Showing papers by "World Bank published in 1996"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess how much India's poor shared in the country's economic growth, taking into account its urban-rural and output composition, and find that output growth in the primary and tertiary sectors reduced poverty in both urban and rural areas but that secondary sector growth did not reduce poverty in either.
Abstract: Using a new series of consistent, consumption-based poverty measures spanning forty years, the author assess how much India's poor shared in the country's economic growth, taking into account its urban-rural and output composition. Rural consumption growth reduced poverty in both rural and urban areas. Urban growth brought some benefits to the urban poor, but had no impact on rural poverty. And rural-to-urban population shifts had no significant impact on poverty. Decomposing growth by output sectors, we found that output growth in the primary and tertiary sectors reduced poverty in both urban and rural areas but that secondary sector growth did not reduce poverty in either.
1,936 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors derive conditions under which a change in the composition of expenditure leads to a higher steady-state growth rate of the economy and show that an increase in the share of current expenditure has positive and statistically significant growth effects.
1,646 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors found that poor people typically do share in rising average living standards and that this holds in all regions of the world, and that there was no general tendency for inequality or polarization to increase with growth.
Abstract: Is it true that the poor have lost ground, even as average living standards have risen? No. Poor people typically share in rising average living standards. It has been claimed that in recent times the poor have lost ground, both relatively and absolutely, even as average standards of living were rising. Ravallion and Chen test that claim, using more than 100 household surveys for more than 40 countries. Overall there was a small decrease in poverty incidence in 1987-93, though experiences differed across regions and countries. There was no general tendency for inequality or polarization to increase with growth. Distribution improves as often as it worsens in growing economies, and negative growth often appears to be highly detrimental to distribution. Poor people typically do share in rising average living standards. This holds in all regions. This paper - a product of the Poverty and Human Resources Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to monitor progress in reducing poverty in the world.
915 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the role of institutional factors in explaining firms' choice of debt maturity in a sample of 30 countries during 1980-91 and found that firms in developing countries use less long-term debt than similar firms in industrial countries.
Abstract: Do firms in developing countries use less long term debt than similar firms in industrial countries? This paper investigates the role of institutional factors in explaining firms' choice of debt maturity in a sample of 30 countries during 1980-91. Demirguc-Kunt and Maksimovic examine the maturity of firm debt in 30 countries during the period 1980-91. They find systematic differences in the use of long-term debt between industrial and developing countries and between small and large firms. In industrial countries, firms have more long-term debt and a greater proportion of their total debt is held as long-term debt. Large firms have more long-term debt, as a proportion of total assets and debt, than smaller firms do. The authors try to explain the variations in debt composition by differences in the effectiveness of legal systems, the development of stock markets and the banking sector, the level of government subsidies, and firm characteristics. In countries with an effective legal system, both large and small firms have more long-term debt relative to assets and their debt is of longer maturity. Both large and small firms in countries with a tradition of common law use less long-term debt, relative to their assets, than do firms in countries with a tradition of civil law. Large firms in common law countries also use less short-term debt. In countries with active stock markets, large firms have more long-term debt and debt of longer maturity. Neither the level of activity nor the size of the market is correlated with financing choices of small firms. By contrast, in countries with large banking sectors, small firms have less short-term debt and their debt is of longer maturity. Variation in the size of the banking sector does not have a corresponding correlation with the capital structures of large firms. Government subsidies to industry increase long-term debt levels of both small and large firms. For all firms, inflation is associated with less use of long-term debt. The authors also find evidence of maturity-matching for both large and small firms. This paper - a product of the Finance and Private Sector Development Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to understand the impact of institutional constraints on firms' financing choices. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Term Finance: Theory and Evidence (RPO 679-62).
894 citations
TL;DR: In the United States, Japan and Germany, the share of environmental patents in all patents varied between 0.6 and 3%, and as such was higher than the corresponding share of pollution abatement expenditure in GDP as discussed by the authors.
820 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper found that the 15 years of efforts to promote decentralization in China have failed to promote economic growth in China's provinces, which is surprising in the light of arguments that fiscal decentralization usually promotes provincial or local economic growth.
