rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
The foreign-born population in the
            European Union and its contribution to national tax and
            benefit systems : some insights from recent household survey data
Despite the purported surge in internal
            migration following the 2004 enlargement of the European
            Union, data from the 2006 European Union Survey of Income
            and Living Conditions show that internal migrants are a
            relatively small share of the European Union's
            population. Depending on the exact definition used, only
            about 1 to 2 percent of the population of European Union-13
            countries (members prior to the 2004 enlargement, not
            including Germany and Luxembourg) were born in other
            European Union countries, while the corresponding share for
            European Union-4 countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic,
            and Slovakia) is even lower. By contrast, about 6 percent of
            the population of European Union-13 countries was born
            outside the European Union. On examining the demographic and
            socio-economic background of the migrant population (both
            from within as well as outside the European Union), this
            paper finds that migrants tend to include a concentration of
            both low as well as highly educated workers. Both sets of
            migrants uniformly contribute to raising the working-age
            population of receiving countries. Using data on average
            incomes and taxes paid and benefits received by migrant and
            non-migrant households, the authors find no evidence to
            support the contention that migrant workers contribute much
            less in taxes than the native-born population, or consume
            significantly higher benefits. On the contrary, our
            calculations suggest that migrant workers make a net
            contribution of approximately 42 billion euros to the
            national tax and benefit systems of European Union-13 countries.
Services in Doha : what's on
            the table
Services trade reform matters, but what
            is Doha doing about it? It has been hard to judge, because
            of the opaqueness of services policies and the opaqueness of
            the request-offer negotiating process. This paper attempts
            to assess what is on the table. It presents the results of
            the first survey of applied trade policies in the major
            services sectors of 56 industrial and developing countries.
            These policies are then compared with these countries'
            Uruguay Round commitments in services and the best offers
            that they have made in the current Doha negotiations. The
            paper finds that at this stage, Doha promises greater
            security of access to markets but not any additional
            liberalization. Uruguay Round commitments are on average 2.3
            times more restrictive than current policies. The best
            offers submitted so far as part of the Doha negotiations
            improve on Uruguay Round commitments by about 13 percent but
            remain on average 1.9 times more restrictive than actual
            policies. The World Trade Organization's Hong Kong
            Ministerial had set out ambitious goals for services but the
            analysis here shows that much remains to be done to achieve them.
Industrial structure, appropriate
            technology and economic growth in less developed countries
The authors develop an endogenous growth
            model that combines structural change with repeated product
            improvement. That is, the technologies in one sector of the
            model become not only increasingly capital-intensive, but
            also progressively productive over time. Application of the
            basic model to less developed economies shows that the
            (optimal) industrial structure and the (most) appropriate
            technologies in less developed economies are endogenously
            determined by their factor endowments. A firm in a less
            developed country that enters a capital-intensive, advanced
            industry in a developed country would be nonviable owing to
            the relative scarcity of capital in the factor endowments of
            less developed countries.
Beyond the information technology
            agreement : harmonization of standards and trade in electronics
Product standards can have a dual impact
            on production and trade costs. Standards may impose
            additional costs on exporters as it may be necessary to
            adapt products for specific markets (cost-effect). In
            contrast, standards can reduce exporters' information
            costs if they convey information on industrial requirements
            or consumer tastes that would be costly to collect in the
            absence of standards (informational-effect). Using a new
            World Bank database of European standards for electronic
            products, the authors examine the impact of
            internationally-harmonized European standards on European
            Union imports. They find that European Union standards for
            electronic products that are harmonized to international
            standards have a positive and significant effect on trade.
            The results suggest that efforts to promote trade in
            electronic products could be complemented by steps to
            promote standards harmonization. This might include, for
            example, re-starting talks to extend the Information
            Technology Agreement to non-tariff measures and commitments
            to harmonize national standards in electronic products.
