rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Land market restrictions,
            women's labor force participation, and wages in a rural economy
This paper analyzes the effects of land
            market restrictions on the rural labor market outcomes for
            women. The existing literature emphasizes two mechanisms
            through which land restrictions can affect the economic
            outcomes: the collateral value of land, and (in) security of
            property rights. Analysis of this paper focuses on an
            alternative mechanism where land restrictions increase costs
            of migration out of villages. The testable prediction of
            collateral effect is that both wages and labor force
            participation move in the same direction, and insecurity of
            property rights reduces labor force participation and
            increases wages. In contrast, if land restrictions work
            primarily through higher migration costs, labor force
            participation increases, while wages decline. For
            identification, this paper exploits a natural experiment in
            Sri Lanka where historical malaria played a unique role in
            land policy. This paper provides robust evidence of a
            positive effect of land restrictions on women's labor
            force participation, but a negative effect on female wages.
            The empirical results thus contradict a collateral or
            insecure property rights effect, but support migration costs
            as the primary mechanism.
Rwanda's new companies : an
            overview of registrations, taxes, employment, and exports
The Government of Rwanda has introduced
            several reforms since 2009 that have significantly improved
            the domestic business environment. One of the reforms is the
            one-stop shop for business registration. Making use of newly
            available administrative data sources such as tax and
            company registrations records, this paper sheds light on the
            effects of the introduction of the one-stop shop on company
            registrations, taxes, employment, and exports between 2008
            and 2012. The paper finds sizable benefits to Rwanda's
            efforts, which are mostly driven by the registration of
            large and mid-sized companies, with a limited contribution
            from small and micro-sized ones. The use of a newly
            available data source highlights the potential uses of
            growing bodies of administrative data and their possible shortfalls.
The World Bank's classification
            of countries by income
The World Bank has used an income
            classification to group countries for analytical purposes
            for many years. Since the present income classification was
            first introduced 25 years ago there has been significant
            change in the global economic landscape. As real incomes
            have risen, the number of countries in the low income group
            has fallen to 31, while the number of high income countries
            has risen to 80. As countries have transitioned to middle
            income status, more people are living below the World
            Bank's international extreme poverty line in middle
            income countries than in low income countries. These changes
            in the world economy, along with a rapid increase in the
            user base of World Bank data, suggest that a review of the
            income classification is needed. A key consideration is the
            views of users, and this paper finds opinions to be mixed:
            some critics argue the thresholds are dated and set too low;
            others find merit in continuing to have a fixed benchmark to
            assess progress over time. On balance, there is still value
            in the current approach, based on gross national income per
            capita, to classifying countries into different groups.
            However, the paper proposes adjustments to the methodology
            that is used to keep the value of the thresholds for each
            income group constant over time. Several proposals for
            changing the current thresholds are also presented, which it
            is hoped will inform further discussion and any decision to
            adopt a new approach.
Supporting export competitiveness
            through port and rail network reforms : a case study of
            South Africa
Transport and logistics infrastructure
            is a critical determinant of the competitiveness of a
            country's producers and exporters. Well-functioning
            transport and logistics infrastructure relies not just on
            hardware, but critically on the operating environment that
            emerges from the interaction between private sector
            operators; national policies and regulatory regimes; and, in
            many countries, state-owned owners and operators of core
            infrastructure. This paper looks at the case of South
            Africa, where constraints in access, pricing, reliability,
            and network interfaces, particularly in the port and rail
            network, are eroding the competitiveness of South African
            exporters. The paper draws on interviews with a wide range
            of exporters along with secondary research to examine South
            Africa's port and rail network, and explores the
            underlying factors contributing to these constraints,
            including chronic underinvestment, an inadequate regulatory
            environment, insufficient private sector participation, and
            weak regional integration. The paper concludes with a review
            of the reforms needed to deliver a more broadly accessible
            and competitive rail and port sector based on international
            case examples. It highlights the need for institutional
            reforms to promote competitive pricing; private sector
            participation to increase investment and improve service
            delivery; information and coordination to address market
            failures and improve access; and cooperation to improve
            intermodal, interregional, and institutional interfaces.
