rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Information, direct access to
            farmers, and rural market performance in central India
This paper estimates the impact of a
            change in procurement strategy of a private buyer in the
            central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Beginning in October
            2000, internet kiosks and warehouses were established that
            provide wholesale price information and an alternative
            marketing channel to soy farmers in the state. Using a new
            market-level dataset, the estimates suggest a significant
            increase in soy price after the introduction of kiosks,
            supporting the predictions of the theoretical model.
            Moreover, there is a robust increase in area under soy
            cultivation. The results point towards an improvement in the
            functioning of rural agricultural markets.
A summary and update of developing
            annuities markets : the experience of Chile
The rapid growth of the market for
            retirement products in Chile has its origins in the pension
            reform that was implemented in 1981. But the successful
            development of an active annuity market also reflects many
            other factors. This paper summarizes and updates an earlier
            longer study on the development of the Chilean annuity
            market. The update focuses on the numerous changes that were
            introduced in 2008. The most striking aspect of the Chilean
            experience is the very high rate of annuitization. This has
            been linked to the restrictions that have been applied to
            lump-sum withdrawals, the offer of inflation-protected
            annuities, and the robust prudential regulation of
            providers. But the level of annuitization has also been
            supported by the annuitization incentives provided to early
            retirees and the influence of brokers and sales agents. The
            recent regulatory changes have weakened the impact of the
            last two factors, while strengthening the demand for
            annuities at normal retirement.
The global financial crisis and
            development thinking
The global financial crisis has not only
            dealt a major blow to the global economy, but also shaken
            confidence in economic management in the developed world and
            the economic models that guide it. The crisis has revealed
            major market failures, especially in the housing bubble and
            its transmission to the financial system, but also glaring
            state failures that propagated and exacerbated the crisis.
            Will the events of the past two years lead to major shifts
            in thinking about development economics, and should they?
            This paper assesses that question for several key domains of
            development thinking, including the market-state balance,
            macroeconomic management, globalization, development
            financing, and public spending. On the one hand, changed
            global circumstances and new awareness of vulnerability
            should lead to some policy changes, as developing countries
            take steps to reduce and buffer risks, including risks
            generated in developed countries. At the same time, the
            crisis should largely reinforce the Post-Washington
            Consensus on development that has emerged over the past
            decade -- a world view that aims to achieve private
            sector-driven growth but sees a facilitating role for the
            state, promotes engaging with the global economy in ways
            that advance development, and values pragmatism,
            experimentation, and evidence-based policymaking over ideology.
Implementing carbon tariffs : a
            fool's errand
Some governments are considering taxes
            on imports based on carbon content from countries that have
            not introduced climate change policies. Such carbon border
            taxes appeal to domestic industries facing higher charges
            for their own carbon emissions. This research demonstrates
            that there are enormous practical difficulties surrounding
            such plans. Various policies are evaluated according to
            World Trade Organization compliance, administrative
            plausibility, help in meeting environmental goals, and
            ability to deal with domestic pressures. The steel industry
            is used as a case study in this analysis. All considered
            policies arguably fail to meet at least one of these
            constraints, bringing into question the plausibility that a
            carbon border tax can be practical policy.
Aid for trade : building on progress
            today for tomorrow's future
Since 2005, donors and development
            agencies have increased the overall value of aid for trade
            and put in place several mechanisms to channel such aid and
            to ensure that it targets national priorities. This paper
            reviews recent trends in the allocation of aid for trade and
            analyses of its effectiveness. It identifies a number of
            opportunities for concerted action to enhance the impact of
            aid for trade initiatives, including greater involvement by
            middle-income countries in the initiative (through improved
            market access, investment flows, and knowledge transfers);
            deeper engagement with the private sector -- a key source of
            information on what works and what does not; a stronger
            focus on improving the "behind the border"
            policies that affect the efficiency of key services sectors
            and help determine firm-level competitiveness; and a
            stronger focus on monitoring and evaluation of results.
Bank competition in the Middle East
            and northern Africa region
This paper studies the extent of bank
            competition in the Middle East and Northern Africa region
            during 1994-2008, using non-structural measures of
            competition such as the H-statistic and the Lerner index.
            Both these measures suggest that banking sector competition
            in the region is lower relative to other regions and has not
            improved in recent years. An analysis of the determinants of
            competition across countries suggests that lower levels of
            competition in the Middle East and Northern Africa are
            explained by the regions worse credit information
            environment and lower market contestability.
Biofuels : markets, targets and impacts
This paper reviews recent developments
            in biofuel markets and their economic, social and
            environmental impacts. Several countries have introduced
            mandates and targets for biofuel expansion. Production,
            international trade and investment have increased sharply in
            the past few years. However, several existing studies have
            blamed biofuels as one of the key factors behind the
            2007-2008 global food crisis, although the magnitudes of
            impacts in these studies vary widely depending on the
            underlying assumptions and structure of the models. Existing
            studies also have huge disparities in the magnitude of
            long-term impacts of biofuels on food prices and supply;
            studies that model only the agricultural sector show higher
            impacts, whereas studies that model the entire economy show
            relatively lower impacts. In terms of climate change
            mitigation impacts, there exists a consensus that current
            biofuels lead to greenhouse gas mitigation only when
            greenhouse gas emissions related to land-use change are not
            counted. If conversion of carbon rich forest land to crop
            land is not avoided, the resulting greenhouse gas release
            would mean that biofuels would not reduce cumulative
            greenhouse gas emissions until several years had passed.
