rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Economic freedom, human rights, and
            the returns to human capital : an evaluation of the Schultz hypothesis
According to T.W. Schultz, the returns
            to human capital are highest in economic environments
            experiencing unexpected price, productivity, and technology
            shocks that create "disequilibria." In such
            environments, the ability of firms and individuals to adapt
            their resource allocations to shocks becomes most valuable.
            In the case of negative shocks, government policies that
            mitigate the impact of the shock will also limit the returns
            to the skills of managing risk or adapting resources to
            changing market forces. In the case of positive shocks,
            government policies may restrict access to credit, labor, or
            financial markets in ways that limit reallocation of
            resources toward newly emerging profitable sectors. This
            paper tests the hypothesis that the returns to skills are
            highest in countries that allow individuals to respond to
            shocks. Using estimated returns to schooling and work
            experience from 122 household surveys in 86 developing
            countries, this paper demonstrates a strong positive
            correlation between the returns to human capital and
            economic freedom, an effect that is observed throughout the
            wage distribution. Economic freedom benefits those workers
            who have attained the most schooling as well as those who
            have accumulated the most work experience.
Advanced biofuel technologies :
            status and barriers
Large-scale production of crop based
            (first generation) biofuels may not be feasible without
            adversely affecting global food supply or encroaching on
            other important land uses. Because alternatives to liquid
            fossil fuels are important to develop in order to address
            greenhouse gas mitigation and other energy policy
            objectives, the potential for increased use of advanced
            (non-crop, second generation) biofuel production
            technologies has significant policy relevance. This study
            reviews the current status of several advanced biofuel
            technologies. Technically, it would be possible to produce a
            large portion of transportation fuels using advanced biofuel
            technologies, specifically those that can be grown using a
            small portion of the world's land area (for example,
            microalgae), or those grown on arable lands without
            affecting food supply (for example, agricultural residues).
            However, serious technical barriers limit the near-term
            commercial application of advanced biofuels technologies.
            Key technical barriers include low conversion efficiency
            from biomass to fuel, limits on supply of key enzymes used
            in conversion, large energy requirements for operation, and
            dependence in many cases on commercially unproven
            technology. Despite a large future potential, large-scale
            expansion of advanced biofuels technologies is unlikely
            unless and until further research and development lead to
            lowering these barriers.
Distributions in motion: economic
            growth, inequality, and poverty dynamics
The joint determination of aggregate
            economic growth and distributional change has been studied
            empirically from at least three different perspectives. A
            macroeconomic approach that relies on cross-country data on
            poverty, inequality, and growth rates has generated some
            interesting stylized facts about the correlations between
            these variables, but has not shed much light on the
            underlying determinants. "Meso-" and microeconomic
            approaches have fared somewhat better. The microeconomic
            approach, in particular, builds on the observation that
            growth, changes in poverty, and changes in inequality are
            simply different aggregations of information on the
            incidence of economic growth along the income distribution.
            This paper reviews the evolution of attempts to understand
            the nature of growth incidence curves, from the statistical
            decompositions associated with generalizations of the
            Oaxaca-Blinder method, to more recent efforts to generate
            "economically consistent" counterfactuals, drawing
            on structural, reduced-form, and computable general
            equilibrium models.
How and why does history matter for
            development policy
The consensus among scholars and
            policymakers that "institutions matter" for
            development has led inexorably to a conclusion that
            "history matters," since institutions clearly form
            and evolve over time. Unfortunately, however, the next
            logical step has not yet been taken, which is to recognize
            that historians (and not only economic historians) might
            also have useful and distinctive insights to offer. This
            paper endeavors to open and sustain a constructive dialogue
            between history -- understood as both "the past"
            and "the discipline" -- and development policy by
            (a) clarifying what the craft of historical scholarship
            entails, especially as it pertains to understanding causal
            mechanisms, contexts, and complex processes of institutional
            change; (b) providing examples of historical research that
            support, qualify, or challenge the most influential research
            (by economists and economic historians) in contemporary
            development policy; and (c) offering some general principles
            and specific implications that historians, on the basis of
            the distinctive content and method of their research, bring
            to development policy debates.
Research for development : a World
            Bank perspective on future directions for research
This paper provides an overview of the
            history of development research at the World Bank and points
            to new future directions in both what we research and how we
            research. Six main messages emerge. First, research and data
            have long been essential elements of the Bank's country
            programs and its contributions to global public goods, and
            this will remain the case. Second, development thinking is
            in a state of flux and uncertainty; it is time to reconsider
            both the Bank's research priorities and how it does
            research. Third, a more open and strategic approach to
            research is needed -- an approach that is firmly grounded in
            the key knowledge gaps for development policy emerging from
            the experiences of developing countries, including the
            questions that policy makers in those countries ask. Fourth,
            four major sets of problems merit high priority for our
            future research: (i) securing economic transformation; (ii)
            broadening opportunities to participate in the benefits of,
            and contribute to, such transformation; (iii) dealing with
            emerging risks at all levels; and (iv) assessing the results
            of development efforts, including external assistance.
