rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Growth rates and aggregate welfare :
            an international comparison
This paper explores the relationship
            between growth rates and changes in welfare, using
            alternative procedures for measuring growth. The Bank and
            other organizations often compute growth rates by fitting a
            least-squares linear trend line to the logarithmic values of
            economic indicators for a period. This paper questions the
            use of the least-squares procedure for measuring
            people's economic welfare over time. Instead, the
            author develops a conceptual framework for deriving an
            aggregate growth rate from a welfare function defined in
            terms of levels of per capita incomes in different years.
            Using this function, the author derives the welfare
            implications of alternative procedures for estimating
            growth. The new procedure captures all the desirable
            properties of a welfare function. In addition, the paper
            deals with the issue of aggregating growth rates over
            countries, citing two drawbacks to the use of country
            classifications developed for the World Development Report.
            First, the method depends on exchange rates with changes in
            welfare. Second, the World Development Report gives greater
            weight to the growth rates of richer countries (not
            necessarily the most populated ones), which is highly
            questionable for measuring welfare. Finally, the author
            proposes an alternative procedure for calculating aggregate
            growth rates, one that is more suitable for comparing
            different countries' welfare.
World Bank-supported adjustment
            programs : country performance and effectiveness
Simple comparisons of growth rates in
            countries that have had at least two structural adjustment
            loans (SALs) or at least three adjustment loans show that
            their growth has improved more than that of other countries.
            But simple comparisons of the performance of groups of
            countries are poor estimators of the effectiveness of
            adjustment programs because the performance of an adjusting
            country is the result of: (a) the policies that would have
            been in place even without adjustment loans from the Bank;
            (b) world economic conditions; (c) the effects of the
            Bank-supported program; and (d) internal shocks to the
            economy. After explicitly controlling for external shocks
            and nonprogram determinants of performance, the authors find
            that adjustment lending programs have usually increased the
            growth rate of GDP and the ratio of exports to GDP, and have
            increased the saving-to-GDP ratio over early 1980s levels.
            But the average ratio of investment to GDP has fallen below
            1970s levels. For countries that have reduced most of their
            policy inefficiencies, achieving a sustainable growth rate
            in the 1990s will require higher investment rates than those
            achieved in the 1980s.
Have commercial banks ignored history
What incentives do countries have to
            repay loans?  Do banks credibly punish borrowers that behave
            badly - and if so, how?  Two explanations are commonly
            offered for why countries repay debts:  (a) to preserve
            their reputation as a good borrower; or (b) to avoid direct
            sanctions, such as trade sanctions or the seizure of
            overseas assets.  The author empirically investigated the
            effect of repayment problems in earlier eras on the spreads
            paid by developing country borrowers in the 1970s.  She
            found that creditor banks did take account of
            borrowers' default histories.  Defaulters paid higher
            spreads than nondefaulters, and the defaulters that reneged
            on large portions of their past debt paid higher spreads.
            She also found that countries that acquired sovereignty more
            recently were charged higher spreads than other countries.
            These findings apply during an expansionist period. During
            an earlier crisis stage, markets failed to discriminate
            between borrowers that "behaved badly" and those
            that did not.
Can preshipment inspection offset
            noncompetitive pricing of development countries'
            imports The evidence from Madagascar
Many developing countries use
            preshipment inspection (PSI) firms to counter the adverse
            effects on their foreign trade of certain pricing and
            business practices. These firms may also perform some
            national customs functions, but their key responsibility is
            normally to verify that imports (and sometimes exports) meet
            quality and quantity standards and that prices are within
            established norms. Developing countries make substantial
            payments for PSI - charges appear to average about 1 percent
            of the value of the goods inspected - but have undertaken no
            comprehensive cost-benefit studies of PSI. Using data from
            Madagascar's experience, the author analyzes the impact
            of PSI on Madagascar's relative import prices. The
            results suggest that Madagascar paid considerably higher
            prices than other developing and industrial countries both
            before and after PSI was adopted. In other words,
            preshipment inspection failed to reduce Madagascar's
            import prices to the level of those paid by other importers.
