rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Returns to investment in education :
            a decennial review of the global literature
Returns to investment in education based
            on human capital theory have been estimated systematically
            since the 1950s. In the 60-plus year history of such
            estimates, there have been several compilations in the
            literature. This paper reviews and highlights the latest
            trends and patterns based on a database of 1,120 estimates
            in 139 countries. The review shows that the private average
            global rate of return to one extra year of schooling is
            about 9 percent a year and very stable over decades. Private
            returns to higher education have increased over time,
            raising issues of financing and equity. Social returns to
            schooling remain high, above 10 percent at the secondary and
            higher education levels. Women continue to experience higher
            average rates of return to schooling, showing that
            girls' education remains a priority. Returns are higher
            in low-income countries. Those employed in the private
            sector of the economy enjoy higher returns than those in the
            public sector, lending support to the productive value of education.
Electricity provision and tax
            mobilization in Africa
This paper provides evidence on how the
            provision of social infrastructure, such as reliable
            electricity, can be leveraged to increase taxation in
            developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
            First, using comprehensive data from the latest round of the
            Afrobarometer survey, the paper uses the instrumental
            variable approach to estimate the effect of access to and
            reliability of electricity on the tax compliance attitudes
            of citizens in 36 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The
            evidence shows a significant positive effect of
            electrification on tax compliance attitudes, with
            potentially strong externalities. The analysis also finds
            that the reliability of supply is crucial in explaining the
            impact of electricity access on attitudes toward taxes.
            Second, the paper provides suggestive evidence on national
            identity as one channel driving this impact. Access to
            social amenities such as electricity induces a sense of
            national identity among citizens, thereby incentivizing them
            to contribute, through taxes, toward the functioning of the
            state. Third, using data from the most recent World Bank
            Enterprise Surveys and under conservative assumptions, the
            paper estimates that countries in the region could in total
            generate additional tax revenues of more than $9.5 billion
            (4.3 percent of total tax revenue) per year solely by
            resolving issues related to electricity shortages. Put
            together, the paper concludes that the financial returns
            associated with public investments toward improving access
            to and reliability of electricity are substantial and could
            be harnessed to augment the financing gap in the sector.
Transport connectivity and health
            care access : evidence from Liberia
Health care access is an important
            policy concern, especially in rural areas. It is especially
            challenging in developing countries, where rural residents
            are poorer and less likely to be insured than those living
            in urban areas. Using the case of Liberia, this paper
            examines the effects of transport connectivity on health
            care access. The Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015 clearly
            revealed the vulnerability of the country's transport
            and health systems to unexpected external shocks. Paying
            particular attention to the possible challenge of
            endogeneity associated with infrastructure investment, the
            study found that transport connectivity, especially greater
            road density, can increase access to health care, but there
            was no significant effect of road quality. This may be
            because of significantly skewed underlying data. The vast
            majority of roads in Liberia are in poor condition. The
            study also found that the statistical effect of road density
            varies depending on distance from a health facility. The
            effect is particularly significant within a 30- to
            50-kilometer radius. Not only rural accessibility, but also
            broader transport connectivity needs to be developed to
            increase health care access.
Banking with agents : experimental
            evidence from Senegal
This paper uses a randomized controlled
            trial to study the effects of access to agent banking.
            Individuals were encouraged to open an account and transact
            at a banking agent or a branch of a financial institution.
            Compared with individuals who were sent to the branch,
            individuals sent to an agent increased the number of
            transactions and incurred lower transaction costs with the
            agent. These transactions are, however, only half as large
            as those made at the branch because branch tellers are less
            likely to share information about clients with others.
            Banking with agents thus entails a trade-off between lower
            transaction costs and lack of privacy.
