rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Price and quality competitiveness of
            socialist countries' exports
In this report the authors have analyzed
            pricing of the centrally planned economies (CPEs) in the
            highly competitive export markets of the EC countries in the
            first half of the 1980s. They found that the CPEs'
            export prices were lower than prices in both developed and
            developing countries. Manufactured goods from CPEs were
            underpriced an average 31 to 45 percent - even more on some
            commodities. Protection of EC countries doesn't seem to
            be a factor in CPE underpricing of manufactured goods. This
            could not be explained either by a deliberate policy of CPEs
            to penetrate Western markets. The CPEs inability to upgrade
            manufactured exports that are subject to quotas suggests
            serious quality constraints on exports of manufactured
            goods. They appear to underprice their manufactured exports
            not because of cost advantages that make them more
            competitive, but because most of their manufactured goods
            are inferior in quality to their competitors.
Women's changing participation
            in the labor force : a world perspective
This paper describes how the composition
            of the labor force changes with economic development. It
            considers recent trends in women's labor force
            participation and the type of jobs held in various sectors
            as national per capita income increases. The paper notes
            that women are more likely to work in the family or informal
            labor market if the labor costs to firms exceed the
            opportunity costs of female labor to family enterprises.
            Firms are at a relative disadvantage compared with families
            in the employment of less experienced and less skilled
            labor, presumably because their labor costs are affected by
            such regulations as minimum wage, social insurance premiums
            and limits on firing. In Asia and Africa, an increase in the
            proportion of employment in firms within the major sectors
            accounts for most of the rapid growth in women's
            overall share of wage employment. In Latin America, however,
            growth in the proportion of firm employment has been slower
            than elsewhere, and the share of women in wage employment
            has even fallen overall in several countries. It is not
            unreasonable to assume that women have lost more than men
            from market regulations and distortions, but little research
            has addressed this proposition. If it is true, however,
            these interventions in the labor market may be responsible
            for slowing women's transition from nonmarket and
            family work to firm employment. This in turn may affect the
            rate and structure of economic growth.
How the 1981-83 Chilean banking
            crisis was handled
The banking crisis in Chile in 1981-83
            was widespread - representing about 60 percent of the
            banking system's total portfolio. The crisis arose
            because of macroeconomic problems and was exacerbated by
            unsound financial practices. The government was faced with
            two extreme solutions: to let insolvent banks go bankrupt,
            or to bail them out, absorbing their losses. Some
            institutions were liquidated, and others were rescued and
            rehabilitated, depending on their solvency. The government
            used two types of mechanisms to rehabilitate the banking
            system. One type was aimed at improving borrowers'
            capacity to repay loans to the banks. The other was aimed at
            rebuilding the banking system's capital. The government
            also strengthened banking supervision by improving loan
            portfolio analysis and increasing the transparency of
            financial transactions. The decision to recognize and
            allocate losses quickly, and to implement comprehensive
            measures to resolve the banking crisis, were the key to
            Chile's success in surviving the crisis. Had allocation
            of losses been delayed, or solutions partial, losses would
            probably have increased and the system would not have
            recovered so rapidly.
Improving support services for rural
            schools : a management perspective
Management is a major weakness of rural
            school supervision systems. Management systems for rural
            schools should emphasize regular school visits by trained
            specialists whose task is to help rural teachers with
            teaching skills and rural principals with routine
            administrative tasks. The author points out that World Bank
            projects provide uncoordinated components, such as
            transportation and one time training efforts for field
            staff. The training and visit (T & V) system used in
            agricultural extension provides a model for managing
            supervision of rural education. It must be adapted to
            education by 1) targeting specific rural client groups with
            similar educational needs and problems, 2) providing
            services that schools want to receive, 3) strengthening
            links between teacher training colleges, educational
            research institutions, and rural classrooms. The author
            recommends including a T & V system in ongoing and
            future educational projects, after careful evaluation of the
            pilot project.
Latin America and the Caribbean
            (LAC) region population projections : 1989-90 edition
The Latin America and Caribbean region
            contributes about 10 percent of the 90 million people added
            to world population every year. This is slightly greater
            than its 8 percent share of world population. This paper
            studies population projections, covering almost two
            centuries from 1985 to 2150. The length of the projection
            period was chosen to allow populations to approach
            stability, which for several takes essentially the entire
            period. The paper begins with an introduction which explains
            what projection results are provided in the detailed tables,
            describes the projection methodology, and summarizes and
            interprets the main results.
How to improve public sector
            finances in Honduras
The objectives of a public sector
            management program should be to use resources more
            efficiently rationalize public sector operations and reduce
            financial disequilibrium. This report presents a
            comprehensive policy program to improve public finances in
            Honduras. It recommends that Honduran authorities prepare an
            action plan for improving public sector management. The plan
            should include the following measures: (a) increase savings;
            (b) introduce efficiency-saving measures; (c) improve
            budgeting, debt management and tax collection; (d)
            standardize accounting practices and properly account for
            debt service obligations; (e) start external management
            audits of enterprises; and (f) establish financial targets
            for, and reduce government transfers to, public enterprises.
