rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Public hospital costs and quality in
            the Dominican Republic
Measuring costs in public hospitals in
            developing countries is hampered by the lack of an
            appropriate costing system, or of any systematic cost
            accounting. Invoices for goods and services, prices for
            inputs, and patient records are generally absent. As a
            result, cost measures have historically been based on budget
            figures - the only available financial data. But budget
            allocations bear little relationship to the resources
            actually required to provide services to hospital patients.
            The patient-based methodology described by the authors
            circumvents this problem by measuring actual hospital
            resources allocated to patients. Their study was conducted
            in a single Dominican hospital during a one week period in
            April 1989. Their approach documents and gives prices for
            goods, services, and personnel time provided by the hospital
            to emergency patients, inpatients, and outpatients. They
            used the following to measure quality and efficiency: (a)
            the qualifications and relative costs of medical manpower
            delivering services; (b) the extent and nature of shortages;
            (c) comparisons of physician orders and actual services
            provided; and (d) (for selected diagnoses) the specifics of
            clinical practices in the hospital, compared with accepted
            clinical norms for the Dominican Republic. They found that
            average and total costs of services understate the true
            costs - because of shortages, inappropriate and underused
            personnel, and nonfunctioning equipment. Quality of care
            measures suggest low quality and poor efficiency. Norms of
            medical practice were not followed in more than 80 percent
            of the cases examined. Rates of completion for diagnostic
            tests were below 50 percent for outpatient services and
            between 60 and 70 percent for inpatient and emergency
            services. The study registered significant monthly savings
            of $641 for noncompletion of tests and $824 for
            nonavailability of drugs. Policy recommendations of the
            authors center on the need to reform the organization and
            delivery of health care as well as physician payment
            practices - and to giving more authority to hospital
            administrators. To make Dominican hospitals more efficient,
            there must be greater authority and accountability for
            hospital directors and better incentives for improving
            medical and management performance. Quality assurance needs
            great improvement if the Dominican system is to ensure a
            basic standard of care.
Pesticide externalities, comparative
            advantage, and commodity trade : cotton in Andhra Pradesh, India
Because the cotton bollworm is
            migratory, a farmer who controls the pest in his own field
            creates a positive externality for other farmers. But
            because pesticide use leads to the development of
            pesticide-resistant strains, he also creates a negative
            externality. These externalities affect a wide range of food
            crops as well as cotton. Because of their extensive
            migratory patterns, pesticide resistant bollworms are
            attacking food crops situated hundreds of kilometers from
            the cotton tracts in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. The
            author of this report develops a theoretical model that
            incorporates these externalities and examines the conditions
            needed for economically optimal use of pesticides, as well
            as of other agricultural inputs in cotton cultivation. Using
            field data, the author tries to quantify the losses in
            cotton and other crops due to the development of resistant
            pests. Under one scenario, the costs of externalities could
            raise the economic cost of cotton cultivation 50 to 60
            percent. After empirically evaluating the taxation of inputs
            and the implementation of integrated pest management (IPM)
            practices to address the pest problem, he concludes that IPM
            offers the most feasible and environmentally benign way to
            achieve Pareto optimality, especially in the long term.
Listening to firms : how to use
            firm-level surveys to assess constraints on private sector development
Firm-level surveys elicit information
            important to formulating sound policy advice and designing
            projects to promote private sector development. Drawing on
            recent World Bank experience in eight countries, the author
            advises why and how to implement targeted field surveys by
            answering the following questions: Why use targeted field
            surveys? How should surveys be focused and designed? What
            types of questions work best in surveys? How can surveys be
            oriented toward their target population? How should surveys
            be implemented? How should responses be analyzed and used?
