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作者：Huang, Ho-Chuan (River); Lin, Shu-Chin
作者单位：Tamkang University; Tamkang University
摘要：In contrast to the parametric (quadratic) specification used for examining the Kuznets hypothesis, this study relies on the semiparametric Bayesian inference of the partially linear regression to re-assess the validity of an inverted-U shape of the Kuznets curve. The simple framework permits us to perform estimation and model comparison in a unified way. Empirical results using cross-sectional data on 75 countries indicate that there exists an (approximately) inverted-V, hence, asymmetric rela...
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作者：Fisher-Vanden, Karen; Ho, Mun S.
作者单位：Dartmouth College
摘要：A large percentage of total investment in China is allocated by the central government at below-market interest rates in pursuit of non-economic objectives. This has resulted in low rates of return and a high number of non-performing loans, threatening the future health of the Chinese economy. As a result, reform of capital markets is a high priority of the Chinese government. At the same time, the country is implementing various environmental policies to deal with serious pollution issues. In...
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作者：Van, Phu Nguyen; Azomahou, Theophile
作者单位：Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); CY Cergy Paris Universite; Universites de Strasbourg Etablissements Associes; Universite de Strasbourg
摘要：We use a panel data set of 59 developing countries over the 1972-1994 period to study the deforestation process. Relying on both parametric and semiparametric models, we examine nonlinearities and heterogeneity in the deforestation process. We first study the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and then analyze determinants of deforestation. Our data sample provides no evidence of an EKC. We also find that political institution failures may worsen the deforestation process in dev...
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作者：Tarui, Nori
作者单位：Columbia University
摘要：Using a dynamic intergenerational game, this paper analyzes the effects of inequality among resource users and their access to outside markets and credit on cooperative use of a local commons. The study finds that, depending on the agents' harvest sharing rule, the conditions under which homogeneous agents can cooperate in equilibrium may not be sufficient for cooperation when agents differ in harvesting productivity. The resource users' access to outside markets or credit may have a negative ...
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作者：Estevan, Fernanda; Baland, Jean-Mane
作者单位：Universite Catholique Louvain; University of Namur
摘要：in this paper, we investigate the role of young adult mortality on child labor and educational decisions. We argue that mortality risks are a major source of risks in returns to education in developing countries. We show that, in the absence of appropriate insurance mechanisms, the level of child labor is inefficient, but it can be too high or too low. It is too high when parents are not very altruistic and anticipate positive transfers from their children in the future. Uncertain returns to e...
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作者：Elbers, Chris; Fujii, Tomoki; Lanjouw, Peter; Oezler, Berk; Yin, Wesley
作者单位：The World Bank; University of Chicago; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Singapore Management University
摘要：In this paper, we employ recently completed poverty maps for three countries as tools for an ex ante evaluation of the distributional incidence of geographic targeting of public resources. We simulate the impact on poverty of transferring an exogenously given budget to geographically defined sub-groups of the population according to their relative poverty status. We find large gains from targeting smaller administrative units, such as districts or villages. However, these gains are still far f...
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作者：Mckenzie, David; Rapoport, Hillel
作者单位：The World Bank; Universite de Lille; Bar Ilan University; Stanford University
摘要：International migration is costly and initially only the middle class of the wealth distribution may have both the means and incentives to migrate, which can increase inequality in the sending community. However, the migration networks formed lower the costs for future migrants, which can in turn lower inequality. This paper shows both theoretically and empirically that wealth has a nonlinear effect on migration, and then examines the empirical evidence for an inverse U-shaped relationship bet...
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作者：Raddatz, Claudio
作者单位：The World Bank
摘要：External shocks, such as commodity price fluctuations, natural disasters, and the role of the international economy, are often blamed for the poor economic performance of low-income countries. This paper quantifies the impact of these different external shocks using a panel vector auto-regression approach and determines their contributions to output volatility in low-income countries. We find that they can only explain a small fraction of the output variance of a typical low-income country. Ot...
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作者：Mizala, Alejandra; Romaguera, Pilar; Urquiola, Miguel
作者单位：Columbia University; Universidad de Chile
摘要：This paper calculates a time series of simple, standard measures of schools' relative performance. These are drawn from a 1997-2004 panel of Chilean schools, using individual-level information on test scores and student characteristics for each year. The results suggest there is a stark tradeoff in the extent to which rankings generated using these measures: i) can be shown to be very similar to rankings based purely on students' socioeconomic status, and ii) are very volatile from year to yea...
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作者：Banerjee, Abhijit; Somanathan, Rohini
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Delhi School of Economics
摘要：We are interested in how public goods get allocated by a centralized state. We use data on public goods and social structure from parliamentary constituencies in rural India to understand the allocation of these goods over the 1970s and 1980s. National policies and political agendas during this period emphasized universal access to basic amenities and financed a rapid expansion in rural infrastructure. We find evidence of considerable equalization in many of these facilities, reflecting perhap...