Abstract: Fifteen years of efforts to promote fiscal decentralization in China have failed to promote economic growth in China's provinces. This finding is surprising in the light of arguments that fiscal decentralization usually promotes provincial or local economic growth. Zhang and Zou use data on China to demonstrate how the allocation of fiscal revenue and expenditures between central and local governments has affected economic growth since reforms that began in the last 1970s. They find a higher degree of fiscal decentralization associated with lower provincial economic growth over the past 15 years in China. This implies that fiscal reforms begun in China in the early 1980s have probably failed to promote the country's economic growth. This result is consistently significant and robust in their empirical examinations. It is also surprising, in the light of the argument that fiscal decentralization usually contributes positively to provincial or local economic growth. This paper - a product of the Public Economics Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to study fiscal decentralization and economic growth. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth (RPO 680-02).
750 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the determinants and effects of the informal sector using an endogenous growth model whose production technology depends essentially on congestable public services and found that an increase in the number of activities that use some existing public services less efficiently or not at all.
657 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the determinants and sustainability of the widespread private capital inflows to middle-income countries after 1989 are studied. And the key question is whether these flows are mostly "pulled" by attractive domestic conditions or "pushed" by unfavorable conditions in developed countries.
629 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present and test empirically a new theory of property and contract rights and show that the age of a democratic system is strongly correlated with the protection of contract rights.
Abstract: We present and test empirically a new theory of property and contract rights. Any incentive an autocrat has to respect such rights comes from his interest in future tax collections and national income and increases with his planning horizon. We find a compelling empirical relationship between property and contract rights and an autocrat's time in power. In lasting—but not in new—democracies, the same rule of law and individual rights that ensure continued free elections entail extensive property and contract rights. We show that the age of a democratic system is strongly correlated with property and contract rights.
446 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that benefit-cost analysis can play an important role in legislative and regulatory policy debates on protecting and improving health, safety, and the natural environment.
Abstract: Benefit-cost analysis can play an important role in legislative and regulatory policy debates on protecting and improving health, safety, and the natural environment. Although formal benefit-cost analysis should not be viewed as either necessary or sufficient for designing sensible public policy, it can provide an exceptionally useful framework for consistently organizing disparate information, and in this way, it can greatly improve the process and, hence, the outcome of policy analysis. If properly done, benefit-cost analysis can be of great help to agencies participating in the development of environmental, health, and safety regulations, and it can likewise be useful in evaluating agency decision-making and in shaping statutes.
445 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provided new empirical results regarding the demand and supply of title, its impact on land value, and its effects on agricultural investment on Brazilian frontiers, using survey data from 1992 and 1993 from the state of Par with data on the characteristics of the settlers, land tenure, land agencies involved, land values and investment.
Abstract: This paper provides new empirical results regarding the demand and supply of title, its impact on land value, and its effects on agricultural investment on Brazilian frontiers. We use survey data from 1992 and 1993 from the state of Par with data on the characteristics of the settlers, land tenure, land agencies involved, land values, and investment. We then turn to census data from the Brazilian agricultural census from 1940 through 1985, with observations at the municipio (county) level to examine the development of property rights to land in the southern state of Paran during the agricultural boom between 1940 and 1970 and in the Amazon state of Par during the period of rapid migration to the region after 1970. By examining frontiers we can follow the rise in land values, the increase in the demand for title, and the response of government. The empirical findings support the predictions of the theory regarding the effects of title and investment on land value, the role of expected change in value on demand for title, and the contribution of title in promoting investment. Governments, however, have not exactly followed the predictions of the analytical framework in supplying title. Political and bureaucratic factors play an important role in the government response to demands for title. This result suggests that researchers must pay special attention to the complex political process by which property rights are assigned in studying the emergence of tenure institutions.
TL;DR: This paper examined the link between various empirical indicators used in the literature to measure trade policy stance and found that, with minor exceptions, they are pairwise uncorrelated, raising obvious questions about their reliability in capturing some common aspect of trade policy and the interpretation of the empirical evidence on economic performance.
TL;DR: In this paper, a simultaneous attack on these issues from all three fronts - measurement, modeling, and data - offers hope of establishing a credible empirical foundation for public action in fighting poverty.