            In this common sense guide, the author emphasizes how a
            carefully designed and implemented survey helps you get the
            most from a brief session with an entrepreneur or senior
            manager. Examples of questions that have been useful in
            eliciting analytically tractable responses relevant for
            policy formulation are given. Pitfalls that diminish the
            value of surveys and bias their results are identified. The
            author discusses such practical necessities as training and
            supervising local surveyors, identifying firms, and entering
            data into an appropriate software package. Finally, he
            cautions against two extremes: omitting assessments of the
            private sector or using survey results out of context, and
            failing to weigh them against other sources of information.
            Omission is the more serious of the two problems.
A general equilibrium based social
            policy model for Cote d'Ivoire
This paper describes a general
            equilibrium based social policy model for Cote d'Ivoire
            whose aim is both to facilitate analysis of a wide range of
            social policy options, any of which could conceivably be
            pursued in Cote d'Ivoire over the next five or ten
            years, and to provide a basis for further model development
            to cover explicit monetary, macro, and stabilization issues
            which are central to current Ivorian policy debate. As it
            now stands, the model is a classical real side general
            equilibrium model in the public finance tradition, modified
            to capture such key Ivorian features as domestic price
            stabilization schemes, large interhousehold transfers, the
            informal sector, and other features. The model allows for
            detailed analysis within a general equilibrium framework.
            This also captures relative price effects, financing
            implications, resource allocation, and other economy-wide
            effects missing in existing work on targeting policies. The
            paper describes the model in great detail by giving examples
            of its application, first by analyzing the tax incidence in
            Cote d'Ivoire, and second by evaluating the
            anti-poverty programs. The authors draw conclusions from the
            model and plot a path for the future.
Fiscal and quasi - fiscal deficits,
            nominal and real : measurement and policy issues
The paper reviews alternative
            definitions of the non-financial public sector deficit.
            Important points giving rise to different definitions are
            the problem of foreign exchange losses, the appropriateness
            of including net government lending to the private sector
            and the distinction between nominal and real deficits. The
            paper also introduces alternative definitions of
            quasi-fiscal deficit, and discusses the same issues in the
            context of these definitions. Foreign exchange losses and
            the distinction between nominal and real deficits are
            discussed in greater detail, since these issues are even
            more relevant in the case of the central bank. The authors
            also merge the accounts of the non-financial and financial
            public sector into a consolidated budget constraint. Then
            the analysis of fiscal and quasi-fiscal deficits are
            illustrated through a detailed examination of some stylized
            cases. Finally, the authors provide a summary of major
            issues and some conclusions are derived from them.
Tax evasion and tax reform in a low
            income economy : general equilibrium estimates for Madagascar
Madagascar's weak administrative
            system and complex tax structure (with many exemptions) have
            led to tax evasion and smuggling.  The authors compare
            Madagascar's fiscal system with that of other
            low-income countries, noting its greater reliance on
            distortionary taxes.  Using a 10-sector model and general
            equilibrium calculations, they estimate revenue losses from
            exemptions, tax evasion, and smuggling for three important
            instruments: import duties, value added taxes, and excise
            taxes.  Next they calculate the welfare gain that would
            result from less distortionary tax structures.  Simulation
            results suggest that the excess burden of taxes would be
            greatly reduced if Madagascar moved closer to a tax system
            with uniform rates across sector and instruments. Assuming
            that the uniform tax would be imposed only in sectors in
            which tax collection is now positive, simulations suggest
            that a uniform tax rate of 6 percent across instruments
            would be enough to raise the same revenues collected under
            the current structure.  Moreover, lower bound estimates
            indicate the the excess burden of taxation would be reduced
            by moving toward uniformity of about 5 percent of the tax base.