            Fifth, a new multi-polar world requires a new multi-polar
            approach to knowledge; the Bank must learn from, and
            collaborate with, developing-country researchers and
            institutes. Sixth, greater emphasis must be given to
            producing the data and analytic tools for others to do the
            research themselves and providing open access to those
            tools. And open data initiative needs to be extended to open
            knowledge. This will better inform development policy
            debates and allow for deeper engagement with the direct
            stakeholders in the outcomes of those debates.
Mashup indices of development :
            Mashup indices of development
Countries are increasingly being ranked
            by some new "mashup index of development," defined
            as a composite index for which existing theory and practice
            provides little or no guidance to its design. Thus the index
            has an unusually large number of moving parts, which the
            producer is essentially free to set. The parsimony of these
            indices is often appealing -- collapsing multiple dimensions
            into just one, yielding unambiguous country rankings, and
            possibly reducing concerns about measurement errors in the
            component series. But the meaning, interpretation and
            robustness of these indices are often unclear. If they are
            to be properly understood and used, more attention needs to
            be given to their conceptual foundations, the tradeoffs they
            embody, the contextual factors relevant to country
            performance, and the sensitivity of the implied rankings to
            changing the data and weights. In short, clearer warning
            signs are needed for users. But even then, nagging doubts
            remain about the value-added of mashup indices, and their
            policy relevance, relative to the "dashboard"
            alternative of monitoring the components separately. Future
            progress in devising useful new composite indices of
            development will require that theory catches up with
            measurement practice.
Remittances and natural disasters :
            ex-post response and contribution to ex-ante preparedness
Macro- and micro-economic evidence
            suggests a positive role of remittances in preparing
            households against natural disasters and in coping with the
            loss afterwards. Analysis of cross-country macroeconomic
            data shows that remittances increase in the aftermath of
            natural disasters in countries that have a larger number of
            migrants abroad. Analysis of household survey data in
            Bangladesh shows that per capita consumption was higher in
            remittance-receiving households than in others after the
            1998 flood. Ethiopian households that receive international
            remittances seem to rely more on cash reserves and less on
            selling household assets or livestock to cope with drought.
            In Burkina Faso and Ghana, international
            remittance-receiving households, especially those receiving
            remittances from high-income developed countries, tend to
            have housing built of concrete rather than mud and greater
            access to communication equipment, suggesting that they are
            better prepared against natural disasters.
Public participation, teacher
            accountability, and school outcomes : findings from baseline
            surveys in three Indian states
This paper presents findings from
            baseline surveys on student learning achievement, teacher
            effort and community participation in three Indian states,
            Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Results
            indicate low teacher attendance and poor student learning.
            Parents and school committees are neither aware of their
            oversight roles nor participating in school management.
            However, there is substantial heterogeneity in outcomes
            across states. Karnataka has better student and teacher
            outcomes as well as higher levels of community awareness and
            participation than the other two states. The authors find
            substantial variation in teacher effort within schools, but
            most observable teacher characteristics are not associated
            with teacher effort. One reason for low teacher effort may
            be lack of accountability. Regression analysis suggests low
            rates of teacher attendance are only part of the problem of
            low student achievement. The gains in test scores associated
            with higher rates of attendance and engagement in teaching
            are small in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh,
            suggesting teachers themselves may not be effective.
            Ineffective teaching may result from lack of accountability
            as well as poor professional development of teachers.
            Further research is needed to examine not only issues of
            accountability but also professional development of teachers.
The 2007 meltdown in structured
            securitization : searching for lessons, not scapegoats
The intensity of recent turbulence in
            financial markets has surprised nearly everyone. This paper
            searches out the root causes of the crisis, distinguishing
            them from scapegoating explanations that have been used in
            policy circles to divert attention from the underlying
            breakdown of incentives.  Incentive conflicts explain how
            securitization went wrong, why credit ratings proved so
            inaccurate, and why it is superficial to blame the crisis on
            mark-to-market accounting, an unexpected loss of liquidity,
            or trends in globalization and deregulation in financial
            markets. The analysis finds disturbing implications of the
            crisis for Basel II and its implementation. The paper argues
            that the principal source of financial instability lies in
            contradictory political and bureaucratic incentives that
            undermine the effectiveness of financial regulation and
            supervision in every country in the world.  The paper
            concludes by identifying reforms that would improve
            incentives by increasing transparency and accountability in
            government and industry alike.
Banking in Brazil : structure,
            performance, drivers, and policy implications
The objective of this paper is to
            analyze the industry structure of banking services in Brazil
            in order to shed light on financial performance and its
            drivers at a disaggregated level. The study illustrates how
            differences across market segments - which tend to be
            averaged out in aggregate analysis - need to be taken into
            account when analyzing performance and designing public
            policy for the banking sector. In particular, retail banking
            is found to be less sensitive to price competition and to
            exhibit considerably higher returns than corporate banking.
            The authors identify and discuss the factors underlying
            revenues, costs, and risks in each market segment, and
            conclude with policy implications.
