rafmacalaba/datause-encoder-data huggingface dataset:
Unemployment, migration, and wages
            in Turkey 1962-85
The author analyzes the status and
            development of Turkey's labour market since 1962. He
            states that the estimated steady upward trend in
            unemployment since 1962 (to 12.7  in 1985) may be
            misleading. Cyclical short term changes have been important.
            Unemployment was most likely declining in the early 1970s
            and after 1982 while it increased most between 1978 and 1982
            with the stabilization program. Meanwhile, young, educated
            single people with little work experience and long spells of
            unemployment dominated the unemployment picture. Therefore,
            long term unemployment can be attributed to youth as much as
            it can be attributed to the stabilization program.. Rural -
            urban migration was substantial between 1965 and 1975 but,
            remarkably enough, was reversed between 1975 and 1980. This
            was probably a result of the recession accompanying the
            stabilization policy of 1978, which helps explain changes in
            rural & urban employment. In conclusion, Hansen points
            out that, all things considered, the long upward trend in
            unemployment in Turkey is partly a matter of the voluntary
            unemployment of a better educated population of youth, and
            partly a matter of involuntary unemployment related to the
            stabilization program.
Adjustment and private investment in Kenya
The authors use an accelerator model to
            assess the determinants of private investment and to analyze
            how adjustment policies affect those determinants.  Their
            model emphasizes the effect of resource constraints on
            private investment behavior, including that arising from
            foreign exchange rationing.  Econometric estimation of the
            investment model with Kenyan data for 1968-88 suggests that
            Kenya's failure to implement adjustment policies after
            the collapse of the coffee boom and the breakup of the East
            African common market reduced private investment sharply in
            the 1980s.  The authors argue that inadequate fiscal
            adjustment was a key failure of policy.  With direct
            competition between public and private sectors for limited
            financial resources, fiscal deficits preempted funds and
            restricted private investor's access to them.  In
            addition, when cuts in government spending were undertaken
            to contain deficits, they fell disproportionately on capital
            expenditure, especially on physical infrastructure.  Though
            real depreciation is found to have a direct negative impact
            on investment, the authors use simulations to show that it
            has a positive indirect effect on private investment in the
            medium term because such depreciation relaxes the foreign
            exchange constraint on imports.  They conclude that
            efficient fiscal adjustment and liberalization of imports
            will be critical for the recovery of private investment in Kenya.
Assessing gains in efficient
            production among China's industrial enterprises
A central objective of economic reform
            is to reduce the productive inefficiency that arose under
            regimes in which markets and material incentives played a
            limited role. Applying an approach for measuring gains in
            productive efficiency, the authors evaluate the progress
            between 1980 and 1989 among China's large and
            medium-size state-owned enterprises in equalizing factor
            productivity across enterprises. In the early stages of
            reform, returns on factor investments varied greatly. Total
            factor productivity in the most efficient mill was 37 times
            greater than in the least efficient mill. The differences
            were partly the result of central planning, including
            administered prices, restrictions on the flow of resources
            from low-return to high-return activities, and the lack of
            market discipline, which protects the least efficient
            enterprises from bankruptcy. One objective of economic
            return is to create the conditions that motivate enterprises
            to improve efficiency and that permit the owners of
            individual factors to seek the highest returns. Using panel
            data for 226 industrial enterprises, the authors report
            evidence that returns on investments in labor, capital and
            materials became more equal between 1980 and 1989. Such a
            pattern of convergence can be the product of different
            factors, but the consistency of the pattern suggests that
            great exposure to markets and stronger profit-seeking
            behavior are motivating gains in productive efficiency.
The life insurance industry in the
            United States : an analysis of economic and regulatory issues
The U.S. life insurance industry
            comprises more than 1,200 active companies with an
            impressive record of innovation.  Annual premiums for life
            insurance and annuity products amount to about 5 percent of
            GNP and total assets to 26 percent of GNP.  Life insurance
            companies are major participants in U.S. capital markets,
            investing in all types of bonds, mortgage loans and
            mortgage-backed securities, and corporate equities.  In
            describing the characteristics of products that life
            insurance companies offer, the author highlights how fiscal
            incentives promote long-term financial savings. Insurance
            regulation is fragmented among state authorities, but
            coordinated through the National Association of Insurance
            Commissioners.  Regulation emphasizes prudence and solvency.
            There are no minimum requirements for investing in
            government bonds or "high-priority" sectors, but
            tight maximum limits are often imposed on different assets,
            especially holdings of corporate equities, and on
            agents' commissions.  The lack of satisfactory measures
            of efficiency and profitability, which is explained by the
            long-term nature of the contracts, differences in the use of
            mortality tables and discount rates, and differences in the
            valuation of assets and the treatment of unrealized capital
            gains.  This hampers an objective assessment of the
            industry's performance and raises problems for
            insurance taxation.  Some public policy issues that affect
            life insurance companies are also reviewed.
Sources of income inequality in
            rural Pakistan : a decomposition analysis
Using panel data from a three-year study
            of 727 households, the authors identify the sources of
            income inequality in rural Pakistan.  First, they decompose
            total rural income among five sources:  agricultural,
            livestock, rental, nonfarm, and transfer income.  This
            decomposition shows that agricultural income contributes
            most to inequality in total rural income. Next, they
            decompose the sources of inequality in agricultural income.
