/gas,
            power, roads, telecommunications, and water/sewerage. In the
            other six sectors the focus is heavily on either
            distributional (health, education, housing) or financial
            (fertilizer, ports, railways) concerns - with little attempt
            to incorporate economic pricing principles. Efficiency
            pricing is not irrelevant or impossible in these sectors,
            and - even if used only as a benchmark - could improve
            sector management and project selection and design.
Public sector pricing in a fiscal context
Administered prices should deviate from
            marginal cost if they are to be used as instruments to
            generate revenue. The analysis is based on the Bank's
            two-step approach to public sector pricing: first
            calculating marginal cost, and then adjusting it to account
            for other factors. The aim is to show how those adjustments
            should be made to account for fiscal concerns. The
            appropriate basis for pricing in the first step, the author
            contends, is a weighted average of short and long term
            marginal costs. Deviations from marginal cost in the second
            step are shown to depend on their revenue raising,
            distortionary, and distributional effects. The author argues
            that it is better to raise prices above marginal cost
            through taxes than by raising the price received by the
            enterprise. The author describes how to set charges in the
            face of metering difficulties, stressing the need to set
            unifrom charges and to make indirect charges on inputs.
Cash flow or income : the choice of
            base for company taxation
Considerable interest has been expressed
            in recent years by tax theorists as well as practitioners,
            for the taxation of companies based on their cash flow.
            Unlike the equity-income tax base, which requires the
            deductibility of economic depreciation and debt financing
            costs, the cash-flow base expenses capital at the point of
            purchase, eliminating the need for the subsequent costing of
            this capital. This paper raises some of the issues that
            would arise in trying to implement a company tax either in
            the form of an indexed equity-income or a cash-flow tax.
            Issues raised include: (i) administrative complexity; (ii)
            international tax coordination and competition; and (iii)
            transition problems. In a closed economy the cash-flow tax
            seems a simple, efficient form of company taxation,
            administratively straightforward and neutral with regard to
            investment decisions. The more complicated equity-income tax
            is harder to defend in a closed economy.
Tax holidays and investments
The tax holiday - an incentive
            frequently used in developing countries to encourage capital
            investments - offers benefits for short-term investments but
            could in fact penalize long-term capital investments. For
            some countries with high inflation rates and relatively fast
            writeoffs for depreciable capital, the effective tax rate on
            long-term investments is higher during the tax holiday than
            after. For one thing the tax law may require assets to be
            depreciated during the holiday. If so, the value of tax
            depreciation writeoffs may be lower than the true economic
            cost of depreciation. For another the tax benefit of nominal
            interest deductions associated with debt financing of
            capital are of no value to the firm during the holiday -
            whereas after the holiday they may be quite beneficial.
            After estimating the effective tax rates on capital for
            holiday and post holiday investments, the author concludes
            that for some countries the effecctive tax rate on long-term
            capital is higher during the holiday than after.
Intersectoral financial flows in
            developing countries
This paper is about financial flows in
            developing countries. It reviews the evidence on who the
            borrowers and lenders are. Apart from collecting and
            summarizing available data from some seventeen countries,
            the paper presents the results of an econometric analysis of
            the interactions between the net lending behaviour of the
            different sectors. The paper is organized as follows.
            Section 2 clarifies some terms and in particular explains
            what a complete set of flow of funds accounts looks like.
            Section 3 provides an analytical framework for the
            consideration of flow of funds data. Section 4 reports the
            main data on sectoral surpluses and deficits and summarizes
            the empirical findings on their mutual interaction and on
            their determinants. Section 5 describes the typical pattern
            in developing countries of financial flows by instrument. A
            summary and conclusion is presented in section 6.