The 2014-16 oil price collapse in
            retrospect : sources and implications
With the benefit of hindsight, this
            paper provides a fresh and comprehensive look at the causes
            of the 2014-16 collapse in oil prices and its impact on the
            global economy. It disentangles the contribution of supply
            and demand factors, assesses the impact on activity in oil
            exporters and oil importers, and reviews policy responses in
            these countries. The main conclusions are: (i) the decline
            in oil prices was predominantly triggered by supply factors,
            particularly rapid efficiency gains in U.S. shale oil
            production, but softening demand prospects played a
            substantial role as well; (ii) the short-term benefits of
            falling oil prices for the global economy were muted by
            economic rebalancing in China, a low responsiveness of
            activity in other oil-importing emerging markets, and a
            sharp slowdown in U.S. investment as energy sector activity
            declined and a the U.S. dollar strengthened; (iii) oil
            exporters with flexible exchange rates and relatively large
            fiscal buffers fared better than others, but most
            oil-exporting economies still face significant policy
            challenges as their medium-term prospects for growth and
            fiscal revenues have deteriorated; (iv) fundamental changes
            in the oil market make a return to the oil price levels of
            the early 2010s unlikely, pointing to the need for
            accelerated reforms, particularly among oil exporters.
Trade linkages between the belt and
            road economies
This paper studies the production and
            trade linkages between a selected group of economies
            belonging to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). After
            defining a group of Belt and Road Economies, the paper uses
            three standard trade databases to analyze trade and
            production linkages among these economies. With the help of
            state of the art economic decompositions of input-output
            tables, coupled with standard international trade
            statistics, the analysis quantifies the amount of production
            sharing between the economies of the area. The main finding
            is that trade integration among Belt and Road Economies has
            largely increased: Intraregional exports went from 30.6
            percent in 1995 to 43.3 percent in 2015. Since the increase
            in gross exports was driven mostly by intermediate goods,
            the study investigates the evolution of regional production
            networks across Belt and Road Economies.
Infrastructure development in
            Sub-Saharan Africa : a scorecard
Infrastructure is viewed as a crucial
            ingredient to foster growth and productivity. Amid the post
            -- global financial crisis slowdown, Sub-Saharan Africa is
            in dire need to continue the growth momentum it experienced
            during the period of the Africa Rising narrative. An
            emerging consensus in the empirical literature is that,
            under the right circumstances, an adequate supply of
            infrastructure can help foster growth in the region. This
            paper provides a scorecard on infrastructure development in
            Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decades along four sectors
            (telecommunications, electric power, transportation, and
            water and sanitation) and three dimensions (quantity,
            quality, and access). First, it documents the existence of a
            large gap in infrastructure in the region—although the
            magnitude of the gap depends on the sector, dimension, and
            country/group. Second, the potential growth benefits from
            closing the infrastructure gap are large. Third, the
            infrastructure financing needs are very large, and the
            public sector so far is unable to meet these needs. Other
            options that involve the private sector may be available for
            the region. Finally, there is room for improving the
            efficiency of public infrastructure spending (that is, the
            quality of public investment management systems and
            procurement methods), which, in turn, may increase the
            output multiplier of investment spending.
Clientelism in the public sector :
            why public service reforms fail and what to do about it
In many developing countries (and
            beyond), public sector workers are not just simply
            implementers of policies designed by the politicians in
            charge of supervising them -- so called agents and
            principals, respectively. Public sector workers can have the
            power to influence whether politicians are elected, thereby
            influencing whether policies to improve service delivery are
            adopted and how they are implemented, if at all. This has
            implications for the quality of public services: if the main
            purpose of the relationship between politicians and public
            servants is not to deliver quality public services, but
            rather to share rents accruing from public office, then
            service delivery outcomes are likely to be poor. This paper
            reviews the consequences of such clientelism for improving
            service delivery, and examines efforts to break from this
            "bad" equilibrium, at the local and national levels.
Welfare dynamics in Colombia :
            results from synthetic panels
This study explores the short-run
            transitions between poverty, vulnerability, and middle
            class, using synthetic panels constructed from multiple
            rounds of Colombia's Integrated Household Survey (in
            Spanish Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares). The paper
            reports results from two approaches to define a
            vulnerability line: the first one employs a nonparametric
            and parsimonious model, while the second utilizes a fully
            parametric regression model with covariates. The estimation
            results suggest a range of between $8 to $13 per day per
            person in 2005 purchasing power parity dollars as the
            vulnerability line. Using an average daily vulnerability
            line of $10 per day per person, subsequent estimates on
            welfare dynamics suggest that, during the past decade, 20
            percent of the Colombian population experienced downward
            mobility, and 24 percent experienced upward mobility.