May growth lead to higher
            deprivation despite higher satisfaction
In a relative deprivation framework,
            unless inequality is reduced, growth is associated with both
            higher satisfaction and higher deprivation.  This may help
            explain the discontent with growth despite its benefits.  As
            is well known in the literature, knowledge of the
            population's mean income and Lorenz curve is all that
            is needed to analyze a distribution, so that this can also
            be used to assess the satisfaction and deprivation of each
            individual.  Given the normalization used to derive the
            satisfaction and deprivation measures, satisfaction and
            deprivation add up to the mean income for the population as
            a whole as well as for each individual.
Assessing the economic impacts of an
            economic partnership agreement on Nigeria
This study discusses potential economic
            implications for Nigeria of an Economic Partnership
            Agreement with the European Union. It uses the World Banks
            Tariff Reform Impact Simulation Tool to assess the effects
            of preferential tariff liberalization with respect to the
            European Union. The results suggest that the impact of an
            Economic Partnership Agreement on total imports into Nigeria
            will be slight. This is in part because the Agreement will
            likely allow the most protected sectors to be excluded from
            liberalization, and also because where substantial tariffs
            are involved much of the increase in imports from the
            European Union will occur at the expense of other suppliers
            of imports. It is this trade diversion, arising from the
            discriminatory nature of the EPA, which generates a negative
            welfare impact of the tariff reforms. One way for Nigeria to
            limit these losses is to pursue non-preferential trade
            liberalization before implementing an EPA. The paper looks
            at the large number of import bans in Nigeria and argues
            that the positive impact on welfare of removing these import
            bans is likely to be substantial. Their removal would
            undermine a major reason for cross border smuggling and pave
            the way for a return to normal regional trade flows. The
            paper shows how an Economic Partnership Agreement presents
            an opportunity for accelerating the reforms that are needed
            to support a strategy to increase regional and global trade
            integration. Such an agreement is more likely to have
            positive and significant impacts when integrated into a
            comprehensive strategy toward competitiveness and
            alleviation of the supply constraints that have stifled the
            impact of previous trade agreements. Key issues that should
            be addressed include liberalization and regulatory
            strengthening of services sectors to ensure that all firms
            in Nigeria have access to efficiently produced backbone
            services and initiatives to address the countrys poor trade
            logistics performance.
The developing world is poorer than
            we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty
The paper presents a major overhaul to
            the World Bank's past estimates of global poverty,
            incorporating new and better data. Extreme poverty-as judged
            by what "poverty" means in the world's
            poorest countries-is found to be more pervasive than we
            thought. Yet the data also provide robust evidence of
            continually declining poverty incidence and depth since the
            early 1980s. For 2005 we estimate that 1.4 billion people,
            or one quarter of the population of the developing world,
            lived below our international line of $1.25 a day in 2005
            prices; 25 years earlier there were 1.9 billion poor, or one
            half of the population. Progress was uneven across regions.
            The poverty rate in East Asia fell from almost 80 percent to
            under 20 percent over this period. By contrast it stayed at
            around 50 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, though with signs
            of progress since the mid 1990s. Because of lags in survey
            data availability, these estimates do not yet reflect the
            sharp rise in food prices since 2005.
Regional integration in South Asia :
            what role for trade facilitation
The trade performance of countries in
            South Asia over the past two decades has been poor relative
            to other regions. Exports from South Asia have doubled over
            the past 20 years to approximately USD 100 billion.  In
            contrast, East Asia's exports grew ten times over the
            same period.  The low level of intraregional trade has
            contributed to weak export performance in South Asia.  The
            empirical analysis in this paper demonstrates gains to trade
            in the region from reform and capacity building in trade
            facilitation at the regional level. When considering
            intraregional trade, if countries in South Asia raise
            capacity halfway to East Asia's average, trade is
            estimated to rise by USD 2.6 billion. This is approximately
            60 percent of the total intraregional trade in South Asia.
            Countries in the region also have a stake in the success of
            efforts to promote capacity building outside its borders.