Central America at a crossroads
This paper considers the challenges and
            opportunities facing the Central American countries and
            explores the choices open to them for fuller integration
            into the world economy. The paper presents a brief
            historical account of the origins and evolution of the
            Central American Common Market (CACM), and its near demise
            in the 1980s and highlights the thrust of these
            countries' trade and payments policies over the past
            decade. It presents an overview of the pattern and trends in
            Central America's trade relations within the region and
            with the rest of the world, examines prevailing access
            conditions for the region's exports in the main
            industrial country markets and explores the ways in which
            three major developments in the international economy -- the
            Uruguay Round, EC-92 and the North American Free Trade
            Agreement -- are likely to affect Central America's
            economic interests. The paper analyses the options open to
            the region as it seeks greater integration into the world
            economy and examines the domestic policy implications of
            such an outward-oriented development strategy. Finally, it
            contains the conclusions and policy recommendations of the paper.
Options for reshaping the railway
In many countries the mismatch between
            what the railways offer and what the customers want has
            caused significant economic inefficiency and severe
            financial strains for the railways and their government
            owners.  The concept of the railway as a monolithic entity
            is so strong in many countries as to be a roadblock against
            reshaping the railway.  The authors explore four options
            which can be used to reshape the railways.  First is the
            lines of business option which improves accountability and
            responsiveness to markets.  The second is the competitive
            access option which introduces intramodal competition in
            selected markets, while maintaining unitary control over
            most railway operations.  The third is the
            "wholesaler" option which would accomplish an
            excellent marketing job, but the actual operation would
            remain in monolithic hands.  Finally there is the "toll
            rail enterprise" option which comes closest to
            reflecting a theoretical model of marketing effectiveness,
            however it would generate potential operating conflicts and
            higher transaction costs.  The authors show that one
            generalization holds true in all circumstances: a monolithic
            railway does not function well in a market economy in
            competition with privately owned, properly regulated
            competitors - especially trucking.  The authors point out
            that solutions will vary, but the universal objective as an
            economy becomes more market driven is to make the railway
            more market sensitive.
Health personnel development in
            sub-Saharan Africa
Despite a significant growth in the
            total number of trained health workers, the Africa region is
            still poorly staffed. It was the only World Health
            Organization region that showed a decline in the
            doctor-to-population ratio from 1980-1986. Emigration of
            trained health workers, particularly physicians, exacerbates
            the problem. Basic training for health workers is reasonably
            well established, but advanced and in-service training have
            been widely neglected. There remains a serious shortage of
            senior staff with training in public health and management.
            sub - Saharan Africa has not a single school of public
            health and it also lacks adequate regional training centers
            in public health and management. Planning for health workers
            has been based largly on simple projections of the number of
            required - without much regard for the economic costs or the
            availability of financial resources. Most countries in
            sub-Saharan Africa have undertaken structural adjustment
            programs that, together with world economic conditions, have
            led to declining financial allocations to ministries of
            health. As spending cuts have been made for such items as
            drugs, maintenance, and transport, the proportion spent on
            health personnel has risen. There are now strong pressures
            on ministries to reduce the number of health workers they
            employ and to encourage more private health services. This
            paper reviews the health personnel situation and attempts to
            answer questions which will determine future policy.
Unemployment insurance for
            developing countries
A major purpose of this essay is to
            provide an outline of the scope and nature of unemployment
            insurance (UI) programs in industrialized economies. This
            includes:  (a) laying out their potential goals, including
            an analysis of the rationales for these goals; (b)
            summarizing the characteristics of their structure; and (c)
            presenting a summary of evidence on the programs'
            economic effects.  Laying out the potential goals of the UI
            programs is crucial, since without goals, we have no basis
            against which to weigh the evidence of the programs'
            effects.  Without a summary of program characteristics,
            there is no basis for comparing programs or for
            understanding the choices available to policymakers
            elsewhere.  While summaries of the economic effects of UI
            programs have been provided elsewhere, linking them to
            specific policy choices is essential for appreciating their
            impacts on program goals.  The second major purpose is to
            consider issues in applying UI programs to developing
            economies.  The central question is the applicability of the
            institutions of UI in industrialized economies, and the
            evidence on their effects, to this different context.  This
            paper includes a discussion on research issues that should
            be investigated in order to learn more about this question.
