rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
RWMA Poznań also provides opinions and recommendations to provincial and local governments about financing water quality improvement projects, in particular the construction of wastewater treatment facilities. RWMA Poznań has been deeply involved in the process of construction of new wastewater treatment plants for the cities of Łódź and Poznań, which contribute much of the point-source pollution in the basin.

The RWMA maintains and operates facilities that regulate river flows for water supply and environmental protection, and for the facilitation of navigation. RWMA Poznań owns and operates the regulatory reservoirs in the basin that maintain river flows. Reservoir releases are also a means of addressing water shortages. Voivodeships in the basin have the formal authority to declare drought emergencies. Once an emergency has been declared, the RWMA can alter reservoir operations and conditions of water use permits in those portions of the basin. This procedure has not been used yet, and there is a reluctance to do so because of its likely impacts on water users.

With respect to flood control and protection, the RWMA’s function is mainly to serve as a coordination and information center, providing decision support for flood prevention, flood control, and flood response. RWMA staff have prepared flood hazard maps, planned the construction of additional flood control infrastructure and maintenance of existing infrastructure, and supported public information and education. RWMAs make recommendations about emptying reservoirs for flood protection, although those recommendations must be approved by the voivodeship director of emergency management services. If the voivodeship director refuses the RWMA’s recommendation, the director assumes liability for any flooding that occurs.

RWMA Poznań receives an annual budget allocation from the central government, distributed through the Ministry of Environment. Some of the RWMA’s functions in managing state-owned facilities generate fee revenues, but most of that revenue goes directly to the Ministry of Finance. Overall, 99.5% of the RWMA’s budget comes from the central government.

In addition to its main office (in Poznań), the RWMA has three local offices serving basin subareas:

- One in Poznań, addressing the middle and lower Warta River and the Prosna River.

- One in Bydgoszcz, addressing the Notec River.

- One in Sieradz, addressing the upper Warta River.

All together, RWMA Poznań has 322 employees. About half (150) are highly educated and professional staff (e.g., engineers, attorneys), and the others are technical and operations staff.

# **_5.2 Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and Polish Water Policy_**

Revisions to Polish water law, anticipated when the RBWMs were created in 1991, were long delayed. It was not until 1995 that the draft of a new water law was introduced in 15
WPS4067

# **Learning Levels and Gaps in Pakistan**

Jishnu Das<sup>∗</sup> Priyanka Pandey Tristan Zajonc The World Bank The World Bank Harvard University

## **Abstract**

This paper reports on a survey of primary public and private schools in rural Pakistan with a focus on student achievement as measured through test scores. Absolute learning is low compared to curricular standards and international norms. Tested at the end of the third grade, a bare majority have mastered the K-I mathematics curriculum and 31 percent can correctly form a sentence with the word “school” in the vernacular (Urdu). As in high-income countries, bivariate comparisons show that higher learning is associated with household wealth and parental literacy. In sharp _contrast_ to high-income countries, these gaps decrease dramatically in a multivariate regression and once we look at differences between children in the _same_ school. Consequently, the largest gaps are _between_ schools. The gap in English test-scores between government and private schools, for instance, is _12 times_ the gap between children from rich and poor families. To contextualize these results within a broader South-Asian context, we use data from public schools in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Levels of learning and the structure of the educational gaps are similar in the two samples. As in Pakistan, absolute learning is low and the largest gaps are between schools: the gap between good and bad government schools, for instance, is 5 times the gap between children with literate and illiterate mothers.

## World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4067, November 2006

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org._

> ∗ _Corresponding Author:_ Jishnu Das (jdas1@worldbank.org). The discussion of learning in Pakistan draws from an ongoing report on Learning and Educational Achievement in Punjab Schools (LEAPS) authored by Tahir Andrabi (Pomona College), Asim Ijaz Khwaja (Harvard University), Tara Vishwanath (World Bank) and Tristan Zajonc (Harvard University). Funding for the survey was provided by the World Bank through grants from the Knowledge for Change and Poverty and Social Impact Analysis Trust Funds and the SouthAsia Human Development Network. Pandey was not affiliated with the World Bank at the time data were collected from schools in India, for which necessary approval for the study was obtained from respective state governments in India. We thank Elizabeth M. King and Lant Pritchett for extensive discussions.