            Furthermore, upward mobility increases with higher education
            levels and is lower for female-headed households.
Food insecurity and rising food
            prices : what do we learn from experiential measures
Throughout many countries in the world,
            the measurement of food security currently includes
            accounting for the importance of perception and anxiety
            about meeting basic food needs. Using panel data from
            Malawi, this paper shows that worrying about food security
            is linked to self-reports of having experienced food
            insecurity, and the analysis provides evidence that rapidly
            rising food prices are a source of the anxiety and
            experiences of food insecurity. This finding controls for
            individual-level fixed effects and changes in the economic
            well-being of the individual. A particularly revealing
            finding of the importance of accounting for anxiety in
            assessing food insecurity is that individuals report a
            significant increase in experiences of food insecurity in
            the presence of rapidly rising food prices even when dietary
            diversity and caloric intake is stable.
Social accountability and service
            delivery : experimental evidence from Uganda
Corruption and mismanagement of public
            resources can affect the quality of government services and
            undermine growth. Can citizens in poor communities be
            empowered to demand better-quality public investments? This
            paper looks at whether providing social accountability
            training and information on project performance can lead to
            improvements in local development projects. It finds that
            offering communities a combination of training and
            information on project quality leads to significant
            improvements in household welfare. However, providing either
            social accountability training or project quality
            information by itself has no welfare effect. These results
            are concentrated in areas that are reported by local
            officials as more corrupt or mismanaged. The impacts appear
            to come from community members increasing their monitoring
            of local projects, making more complaints to local and
            central officials, and cooperating more. The paper also
            finds modest improvements in people's trust in the
            central government. The study is unique in its size and
            integration in a national program. The results suggest that
            government-led, large-scale social accountability programs
            can strengthen communities' ability to improve service delivery.
Predicting individual wellbeing
            through test scores : evidence from a national assessment in Mexico
This paper constructs two longitudinal
            datasets that record students' test scores in a
            national standardized exam in Mexico and track students from
            the end of primary (Grade 6) to the end of lower (Grade 9)
            and upper (Grade 12) secondary school, then to university
            and labor market participation up to two years after
            graduation from upper secondary. The results show that test
            scores are a strong predictor of future education and labor
            market outcomes. Using a large sample of twins in the data,
            the paper shows that the relationship between Grade 6 test
            scores and future education outcomes goes beyond family
            background. Finally, the paper exploits the
            within-individual correlation between subject test scores
            and finds evidence that this standardized assessment
            captures in a meaningful way the specific skills that it is
            designed to measure. These results show that, despite their
            limitations, large-scale standardized tests can capture
            skills that are important for future individual wellbeing.
Anatomy and impact of export
            promotion agencies
Recent literature has shown evidence of
            positive contributions of export promotion agencies around
            the world in raising exports, through the intensive and
            extensive margins of trade. The number of export promotion
            agencies has increased substantially over the past two
            decades, and most of them focus on assisting exporters in
            understanding and finding markets for their products. This
            paper describes the characteristics of export promotion
            agencies around the world, using a novel database from the
            World Bank, in collaboration with the International Trade
            Center in Geneva, covering 2005-10. In addition, it presents
            a short summary of the literature on the impacts of export
            promotion agencies.
Motivating bureaucrats through
            social recognition : evidence from simultaneous field experiments
Bureaucratic performance is a crucial
            determinant of economic growth. Little is known about how to
            improve it in resource-constrained settings. This study
            describes a field trial of a social recognition intervention
            to improve record keeping in clinics in two Nigerian states,
            replicating the intervention -- implemented by a single
            organization -- on bureaucrats performing identical tasks in
            both states. Social recognition improved performance in one
            state but had no effect in the other, highlighting both the
            potential and the limitations of behavioral interventions.