            It also recommends measures to: (g) improve service
            delivery; (h) implement a well-defined privatization
            program; (i) prepare and implement a growth oriented and
            financially feasible public investment program; (j) improve
            decisionmaking and increase accountability and autonomy in
            public enterprises; (k) improve coordination of the sector;
            (l) target subsidies; and (m) improve better financial
            information on the public sector.
Environmental management in
            development : the evolution of paradigms
In the past quarter century,
            environmental management has increasingly become a concern
            of governments. More recently, the traditional split between
            developers and conservationists has begun to break down.
            Conceptions of what is economically and technologically
            practical, ecologically necessary, and politically feasible
            are rapidly changing. This report discusses the implications
            of five paradigms of environmental management in
            development. The author notes that the remedial legalistic
            approach of environmental management is breaking down.
            Instead, interest in the more economically integrated
            approach of resource management has recently taken hold.
            Several interdependent forces indicate that improving the
            economic management of pollution and resources may be a
            necessary but insufficient measure to create the conditions
            for sustainable development. The perception of tradeoffs
            between development and environmental quality persists in
            the present debate, but its necessity is greatly
            exaggerated, according to this paper. Finally, it is noted
            that paradigms may be impervious to evidence, and
            institutions and societies too difficult to change. Whether,
            when and how these issues are resolved may be modern
            civilization's most significant test.
The labor market and economic
            stabilization in Zambia
This report examines trends in the
            Zambian labor market over the period since independence. It
            focuses particularly on two phenomena - skill shortages and
            wage rigidities - which have made it more difficult for the
            economy to recover from the fall in price of its main export
            commodity : copper, in the mid 1970s. Real wages did fall
            somewhat over the following decade, but insufficiently so to
            promote economic diversification and recovery. The
            rigidities also help to explain the failure of more recent
            stabilization efforts, including the IMF program of 1985 - 1987.
The external effects of public
            sector deficits
This paper develops a two equation model
            for measuring how public sector deficits - and the way that
            they are financed - affect the real exchange rate, the trade
            balance, the current account and the level of external
            indebtedness. One equation relates the real exchange rate to
            the trade surplus and the other describes the trade surplus
            as a function of structural parameters, the fiscal deficit,
            and the stock of foreign assets. To make the model dynamic,
            one must allow for the fact that the level of foreign assets
            - one determinant of the trade surplus and current account -
            changes over time. The trade surplus, plus foreign internest
            earned, determines the evolution over time of the stock of
            foreign assets. Using this model, the paper makes the
            following conclusions. The level and composition of
            government spending affects the real exchange rate because
            of the effect of spending on nontraded goods. Changes in the
            trade balance are also bound to affect the real exchange
            rate. How much depends on how much expenditure must be
            switched to make the trade balance compatible with the
            change in aggregate spending.
Is the new political economy
            relevant to developing countries
Protectionism and industrial regulation
            are two topics in which the interplay of politics and
            economics is so strong that one wonders why the intellectual
            merger between the two approaches in the New Political
            Economy has taken so long. After describing the emergence of
            the state in Western Europe and the contemporary Third
            World, the author presents an economic model of the state,
            in which he tries to integrate its productive and predatory
            features. He applies the insights from that analysis to some
            simple general equilibrium models of trade theory, to
            consider the activities of a public sector within open
            economies in which trade taxes provide the main source of revenue.
Risk - adjusted rates of return for
            project appraisal
Incorporating risk assessment into
            public project appraisal makes sense when project risk is
            significantly correlated with uncertainty about national
            income. It is especially important in countries that
            specialize in particular agricultural or resource sectors.
            This report presents the following conclusions: (a) risk
            corrections can be substantial; (b) the intuition that risk
            is great for further investment in a crop or sector that
            constitutes a large part of a country's GNP is not
            invalid, but the effect may be offset by other forces in
            operation; (c) risk corrections can be negative because of a
            negative correlation between project return and GNP; (d)
            risk premia vary greatly across countries and sectors - so
            recognizing the risk correction needed for each project on
            its own merits makes more sense than including a common
            general risk premium in the rate of return required for all
            lending; (e) risk corrections are small for many sectors and
            countries - so efforts can be concentrated on the other
            categories, where the proposed treatment of risk makes a big
            difference; (f) risk affects investment projects in many
            different, subtle ways; and (g) resource requirements for
            this are not great.
Primary commodity prices and
            macroeconomic variables : a long run relationship
In recent years, fluctuations in such
            macroeconomic variables as interest rates and exchange rates
            appear to have significantly affected primary commodity
            prices. This paper studies the relationship between
            commodity prices and various macroeconomic variables. It
            focuses particularly on interest rates because of the
            important role they play in the portfolio adjustment model,
            in which investors move between commodities, bonds and money
            as interest rates change. The paper concludes that there is
            a long run quantifiable relationship between real interest
            rates and real commodity prices, but not between real
            commodity prices and either consumer prices or the money
            supply. Commodity prices in nominal terms strongly affect
            consumer prices but not the reverse - and some groups of
            commodity prices can be reliable indicators of movements in
            consumer prices. Changes in the money supply affect
            commodity prices, but not the reverse, and the relationship
            is not quantifiable.