Financial innovation and money
            demand : theory and empirical implementation
Empirically, traditional money demand
            equations are frequently characterized by periods of
            "missing money", unstable parameters, and
            autocorrelated errors.  The common practice to solve these
            problems consists of changing the specification of the
            regressions once the shifts (which are usually associated to
            financial innovation) are identified.  This paper provides
            an alternative approach to dealing with the unobservable
            process of financial innovation.  It consists of modelling
            financial innovation as shocks that have permanent effects
            on the money demand, analogous to productivity shocks in
            production functions.  This paper describes the theoretical
            model used and shows the failure of traditional money demand
            equations using cointegration techiques.  It describes a
            simple GLS-iterative econometric model which allows the
            authors to recover the path of financial innnovation and
            obtain sensible estimates of the relevant elasticities.  It
            also shows Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the behavior
            of the estimation procedure for particular samples and data
            generating processes, and to study how robust the procedure
            to some deviations from the basic assumptions is.
The impact of labor costs on
            manufactured exports in developing countries : an
            econometric analysis
This paper estimates export supply
            elasticities in 20 countries using an empirical model in
            which manufactured exports are a function of the price of
            exports, the price of imported inputs, and labor costs
            relative to the price of home goods. The export supply
            equation is completed with a variable identifying
            manufacturing capacity and a variable associated with the
            role of internal absorption. After testing for simultaneity,
            the paper concludes that half of the countries must be
            treated as large countries - thus estimating the export
            supply function through two-stage least squares. Also
            explored are other sources of endogeneity of right-hand side
            variables - the price of imported inputs, labor costs, and
            manufacturing capacity. It is found that in many cases the
            estimates change significantly as a result of this
            procedure. In general, the conclusions underscore the impact
            on exports of domestic economic policies - for example,
            promoting investment and productive capacity and keeping
            factor markets free of significant distortions.
Effective primary level science
            teaching in the Philippines
Early studies of educational achievement
            in developing countries emphasized the effects of material
            inputs (such as textbooks) over teaching practices and
            classroom organization. This paper examines how five
            teaching practices affected the achievements of fifth grade
            students in the Philippines - and what affected
            teachers' decisions to use effective teaching
            practices. With school, teacher, and classroom
            characteristics held constant, achievement was higher for
            students whose teachers used three teaching practices that
            show promise for applications in developing countries
            because they are effective, low cost, or cost effective:
            frequent tests or quizzes; small group instruction,
            including peer tutoring; and teaching through laboratory
            work, particularly for science. Teachers' decisions
            about whether to test students frequently were unrelated to
            their prior education of work experience, suggesting that
            school-level management may be more important in encouraging
            effective teaching than preservice education and training.
The effects of single-sex schooling
            on student achievement and attitudes in Nigeria
This study of Form Three (ninth grade)
            students in Nigeria indicates that single sex schools
            improve girls' achievement in mathematics and engender
            less stereotypic ideas about mathematics. But Nigerian males
            experience lower achievement and hold a more stereotypic
            view of mathematics under single sex schooling. Why are
            there different responses? In part, differences between the
            types of students attending single-sex and coeducational
            schools may be responsible. Girls' schools also
            differed from boys schools in several important ways. While
            these and other differences beween students and schools were
            found to contribute to differences in student achievement, a
            statistically significant residual effect for single-sex
            schools remained after adjustments were made, suggesting
            that other organizational or student background factors may
            account for the observed differences in effects.
Can the industrial countries return
            to rapid growth
This paper presents the discussions that
            took place at a seminar about the major global economic
            issues in the context of the long-term prospects for the
            industrial economies. Most participants agreed that growth
            rates are not likely to return to well over 2.5 percent in
            the medium run - unless some policy yet to be defined
            emerges - and that this slow down will particularly hurt
            developing countries. The meeting ended with a concensus
            that something must be done to stabilize exchange rates.