Browse by: "2006"
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This report reviews experience in mitigating the environmental impacts of inland waterway development. It examines effective consultation and planning procedures across Europe. In particular it assesses the ways in which the EU Water Framework Directive affects the planning environment for international waterways and sets a new agenda for improving the ecological value of waterways. The report makes recommendations on good practice and identifies the Danube river basin as the critical area for improvement.
How is innovation transforming tourism business models? By tackling the subject of innovation, this report touches upon an important dimension of tourism economics rarely examined at the international level. It provides information about the dynamics and characteristics of innovation in tourism, and gives examples of how business models are evolving as a result. It also aims to provide an important contribution to further research and policy work in this area. The report includes a discussion of the conceptual issues regarding innovation in tourism, it illustrates national and industry practices enhancing innovation in tourism, and provides insights into the potential role of tourism policy in innovation.
From research and development to legal and marketing services, a wide range of knowledge-intensive service activities (KISAs) enables firms and public sector organisations to better innovate. This publication examines the contribution of knowledge-intensive services to the acquisition and growth of innovation capabilities in firms and public sector organisations. It focuses on KISAs in four industy sectors: software, health care, tourism and leisure, and resource-based industries such as mining technology services, aquaculture and forestry. The analysis derives from a series of surveys and case studies undertaken in nine OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway and Spain.
This report reviews efforts under way in a number of OECD countries to advance innovation in energy technology, with a particular focus on hydrogen fuel cells. It compares energy innovation systems in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, the United Kingdom and United States to identify the roles of government, industry, universities and other public research organisations in the innovation process. It also examines the policies governments are implementing to finance needed research and development and to stimulate market demand for innovative energy technologies.
This publication examines the innovation system in pharmaceutical biotechnology in eight OECD countries - Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain. The report summarises the results of in-depth studies, providing a comparative analysis of participating countries' performance in science and innovation in biopharmaceuticals. It highlights specific characteristics of the national biopharmaceutical innovation systems in terms of their international openness and the specific role of demand-side factors in the innovation process. Major systemic failures affecting the functioning of the biopharmaceutical innovation systems are identified. Based on rich evidence, the report draws policy recommendations to foster innovation in biopharmaceuticals advocating an integrated policy approach.
This book enhances understanding and consensus on why and how we need to work more strategically and coherently on the integration of human rights and development. It reviews the approaches of different donor agencies and their rationales for working on human rights, and identifies the current practice in this field. It illustrates how aid agencies are working on human rights issues at the programming level, and it draws together lessons that form the core of the current evidence around the added value of human rights for development. Lastly, it addresses both new opportunities and conceptual and practical challenges to human rights within the evolving development partnerships between donors and partner countries, as well as in relation to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness as a new reference point of the international aid system. By giving numerous examples of practical approaches, this publication shows that there are various ways for donor agencies to take human rights more systematically into account – in accordance with their respective mandates, modes of engagement and comparative advantage.
This report draws on three detailed case studies from Armenia, the Russian Federation and Turkey and on the experience of OECD countries to provide guidance on how transfers from central budgets to local authorities could be designed to finance environmental infrastructures in transition economies. The report also investigates mechanisms for transferring financial resources for water services from higher to lower levels of government.
This annual report reviews recent developments in international direct investment, includes recent statistics and highlights policy responses that will help countries reap the full benefits of investment. This edition's special focus is on legal and policy issues arising from international investment agreements. The articles in this section investigate novel features of recent bilateral investment treaties; options for improving the system of investor-state dispute settlement; and the consolidation of claims as an avenue for improving investment arbitration. Other articles in this volume cover how new technologies are a force advancing the closer integration of national economies; the challenges and opportunities for policy makers that arise from international investor participation in infrastructure; recent evidence of source (or "home") country benefits of outward direct investment; and the role of the OECD peer review process in building investment policy capacity.
This first edition of the International Migration Outlook, a revised and expanded version of what waspreviously published under the title Trends in International Migration, brings the reader detailed analysis of recent trends in migration movements and policies in OECD countries. For the first time, it includes harmonised statistics on long-term international migration inflows for most OECD countries. The report highlights the growing importance of immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, China and Latin America, as well as the increasing feminisation of the flows.
This volume covers the increasing interest of member countries in the recruitment of highly skilled immigrants as well as the recourse to temporary, often seasonal, low-skilled immigrants. Special attention is paid to improving the management of migration flows and integration policies focusing on programmes for newcomers, from compulsory language courses to job-oriented initiatives, and to the strengthening of anti-discrimination and diversity measures. Developments in international co-operation for labour migration as well as for better border control in the fight against irregular migration are also described, with a special focus on the impact of the European Union enlargement on inflows of immigrant workers to OECD countries.