            Overall, results from most of the existing literature do not
            favor diversion of food for large-scale production of
            biofuels, although regulated production of biofuels in
            countries with surplus land and a strong biofuel industry
            are not ruled out. Developments in second generation
            biofuels offer some hope, yet they still compete with food
            supply through land use and are currently constrained by a
            number of technical and economic barriers.
Is the level of financial sector
            development a key determinant of private investment in the
            power sector
This paper seeks to assess the extent to
            which a country's overall level of development and that
            of its financial sector, in particular, are factors that
            attract private capital into infrastructure projects. The
            authors investigate these effects in a 1990-2007 dataset on
            the power sector in 37 developing countries. The results
            suggest that economic growth is a key determinant of private
            investors' investment in infrastructure projects, and
            that investors tend to take countries governance quality
            into account in their decisions to invest. The empirical
            results highlight that the development of the financial
            sector also plays a significant role in private
            investors' decisions to enter infrastructure sectors.
            In particular, the degree of country risk and exchange rate
            volatility is found to be negatively related to the volume
            of private sector investment in power projects. Furthermore,
            when the banking sector and the capital market are
            separately treated in the analysis, the existence of a well
            functioning capital market is the main attracting factor. In
            addition, the existence of an independent energy regulatory
            authority significantly improves the level of private
            investors' implication in energy projects. When
            accounting for the interactions between the overall economic
            development and the financial sector development variables,
            the effects of these variables are still significant and the
            results also confirm the importance of an independent energy
            sector regulator.
On measuring scientific influence :
            On measuring scientific influence
Bibliometric measures based on citations
            are widely used in assessing the scientific publication
            records of authors, institutions and journals. Yet currently
            favored measures lack a clear conceptual foundation and are
            known to have counter-intuitive properties. The authors
            propose a new approach that is grounded on a theoretical
            "influence function," representing explicit prior
            beliefs about how citations reflect influence. They provide
            conditions for robust qualitative comparisons of influence
            -- conditions that can be implemented using
            readily-available data. An example is provided using the
            economics publication records of selected universities and
            the World Bank.
Labor supply and retirement policy
            in an overlapping generations model with stochastic fertility
Using a stochastic general equilibrium
            model with overlapping generations, this paper studies a
            policy rule for the retirement age aiming at offsetting the
            effects on the supply of labor following fertility changes.
            The authors find that the retirement age should increase
            more than proportionally to the direct fall in labor supply
            caused by a fall in fertility. The robustness of this result
            is checked against alternative model specifications and
            parameter values. The efficacy of the policy rule depends
            crucially on the link between the preference for leisure and
            the response of the intensive margin of labor supply to
            changes in the statutory retirement age. The model has
            subsequently been calibrated for Brazil by Jorgensen (2010),
            in the context of the Brazil Aging Study.
Crop production and road
            connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa : a spatial analysis
This study examines the relationship
            between transport infrastructure and agriculture in
            Sub-Saharan Africa using new data obtained from geographic
            information systems (GIS). First, the authors analyze the
            impact of road connectivity on crop production and choice of
            technology. Second, they explore the impact of investments
            that reduce road travel times. Finally, they show how this
            type of analysis can be used to compare cost-benefit ratios
            for alternative road investments in terms of agricultural
            output per dollar invested. The authors find that
            agricultural production is highly correlated with proximity
            (as measured by travel time) to urban markets. Likewise,
            adoption of high-productive/high-input technology is
            negatively correlated with travel time to urban centers.
            There is therefore substantial scope for increasing
            agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly
            in more remote areas. Total crop production relative to
            potential production is 45 percent for areas within four
            hours travel time from a city of 100,000 people. In
            contrast, it is just 5 percent for areas more than eight
            hours away. Low population densities and long travel times
            to urban centers sharply constrain production. Reducing
            transport costs and travel times to these areas would expand
            the feasible market size for these regions. Compared to West
            Africa, East Africa has lower population density, smaller
            local markets, lower road connectivity, and lower average
            crop production per unit area. Unlike in East Africa,
            reducing travel time does not significantly increase the
            adoption of high-input/high-yield technology in West Africa.
            This may be because West Africa already has a relatively
            well-connected road network.
The impact of infrastructure
            spending in Sub-Saharan Africa : a CGE modeling approach
The authors constructed a standard
            computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to explore the
            economic impact of increased spending on infrastructure in
            six African countries: Benin, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal,
            Tanzania, and Uganda. The basic elements of the model are
            drawn from EXTER, adjusted to accommodate infrastructure
            externalities. Seven sectors were considered: food crop
            agriculture, export agriculture, mining and oil,
            manufacturing, construction, private services, and public
            services. Four sets of simulations were conducted: baseline
            nonproductive investments, roads, electricity, and telecoms.