            If South Asia and the rest of the world were to raise their
            levels of trade facilitation halfway to the East Asian
            average, the gains to the region would be estimated at USD
            36 billion. Out of those gains, about 87 percent of the
            total would be generated from South Asia's own efforts
            (leaving the rest of the world unchanged). In summary, we
            find that the South Asian region's expansion of trade
            can be substantially advanced with programs of concrete
            action to address barriers to trade facilitation to advance
            regional goals.
Statistical analysis of rainfall
            insurance payouts in southern India
Using 40 years of historical rainfall
            data, this paper estimates a distribution for payouts on
            rainfall insurance policies offered to farmers in the State
            of Andhra Pradesh, India, in 2006. The authors find that the
            contracts primarily protect households against extreme tail
            events; half the expected value of indemnities paid by the
            insurance are generated by only 2 percent of rainfall
            realizations. Contract payouts are significantly correlated
            cross-sectionally, and also inversely associated with real
            GDP growth. The paper discusses the implications of these
            findings for the potential benefits of insurance to
            households, the risks facing a financial institution
            underwriting rainfall insurance contracts, and pricing.
Mexican employment dynamics :
            evidence from matched firm-worker data
Using a census of all workers in private
            establishments in the formal sector in Mexico to track
            workers and establishments over time, this paper presents
            the first Mexican worker and job flow statistics.  The data
            allow for comparing these flows across time, space, and
            worker characteristics. Although many patterns are similar
            to those documented in developing countries, the analysis
            uncovers patterns that have potentially important policy
            implications.  The authors compare the results to the
            literature, illustrate how the statistics change during
            times of reform and crisis, and present novel findings that
            contribute to the broader literature on worker reallocations.
Human capital and
            university-industry linkages' role in fostering firm
            innovation : an empirical study of Chile and Colombia
A firm's absorptive capacity, human
            capital and linkages with knowledge institutions have been
            shown to increase the firm's probability of innovating
            in OECD economies. Despite its importance for national- and
            firm-level competitiveness, few papers examine the impact of
            the same variables for firms innovation in Latin America.
            This paper investigates the link between firm innovation and
            its absorption capacity as proxied by the presence of a
            R&D department, the firm's human capital, and its
            interaction with research centers and universities. We
            analyze the case of Chilean and Colombian manufacturing
            firms using data from innovation surveys. A probit
            regression model is applied to identify the determinants of
            innovation activity. We find that collaboration with
            university and research institutions is associated with an
            increase in the probability of introducing a new product in
            Chilean and Colombian firms of 29 and 44 percent,
            respectively, and it can increase up to 58 percent in the
            case of Colombian firms interacting with research centers.
            Moreover, firms whose employees have a higher level of
            education, or whose managers/supervisors have a higher
            (perceived) level of knowledge, are more likely to innovate.
            Although the estimates could be affected by biases and
            suffer from shortcomings in data, the findings suggest that
            policies and incentives to increase firm-level human capital
            and industry-university linkages are important to increase
            innovation in Latin America.
What matters to African firms the
            relevance of perceptions data
Can perceptions data help us understand
            investment climate constraints facing the private sector?
            Or do firms simply complain about everything? In this paper,
            the authors provide a picture of how firms' views on
            constraints differ across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
            Using the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys database,
            they find that reported constraints reflect country
            characteristics and vary systematically by level of
            income-the most elemental constraints to doing business
            (power, access to finance, ability to plan ahead) appear to
            be most binding at low levels of income. As countries
            develop and these elemental constraints are relaxed,
            governance-related constraints become more problematic. As
            countries move further up the income scale and the state
            becomes more capable, labor regulation is perceived to be
            more of a problem-business is just one among several
            important constituencies. The authors also consider whether
            firm-level characteristics-such as size, ownership, exporter
            status, and firms' own experience-affect firms'
            views on the severity of constraints. They find that, net of
            country and sector fixed effects and firm characteristics,
            firms' views do reflect their experience as evidenced
            by responses to other questions in surveys. The results
            suggest that there are both country-level and firm-level
            variations in the investment climate. Turning to the concept
            of "binding constraints," the Enterprise Surveys
            do not generally suggest one single binding constraint
            facing firms in difficult business climates. However, there
            do appear to be groups of constraints that matter more at
            different income levels, with a few elemental constraints
            being especially important at low levels and a few
            regulatory constraints at high levels, but a difficult range
            of governance-related constraints at intermediate levels.