Abstract: Economists have relied heavily on household incomes or expenditures normalized for differences in household specific prices and demographics in their research and policy advice related to poverty and inequality. Recognizing the conceptual and empirical problems that confound such measures does not mean that they should be ignored. Instead, it indicates the need for supplementary measures to capture the missing items. Implementing a genuinely multidimensional approach will often make the welfare rankings of social states more difficult, but that fact points to the nonrobustness of low-dimensional rankings. This may have its own policy ramifications, with the possibility of correspondence between policy instruments and welfare objectives. The model types used to understand the poverty and inequity determination processes will be affected. Not only will there be more dependent variables to consider, but variables will have potentially complex relationships. These relationships will often be hard to empirically disentangle, despite richer integrated and longitudinal data sets. Such data open rich and relevant agenda for research into the dynamics of poverty along multiple dimensions. A simultaneous attack on these issues from all three fronts - measurement, modeling, and data - offers hope of establishing a credible empirical foundation for public action in fighting poverty.
TL;DR: The energy problems of the developing world are both serious and widespread and lack of access to sufficient and sustainable supplies of energy affects as much as 90% of the population of many developing countries as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract The energy problems of the developing world are both serious and widespread. Lack of access to sufficient and sustainable supplies of energy affects as much as 90% of the population of many developing countries. Some 2 billion people are without electricity; a similar number remain dependent on fuels such as animal dung, crop residues, wood, and charcoal to cook their daily meals. Without efficient, clean energy, people are undermined in their efforts to engage effectively in productive activities or to improve their quality of life. Developing countries are facing two crucial—and related—problems in the energy sector. The first is the widespread inefficient production and use of traditional energy sources, such as fuelwood and agricultural residues, which pose economic, environmental, and health threats. The second is the highly uneven distribution and use of modern energy sources, such as electricity, petroleum products, and liquefied or compressed natural gas, which pose important issues of ...
TL;DR: A number of recent papers have used simple linear regressions in an attempt to identify market structure, the extent of returns to scale, and possible external effects in U.S. manufacturing.
TL;DR: In this review, Nick White and Piero Olliaro discuss the rationale for combination chemotherapy and the emergence and spread of parasite resistance to commonly used antimalarial drugs.
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of inspections on the self-reported emissions levels of plants in the pulp and paper industry in Quebec was investigated and it was shown that both inspections and the threat of an inspection have a strong negative impact on pollution emissions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the importance of plant characteristics, economic considerations and external pressure in determining environmental performance was investigated, and it was shown that pollution intensity is negatively associated with scale, productive efficiency, and the use of new process technology.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the accuracy and usefulness of estimated rates of return to schooling based on the standard human capital model of Becker and Mincer, and investigated whether failure to account for differences in ability and school quality lead to significant biases.
TL;DR: An important role for public health policy in eliminating the rural-urban disparities in health status and particularly in improving the health status of rural children and reducing their mortality rates is suggested.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provided new empirical results regarding the demand and supply of title, its impact on land value, and its effects on agricultural investment on Brazilian frontiers, using survey data from 1992 and 1993 from the state of Par with data on the characteristics of the settlers, land tenure, land agencies involved, land values and investment.
Abstract: This paper provides new empirical results regarding the demand and supply of title, its impact on land value, and its effects on agricultural investment on Brazilian frontiers. We use survey data from 1992 and 1993 from the state of Par with data on the characteristics of the settlers, land tenure, land agencies involved, land values, and investment. We then turn to census data from the Brazilian agricultural census from 1940 through 1985, with observations at the municipio (county) level to examine the development of property rights to land in the southern state of Paran during the agricultural boom between 1940 and 1970 and in the Amazon state of Par during the period of rapid migration to the region after 1970. By examining frontiers we can follow the rise in land values, the increase in the demand for title, and the response of government. The empirical findings support the predictions of the theory regarding the effects of title and investment on land value, the role of expected change in value on demand for title, and the contribution of title in promoting investment. Governments, however, have not exactly followed the predictions of the analytical framework in supplying title. Political and bureaucratic factors play an important role in the government response to demands for title. This result suggests that researchers must pay special attention to the complex political process by which property rights are assigned in studying the emergence of tenure institutions.