How does long-term finance affect
            economic volatility
This paper examines how the ability to
            access long-term debt affects firm-level growth volatility.
            The analysis finds that firms in industries with stronger
            preference to use long-term finance relative to short-term
            finance experience lower growth volatility in countries with
            better-developed financial systems, as these firms may
            benefit from reduced refinancing risk. Institutions that
            facilitate the availability of credit information and
            contract enforcement mitigate the refinancing risk and
            therefore growth volatility associated with short-term
            financing. Increased availability of long-term finance
            reduces growth volatility in crisis as well as non-crisis periods.
Contingent liabilities risk
            management : a credit risk analysis framework for sovereign
            guarantees and on-lending—country experiences from Colombia,
            Indonesia, Sweden, and Turkey
Sovereign credit guarantees and
            government on-lending can catalyze private sector investment
            and fulfill specific policy objectives. However, contingent
            liabilities stemming from guarantees and contingent assets
            stemming from on-lending expose governments to risk. Prudent
            risk management, including risk analysis and measurement,
            can help identify and mitigate these risks. This paper
            proposes a four-step structure for analyzing and measuring
            credit risk: (i) defining key characteristics to determine
            the choice of a risk analysis approach; (ii) analyzing risk
            drivers; (iii) quantifying risks; and (iv) applying risk
            analyses and quantification to the design of risk management
            tools. This structure is based on an assessment of
            approaches discussed in academia and applied in practice.
            The paper demonstrates how the four steps of credit risk
            management are applied in Colombia, Sweden, and Turkey. It
            also discusses how the proposed framework is applied in
            Indonesia as it develops a credit risk management framework
            for sovereign guarantees. Country experiences show that
            although sovereign risk managers can draw on insights from
            credit risk management in the private sector, academic
            literature, and practices in other countries, approaches to
            risk management need to be highly context-specific. Key
            differentiating factors include characteristics of the
            guarantee and on-lending portfolio, the sovereign’s specific
            risk exposure, the availability of market information and
            data, and resources and capacity in the public sector.
            Developing a sound risk analysis and measurement framework
            requires significant investments in resources, capacity
            building, and time. Governments should view this process as
            iterative and long-term.
Contingent liabilities risk
            management : a credit risk analysis framework for sovereign
            guarantees and on-lending—country experiences from Colombia,
            Indonesia, Sweden, and Turkey
WPS7538 Policy Research Working Paper 7538 Contingent Liabilities Risk Management: A Credit Risk Analysis Framework for Sovereign Guarantees and On-Lending Country Experiences from Colombia, Indonesia, Sweden, and Turkey _Fritz Florian Bachmair_ World Bank Treasury Government Debt and Risk Management Unit January 2016
The welfare cost of inflation and
            the regulations of money substitutes
This paper studies the possibility of
            using financial regulation that prohibits the use of money
            substitutes as a tool for mitigating the adverse effects of
            deviations from the Friedman rule. When inflation is not too
            high regulation aimed at eliminating money substitutes
            improves welfare by economizing on transaction costs. The
            gains from regulation depend on the distribution of income
            and the level of direct taxation. The area under the demand
            for money curve is equal to the welfare cost of inflation
            only when there are no direct taxes and no proportional
            intermediation cost: otherwise, the area under the demand
            curve overstates the welfare cost of inflation when money
            substitutes are not important and understates the welfare
            cost when money substitutes are important.