            Differences in observables did not explain cross-state
            differences in impacts, however, illustrating the
            limitations of observable-based approaches to external validity.
Automation and labor market outcomes
            : the pivotal role of high-quality education
Automation will be a boon or a
            catastrophe depending on whom you listen to. This paper
            proposes an overlapping-generations model with endogenous
            school choice in which the quality of a country's
            education system determines how well skill supply can
            respond to increased demand from automation and subsequently
            whether automation will be beneficial or detrimental. In
            this sense, education quality in the model offers a bridge
            between the optimistic and pessimistic perspectives on
            automation. In testing the model's assumptions, the
            paper finds evidence that educational attainment, cognitive
            skills, and select noncognitive skills are associated with
            avoiding automation-prone occupations. Consistent with the
            model's predictions, census data indicate that
            countries have historically relied most on these types of
            occupations at middle-income status. The model and empirical
            findings suggest that it is middle-income countries that are
            most vulnerable to automation if their education systems are
            unable to affect cognitive and noncognitive skills
            sufficiently. As a result, automation may herald a much
            different growth model for developing countries: one in
            which developing these skills is central.
Services liberalization and GVC
            participation : new evidence for heterogeneous effects by
            income level and provisions
Participation in global value chains is
            a key element in the industrialization strategies of many
            developing nations. This paper investigates the role of
            services liberalization in promoting participation in global
            value chains. Using the gravity framework, it examines the
            impact of services trade agreements on gross trade and
            global value chain trade (backward and forward
            participation) in goods. It finds that services trade
            agreements promote both, but especially global value chain
            trade, although the effects are heterogeneous: the impact is
            greater for developing nation exporters. Moreover, services
            agreements that allow the export of services without local
            presence (non-establishment rights) are particularly
            important in fostering participation in global value chains.
Are driving forces of CO2 emissions
            different across countries : insights from identity and
            econometric analyses
This paper investigates factors behind
            the growth of carbon dioxide emissions over the 35 years
            between 1980 and 2015 in more than 100 countries, using an
            index decomposition technique (the Logarithmic Mean Divisia
            Index). The results are further confirmed using an
            econometric technique (the general method of moments). The
            study finds that economic growth, measurred in per capita
            gross domestic product, and population growth are the main
            drivers of the growth of carbon dioxide emissions during
            1980–2015. Although economic growth is mainly responsible
            for the growth of emissions in high-, upper-middle-, and
            lower-middle-income countries, population growth that is
            primarily responsilble for it in low-income countries. More
            than 70 percent of the global growth in carbon dioxide
            emissions over the past 35 years was contributed by
            upper-middle-income countries. Improved energy efficiency,
            reflected in the declining energy intensity of gross
            domestic product, has substantially contributed to limit
            global carbon dioxide emissions at the current level;
            otherwise, the world's current carbon dioxide emissions
            would have been 40 percent higher. Despite the recent rapid
            expansion of renewable energy, its contribution to slowing
            the growth of global carbon dioxide emissions is not
            noticeable yet, due to its small share in the global energy
            supply mix.
Efficient financial allocation and
            productivity growth in Brazil
This paper attempts to study the impact
            of Brazilian Development Bank credit on resource
            misallocation in Brazil, using manufacturing firm-level data
            from 2003-14. The paper first estimates measures of resource
            misallocation based on Hsieh and Klenow (2009), documenting
            high variation in firms' capital and output
            distortions. It then estimates the effect of financial
            frictions and access to Brazilian Development Bank loans on
            distortions and their dispersions. The analysis finds some
            preliminary evidence that the use of Brazilian Development
            Bank credit is not associated with a more efficient
            allocation of resources. The lower cost of Brazilian
            Development Bank loans reduces the marginal cost of capital,
            as it induces firms to reallocate inputs from labor to
            capital, and this effect is amplified for more financially
            dependent firms. The findings, together with extant evidence
            on the economic additionality of the Brazilian Development
            Bank, suggest that there is room for improving the
            allocative efficiency of the earmarked credit system in Brazil.