            For each set of simulations, five funding schemes were
            considered: reduced public expenditure; increased
            value-added taxes; increased import duties; funding from
            foreign aid; and increased income taxes. In general, the
            funding schemes had similar qualitative and quantitative
            effects on macro variables. For road and electricity
            investment, there were relatively large quantitative
            differences and some qualitative differences among funding
            schemes at the macro level. Sectoral analysis revealed
            further disparities among countries and investment types.
            The same type of investment with the same funding sources
            had varying effects depending on the economic structure of
            the sector in question. The authors find that few sectors
            are purely tradable or non-tradable, having instead variable
            degrees of openness to trade. If the current account needs
            to be balanced, funding investment through foreign aid
            produces the strongest sectoral effects because strong price
            and nominal exchange rate adjustments are needed to clear
            the current account balance. In addition, the capital/labor
            ratio of each sector plays an important role in determining
            its winners and losers.
Are innovating firms victims or
            perpetrators tax evasion, bribe payments, and the role of
            external finance in developing countries
This paper investigates corruption and
            tax evasion and their firm-level determinants across 25,000
            firms in 57 countries, a large fraction of which are small
            and medium enterprises in developing countries. Firms that
            pay more bribes also evade more taxes. Corruption acts as a
            tax on innovation, particularly that of small and young
            firms. Innovating firms pay a larger percentage of their
            revenues in bribes to government officials than
            non-innovating firms. They do not, however, pay more
            protection money to private parties than other firms.
            Comparing the magnitudes of bribes and taxes evaded,
            innovating firms and firms that use formal finance are more
            likely to be net victims. The findings point to the
            challenges facing innovators in developing countries and the
            role of banks in curbing corruption and tax evasion.
The economic consequences of
            "brain drain" of the best and brightest:
            microeconomic evidence from five countries
Brain drain has long been a common
            concern for migrant-sending countries, particularly for
            small countries where high-skilled emigration rates are
            highest. However, while economic theory suggests a number of
            possible benefits, in addition to costs, from skilled
            emigration, the evidence base on many of these is very
            limited. Moreover, the lessons from case studies of benefits
            to China and India from skilled emigration may not be
            relevant to much smaller countries. This paper presents the
            results of innovative surveys which tracked academic
            high-achievers from five countries to wherever they moved in
            the world in order to directly measure at the micro level
            the channels through which high-skilled emigration affects
            the sending country. The results show that there are very
            high levels of emigration and of return migration among the
            very highly skilled; the income gains to the best and
            brightest from migrating are very large, and an order of
            magnitude or more greater than any other effect; there are
            large benefits from migration in terms of postgraduate
            education; most high-skilled migrants from poorer countries
            send remittances; but that involvement in trade and foreign
            direct investment is a rare occurrence. There is
            considerable knowledge flow from both current and return
            migrants about job and study opportunities abroad, but
            little net knowledge sharing from current migrants to home
            country governments or businesses. Finally, the fiscal costs
            vary considerably across countries, and depend on the extent
            to which governments rely on progressive income taxation.
Unpleasant surprises : sovereign
            default determinants and prospects
This paper uses model averaging
            techniques to identify robust predictors of sovereign
            default episodes on a pooled database for 46 emerging
            economies over the period 1980-2004. Sovereign default
            episodes are defined according to Standard & Poors or
            by non-concessional International Monetary Fund loans in
            excess of 100 percent of the countrys quota. The authors
            find that, in addition to the level of indebtedness, the
            quality of policies and institutions is the best predictor
            of default episodes in emerging market countries with
            relatively low levels of external debt. For emerging market
            countries with a higher level of debt, macroeconomic
            stability plays a robust role in explaining differences in
            default probabilities. The paper provides evidence that
            model averaging can improve out-of-sample prediction of
            sovereign defaults, and draws policy conclusions for the
            current crisis based on the results.
How do governments respond to food
            price spikes lessons from the past
Food prices in international markets
            spiked upward in 2008, doubling or more in a matter of
            months. Evidence is still being compiled on policy responses
            over the following two years, but lessons can be learned
            from the price spike in 1973, the magnitude and speed of
            which were similar to those experienced around the 2008
            spike. In developing countries, policy responses to the
            earlier spike lowered the (negative) nominal assistance
            coefficient for agriculture by one-third between 1972 and
            1974 before it was returned to the same level by 1976. That
            was twice the extent of the fall and recovery of the
            (positive) nominal assistance coefficient for high-income
            countries. However, the trade and welfare effects of those
            changes were much less for developing than high-income
            countries, suggesting the dispersion of distortion rates
            among farm industries decreased in developing countries. The
            adjustments were virtually all due to suspension and then
            reinstatement of import restrictions, with changes in export
            taxation by developing countries playing an additional (but
            minor) role during 1972-74. This beggar-thy-neighbor
            dimension of each governments food policies is worrying
            because it reduces the role that trade between nations can
            play in bringing stability to the worlds food markets. More
            effort appears to be needed before a multilateral agreement
            to desist can be reached.