Europe, Middle East, and North
            Africa (EMN) region population projections : 1989-90 edition
            : Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMN) region population
            projections : 1989-90 edition
The population of the region is growing
            at 2.4 percent a year, second only to the Africa region, and
            should double in size in about 30 years. Regional growth
            would appear even more rapid were growth not offset by slow
            and even negative growth in the Eastern and Southern
            European countries included in the region. The projections
            of fertility and mortality are modeled on recent trends
            worldwide, and therefore incorporate the effects of
            deliberate efforts to reduce vital rates in various
            countries. Although altering projected trends is possible,
            it would require at least as much demographic interventions
            as in the recent past. The projections in the report cover
            almost two centuries, from 1985 to 2150. The length of the
            projection period was chosen to allow populations to
            approach stability, which for several takes essentially the
            entire period. The report begins with an introduction which
            explains what projection results are provided in the
            detailed tables, describes the projection methodology, and
            summarizes and interprets the main results.
Africa region population projections
            : 1989-90 edition
The majority of populations in the Sub
            Saharan Africa region are growing rapidly. In some
            countries, where the average woman continues to have seven
            or more births, growth is as rapid as 4 percent a year. The
            population of the region as a whole is likely to double in
            slightly more than two decades, and after that, the region
            will be contributing more to annual world population growth
            than the far larger Asia region. The projections in this
            paper cover almost two centuries, from 1985 to 2150. The
            length of the projection period was chosen to allow
            populations to approach stability, which for several takes
            essentially the entire period. The paper begins with an
            introduction which explains what projection results are
            provided in the detailed tables, describes the projection
            methodology, and summarizes and interprets the main results.
Asia region population projections :
            1989-90 edition
Of the 90 million people added to world
            population this year, half live in the Asia region.
            Asia's contribution to world population growth is
            proportional to its size and dwarfs the contribution of
            every other region. The scale of this contribution may be
            illustrated by the fact that India is adding to its
            population every year as many people as live in Australia.
            This paper studies population projections, covering almost
            two centuries from 1985 to 2150. The length of the
            projection period was chosen to allow populations to
            approach stability, which for several takes essentially the
            entire period. The paper begins with an introduction which
            explains what projection results are provided in the
            detailed tables, describes the projection methodology, and
            summarizes and interprets the main results.
The role of groups and credit
            cooperatives in rural lending
Processing and collection costs of loans
            made to small farmers are high relative to the amount lent.
            Lending groups and credit cooperatives have been ascribed
            the potential to reach small farmers with affordable credit
            because the processing of one large loan rather than
            numerous small loans may allow for savings in administrative
            costs. These arrangements entail joint liability and reduce
            the risk of loan default. Some of the factors crucial for
            successful group lending are: (a) homogeneous borrowing
            groups that are jointly liable and assume some managerial
            and supervisory responsibilities; (b) establishing a common
            bond other than credit to enhance loan repayment as well as
            introduce savings mobilization; and (c) denying access to
            future credit to all group members in the case of default by
            any member. Important factors for succesful outcomes of
            credit cooperatives include: (a) bottom-up institutional
            development and training at the grass roots as well as at
            management levels; (b) savings mobilization by credit
            cooperatives rendering them financially less dependent on
            outside sources and enhancing borrowers incentives to repay;
            and (c) credit cooperatives not rushing to expand their
            activities beyond financial intermediation.
Developing country experience in
            trade reform
During the 1980's, many developing
            countries received financial and policy support for trade
            policy reform. There has been major reform in exchange rate
            policy, in the reduction of export restrictions, and in
            removing impediments to the imports of inputs needed by
            exporters. Import regimes in many countries have been
            improved by substituting tariffs for quantitative
            restrictions. The lowering of import protection has been
            more modest in the face of foreign exchange constraints.
            Through adjustment lending, the World Bank has supported
            trade reform in more than 40 countries. Considering this
            emphasis, one might expect stronger reforms. Four factors
            that have constrained reform action are: (a) macroeconomic
            instability; (b) inadequate conviction about the benefits of
            reform; (c) weak implementation capacity; and (d) conflicts
            in design. When considering the impact of policy reform on
            growth performance, the evidence supports the need for
            continued stronger efforts to reform trade regimes and
            complementary policies as part of adjustment lending.
Central bank losses : origins,
            conceptual issues, and measurement problems
Central bank losses usually originate,
            the author explains, when a bank takes on other functions
            besides its normal role, such as subsidized loans to
            priority sectors, rescues of troubled financial
            institutions, or takeovers of private or public debt. This
            paper attempts to review the issues related to Central
            Banks' quasi fiscal deficits. In the first section, a
            taxonomic description of origins of quasi fiscal deficits is
            made. The second section explores the relation between
            economic and accounting losses. The third section analyzes
            inflation adjustment and net lending treatment which are
            relevant to the definition of non financial public sector
            deficits. Finally, alternative ways of calculating the
            central banks' quasi fiscal losses are reviewed.