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News & Events
News
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16-Apr-2008
Immigration has soared in recent years. The immigrants tend to be young, well educated and work. But they often work in basic jobs. Immigration policy should thus focus on better integration. This chapter reviews Irish immigration policy in the light of international experience. It also highlights the uncertainties about future migration flows and the challenges they pose for infrastructure planning.
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09-Apr-2008
Government finances have improved significantly over the past years on account of both cyclically higher revenues and structural expenditure restraint. In order to preserve these achievements for the longer term, the government should consider replacing the fiscal rule currently enshrined in the constitution, which has proved to be ineffective in preventing an increase in the debt level. Safeguarding future tax receipts is also a challenge and the implemented corporate tax reform will be helpful in this respect.
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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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09-Apr-2008
Germany has been enjoying a strong cyclical rebound in economic growth after a long period of stagnation. First positive effects of past reforms are already visible. However, for high economic growth to be more enduring, economic challenges remain, notably in the fields of labour markets, fiscal policy, education policy, healthcare and network industries.
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07-Apr-2008
Despite the longest economic expansion in its post-war history, Japan faces many challenges. Perhaps most urgent is addressing the fiscal situation through comprehensive tax reform. There is also significant scope for policies to accelerate productivity growth in the service sector, which has lagged behind manufacturing. In addition, measures to reverse the rise in labour market dualism would be beneficial for both growth and equity.
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28-Feb-2008
After several years of rapid economic expansion, the key challenge for policy is to restore economic balance. There is also a need to strengthen the macro-economic policy framework. In a longer-term perspective, a major challenge is to improve cost-effectiveness in the health-care sector.
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