            Extreme prices occur for all types of goods imported by
            Madagascar but are clustered in chemicals and basic
            manufactures. Evidence suggests that collaborative false
            invoicing by Madagascar importers and industrial country
            exports is one reason for the excessive prices both before
            and after adoption of PSI.
Asia region population projections :
            1990-91 edition
Almost half the worlds population lives
            in Asia. This proportion is expected to decline to 40
            percent by the end of the next century, mainly because of
            slowing growth in China. Other countries will continue to
            grow rapidly, and India, which adds more people every year
            than any other country, is project to surpass China in total
            population. Recent contraceptive prevalence surveys in
            several countries in the region show increasing proportions
            of couples using birth control. Fertility in these
            countries, mostly in Southeast Asia, has consequently
            declined rapidly. Population growth rates started to drop in
            many countries in the region in the past decade, but the
            momentum built in to the age structures of the populations
            will ensure continued population growth for many decades.
            Other countries in the region are lagging in fertility
            decline, and their populations will continue to grow at high
            rates. Infant and child mortality are the lowest in
            countries where fertility has declined.
Foreign trade and its relation to
            competition and productivity in Turkish industry
This paper examines how the reform of
            the trade regime in Turkey during the 1980s has affected the
            performance and competitiveness of the Turkish industrial
            sector. It was found that trade liberalization and more
            exposure to international competition generally benefited
            Turkish industry in the 1980s. But the effect of
            international competition appears to have been felt mainly
            in the private sector - especially in tradable industries.
            In the first half of the 1980s, international competition
            decreased the price-cost margin and increased the growth
            rate of productivity in the private sector. In the public
            sector, deeper trade penetration seems to have lowered the
            price-cost margin in the public enterprises that were
            above-average in capital intensity, but had no impact on
            productivity. Improved productivity in the public
            enterprises appears to be more related to changes in other
            areas - probably the reform of management. The paper also
            provides a brief background on trade and other economic
            reforms in Turkey in the 1980s.
The Mexican sugar industry :
            problems and prospects
The Mexican sugar industry operates
            under strict government controls. The sugar parastatal,
            AZUCAR, and other state agencies govern virturally all
            aspects of pricing and, until recently, AZUCAR controlled
            virtually all aspects of marketing.  The purpose of this
            study is to make transparent the main economic effects of
            existing sugar policies.  Three broad measures are used to
            estimate the resource misallocation effects of intervention:
            the nominal rate of protection, the effective rate of
            assistance and the net subsidy equivalent.  Theoretical
            arguments are also used to demonstrate other potential
            inefficiencies in resource use.  To estimate the effects of
            efficiency-improving policies, an economic model of Mexican
            production, demand, stock demand and cane-pricing
            arrangements is constructed.  This model is linked to a
            model of the world sugar market to evaluate the trade and
            other economic opportunities which should arise from policy reforms.
Lessons from tax reform : an overview
The World Bank's tax reform project
            is an attempt to document and analyze the experience with
            tax reform in ten developing countries.  The purpose of this
            project has been to try and obtain a better appreciation of
            how developing countries may improve the performance of
            their tax systems. Towards this end, each country study has
            delved into the questions of what motivated these tax
            reforms, what they were intended to accomplish, how they
            were implemented and how successful they have been in
            achieving their objectives.  This paper attempts to discern
            empirical regularities to see whether there are some general
            lessons that can be extracted from a comparison of the
            experience with tax reform in different countries.  The
            countries encompassed by this project are Turkey, Indonesia,
            Korea, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica, Morocco, Malawi
            and Zimbabwe.
