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27-Jun-2008
Speech delivered by Jørgen Elmeskov, Acting Head of the OECD Economics Department, at the Wirtschaftsrat Economic conference: Growth engine world economy: Seizing chances - controlling risks which took place on 18 June 2008 in Berlin, Germany.
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13-Jun-2008
This paper relates diverging productivity performances across OECD countries over the past fifteen years to differences in the stringency of regulations in the product market.
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22-May-2008
The Korean government has introduced five policy packages since August 2005 to stabilise house prices, mainly due to concerns about possible spill-overs from the capital region to other parts of the country, even though the increase on a nation-wide basis has been modest compared to other OECD countries.
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22-May-2008
Although Korea has become more integrated in the world economy over the past decade, it still ranks low in terms of import penetration, the stock of inward FDI relative to GDP and foreign workers as a share of the labour force.
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19-May-2008
This paper presents new estimates of country-specific international transport costs for 21 OECD countries over the period 1973-2005. The methodology is based on direct measures of air, maritime, and road transport costs rather than on cif/fob ratios or other balance of payments data employed in previous studies. Transport costs are calculated as costs per kilogramme for each mode of transport at a bilateral level and then aggregated. Australia and New Zealand are found to have the highest transport costs among the OECD countries considered, followed by Japan.
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09-Apr-2008
Labour market outcomes are improving rapidly in the current upswing, also reflecting previous reform efforts. To make those improvements more lasting, but also to widen the positive effects, further reform efforts should focus on: i) raising the number of hours worked per person employed; ii) reducing the high share of long-term unemployed; and iii) further increasing employment rates of older workers.
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09-Apr-2008
Improving education outcomes is important for Germany’s long-term economic performance and social cohesion. While student achievement is above the OECD average in science and at the OECD average in reading and mathematics according to the 2006 OECD PISA study, weaker students tend to do badly by international comparison and socio-economic and/or immigrant backgrounds have a large impact. Another problem is that the proportion of younger people that completes tertiary education is relatively low. The authorities are undertaking reforms touching all levels of education.
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09-Apr-2008
The potential to strengthen productivity growth and enhance consumer welfare through more competition is large in the energy and railway sectors. Lowering entry barriers, including through the option of stronger forms of vertical separation between network access provision and potentially competitive services will be the main challenge for Germany going forward. In particular, it will be a crucial point in designing the envisaged privatisation of state stakes in the railway sector market incumbent Deutsche Bahn AG.
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09-Apr-2008
The aim of the recent healthcare reform was to increase the sustainability of healthcare finances, by reducing its negative impact on employment and increasing cost-effectiveness via enhanced competition. Higher budget contributions will help decouple healthcare finances from labour income a bit, if and once they materialise. An improved risk adjustment between insurers could reduce incentives for risk selection, raising chances for competition to lead to more cost-effectiveness instead.
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19-Feb-2008
D'après l'Étude, les politiques actives du marché du travail et les réformes des régimes de prestations ont joué un rôle clé dans le recul du chômage structurel. Pour préserver les gains d'emplois réalisés récemment, les autorités devront s'attacher davantage à améliorer le rapport coût-efficacité des politiques d'activation, et à faire en sorte que les prestations de chômage incitent clairement leurs bénéficiaires à tirer le meilleur parti des mesures d'activation.
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Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2008