Fiscal Policies for a Sustainable
            Recovery and a Green Transformation
This paper compares the effectiveness of
            different fiscal policy instruments, carbon pricing, fiscal
            incentives for private green investments, and public green
            investment, in supporting a green recovery that is also
            fiscally sustainable. It argues that relying on carbon
            pricing or green investments is not sufficient to achieve
            the transition to a low-carbon economy in a timely and
            sustainable way. Carbon pricing alone would result in rapid
            and significant energy price increases that would be
            recessionary. Similarly, the level of public green
            investment needed to reach the Paris goals without recourse
            to carbon pricing would be so great that it would endanger
            debt sustainability. The conclusion from the simulations
            supports the view that a mix of supply side policies (carbon
            pricing) and demand-side interventions (deficit financed
            green public investment) is necessary to achieve the Paris
            goals within the specified period and with a fiscally
            sustainable outcome. The paper also assesses the costs
            associated with transitioning to a low carbon economy by
            geographic area. It finds that deficit financed public green
            investment by high-emitting countries only (typically
            advanced and emerging economies), would have positive growth
            impacts for those countries and enhance their fiscal
            sustainability, while also providing large positive
            spillovers to other countries, particularly to highly
            climate sensitive nations. In turn, the simulations show
            that wherever fiscally feasible it is in the best interest
            of all countries to increase public investment in the green economy.
External finance and firm survival
            in the aftermath of the crisis : evidence from Eastern
            Europe and Central Asia
Two data sets are used to study how
            country and firm characteristics affected firms'
            financial constraints and their likelihood of survival
            during the early phase of the recent global financial crisis
            in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a region that was
            especially hard hit. The first data source provides
            information on the reported severity of financial
            constraints for 360 firms from 23 countries in 2002, 2005,
            and 2008. By following the same firms over time, the study
            summarizes both the gradual easing of financial constraints
            from 2002 to 2005 and their tightening during the crisis.
            Key findings are that financial constraints during the
            crisis were less severe in countries with well-established
            foreign banks (entered prior to year 2000), and that changes
            in the severity of financial constraints were more
            pronounced for large firms than others during the crisis
            (although large firms continued to have less severe
            constraints on average). The second data source provides
            information on whether firms remained in operation in 2009
            in six countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
            Controlling for other relevant characteristics, firms were
            more likely to survive the crisis if they had access to
            external credit.
Vocational and technical education
            in Peru
The relative costs of and returns to VTE
            (Vocational and Technical Education) and general education
            in Peru are investigated here. The paper is composed as
            follows. Following a brief introduction, section 2 describes
            the system of education in Peru and changes that have
            occurred in this system over time. Section 3 surveys the
            (relatively sparse) literature on comparative rates of
            return to VTE and general education. Sections 4 and 5
            describe, respectively, the data used for this study and the
            model used to estimate the returns to different levels and
            types of education. Section 6 reports the results of the
            empirical analysis. Section 7 introduces data obtained from
            Peru's Ministry of Education on the relative costs of
            VTE and general education. The concluding section 8
            considers the implications, if any, of the findings for
            educational policy.
Vocational education and economic
            environments : conflict or convergence
A better understanding of the
            relationship between economic policies and human capital
            formation through vocational education and training (VET)
            will help both development strategists and education
            planners. With this in mind, the paper begins with a social
            systems model to trace the impact of the economic
            environment and policies on the internal and external
            efficiency of VET. It continues with a discussion of how
            specific economic policies can shape efforts to improve the
            internal and external efficiency of VET. Some evidence of
            this relationship is provided in a review of the VET
            experience in selected countries. The paper concludes with
            some tentative lessons for VET lending and sector work as
            drawn from this review and offers an agenda for the further
            study and validation of the economic environment thesis.
Israel's vocational training
Eighty percent of the trainees headed
            for Israel's labor force go to full-time vocational
            secondary schools that devote a third to a half of the
            curriculum time to general studies. Students tend to come
            from a higher socioeconomic level than those in other
            training programs. The rest of Israel's vocational
            students are evenly divided among the Ministry of
            Labor's remaining three programs: the apprenticeship
            schools; the industrial schools; and the full-time training
            courses. Of the four types of training in Israel, vocational
            school is by far the most expensive. This paper confirms an
            earlier study that the apprenticeship system was the most
            cost-effective. However, to conclude that vocational
            training schools are not cost-effective is to ignore part of
            the picture. The goals of the vocational secondary school in
            Israel extend beyond those of providing usable labor market
            skills. In any cost-benefit evaluation of vocational
            schooling, these goals would have to be given more weight.