- 1 -
- 7 -

Figure 1. Number of Bidders in PPP Auctions by Sector <!-- Start of picture text --> (Water and sewage) (Energy)<br>0.30 0.30<br>Avg. 3.61 Avg. 3.77<br>0.25 0.25<br>0.20 0.20<br>0.15 0.15<br>0.10 0.10<br>0.05 0.05<br>0.00 0.00<br>1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13~<br>Number of bidders Number of bidders<br>(Telecommunications) (Roads)<br>0.30 0.30<br>Avg. 5.43 Avg. 4.68<br>0.25 0.25<br>0.20 0.20<br>0.15 0.15<br>0.10 0.10<br>0.05 0.05<br>0.00 0.00<br>1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13~<br>Number of bidders Number of bidders<br>Density Density<br>Density Density<br><!-- End of picture text --> Source: PPI Database.

A natural question is why auction-based competition is so limited in the water sector. Foster (2005) mentions that many water concession auctions in the Latin American in the 1990s involved one to three bidders. More importantly, it is indicated that market concentration seems high; three large international water service operators—i.e., SUEZ (former Lyonnaise des Eaux), Aguas de Barcelona, and Veolia Environnement (former Vivendi Environnement)—regularly participated in the PPP auctions. Hence, it seems that only a few firms are able to undertake PPP water transactions or compete with those incumbents.

The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region is in fact faced with a particularly serious problem with lack of competition in the water service transactions (Figure 2). The LAC countries, on average, involved only two firms in their competitive selection process. Moreover, the density distribution of the number of bidders per auction is heavily distributed
# I Introduction

Changes in commodity export prices have played an important role in explaining the economic performance of industrial and of developing countries. In the developing countries, commodity export prices are very important since more than 70 countries derive at least 50% of their export earnings from non-fuel primary commodities. In 1985, in Sub-Saharan Africa, primary commodities exports accounted for 94% of total merchandise exports.

For most countries, fluctuations in the international prices of the main commodity exports have important implications for government revenues since the government is likely to either own the production facilities (e.g, Nigeria for oil) or to have set up a price stabilization fund (e.g, Cote d'Ivoire for coffee). Furthermore, trade taxes are often an important source of revenues. Increased export revenues, following a commodity boom, usually result in a balance-of-payments surplus and an accumulation of international reserves.

Typically, following a commodity boom, primary commodities exporter LDC's have experienced a surge in government expenditures which continued in spite of the subsequent decline in the price of primary commodities. A survey of commodity booms for several
Table 3: Lagged Shift in Agricultural Marketing Patterns

||Sold ra|w crops|Total K|gs. Sold||Raw crops we|re sold ...(0/1)||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||(0|/1)|(lo|g)|Farmgate/R|elatives/Friends|Main|Market|
|_δlag_|0.210|0.191|1.382**|1.523**|0.0174|-0.224**|-0.171|-0.210|
||(0.179)|(0.212)|(0.608)|(0.756)|(0.184)|(0.112)|(0.196)|(0.238)|
|_βlag,pv_||-0.0898||-0.148||-0.150||0.0311|
|||(0.111)||(0.296)||(0.0995)||(0.101)|
|_δlag,pv_||0.00883||-0.764||1.152***||0.214|
|||(0.551)||(0.913)||(0.191)||(0.270)|
|Constant|0.533***|0.539***|5.853***|5.860***|0.0910***|0.101***|0.214***|0.213***|
||(0.00207)|(0.00787)|(0.00804)|(0.0173)|(0.00242)|(0.00556)|(0.00258)|(0.00680)|
|Obs.|3,882|3,882|2,116|2,116|2,050|2,050|2,050|2,050|
|R<sup>2</sup>|0.304|0.304|0.521|0.521|0.297|0.302|0.289|0.289|
|_δpv −βpv_||0.0986||-0.616||1.302***||0.183|
|S.E.||0.583||0.909||0.223||0.321|

_Notes_ : * p _<_ .1, ** p _<_ .05, *** p _<_ .01. Household-level data, restricted to households engaged in agriculture. S.E.s allow for clustering at the level of enumeration area (EA). All columns include fixed effects for if a household was located within 10 km. of a population center with at least 20,000 inhabitants, the state-level administrative center, and a market. Additionally EA-level, state-level, month, and river sub-basin fixed effects are included. Borno state is excluded.