TL;DR: In the first year of market-oriented reforms, there was a marked increase in earnings inequality, a dramatic rise in the wage premium for white-collar skills, and a significant jump in the returns to education as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Economic transition turns the inherited wage structure upside down. Changes are rapid and dramatic. The Polish example shows that even in the first year of market-oriented reforms, there was a marked increase in earnings inequality, a dramatic rise in the wage premium for white-collar skills, and a significant jump in the returns to education. In contrast, skills acquired under the old system lost their value. It is younger workers who are rewarded with higher wages. The changes are spearheaded by the private sector, where inequalities and the educational premium are higher than in the public sector. Privatization, thus, has its social aspects in that it strengthens the incentive for human capital investment. This paper documents these changes and sets out possible explanations.
TL;DR: Compared with nontrial patients, thrombolysis trial participants are younger, more often male, undergo more revascularization and have less comorbid disease; even after adjustment for these factors, participants have a survival advantage over nonparticipants that is larger than expected from thrombectomy alone.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adapted the recent methodology of Paxson to study saving rates in rural Pakistan and paid particular attention to differences in marginal rates of financial and physical saving and how these vary across income groups and by direction of income shocks.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: Rama et al. as mentioned in this paper used regression analysis involving minimalist specifications and data aggregated by province to estimate the elasticity of wage earnings, wage employment, and investment with respect to the minimum wage.
Abstract: Results suggest that doubling Indonesia's minimum wage led to a 10 percent increase in average wages, a 2 percent decrease in wage employment, and a 5 percent decrease in investment. The disemployment effect appears to be considerable in small firms, but employment may actually increase in large firms. Minimum wages in Indonesia were tripled in nominal terms, and doubled in real terms, in the first half of the 1990s. Rama evaluates the effects of this hike on wage earnings, wage employment, and investment. After describing Indonesia's minimum wage policy and surveying the literature on the effects of minimum wages, Rama applies relatively simple statistical tools to individual and aggregate data. He visually inspects the wage distribution for full-time laborers and employees to assess the extent of compliance with minimum wages. He uses regression analysis involving minimalist specifications and data aggregated by province to estimate the elasticity of wage earnings, wage employment, and investment with respect to the minimum wage. A wide dispersion in the ratio of minimum wages to labor productivity across the 27 Indonesian provinces can be used to identify the effects of the minimum wage. The results suggest that minimum wages have a moderate effect on outcomes in Indonesia's labor market. Taken at face value, these results imply that doubling the minimum wage led to a 10 percent increase in average wages, a 2 percent decrease in wage employment, and a 5 percent decrease in investment. The disemployment effect appears to be considerable in small firms, but employment may actually increase in large firms. This paper - a product of the Poverty and Human Resources Division, Policy Research Department - was written as part of a broader labor study on Indonesia undertaken by East Asia and Pacific, Country Department III. The research was also supported by the Bank`s Research Support Budget under the research project The Impact of Labor Market Policies and Institutions on Economic Performance (RPO 680-96). The results of the research were presented at a joint Ministry of Manpower, Indonesia-World Bank workshop in Jakarta in April 1996. The author may be contacted at mrama@worldbank.org.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an upswelling of interest and concern for atmospheric pollution and for the concomitant destruction or degradation of our natural resources such as tropical forests.
TL;DR: In this paper, the success of eight rural financial intermediation systems in Indonesia, in profitably reaching large numbers of small individual clients, is explained in terms of organizational design, reflecting basic concerns with institutional and financial viability, elements of mechanism design have included compatible incentives such as performance-based compensations (profit sharing, collection fees), efficiency wages (equivalent to quasi-equity), and system monitoring.
TL;DR: The contribution of modern varieties of cereal crops to increased productivity in the postGreen Revolution period is reviewed and the future role of hybrids and biotechnology discussed in this article, with particular emphasis given to the ways in which modern varieties may contribute to input efficiency and sustainability.
TL;DR: The sustainability of natural resource use is influenced by population pressure, but this exercises a much less critical impact than the overall policy framework as mentioned in this paper, and therefore, the sustainability is not influenced by the population pressure.
Abstract: The sustainability of natural resource use is influenced by population pressure, but this exercises a much less critical impact than the overall policy framework. In Colombia, various agricultural and other policies whose effect is to constrain the poor's access to land encourage environmental degradation. A case is made in favour of the new land reform process that Colombia is launching.