This publication also includes special chapters dealing with the management of migration inflows through quotas and numerical limits and a new look at the links between migration, remittances and the economic development of sending countries. Country notes, under a new format for this edition, describe recent trends in migration movements and policies, including re-designed standardised tables. The statistical annex contains the latest data on foreign and foreign-born populations, migration flows and naturalisations.
"The best source of analysis on the economic impact of migration."
-Hamish McRae, The Independent
This fact-filled annual publication provides statistical tables showing steel production, consumption and trade data, as well as indicators of activity such as employment levels, annual investment expenditures by sector and by country, export prices, domestic prices and indices for certain iron and steel products. Coverage is provided for OECD countries and Brazil, Bulgaria, India, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. Data are generally provided for the years 2003 and 2004.
This annual edition of Labour Force Statistics provides detailed statistics on population, labour force, employment and unemployment, broken down by sex, as well as unemployment duration, employment status, employment by sector of activity and part-time employment. It also contains participation and unemployment rates by sex and detailed age groups as well as comparative tables for the main components of the labour force. Data are available for each OECD member country and for OECD-Total, Euro area and EU15. The time series presented in the publication cover 20 years for most countries. It also provides information on the sources and definitions used by member countries in the compilation of those statistics.
Building on a recent groundbreaking OECD/World Bank seminar, this volume explores whether and how trade liberalisation can contribute to achieving universal service goals and the types of complementary policies required. It focuses on experiences in four sectors - telecommunications, water and sanitation, financial services, and electricity. The unique multi-sector perspective taken in this book, together with the national case studies, yield insights which can help countries promote their universal access goals. A horizontal assessment also helps determine how far the current services negotiations in the WTO, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, can aid the attainment of universal service goals.
This report helps establish a new agenda for age-friendly employment policies and practices. It sets out the policy challenges presented by rapidly ageing labour forces in OECD countries and draws out the main lessons learned from OECD's series of country reviews on Ageing and Employment policies. Among other issues, it discusses how to remove work disincentives and increase choice in the work-retirement decision, improve employability of older workers, and change employer attitudes and employment practices.
Transition and emerging economies have difficulties developing their financial markets to a level that would provide access to long-term debt finance at an affordable cost. This report examines opportunities beyond the public sector for financing water and other environmental infrastructure. Specifically, opportunities for accessing savings through private financial and capital markets have been examined. The report identifies bottlenecks to the development of local financial markets for environmental infrastructure and discusses policy recommendations to tackle them.
Confidence in a country’s health care system requires indemnification and deterrence systems that adequately cover liability, provide fair compensation for injury, and deter medical malpractices. Over the last years, in many OECD countries, these systems have experienced difficulties resulting in high-risk specialty physicians and surgeons leaving the practice and the development of expensive and useless—if not risky—defensive medicine. This publication surveys and assesses various types of mechanisms and reforms that best limit and indemnify medical accidents. Reasons for difficulties faced by some compensation and prevention regimes, given the specificities of national circumstances and in particular of health care systems, are examined. The study offers a series of unique and focused policy options for establishing more efficient indemnification and deterrence systems to cope with medical accidents.
This book explores how governments can help firms in developing countries better seize the opportunities created by globalisation and contribute to improving employment opportunities and poverty reduction. More specifically, it analyses how local firms can get involved in global value chains, access distant and more profitable markets and upgrade their capabilities. Based on case studies, the book focuses on selected industries and reviews experiences of governments and enterprises in the Mekong sub-region. It seeks to draw ‘bottom up’ policy conclusions from firm- and industry-level analyses in specific country settings about how best to support private sector development in developing countries.
This book provides comments and illustrations to facilitate the common interpretation of the standard in force for grading melons in international trade under the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables set up by the OECD in 1962. It is therefore a valuable tool for both the Inspection Authorities and professional bodies responsible for the application of standards or those interested in international trade of melons.
This wrap-up volume of the PISA 2000 project presents the key findings, including fascinating findings on reading performance, characteristics of successful students, differences between the interests and study habits of boys and girls, the effect of school climate and resources on student performance, and the effect of school autonomy on performance.
The book includes country-by-country profiles that provide information on student performance, socio-economic status, student characteristics, school characteristics, and system characteristics.
What factors govern growth and sustainability? The remarkable recent development of several East Asian countries had brought this question to the fore. While other books have examined the impact of domestic policies and their interaction, this volume looks at the impact of OECD country policies on the region in a variety of areas: trade, investment, environment, agriculture, finance and aid, as well as macroeconomic policies and regional co-operation. Further, and most importantly, the book examines the coherence lessons of these OECD-country policies in the light of future challenges in East Asia and other developing regions.
This publication is the synthesis and first chapter of Policy Coherence Towards East Asia: Development Challenges for OECD Countries, OECD (2005).