32
**<u>Table 1: Food items considered for simulating the potential impact of higher food prices on poverty</u>**

|Country|Household Survey|FoodItemsTaken into accountforsimulations|
|---|---|---|
|Burkina Faso|QUIBB, 2003|Rice, Bread, Vegetable oil and butter, Sugar, Milk|
|Dem. Rep. Congo|123 Survey, 2005|Rice, Cassava, Maize, Palm oil, Plantain, Wheat, Sugar, Milk|
|Ghana|GLSS, 2005-06|Rice, Bread, Flour, Maize|
|Gabon|CWIQ, 2005|Rice, Cassava, Maize, Wheat, Palm oil and groundnut oil|
|Guinea|EIBEP, 2002-03|Rice|
|Liberia|CWIQ , 2007|Rice (locally produced and imported)|
|Mali|ELIM, 2006|Rice, Millet, Maize, Wheat|
|Niger|QUIBB, 2005|Rice (locally produced and imported), Millet, Sorghum|
|Nigeria|NLSS, 2003-04|Rice, Corn, Maize, Wheat flour and bread, Cassava|
|Senegal|ESPS, 2006|Rice, Vegetable oil, Sugar, Bread, Milk|
|Sierra Leone|SLLS, 2003|Rice|
|Togo|QUIBB,2006|Rice, Vegetable oil, Sugar,Bread,Milk|

Source: Authors’ estimation using respective household surveys.

13
You, Q., S. Kang, Y. Wu, and Y. Yan, 2007. Climate change over the Yarlung Zangbo river basin during 1961–2005. Journal of Geographical Sciences 17(4): 409-420.

- You, L., M.W. Rosegrant, S. Wood, and D. Sun, 2009. Impact of Growing Season Temperature on Wheat Productivity in China. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 149:1009-1014.

- You, Q., S. Kang, E. Aguilar, and Y. Yan, 2008. Changes in Daily Climate Extremes in the Eastern and Central Tibetan Plateau During 1961–2005. Journal of Geophysical Research 113: D07101, doi:10.1029/2007JD009389.

Yunling, H., and Z. Yiping, 2005. Climate Change from 1960 to 2000 in the Lancang River Valley, China. Mountain Research and Development 25: 341-348.

Zhang, M., Q. Ren, X. Wei, J. Wang, X. Yang, and Z. Jiang, 2011. Climate Change, Glacier Melting and Streamflow in the Niyang River Basin, Southeast Tibet, China. Ecohydrology 4(2): 288-298.

47
Policy Research Working Paper 8180

# **Abstract**

This paper collects a unique data set of classified ads and exploits quasi-random variation in the applicant pool composition to test for hiring discrimination against immigrants in South Africa’s informal sector. Consistent with a tournament models in which immigrants are penalized, the analysis finds that foreigners and natives benefit from being pooled with foreign job seekers. Next, the paper tests whether discrimination affects search behavior. Controlling for location fixed effects, the analysis finds suggestive evidence for sorting: immigrants search further away and higher discrimination in the residential area is positively correlated with the decision to search in different suburbs.

This paper is a product of the Jobs Group and Africa Gender Innovation Lab. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at mabel@middlebury.edu.

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent._ Produced by the Research Support Team
and Jacoby (2004) have shown that there is a strong wealth effect in education. Households complain of high costs, low quality and low relevance of the curriculum. Existing policies such as fee exemptions for the poor and ethnic minority children have low coverage and have been found to account for only a small share of total household outlays on schooling (Behrman and Knowles 1999, Nguyen 1999 and van de Walle 2004).

# **5. Data**

Both Morocco and Vietnam have living standards surveys that were implemented with World Bank assistance for two dates during the 1990s. These are nationally representative, household consumption expenditure surveys that also collect information on various other aspects of living standards including health, education, work and migration. We use the Morocco Living Standards Survey (MLSS) rounds of 1990/91 and 1998/99. 3323 households were interviewed in the first round and 5131 in the second. In the case of Vietnam, the data come from the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys (VLSS) of 1992/93 and 1997/98, covering about 4,800 and 6000 households respectively (World Bank 1995 and 2000). In both countries, the surveys are comparable across the two years and sufficient information on school attendance, household and community level variables is available. These are fairly comprehensive data sets, which will allow us to include a potentially wide range of controls.

Our aim is to keep the analyses as similar as possible for the two countries and yet allow for some fundamental institutional and circumstantial differences between them. In some cases, we are also limited by the differences in the datasets. We created two individual level files of children aged 6 through 11, and 12 through 18 for Vietnam (respectively containing 3328 and 3100 observations in 1993, and 3289 and 4042 observations for 1998). Six is the official primary school starting age and indeed, some 66 % of children were in school at that age in 13
financing needs. In 1996, for example, total private net capital flows to developing countries amounted to $244 billion,<sup>6</sup> which represents a five-fold increase since 1990, and accounts for 86% of total aggregate net long-term flows (see Figure 1). In such a situation, should there be a currency crisis, the private sector is likely to be rationed out and its demand for foreign exchange subordinated to that of the public sector.