Do natural resource-based
            industrialization strategies convey important (unrecognized)
            price benefits for commodity-exporting developing countries
Two objectives of international
            commodity policy have been to reduce instability in
            exporter's earnings and importer's prices through
            international (buffer stock) agreements and to encourage
            further processing of domestically produced commodities by
            developing countries. However, it appears that little
            attention has been given to potential interrelations between
            these objectives. Using the World Bank's commodity
            processing classification scheme this study shows that a
            major structural shift occurred from the mid-1960s to late
            1980s in the composition of developing countries'
            exports toward most processed commodities, and this change
            was reflected to varying degrees in all major developed
            country import markets. However, the developing countries
            actually responsible for the further processing often were
            not major producers of the primary commodity. This finding
            suggests that internal constraints to commodity processing
            may often be more important than external barriers like
            escalating tariffs. This study also established that the
            shift resulted in developing countries receiving
            considerably more stable agricultural materials and ores and
            metals export prices--and to a lesser extent prices for
            foodstuffs--as well as more favorable long-term price
            changes. Both factors should further enhance efforts by
            developing countries to encourage local processing of
            domestically produced primary commodities.
Issues in socialist economy reform
This paper examines issues involving the
            design and sequence of economic reform in formerly socialist
            economies that have made the political decision to move to a
            private market economy. They also examine the potential role
            of foreign countries in providing aid, technical assistance,
            and market access. In economies that are actually or
            potentially unstable macroeconomically, the first priority
            is macroeconomic stabilization and measures to harden budget
            constraints and create an emergency social safety net. At
            the center of the reform process are price reform, trade
            liberalization, enterprise restructuring, and privatization.
            Banking reform, training, and the development of other
            financial markets must begin immediately, but the ability of
            the financial system to allocate resources efficiently will
            remain limited until enterprise and price reform are
            sufficiently advanced. In systemwide reform, the notice of
            sequencing should be replaced by that of packaging. A large
            number of interrelated reforms - including those needed to
            create an appropriate legal structure and develop the skills
            needed in a market economy - has to be put in place very
            early, although the speed of implementation will differ.
            However rapidly the reforms are initiated, their completion
            - especially privatization - is bound to take many years.
Rural poverty in India, 1973-86
This paper examines trends in the growth
            of consumption and its distribution and assesses its
            relative impact on the poor and the ultra poor, over time
            and across states of India. Using the National Sample Survey
            data for sixteen major states of India, the paper addresses
            three issues: (a) how the distribution of per capita
            consumption changed over time across the states, and to what
            extent it 0ified the beneficial impact of growth on poverty;
            (b) how the poor and ultra poor fared in the wake of changes
            in computation and its distribution; and (c) what the
            regional patterns are and to what degree they can be
            explained. India's poverty alleviation strategies, the
            potential indirect role of agriculture and manufacturing, as
            well as the contribution of direct poverty alleviation
            interventions are analyzed. In particular, the paper
            examines the extent to which the regional allocation of
            funds for direct poverty alleviation programs is sensitive
            to the regional distribution of the poor and the ultra poor,
            and whether the recent evidence on the impact of these
            programs is consistent with the observed patterns in poverty
            and inequality.
Projecting fertility for all countries
This paper reviews and updates the
            procedures for making fertility projections. It classifies
            countries as pre-transitional, transitional, and
            post-transitional on the basis of current fertility and
            recent trends. Three data sets are used to analyze the
            trends for countries or economies in the transition stage:
            (a) World Bank estimates of fertility in the lastest
            quinquennium; (b) survey, census, and registration-based
            fertility estimates; and (c) World Bank estimates
            corresponding to the two decades immediately following
            initial transition. The average rate of total fertility
            decline across all the data is subsequently used as the
            medium decline pattern. Regression analysis is used to
            estimate the relationship between the current rate of
            decline in fertility and a number of socioeconomic
            variables. Additional analyses of fertility patterns focus
            on the pre- and post-transitional stages. The result of the
            analysis are translated into rules for projecting future
            fertility rates. These rules allow future fertility trends
            to be defined from previous trends country by country. To
            allow long-run projections, the rules assume that all
            countries eventually converge to replacement fertility.
Earmarking government revenues in Colombia
This paper has two broad objectives.