            This leads to the surprising finding that inequitable
            ownership of land is not the main source of inequality in
            agricultural income.  Income from returns to labor and crop
            profits contribute most to this area of inequality.  One way
            to reduce rural income inequality might be to find more ways
            to narrow the disparities between abilities, perhaps by
            teaching more managerial and technical skills to
            agriculturists.  According to the authors, policy makers
            concerned about inequality in rural Pakistan would also be
            well advised to pay more attention to livestock.  Income
            from livestock apparently decreases the inequalities in income.
Growth in open economies
The author surveys recent growth models
            that try to explain the diversity among countries in rates
            of economic growth. The author finds that these models can
            generate differences in growth rates only in the absence of
            international capital markets. Under these models, if there
            were free international capital mobility, the growth rate of
            consumption and GNP would quickly be equalized all over the
            world. The author describes a simple modification of
            standard preferences that eliminates this implausible
            equalization of growth and is consistent with the fact that
            the savings rate is lower in poor countries than in rich countries.
The origins and evolution of
            antidumping regulation
Antidumping has about it the aura of a
            special measure to undo a special problem. Within this view,
            the explosion of antidumping actions in the 1980s was simply
            a good thing carried too far: the appropriate remedy to the
            current popularity of antidumping is to return it to its
            traditional and proper scope. It is hard, however, to find
            the basis for this view in the history of antidumping
            regulation. There is little in that history to suggest that
            anitdumping ever had a scope more particular than protecting
            home producers from import competition, and there is much to
            suggest that such protection was its intended scope. The
            thesis of this paper, then, is that antidumping has been
            from its beginning, part of the rhetoric and part of the
            mechanics of ordinary protection. Antidumping is where the
            protectionist action is today because it has proved to be
            broad and flexible enough to handle all the action. This
            paper has three sections. The first looks into the origins
            of antidumping regulation, the second examines contemporary
            antidumping regulation -- antidumping under the GATT -- and
            the third summarizes the import of the first two.
Agricultural pricing systems and
            transportation policy in Africa
When agricultural production is taxed,
            the system of producer prices, transport logistics, and
            decisions on investments in transport for exports must be
            considered together. Many African states raise revenue by
            taxing export crops. A common tool for this purpose is
            marketing boards. Marketing boards purchase crops at depots
            established near areas of cultivation, at prices that yield
            a profit to the board. The boards also arrange for
            processing and the transport of the product from depots to
            port. The cost of transport to the farmer, given the price
            offered for his crop at the depot, will affect his decision
            on production and on the use of his own transport resources.
            The author evaluates the benefits available from alternative
            uses of the instruments available to the marketing board.
            Returns to transport investments are largest under
            pan-territorial pricing, lower under optimal pricing, and
            the least under a pure export tax. The author also examines
            different patterns of depot location. Unless depots are
            densely spaced, farmers may deliver their crops to the depot
            nearest to them. The paper demonstrates the interdependence
            of agricultural pricing policy and marketing board logistics
            with transport use and the demand for transport investments.
Withholding taxes and international
            bank credit terms
This report shows empirically that
            international differences in withholding tax rates are
            indeed largely reflected in bank credit terms. Using a
            sample of 510 loans to 14 debtor nations originated between
            1971 and 1981, the author finds that the developing
            countries have been able to reduce their interest expense by
            an estimated 56 cents for every dollar of tax withheld at
            the source. He concludes that tax treatment in the creditor
            country of interest income from foreign sources probably
            still has an important effect on credit terms. In
            particular, limits on tax credits for foreign-interest
            withholding taxes, as effectively introduced by the 1986
            U.S. tax reform, will probably lead to less favorable credit terms.
The cost of the district hospital :
            a case study from Malawi
The author analyzes the cost to the
            Ministry of Health of providing district health services in
            Malawi, with an emphasis on the cost of the district
            hospital. She reaches several conclusions : 1) except for
            drugs and food, there seems to be little scope for major
            savings in hospital operation costs, unless the flow of
            patients to the hospital is reduced; 2) to increase the
            hospital's role in district-wide activities, efforts
            should be made to increase staff motivation to work outside
            the hospital; and 3) detailed costing of hospital activities
            is feasible in a low-income country like Malawi. The
            author's analysis provides firm evidence to assess
            district resource allocation patterns by carefully
            disaggregating district costs by level of care and
            department. The report focuses on average costs and the
            distribution of cost by input category, cost center, and
            direct service department. A strikingly low proportion of
            district recurrent costs was absorbed by salaries and wages:
            between 27 and 39 percent, depending on the district; while
            a surprisingly high proportion was absorbed by drugs and
            medical stores: between 24 and 37 percent. The
            hospital's largest cost center - in terms of resources
            it controlled - was the pharmacy. Average costs by hospital
            department showed variation by district, with one hospital
            being consistently the most expensive and another the cheapest.
