rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
How bank competition affects
            firms' access to finance
Combining multi-year, firm-level surveys
            with country-level panel data for 53 countries, the authors
            explore the impact of bank competition on firms' access
            to finance. They find that low competition, as measured by
            high values of the Lerner index, diminishes firms'
            access to finance, while commonly-used bank concentration
            measures are not robust predictors of firms' access to
            finance. In addition, they find that the impact of
            competition on access to finance depends on the environment
            that banks operate in. Some features of the environment,
            such as greater financial development and better credit
            information, can mitigate the damaging impact of low
            competition. But other characteristics, such as high
            government bank ownership, can exacerbate the negative effect.
How does India's rural roads
            program affect the grassroots findings from a survey in Orissa
This paper analyzes the effects of
            all-weather rural roads on households' net output
            prices, education and health in a poor, drought-prone region
            of India. Of 30 villages originally surveyed in 2001-02,
            when two had such roads, a further nine received them
            between January 2007 and December 2009 under the program
            Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Cross-section comparisons
            involving all villages and 'before and after'
            comparisons in the nine yielded these findings: (i) net
            output prices were 5 per cent or more higher; (ii)
            substantially fewer days of schooling were lost due to bad
            weather, largely because teachers had fewer absences; (iii)
            the acutely sick received more timely treatment and were
            more likely to be treated in a hospital than in the nearest
            primary health clinic; and (iv) the respondents ranked the
            resulting benefits in the domains of health and education at
            least as highly as the 'commercial' ones.
The crisis in the Euro zone : did
            the euro contribute to the evolution of the crisis
The simmering sovereign debt crisis in
            the Euro Zone represents a looming threat to the recovery of
            the world economy and could lead to a renewed global
            financial crisis. The purpose of this paper is to analyze
            the root causes of the crisis in Europe and assess the
            extent to which it was driven by the global financial crisis
            and by factors internal to Europe, notably the adoption of
            the common currency. Adoption of the euro led to convergence
            of interest rates in periphery countries to the levels in
            core countries and, in combination with rising capital
            inflows owing to greater financial integration, set off a
            consumption and real estate boom in periphery countries,
            leading to higher growth and increases in government revenue
            and spending. The resulting real appreciation led to a loss
            of competitiveness in periphery countries, adversely
            affecting export performance and causing rising current
            account imbalances. While the fiscal position remained
            manageable before the crisis owing to rising revenue, the
            recession brought about by the global financial crisis led
            to the burst of real estate bubbles and a financial sector
            crisis and to sharply increased budget deficits and worsened
            debt indicators and triggered the sovereign debt crisis.
            Core countries, in particular Germany, maintained a
            competitive edge through wage restraint allowing them to
            increase exports to periphery countries, while their banks
            profited from increased lending to non-core countries. In
            sum, the euro exacerbated intra-European imbalances whose
            unsustainability became evident in the aftermath of the
            global financial crisis and triggered the current sovereign
            debt crisis.
Equity in tertiary education in
            Central America : an overview
This paper analyzes the evolution in
            socio-economic and ethnic disparities in tertiary education
            attainment, participation, and completion and labor market
            outcomes in the six countries of Central America. There is
            evidence of differential progress, with Costa Rica, a
            middle-income country, and Nicaragua, a low-income country,
            having improved participation of low-income students in
            tertiary education, while this continues to be negligible in
            Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Wide differentials in
            salaries linked to socio-economic background can signal
            differences in the quality of tertiary education or prior
            educational experiences. The analysis distinguishes between
            long-term and short-term constraints and the key transitions
            in the education cycle that impede access to tertiary
            education. The main obstacle to accessing tertiary education
            for poor students is the failure to either start or complete
            secondary education, suggesting different priorities for
            different countries in addressing long-term constraints.
            However, problems also arise within tertiary education, as
            in all countries the average tertiary education completion
            rate is below 50 percent, with even lower rates for students
            from low-income families and indigenous backgrounds. The
            paper uses an OECD framework for public policies for
            promoting equity in tertiary education to assess policies in
            Central American countries and concludes that many of them
            currently lack the policies, instruments, and institutional
            mechanisms to promote greater equity in tertiary education.
            The paper highlights how valuable insights can be obtained
            from analysis of household survey data in the absence of
            comprehensive data on tertiary education which is typical of
            many developing countries.
Why follow the leader collective
            action, credible commitment and conflict
Most analyses of conflict assume that
            conflicting groups act in a unitary fashion. This assumption
            is often violated: to reduce their risk of replacement,
            group leaders prevent both group members and soldiers from
            acting collectively, making it difficult for leaders to make
            credible commitments to them. Lifting the assumption that
            groups are unitary shifts the analysis of a wide range of
            conflict issues. The effects of income shocks and rents on
            conflict risk become contingent on collective action. Leader
            decisions regarding collective action explain the forcible
            recruitment of child soldiers and predation on civilians:
            leaders who prefer to limit military organization are more
            likely to pursue these tactics. Leader decisions regarding
            collective action also introduce an unexplored mechanism by
            which state capacity is created and a specific reason to
            regard state capacity as endogenous to conflict risk. This
            focus, finally, suggests that interventions to reduce
            conflict risk, such as safety net payments or service
            delivery, are likely to be most difficult to deliver
            precisely where leaders are most reluctant to allow
            collective action and where, therefore, conflict risk is highest.