Growth, urbanization, and poverty
            reduction in India
Longstanding development issues are
            revisited in the light of a newly-constructed data set of
            poverty measures for India spanning 60 years, including 20
            years since reforms began in earnest in 1991. The study
            finds a downward trend in poverty measures since 1970, with
            an acceleration post-1991, despite rising inequality. Faster
            poverty decline came with higher growth and a more pro-poor
            pattern of growth. Post-1991 data suggest stronger
            inter-sectoral linkages: urban consumption growth brought
            gains to the rural as well as the urban poor, and the
            primary-secondary-tertiary composition of growth has ceased
            to matter, as all three sectors contributed to poverty reduction.
Illicit activity and money
            laundering from an economic growth perspective : a model and
            an application to Colombia
This paper contributes to the economic
            analysis of illicit activities and money laundering. First,
            it presents a theoretical model of long-run growth that
            explicitly considers illicit workers, activities, and
            income, alongside a licit private sector and a functioning
            government. Second, it generates estimates of the size of
            illicit income and provides simulated and econometric
            estimates of the volume of laundered assets in the Colombian
            economy. In the model, the licit sector operates in a
            perfectly competitive environment and produces a licit good
            through a standard neoclassical production function. The
            illicit sector operates in an imperfectly competitive
            environment and is composed of two different activities: The
            first activity produces an illicit good that nonetheless is
            valuable in the market (for example illicit drugs); the
            second does not add value to the economy but only
            redistributes wealth (for example robbery, kidnapping, and
            fraud). The paper provides a series of comparative statics
            exercises to assess the effects of changes in government
            efficiency, licit sector productivity, and illicit drug
            prices. From the model, the analysis derives a set of
            estimable macroeconometric equations to measure the size of
            laundered assets in the Colombian economy in the period 1985
            to 2013. The paper assembles a data set whose key components
            are estimates of illicit income from drug trafficking and
            common crime. Illicit incomes increased drastically until
            2001, reaching a peak of nearly 12 percent of gross domestic
            product and then decreasing to less than 2 percent by 2013.
            The decline overlaps not only in a period of high economic
            growth, but also after the implementation of Plan Colombia.
            The data set is used to estimate the volume of laundered
            assets in the economy by applying the Kalman filter for the
            estimation of unobserved dynamic variables onto the derived
            macroeconometric equations from the model. The findings show
            that the volume of laundered assets increased from about 8
            percent of gross domestic product in the mid-1980s to a peak
            of 14 percent by 2002, and declined to 8 percent in 2013.
Can you work it evidence on the
            productive potential of public works from a youth employment
            program in Sierra Leone
This paper examines the short-term
            impacts of a labor-intensive public works program on
            household welfare and economic prospects. Using a
            community-level randomized control trial approach, the paper
            finds that the public works program targeted at youth in
            Sierra Leone successfully provided temporary employment to
            youth characterized by low educational attainment. Cash
            income among program participants increased by nearly three
            times relative to the control counterparts, and treatment
            households experienced a 29 percent rise in monthly income.
            There is also evidence of significant re-optimization of
            household labor allocation and expenditure in response to
            program participation. First, there is an overall
            crowding-in of labor force participation by household
            members beyond program participation. Second, the extra
            income is spent partly to improve the quality of life and
            partly to secure future earnings. The treated households
            raised spending on food, medicines, and assets. They also
            expanded utilization of health services. Meanwhile, the
            consumption of temptation goods was greater, albeit by a
            small amount, and the rate of absenteeism among students was
            higher. To secure future earnings, the treated households
            set up new businesses: they were nearly four times more
            likely than the control households to set up new household
            enterprises. They also boosted their participation in
            informal savings groups and their investments in their homes
            and existing businesses. These results demonstrate that
            public works interventions have considerable potential as
            productive safety nets in post-conflict settings such as
            Sierra Leone. They can provide immediate income support, but
            also open avenues for investment in the productive capacity
            of poor households.
Globalization of labor markets and
            the growth prospects of nations
The many and varied crises in the world
            economy since 2007 seem to have different origins and
            diverse manifestations. This paper contends that there is
            however a structural shift beneath the global economy that
            is now reaching a critical mass, and that accounts for many
            of these crises, despite the diversity of manifestations.