            Adjusting to a constraint does not mean that firms then do
            not recognize it-for example, generator-owning firms are not
            distinguishable from other firms when ranking electricity as
            a constraint. Overall, firms do appear to discriminate
            between constraints in a reasonable way.  Their views can
            provide a useful first step in the business-government
            consultative process and help in prioritizing more specific
            behavioral analysis and policy reforms.
Does it pay firms to register for
            taxes the impact of formality on firm profitability
This paper estimates the impact of
            registering for taxes on firm profits in Bolivia, the
            country with the highest levels of informality in Latin
            America. A new survey of micro and small firms enables the
            authors to control for a rich set of measures of owner
            ability and business motivations that can affect both
            profits and the decision to formalize. The paper identifies
            the impact of tax registration on business profitability
            using the distance of a firm from the tax office where
            registration occurs, conditional on the distance to the city
            center, as an instrument for registration. Proximity to the
            tax office provides firms with more information about
            registration, but is argued to not directly affect profits.
            The findings show that tax registration leads to
            significantly higher profits for the firms that the
            instrument affects. However, there is also evidence of
            heterogeneous effects of tax formality on profits. Tax
            registration is found to increase profits for the mid-size
            firms in the sample, but to lower profits for both the
            smaller and larger firms, in contrast to the standard view
            that formality increases profits. The analysis shows that
            owners of large firms who have managed to stay informal have
            higher entrepreneurial ability than formal firm owners, in
            contrast to the standard view (correct among smaller firms)
            that informal firm owners have low ability.
Fiscal spending and economic
            performance : some stylized facts
This paper complements the cross-country
            approach by examining the correlates of growth acceleration
            in per capita gross domestic product around
            "significant" public expenditure episodes by
            reorganizing the data around turning points, or events. The
            authors define a growth event as an increase in average per
            capita growth of at least 2 percentage points sustained for
            5 years. A fiscal event is an increase in the annual growth
            rate of primary fiscal expenditure of approximately 1
            percentage point sustained for 5 years and not accompanied
            by an aggravation of the fiscal deficit beyond 2 percent of
            gross domestic product. These definitions of events are
            applied to a database of 140 countries (118 developing
            countries) for 1972-2005. After controlling for the
            growth-inducing effects of positive terms-of-trade shocks
            and of trade liberalization reform, probit estimates
            indicate that a growth event is more likely to occur in a
            developing country when surrounded by a fiscal event.
            Moreover, the probability of occurrence of a growth event in
            the years following a fiscal event is greater the lower is
            the associated fiscal deficit, confirming that success of a
            growth-oriented fiscal expenditure reform hinges on a
            stabilized macroeconomic environment (through a limited
            primary fiscal deficit).
(UN)Bundling public-private
            partnership contracts in the water sector : competition in
            auctions and economies of scale in operation
In public-private partnership
            transactions in the water sector, one of the alleged
            concerns is that there is little market competition at the
            auction stage. This paper casts light on a tradeoff between
            the competition effect at the auction level and potential
            economies of scale in service operation. If the authorities
            design a large-scale public-private partnership water
            transaction, it is expected to exploit operational scale
            economies. But the competition effect may have to be
            sacrificed. The paper shows a risk that the selection of the
            contract size could be a very restrictive condition that
            excludes many prospective bidders. Moreover, the paper
            quantifies the optimal size of public-private partnership
            contracts in the sector by estimating a cost function. The
            analysis shows that economies of scale exist but tend to
            diminish quickly as production increases. When the amount of
            water sold exceeds about 40 million