Changing patterns in vocational education
One of the long standing issues in
            education development has been productive job training in
            rapidly changing economies. The argument has been made that
            vocational secondary schools are not well equipped for this
            task. Although vocational and academic schooling often
            result in similar levels of education and employment, the
            higher costs of the vocational schooling makes it a less
            attractive alternative. In the past 23 years of Bank lending
            for vocational education and training, there has been a
            clear shift away from vocational secondary schools toward
            various forms of training, outside the formal education
            system. Although investment has been shifting into nonformal
            training, secondary education is in need of new directions.
            Diversified secondary schools have not provided that
            direction, leaving questions about how secondary schools
            might meet social objectives cost effectively.
Cote d'Ivoire's vocational
            and technical education
Cote d'Ivoire spends more of its
            budget (42 percent) on education than any other country in
            the world. The purpose of this paper is to present an
            economic assessment of vocational and technical education
            (VTE) within the country. This assessment takes a
            three-pronged approach. First, it studies the impact of VTE
            on earnings, analyzes the role of VTE in gaining access to
            different types of jobs and third, examines the cost
            structures of both formal and informal VTE such as
            out-of-pocket costs, opportunity costs and institutional
            costs. As part of this presentation, the paper also
            discusses the household survey which is the main data source
            for the analysis. In addition, it describes the general
            education sector in Cote d'Ivoire, the formal system of
            vocational and technical education, the system of informal
            apprenticeships and the Bank's involvement in the
            education sector in the country.
Credit cooperatives in Israeli agriculture
In the last two or three decades,
            moshavim and kibbutzim developed entensively, adopted new
            technologies, reacted quickly to changes in market
            conditions, and established a network of farm services owned
            and operated by farmers and their representatives. Financial
            cooperation helped to make this intensive development
            possible and was effective when appropriate conditions
            prevailed. Cooperation in credit also caused overexpansion
            and overinvestment. Debt grew to crisis proportions.  When
            macroeconomic conditions changed and the expansion of credit
            slowed down, the sector found itself trapped in financial
            impossibilities. Now cooperation ties farmers and
            organizations together and intensifies the dimensions of the crisis.
Shifting patterns of comparative
            advantage : manufactured exports in developing countries
Labor intensive goods are the strongest
            export items for developing countries - and the United
            States is the developing countries' biggest market. In
            1965 the National Bureau of Economic Research predicted that
            developing countries would specialize in the manufacture and
            export of labor intensive goods - and prepared a list of
            those goods. A study of actual exports for 1965 - 1986
            revealed that with few exceptions, export performance of
            those labor-intensive goods was superior in developing
            countries - which increased their market shares for those
            items despite generally declining shares of world trade. The
            United States absorbed nearly 55 percent of labor intensive
            products in 1986. And more than 40 percent of total U.S.
            imports of labor intensive goods came from developing
            countries. Many of the products the National Bureau
            identified as labor intensive remain so, and therefore
            remain suitable for production and export by developing
            countries. Clothing, footwear, leather products, wood
            manufactures, and some primary metal manufactures became
            relatively more labor intensive; so producers in industrial
            countries can expect increased competition from the
            developing countries in these products in the 1990s.
Do price increases for staple foods
            help or hurt the rural poor
The effect on the poor of changes in the
            price of staple foods is a central issue in debates on
            development policy. In the short run the rural rich are
            likely to gain, and the rural poor to lose, from an increase
            in the relative price of food staples in a food producing
            economy. However, in the long run the welfare of a typical
            poor household will be neutral to such price increases
            (after allowing for wage adjustments), and the poorest
            households will benefit somewhat.