Protection in good and bad times the
            Turkish green card health program
This paper evaluates the equity and
            financial protection implications of the expansion of the
            Green Card (Yesil Kart) non-contributory health insurance
            program in Turkey during the growth years from 2003 to 2008.
            It also considers the program's protective impact
            during the economic crisis in 2009. The authors find that
            the rapid expansion of the program between 2003 and 2008 was
            highly progressive. It led to significant gains in coverage
            of the poor but offered limited financial protection as
            out-of-pocket expenditures even before the introduction of
            the program had been limited. Using a specialized welfare
            monitoring survey, fielded in 2009, the authors estimate the
            impact of the program on household level health care
            utilization during the first phase of the economic slowdown
            in Turkey. Using three different estimation techniques, they
            find that the Green Card program had a significantly
            positive impact on protecting health care utilization during
            the crisis.
Benchmarking financial systems
            around the world
This paper introduces the Global
            Financial Development Database, an extensive dataset of
            financial system characteristics for 205 economies from 1960
            to 2010. The database includes measures of (a) size of
            financial institutions and markets (financial depth), (b)
            degree to which individuals can and do use financial
            services (access), (c) efficiency of financial
            intermediaries and markets in intermediating resources and
            facilitating financial transactions (efficiency), and (d)
            stability of financial institutions and markets (stability).
            The authors document cross-country differences and time
            series trends.
Sri Lanka : from peace dividend to
            sustained growth acceleration
Following the cessation of hostilities
            in May 2009, the Government of Sri Lanka has announced a
            suitably ambitious macroeconomic vision to capitalize on the
            peace dividend. Its goals include growing at 8 percent or
            more per year and lowering government indebtedness from
            around 80 to 60 percent of GDP by 2015. This paper's
            main finding is that while some post-conflict bounce is only
            to be expected, sustaining high growth presents significant
            challenges. A substantial rise in the national investment
            and savings rates will be needed to sustain growth rates of
            8 percent even when accompanied by a significant rise in
            total factor productivity growth. With the government's
            balance sheet constrained by its desire to lower public
            indebtedness, private investment will need to become the
            engine of growth. This places high priority on better
            infrastructure, clear signals about the relative roles of
            the public and private sectors, and hard budget constraints
            and competition both to strengthen the investment climate
            and spur technological upgrading in pursuit of faster
            productivity growth.
What's new in the new
            industrial policy in Latin America
Latin America was an aggressive
            practitioner of industrial policies (IP) in the years
            1950-1980. During much of the period the general practice
            was in line with the then mainstream thinking in development
            economics. Significant growth, industrialization and
            modernization took place, but serious flaws in concept and
            execution of the IP caused them to fail as a vehicle for
            economic catch-up with rich countries in an era of an
            expansive world economy. A very serious Latin American
            external debt crisis in the 1980s, coupled with the
            ascendance in international discourse of arguments for
            retrenchment of the State in economics and life, contributed
            to a pendulum swing in the region to the policies of the
            so-called Washington Consensus. Major structural adjustments
            and reforms designed to bring the free market forward and
            push back the market governance of the State dominated the
            1980s and 1990s. In recent years, however, countries in
            Latin America have witnessed a renaissance in the deployment
            of systematic IP. This paper explains why IP have emerged
            and why they are a necessary step for the more profound
            structural change needed to drive sustained high rates of
            growth. Based on illustrated cases which we think reflect
            the current state of affairs in the region, the paper
            highlights the nature of the shift to a more proactive state
            promotion of industrial and services upgrading, as well as
            the important new characteristics of the current outbreak of
            IP which are different from the ones of the past and offer
            hope for greater success. It also identifies a legacy of
            some bad habits which linger and need to be addressed with
            urgency if the new trend is to be successfully consolidated.
Grameen bank lending : does group
            liability matter
Competing theories increasingly support
            the positive role of social capital in small loan default
            costs of group lending; at the same time, potential group
            collusion may increase loan delinquencies. Findings from the
            available literature are mixed on the role of the various
            attributes of group lending. But past studies suffer from
            estimation bias due to the unobserved sorting behavior of
            group members and their other attributes. This paper
            attempts to resolve that estimation bias by utilizing
            longitudinal data from 297 Grameen Bank groups since their
            inceptions. A dynamic lagged dependent model with correction
            for time-varying heterogeneity of group and individual
            behavior is applied to estimate the effect of group
            liability in the Grameen Bank. The results suggest that
            group liability matters in both loan disbursement and
            repayment, with women less of a credit risk than men and
            women's groups more homogeneous than men's.
            Finally, the benefits of social capital outweigh the costs
            of group collusion, especially for women's groups,
            thereby reducing overall default rates. The risk-pooling
            behavior of diverse men's groups increases men's
            repayment behavior. Overall, group lending as practiced by
            Grameen Bank appears to increase repayment rates.