Is export diversification the best
            way to achieve export growth and stability A look at three
            African countries
Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe depend
            heavily on export earnings from a narrow base of
            agricultural commodities (coffee, cotton, sugar, tea, and
            tobacco). This dependence increased between 1961 - 1973 and
            1974 - 1987, when international prices for those commodities
            were declining and unstable. Policymakers concerned with the
            instability and downward trend in export earnings for the
            three countries, tend to equate these trends with the
            countries' narrow export commodity base. They often
            propose export diversification as an expedient remedy. But
            the authors found that horizontal diversification would have
            produced lower export earnings and more instability.
            Policymakers introducing horizontal diversification must
            first consider price forecasts, comparative advantage, the
            economy's changing structure, and the costs of
            adjustment. Reactions to historical price movements can
            produce unexpected, undesirable results. A shift during this
            period from favorable to unfavorable price trends, and
            shifts in the covariances of deviations from price trends,
            complicate the design of export diversification policies,
            especially policies aimed at stabilizing export earnings.
            Generally, the most effective way to achieve growth and
            stability in export earnings is to increase and stabilize
            agricultural production and the volume of exports. The
            authors analysis shows that different export diversification
            policies can help fulfill different policy goals.
The effects of debt subsidies on
            corporate investment behavior
This paper argues that credit subsidies
            are ineffective in stimulating business investment in
            productive assets.  Instead, they lead to an increase in
            corporate holdings of financial assets and real estate.  For
            empirical verification, the investment patterns in a sample
            of 241 Korean corporations listed on the Korean Stock
            Exchange between 1984 and 1988 were examined.  The authors
            found a significant positive relation between corporate
            speculative asset holding and access to subsidized loans.
            Their estimates indicate that without interest rate controls
            and other forms of subsidy, corporate holdings of
            speculative assets would have been one-seventh of observed
            levels. Moreover, most corporate real estate holdings appear
            to be unrelated to production activities.  Little evidence
            is found that the Korean government's interest rate
            controls and credit allocation policy have accelerated
            expansion of corporate investment.  If anything, the
            controls are partly to blame for the overheated Korean stock
            market during 1986-88.
Foreign direct investment in
            developing countries : patterns, policies, and prospects
This study provides a summary of
            patterns, policies, and prospects concerning the foreign
            direct investment (FDI) in developing countries.  The focus
            of the study is on host country policies, but the policies
            of home governments and international institutions are also
            analyzed.  The emphasis of the study is on the factors that
            affect the patterns and trends of FDI in developing
            countries.  Implicit to the study is the theme that FDI can
            make significant contributions to the long-term development
            process and that policy reforms that contribute to greater
            FDI are consequently desirable.  The analysis of FDI
            presented here is based in substantial part on the findings
            of 11 country studies.  The author found that the public
            policy environment for FDI has improved in recent years.
            There is more appreciation of FDI's contributions (such
            as transfer of technology and managerial skills, export
            market development, stimulation of local entrepreneurship,
            competition and innovation) and greater appreciation of the
            role of the private sector and private investment in
            development.  The study concludes with a projection of the
            prospects for FDI flows to developing countries.
Trade and payments arrangements in
            post-CMEA Eastern and Central Europe
A web of trade and payments arrangements
            binds countries of Eastern and Central Europe under the
            Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) agreements.
            However, it is incompatible with these countries recent
            commitments to move toward liberalized trade and currency
            convertibility. The importance of trade with other CMEA
            members, and the apparent desire of the USSR and others to
            denominate all future mutual trade at international prices
            poses a number of problems of transition for the countries
            of Eastern and Central Europe. This paper identifies three
            broad problems in this connection: (1) the breakdown of the
            CMEA arrangements has led to a serious breakdown of trade
            relations and reduced trade volume among former CMEA
            members; (2) denominating international trade at
            international prices implies changes in the terms of trade
            for each country in the system; and (3) all countries may
            not reach full currency convertibility in the near term, but
            the continuation of the old CMEA arrangements is also
            impossible. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the
            possible interim institutional arrangements for trade of
            payments among previous CMEA members and how such
            arrangements can contribute to addressing the emerging
            payments imbalances.
Taxation of financial assets in
            developing countries
In developing countries, most financial
            assets in formal markets are deposits at financial
            institutions.  This potentially important tax base could be
            taxed at a low administrative cost.  When revenues of
            financial taxes are significant, implicit taxes dwarf
            explicit taxes.  The author focuses on the implicit taxation
            of financial assets through seigniorage, reserve
            requirements, lending targets, and interest ceilings
            combined with inflation. The last instrument has often been
            overlooked, but it has generated more than a third of
            implicit revenues in some cases by lowering the cost of
            government borrowing.  Tax revenues are difficult to measure
            because of regulations that prevent the use of market prices
            for computation and distort the meaning of some definitions.
            For some countries, the standard method of seigniorage
            grossly underestimates the revenue from financial taxation.
            The author discusses various sources of distortion but
            ignores potential impacts on the level of saving and the
            growth rate.  Although taxes on financial assets have a low
            administrative cost, the excess burden that stems from the
            misallocation of resources is probably a much higher
            fraction of revenues than that of other taxes.