            The first is the examination of the trends in the size and
            structure of earmarking since 1970, illuminating the major
            changes and their causes.  The second is an evaluation of
            the major examples of earmarking with a view toward making
            recommendations for change. In making recommendations for
            reducing the scope of earmarking in Colombia, several
            principles should be used for guidance: (a) is there a
            substantial overlap between the beneficiaries and the
            tax/price payers for any given government service; (b) do
            the tax/price arrangements appear to be leading to
            appropriate levels of the service over time; and (c) are
            resources being utilized effectively for the purpose
            intended.  The remainder of the paper is divided into four
            parts: (a) time series data on the size and structure of
            earmarking during the last two decades; (b) factors behind
            the popularity of earmarking in Colombia and a review of the
            findings and recommendations of two major government
            commissions which have examined the subject; (c) a critical
            review of the major examples which make up over 90 of total
            earmarking; and (d) a summary of major findings and
            recommendations for changes.
The build, operate, and transfer
            ("BOT") approach to infrastructure projects in
            developing countries
Build, operate and transfer (BOT)
            projects are exceedingly complex from both a financial and a
            legal point of view.  They require an extended period of
            time to develop and negotiate.  If a country is not able to
            finance all of its needed infrastructure on the basis of
            budgetary resources or sovereign borrowings, the BOT
            approach is an option to be considered.  A BOT project
            appears to provide some "additionality" in tapping
            sources of private sector financing which otherwise might
            not be available.  The sponsors' commitment of
            substantial equity to a project assures that they will also
            remain committed to the project's successful operation
            over the concession period.  Their investment provides a
            strong incentive to have the project perform above its
            minimum expectations.  Likewise, having the design,
            implementation and operation of a BOT project largely in the
            hands of the private sector may provide economies and
            efficiencies that will balance out or even outweight the
            higher financing costs of non sovereign borrowing and equity
            investment.  The BOT approach appears to be a useful
            possible alternative to the conventional financing and
            operation of infrastructure projects in developing countries.
An evaluation of neutral trade
            policy incentives under increasing returns to scale
This paper sets out to test the
            robustness of Balassa's recommendation of neutral
            incentives to domestic and export sales in a setting where
            some sectors have domestic market power. This paper shows
            analytically that the welfare effects of trade policy are
            more complex than they are in a setting of across-the-board
            constant returns to scale. In particular, it shows,
            analytically and numerically, that the standard
            distortionary costs of protection emphasized under
            conditions of constant returns to scale must be amended to
            accommodate, among other things, the welfare effects of
            changes in scale efficiency. Illustrative numerical
            calculations also show that the magnitude of the welfare
            gains or losses from trade policy intervention are sensitive
            to the determinants of firm entry and exit. Calculations
            comparing trade policies that achieve neutrality of
            incentives between sales to domestic and those to foreign
            markets found such policies to be generally superior to
            policies creating non-neutral incentives. Numerical results
            also suggest that export promotion is likely to be more
            beneficial than protection for sectors with increasing
            returns to scale. Finally, illustrative calculations of
            optimal trade policy packages suggest that the benefits of
            departing from the principle of neutrality, or
            nondiscrimination between domestic and export sales, may be
            insufficient to justify their higher administrative costs.
Does divestiture matter : a
            framework for learning from experience
Transferring ownership and control of
            enterprises from the public to the private sector has
            recently attracted great interest around the world. Several
            developed and developing countries have already divested
            varying portions of their public enterprise (PE) sectors,
            and many others are planning to follow suit.  This paper
            provides an analytical framework for assessing the arguments
            for divestiture and for evaluating the lessons of
            experience.  Its aim is to provide researchers with a
            mechanism to analyze the divestiture phenomenon more
            rigorously than has been attempted thus far.  Ultimately,
            the findings of such analysis will enable policymakers to
            form more realistic expectations about the results from
            undertaking divestiture decisions and the conditions
            necesssary for attaining the maximum benefits from the
            application of this instruments.  This paper summarizes the
            rationale for divestiture, reviews the empirical evidence,
            and then proposes a framework for undertaking an empirical
            investigation of the performance of divested firms.  The
            paper is confined to partial equilibrium analysis, even
            though it addresses the fiscal impact of divestiture.  It
            assumes a small sample setting, thus precluding econometric
            analysis.  The paper's overall objective is to
            construct a framework for assessing the advantages and
            disadvantages resulting from the sale of a single
            enterprise, not for assessing a country's overall
            disvestiture program.