Publications & Documents

Based on a survey, this paper presents new data on the decentralisation of the housing system and co-ordination mechanisms across levels of government, focusing on the provision of social housing. Decision-making in social housing tends to be more devolved to sub-national actors, as compared to other key public services. Policy decision making tends to be more centralised, while sub-national governments and housing providers have more control over decisions regarding the inputs, outputs and monitoring of social housing. Governments globally have implemented a mix of housing policy interventions. Demand side interventions include tax allowances and subsidies to facilitate the purchase of a home or the provision of social housing in the rental market to those in need. Interventions to influence the supply of housing are generally aimed at housing developers or sub-national governments, to stimulate housing construction. There are a number of policy tools readily available to sub-national governments to improve housing outcomes, including the implementation and reform of taxes on immovable property and the relaxation of restrictive land use regulations.

This paper analyses two common uses of the responsiveness concept in the public management and political science literature: external political efficacy and satisfaction with health and education services. The decline of people sense of influence in public affairs and perceptions about the quality of public services are two key concerns affecting policymaking. The fact that responsiveness measures are increasingly being collected in non-official and official household surveys and the range of covariates available make it possible to test their statistical accuracy. Accuracy encompasses both reliability (i.e. if the measure produces consistent information over time) and validity (i.e. if the measure reflects the underlying concept being measured). This paper finds good evidence on the accuracy of political efficacy measures. Although no sufficiently strong evidence on the accuracy of satisfaction with health metrics is stronger than for education services signaling the relevance of other aspects such as direct exposure to the service and its intensity, as well as the different attributes shaping satisfaction levels. Findings from this paper support some of the conclusions in the Responsiveness chapter of the UN Citi Praia Handbook on Governance Statistics.

À l’heure de concevoir une politique, une loi, un règlement ou tout autre type de « règle », les pouvoirs publics devraient toujours se pencher sur ses effets probables. L’analyse d’impact de la réglementation (AIR) fournit aux décideurs des indications cruciales pour juger s’il est opportun d’adopter un texte pour atteindre certains objectifs et, si oui, pour déterminer comment procéder. L’AIR consiste à examiner les incidences et les conséquences de tout un éventail de solutions possibles. Elle peut également aider les responsables publics à défendre leur décision de ne pas intervenir dans le jeu du marché lorsque cela s’avérerait plus coûteux qu’avantageux. La présente publication propose aux responsables publics, aux fonctionnaires et aux autres acteurs du secteur public un instrument pratique pour mieux concevoir et mettre en œuvre leurs dispositifs et stratégies d’AIR. Les Principes qui y sont formulés couvrent un large éventail d’organisations institutionnelles, d’outils et de pratiques, présentent une liste d’étapes clés et énumèrent les pratiques à privilégier et à éviter dans l’élaboration des dispositifs d’AIR. Le rapport s’inscrit dans une série de Principes de bonne pratique de l’OCDE en matière de politique réglementaire élaborés sous la direction du Comité de la politique de la réglementation de l’OCDE. Comme les autres rapports de la série, il complète et précise les principes formulés dans le cadre de la Recommandation du Conseil concernant la politique et la gouvernance réglementaires de 2012.

Environmental regulators strive to protect the environment and public health from pollution from economic activity. This report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) to assess both the internal and external governance of Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It looks at the EPA’s role and objectives, its financial and human resources, processes for internal management and decision making, and systems for performance assessment. The review acknowledges the EPA’s achievements and good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for improvement to help the regulator prepare for the future.