The effects of Peru's push to
            improve education
From the mid-1950s to the 1960s, the
            Government of Peru undertook a major expansion of public
            education, increasing the number of schools, requiring
            primary schools that offered an incomplete cycle to add
            grades, and increasing school inputs (principally teachers
            and textbooks). The paper examines the effects of
            Peru's educational policies, and the effects of family
            background and community characteristics on the schooling
            levels of a number of adults. Data on males and females were
            analyzed seperately by birth cohort.
Current international gas trades and prices
Certain trends stand out in this survey
            of Western European and North American gas markets and
            Japanese-Asian, Middle Eastern-African, and Latin American
            gas trades. Prices for natural gas are usually locally based
            - depending on the costs of exploration, development and
            transmission, and prevailing gas prices locally. The price
            in most international contracts is changed periodically,
            however, based on an escalator or price adjustment clause
            linked to prices for crude oil or oil products in the
            consumer country. As for global trends in gas trades, new
            pricing terms and contractual arrangements that emerge in
            one country may soon be copied in others. With a take or pay
            provision, a purchaser must pay for a contracted volume of
            gas even if it cannot take the gas. Under a common carrier
            arrangement, a pipeline company provides transportation
            only, without buying and reselling the gas in its own name
            or discriminating among buyers and sellers. The common
            carrier concept has already taken hold in the United States.
            It is now becoming an issue in Europe, where the gas
            monopolies have always rebuffed it.
Paying for urban services : a study
            of water vending and willingness to pay for water in
            Onitsha, Nigeria
This paper presents a case study of
            water vending in Onitsha, Nigeria, one of the most important
            market towns in West Africa.  It illustrates that a rapid
            reconnaissance survey of water vending activities and the
            willingness of households to pay for improved water services
            can yield valuable information for water supply planning and
            unexpected policy insights.  The vast majority of Onitsha
            obtains its water from an elaborate and well-organized water
            vending system which has been created and is operated by the
            private sector. Approximately 275 tanker trucks purchase
            water from about 20 private boreholes and then sell it to
            households and businesses equipped with water storage
            facilities.  Many of the households which purchase water
            from tanker trucks resell the water by the bucket to
            individuals who cannot afford large storage tanks or who
            cannot be reached by tanker trucks.  During the dry season
            households obtain approximately 2.96 million gallons per day
            (mgd) from the water vending system, for which they pay
            about US$28,000.  In 1987 the public water utility was
            supplying about 1.5 mgd during the dry season and only
            managed to collect US$1,100 in revenues.  In the rainy
            season the revenues from water vendor sales were still
            several times higher than the water utility.  On an annual
            basis, households in Onitsha are already paying water
            vendors over twice the operation and maintenance costs of a
            piped distribution system.
Forecasting, uncertainty, and public
            project appraisal
Uncertainty in project planning and
            appraisal is still topical in the World Bank and other
            lending and development agencies although it is certainly
            not a new issue. It is appropriate to reconsider the issue
            now because more than a decade of active research on risk
            analysis has transpired without, however, the seeming
            emergence of agreed procedures and practice. In particular,
            the implications for what information price forecasters
            should provide for risky project appraisers have yet to be
            clarified. In Section 2, theoretical arguments about the
            proper role of uncertainty in appraisal are reviewed, and
            this section is closed by discussion of the various
            'practical' methods that have been proposed, in
            and outside the World Bank. Further procedures for
            quantifying uncertainty in both forecasting and appraisal
            are considered in Section 3. Section 4 presents a set of
            procedures that seem workable and retain some theoretical
            defensibility. These are illustrated through an example.
            Finally, conclusions and implications are drawn out in
            Section 5.
How to collect data on household
            energy consumption
The existence of reliable, disaggregated
            information on residential fuel consumption and supply is
            essential to the formulation of sound household energy
            strategies. This report presents guidelines for designing
            and administering household energy surveys. The report is
            composed of four chapters. Following the introduction,
            chapter 1 presents the existing methodologies and the
            advantages and disadvantages of each. Chapter 3 discusses
            household energy surveying, from survey and questionaire
            design through fieldwork and data processing/analysis.
            Finally, in chapter 4, a checklist is presented for use as a
            quick reference during the creation of a household energy survey.