            This shift is occasioned by two kinds of technological
            changes--the familiar labor-saving and what is here called
            "labor-linking." The paper argues that these
            changes (1) create a short-term window of opportunity for
            developing and emerging economies, but (2) in the long run
            constitute a major, multilateral policy challenge for all.
            To meet this challenge, we have to think outside the box and
            conceive of innovative policies. The paper briefly
            speculates on what those policies might be.
Learning or leaning : persistent and
            transitory growth spillovers from FDI
Using firm-level data for Jordan, the
            paper estimates the extent to which growth spillovers from
            foreign direct investment (FDI) to local firms stem from
            persistent learning externalities (i.e., they endure even
            after foreign investment leaves as knowledge has been
            transferred to local firms) or from transitory effects
            (e.g., demand increases that evaporate following
            disinvestment). The paper find that spillovers have a
            significant transitory nature, with employment and capital
            growth declining when FDI falls, particularly in downstream
            industries supplied by locals. This suggests that if
            FDI-attracting policies are intended to promote sustainable
            growth, it may be more effective to attract and retain FDI
            via long-term structural policies, for instance, through low
            corporate tax rates rather than temporary tax holidays or
            through policies that strengthen the domestic absorptive
            capacity and linkages between foreign and local firms.
Welfare dynamics with synthetic
            panels : the case of the Arab world in transition
This paper studies welfare dynamics,
            especially changes associated with middle-class status in
            countries in the Middle East and North Africa, before and
            after the Arab Spring transitions, using objective and
            subjective welfare measures. Absent panel data, the analysis
            employs state-of-the-art synthetic panel techniques using
            repeated cross sections of expenditure data from household
            surveys and subjective well-being data from value surveys,
            which were conducted during the 2000s and the Arab Spring
            period. The objective welfare dynamics indicate mixed
            trends. About half the poor in the 2000s moved out of
            poverty by the end of the decade, but chronic poverty
            remained high; upward mobility was strong in Syria and
            Tunisia, but downward mobility was pronounced in Yemen and
            Egypt. Subjective well-being dynamics suggest negative
            developments in most countries during the Arab Spring
            transitions. Low education achievement, informal worker
            status, and rural residency are positively associated with
            lower than average chances for upward mobility, and greater
            than average chances for downward mobility according to both
            types of welfare measures.
Strengthening national
            hydrometeorological services through cascading forecasting :
            investing for sustainability and impact across global,
            regional, and national centers
Low-income countries'
            hydrometeorological services often face considerable
            constraints in delivering the information needed to
            effectively drive early warning and climate adaptation,
            which, if improved, could generate socioeconomic benefits of
            about US$1.4 billion per year. Modern weather forecasting
            adopts a cascading approach where numerical products
            developed by global producing centers feed regional and
            national models, with national forecasters assimilating
            these and other data to produce information customized for
            local users. The system depends on global producing centers
            sharing their products, often through voluntary action
            without dedicated financing, which is not sustainable and
            does not fully leverage the capacity of global producing
            centers to provide tailored information. It would be
            economically viable for global producing centers to provide
            their full suite of services to low-income countries,
            producing likely global socioeconomic benefits of US$200
            million to US$500 million per year, outweighing the costs by
            about 80 to one. Existing global producing centers'
            capacities and their potential benefits for low-income
            countries fulfill the utilitarian principal. Global
            numerical weather prediction should therefore be treated as
            a global public good. However, although recent global
            development and climate agreements clearly suggest that
            improving forecasting in low-income countries should be a
            target of international cooperation, official development
            assistance financing of high-income country global producing
            centers to provide products to low-income countries would be
            considered tied aid. Specialized mechanisms, such as the
            Green Climate Fund, could provide legitimate means to
            finance global producing centers to provide global public
            services in support of low-income countries. However, to
            realize the potential benefits, significant investment is
            needed in regional and national forecasting, early warning,
            and preparedness capacities.