The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows: Section II elaborates on reasons that capital flows to infrastructure have grown so quickly in recent years, despite the perceived high risk of such transactions. Section III develops an analytical framework for valuation of foreign investment projects, incorporating explicitly both project and country risk. Section IV presents the empirical results of an econometric analysis of the credit risk premium associated with foreign loans extended to a sample of infrastructure projects. Finally, Section V provides some policy recommendations.

Table 1. Infrastructure financing raised by developing countries 1986-95

|Typeofborrowerand<br>instrument|1986|1987|1988|1989|1990|1991|1992|<br>1993|<br>1994|<br>1995|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Total|1,351|2,543|910|3,503|2,641|6,312|8,835|18,027|23,314|22,297|
|Public sector|1,251|2,378|773|2,586|<br>639|2,803|3,079|5,760|7,580|6,690|
|Private sector|100|<br>165|137|<br>917|2,002|3,509|5,756|12,267|15,734|15,607|
|Loans|100|<br>165|137|<br>767|1,380|<br>126|1,536|6,271|6,007|11,086|
|Bonds|0|<br>0|0|<br>150|<br>500|<br>740|1,155|3,867|5,810|3,262|
|Equity|0|<br>0|0|<br>0|121|2,643|3,065|2,130|3,918|1,259|

_Source: World Bank, Global Development Finance_

# **II. Reasons for increases in capital flows to infrastructure**

At first glance, infrastructure finance does not seem to be a viable vehicle for attracting foreign capital to developing countries. First, exposure to currency risk, which for foreign investment in export-oriented manufacturing industries is of a relatively minor concern, is a critical feature of infrastructure project investment. Project revenues are often generated in local currencies, while servicing of foreign capital, whether debt or equity, involves payment in foreign currency. Fluctuations in the exchange rate of the

> 6 According to World Bank estimnates (Global Development Finance, 1997).

4
more clearly, conslder a commodLty tax substitution where the iniclal tax bases, XL and Xj, are of equal size. In this case, if a er,ceds one it requires more than a dollar of extra taxes from the i'th commodity in order to redutce the consumer price of the j'th commodity by one dollar. Of course, careful inspection of the expression for a reveals that it may be just as easily less than ona since it measures tne interaction of the commodity tax substitution with the initial tax distortions tk. In the absence of pre-existing commodity taxes, the value of the a parameter would simi Afy to one.3/ If income were fixed, implying that nontaxable leisure consumption was independent of the design of commodity taxation, it is easy to see that uniform, across-the-board indirect taxes (a general sales tax for example) would be superior on efficiency grounds. With no change in relative prices all of the derivatives in the expression for a would have a value of zer, and thei value of a would be simply one. Of course the optimal tax literature allows for interactions between the consumption of leisure and commodities or treats leisure as an untaxed commodity and, under these circumstances, non-uniform commodity taxes generally will have the highest efficiency rating. Here, our task is to suppress the efficiency issue and seek to discover instead which excise tax bases are preferable on distribution grounds.

In the special case whe!t All cross-price-elasticities are zero, a reduces to the simpler expression

**Masall#A/Welfaxe D-inaee & the** Dealsn of **Exies** Taxation in **the** Cote D'IvoirlWbThirsk:ab/5/18/88
Policy Research Working Paper 6390

# **Abstract**

This paper addresses policies aimed at closing the ruralurban gap for one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the under-five mortality rate (U5MR). The paper relies on the Maquette for MDG Simulations (MAMS), a computable general equilibrium model, applied to the database of an archetypical low-income country. The scenarios, which focus on the period 2013–2030, include a “business-as-usual” base scenario and policy scenarios that analyze efforts to raise the rural population up to the urban level in terms of health services or the under-five mortality rate. The policy scenarios are implemented with alternative sources of fiscal space. The results indicate that, if current trends continue, considerable progress for MDGs should be expected by 2030. If the government raises rural health services, then the decline in the rural U5MR would accelerate. If most additional resources come from foreign grants or government efficiency gains, then the repercussions for other development indicators, including poverty reduction, would be positive. However, if most additional resources are from domestic taxes or borrowing, then progress for the rural U5MR would come at the expense of less progress for other indicators. Sensitivity analysis shows that these qualitative findings are robust to different values for two parameters related to initial rural-urban cost and service gaps. However, quantitatively, the results depend on the values of these two parameters, implying that individual country characteristics strongly influence the fiscal-space requirements for and consequences of equalizing ruralurban MDG services and outcomes.

This paper is a product of the e Development Prospects Group, Development Economics. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at hlofgren@worldbank.org.

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent._ Produced by the Research Support Team