The investment climate in 16 Indian states
In this paper, the author attempts to
            identify the characteristics of the business climate in
            India that can help explain the different performance of
            individual states in terms of investment and growth. The
            paper develops a new Investment Climate Index aimed at
            summarizing the aspects of the business environment that
            entrepreneurs consider when deciding whether to invest.
            Using this index, the author explores the investment climate
            in several typologies of Indian states and identify the key
            features of a poor business environment in India. The
            analysis shows that infrastructure and institutions remain
            the main bottlenecks in the country's private sector
            development. More specifically, power, transportation,
            corruption, tax regulations, and theft are major factors
            explaining the poor business environment in some Indian
            states. Infrastructure appears to be the single most
            important constraint, as it is particularly binding in
            states that show low levels of domestic investment and GDP growth.
Low-income countries' access to
            private debt markets
Private debt flows to developing
            countries surged to record levels over the period 2003-07. A
            few low-income countries have gained access to the
            international bond market but the bulk of the flows have
            continued to go to just a few large middle-income countries.
            Most low-income countries still heavily depend on
            concessional loans and grants from the official sector to
            meet their financing needs. The paper provides an overview
            of low-income countries' access to cross-border bank
            lending and bond issuance in the international market over
            the past few decades. It highlights some stylized facts that
            characterize salient features of low-income countries'
            experience in external borrowing from the private sector and
            discusses the various factors that influence
            governments' and corporations' decisions to seek
            external financing along with creditors' decisions to
            provide the financing. The paper concludes by assessing the
            prospects for low-income countries' access to private
            debt markets over the medium term.
Determinants of economic growth : a
            bayesian panel data approach
Model uncertainty hampers consensus on
            the key determinants of economic growth. Some recent
            cross-country, cross-sectional analyses have employed
            Bayesian Model Averaging to address the issue of model
            uncertainty. This paper extends that approach to panel data
            models with country-specific fixed effects. The empirical
            results show that the most robust growth determinants are
            the price of investment goods, distance to major world
            cities, and political rights. This suggests that
            growth-promoting policy strategies should aim to reduce
            taxes and distortions that raise the prices of investment
            goods; improve access to international markets; and promote
            democracy-enhancing institutional reforms. Moreover, the
            empirical results are robust to different prior assumptions
            on expected model size.
Foreign informational lobbying can
            enhance tourism : evidence from the Caribbean
There exist legal channels for
            informational lobbying of U.S. policymakers by foreign
            principals.  Foreign governments and private sector
            principals frequently and intensively use this institutional
            channel to lobby on trade and tourism issues. This paper
            empirically studies whether such lobbying effectively
            achieves its goal of trade promotion in the context of
            Caribbean tourism, and suggests the potential for using
            foreign lobbying as a vehicle for development.  Panel data
            are used to explore and quantify the association between
            foreign lobbying by Caribbean principals and U.S. tourist
            arrivals to Caribbean destinations.  A variety of
            sensitivity analyses support the finding of a strong
            association. The policy implications are obvious and
            potentially important for developing countries.
Is there an incipient turnaround in
            Asia's "missing girls" phenomenon
The apparently inexorable rise in the
            proportion of "missing girls" in much of East and
            South Asia has attracted much attention amongst researchers
            and policy-makers. An encouraging trend was suggested by the
            case of South Korea, where child sex ratios were the highest
            in Asia but peaked in the mid-1990s and normalized
            thereafter. Using census data, we examine whether similar
            trends have begun to manifest themselves in the two large
            populous countries of this region, China and India. The data
            indicate that child sex ratios are peaking in these
            countries, and in many sub-national regions are beginning to
            trend towards less masculinization. This suggests that, with
            continuing vigorous efforts to reduce son preference, the
            "missing girls" phenomenon could be addressed in Asia.
Fertility response to natural
            disasters : the case of three high mortality earthquakes
The event of a natural disaster, and
            being directly affected by it, brings a large shock to
            life-cycle outcomes. In addition to the replacement effects
            of higher fertility following a disaster that caused high
            mortality, a positive fertility response may be induced as
            children can be used to supplement household income. This
            paper analyzes three high mortality earthquakes: Gujarat,
            India, in 2001; North-West Frontier, Pakistan, in 2005; and
            Izmit, Turkey, in 1999. There is evidence of a positive
            fertility response to exposure to these large-scale natural
            disasters in addition to the response to child mortality.
            The results in this study are consistent with those of other
            studies that also find a positive fertility response
            following exposure to a disaster.
Career placement of skilled migrants
            in the U.S. labor market : a dynamic approach
The initial occupational placements of
            male immigrants in the U.S. labor market vary significantly
            by country of origin even when education and other factors
            are taken into account.  Does the heterogeneity persist over
            time? Using data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 U.S.
            Censuses, this study finds that the performance of migrants
            from countries with lower initial occupational placement
            levels improves at a higher rate compared with that of
            migrants originating from countries with higher initial
            levels. Nevertheless, the magnitude of convergence suggests
            full catch-up is unlikely. Country specific attributes are
            found to have less direct impact on the rate of assimilation
            than on the initial performance.