Exporter dynamics database
This paper introduces the Exporter
            Dynamics Database. The database includes exporter
            characteristics and measures of exporter growth based on
            firm-level customs information from 38 developing and seven
            developed countries, primarily for the period between 2003
            and 2010. The measures are available at different levels of
            aggregation, including: a) country-year, b)
            country-year-product, and c) country-year-destination.
            Several new stylized facts about exporter behavior across
            countries emerge from the database. (i) Larger or more
            developed economies have more exporters, larger and more
            diversified exporters, and lower entry and exit rates than
            smaller or developing economies. (ii) In the short run,
            expansions along the intensive margin (exporter size)
            contribute more to export growth than expansions along the
            extensive margin (number of exporters). (iii) Exit rates are
            highly correlated with entry rates and both are negatively
            correlated with survival rates, average exporter size, and
            diversification. (iv) The number of exporters and the entry
            and exit rates in a country-product group are partially
            driven by country and product-group effects; however, the
            average size of exporters in a country-product group is not.
            Although the first three facts can be explained by models
            incorporating firm heterogeneity and uncertainty, the fourth
            fact is more difficult to explain with existing models.
            Several findings are confirmed in this database, including
            the importance of large multi-product firms. This database
            can be a valuable tool to improve the understanding of the
            micro-foundations of export growth, by providing new
            insights about exporter characteristics and dynamics.
Is green growth good for the poor
The developing world is experiencing
            substantial environmental change, and climate change is
            likely to accelerate these processes in the coming decades.
            Due to their initial poverty and their relatively high
            dependence on environmental capital for their livelihoods,
            the poor are likely to suffer most due to their low
            resources for mitigation and investment in adaptation.
            Economic growth is essential for any large-scale poverty
            reduction. Green growth, a growth process that is sensitive
            to environmental and climate change concerns, can be
            particularly helpful in this respect. The paper focuses on
            the possible trade-offs between the greening of growth and
            poverty reduction, and it highlights the sectoral and
            spatial processes behind effective poverty reduction. High
            labor intensity, declining shares of agriculture in GDP and
            employment, migration, and urbanization are essential
            features of poverty-reducing growth. The paper contrasts
            some common and stylized green-sensitive growth ideas
            related to agriculture, trade, technology, infrastructure,
            and urban development with the requirements of
            poverty-sensitive growth. It finds that these ideas may
            cause a slowdown in the effectiveness of growth to reduce
            poverty. The main lesson is that trade-offs are bound to
            exist; they increase the social costs of green growth and
            should be explicitly addressed. If they are not addressed,
            green growth may not be good for the poor, and the poor
            should not be asked to pay the price for sustaining growth
            while greening the planet.
Trade in a 'green growth'
            development strategy : global scale issues and challenges
This paper surveys the state of
            knowledge about the trade-related environmental consequences
            of a country's development strategy along three
            channels: (i) direct trade-environment linkages
            (overexploitation of natural resources and trade-related
            transport costs); (ii) 'virtual trade' in
            emissions resulting from production activities; and (iii)
            the product mix attributes of a 'green-growth'
            strategy (environmentally preferable products and goods for
            environmental management). Trade exacerbates
            over-exploitation of natural resources in weak institutional
            environments, but there is little evidence that differences
            in environmental policies across countries has led to
            significant 'pollution havens.' Trade policies to
            'level the playing field' would be ineffective and
            result in destructive conflicts in the World Trade
            Organization. Lack of progress at the Doha Round suggests
            the need to modify the current system of global policy making.
Should Wall-Street be occupied an
            overlooked price externality of financial intermediation
Does an unregulated financial system
            absorb too many productive inputs? This paper studies this
            question in the context of a dynamic model with
            heterogeneous producers. In the absence of a financial
            system, the only way to purchase inputs is using internal
            funds. Producers are subject to idiosyncratic productivity
            shocks, and will decide to produce only if their
            productivity is high enough. Otherwise, they will hold
            money. A financial intermediation technology allows
            producers to purchase inputs in excess of their internal
            funds, by borrowing from unproductive agents. However,
            intermediation requires the use of costly monitoring
            services. In equilibrium, intermediation increases the money
            in circulation and raises nominal prices, thereby reducing
            the value of internal funds and making producers
            increasingly reliant on costly monitoring services. For this
            reason, society is better off when intermediation is restricted.
Green industrial policy : trade and theory
This paper studies the reality and the
            potential for green industrial policy. It provides a summary
            of the green industrial policies, broadly understood, for
            five countries. It then considers the relation between green
            industrial policies and trade disputes, emphasizing the
            Brazil-United States dispute involving ethanol and the
            broader United States-China dispute. The theory of public
            policy provides many lessons for green industrial policy.
            The authors highlight four of these lessons, involving the
            Green Paradox, the choice of quantities versus prices with
            endogenous investment, the coordination issues arising from
            emissions control, and the ability of green industrial
            policies to promote cooperation in reducing a global public
            bad like carbon emissions.