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This study contributes to the current debate on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), their relevance and what can be done after 2015, by looking at estimates of the cost of reaching the goals in 2015. In particular, it sizes the additional resources needed in developing countries to attain the goals.
This report presents a detailed analysis of the Dominican Republic’s financial system and offers a series recommendations to develop the country’s capital markets. The country has recently made big advances in the development of its capital markets, achieving high solvency in the banking sector, improving the institutional framework for the management of public debt and experiencing steady growth in the value of both the private bond market and the assets of pension funds. However, the level of financing directed to the economy is still small, given the country’s level of development, and there are important structural challenges that need to be addressed. Both the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry issue public debt, each with different purposes, and there appears to be little coordination between the two organs in terms of rate of returns and maturity of the issued bonds. The primary market of private bonds suffers from a long and complicated issuing process that stems from coordination and communication problems among the different regulators. The bond secondary market lacks key aspects of market infrastructure. Finally, institutional investors invest mostly on public debt instruments and bonds issued by finance sector firms.
This document contains a compilation of consensus guidance for approval of long-term operation of nuclear power plants. This guidance is presented as fundamental and key principles that should govern decisions on authorisation for long-term operation. These principles allow for differences in national regulatory strategies and expectations while ensuring that safe performance can be achieved in long-term operation.
The Chemical Thermodynamics of Tin is based on a critical review of the thermodynamic properties of tin, its solid compounds and aqueous complexes, carried out as part of NEA Thermochemical Database Project Phase III (TDB III). The database system developed at the OECD/NEA Data Bank ensures consistency not only within the recommended data sets of tin, but also among all the data sets published in this series. This volume will be of particular interest to scientists carrying out performance assessments of deep geological disposal sites for radioactive waste.
The report shows how China, already the world’s largest wind market, could reach 1,000 GW of wind power by the middle of the century, an achievement that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 gigatonnes per year, or roughly equivalent to the combined CO2 emissions of Germany, France and Italy in 2009. The China Wind Energy Roadmap is the first national roadmap that has been developed by a country with IEA support, drawing from its global roadmap series.
Gender gaps are pervasive in all walks of economic life and imply large losses in terms of foregone productivity and living standards to the individuals concerned and the economy. This new OECD report focuses on how best to close these gender gaps under four broad headings: 1) Gender equality, social norms and public policies; and gender equality in 2) education; 3) employment and 4) entrepreneurship.
Key policy messages are as follows:
-Greater gender equality in educational attainment has a strong positive effect on economic growth;
-Stereotyping needs to be addressed in educational choices at school from a young age. For example, adapt teaching strategies and material to increase engagement of boys in reading and of girls in maths and science; encourage more girls to follow science, engineering and maths courses in higher education and seek employment in these fields;
-Good and affordable childcare is a key factor for better gender equality in employment. But change also has to happen at home as the bulk of housework and caring is left to women in many countries. Policy can support such change, for example, through parental leave policies that explicitly include fathers.
-Support policies for women-owned enterprises need to target all existing firms, not just start-ups and small enterprises. Equal access to finance for male and female entrepreneurs needs to be assured.
Coal Information provides a comprehensive review of historical and current market trends in the world coal sector, including 2011 preliminary data.
An Introduction, notes, definitions and auxiliary information are provided in Part I. Part II of the publication provides a review of the world coal market in 2011, while Part III provides a statistical overview of developments, which covers world coal production and coal reserves, coal demand by type, coal trade and coal prices. Part IV provides, in tabular and graphic form, a more detailed and comprehensive statistical picture of historical and current coal developments in the 34 OECD member countries, by region and individually. Part V provides for selected non-OECD countries summary statistics on coal supply and end-use statistics for about 40 countries and regions worldwide. Complete coal balances and coal trade data for selected years are presented on 16 major non-OECD coal-producing and -consuming countries.
Coal Information is one of a series of annual IEA statistical publications on major energy sources; other reports are Electricity Information, Natural Gas Information, Oil Information and Renewables Information.
This book examines the concept of the compact city and the implication of the current urban context for compact city policies. It explores their potential outcomes, particularly in terms of how it can contribute to Green Growth and looks at developing indicators to monitor compact city and track policy performance. It reviews compact city policies currently being implemented across the OECD in relation to the pursuit of Green Growth objectives and provides ideas to achieve better outcomes. And it assesses the key governance challenges faced by decision-makers as they seek to implement practical compact city strategies. This report is thus intended as “food for thought” for national, sub-national and municipal governments as they seek to address their economic and environmental challenges through the development and implementation of spatial strategies in pursuit of Green Growth objectives. It also illustrates best practices (which present key elements of successful compact city policies) based on empirical evidence that can be shared across OECD member countries.
The growing importance of state-owned enterprises (SOE) in the global marketplace has given rise to concerns about how to ensure competitive neutrality – a level playing field – where public and private entities compete. The book aims to serve as a resource for governments that intend to ensure that public and private businesses compete on equal terms. It provides a catalogue of relevant practices and experiences in OECD and other jurisdictions. The publication is structured around eight “building blocks” of competitive neutrality including how to ensure debt, tax or regulatory neutrality; calculating market consistent rates-of-return; transparent accounting for public service obligations; and competitive procurement. It also provides practical experience on how to coin a policy commitment to competitive neutrality and tradeoffs of different approaches. The book provides insights on fundamental questions concerning the role of the State in the marketplace and on the need to balance commercial interests with the sometimes important public policy functions vested in SOEs.
This review of competitiveness and private sector development in the Ukraine provides a solid base for policy analysis and gives recommendations with immediate relevance and applicability. It includes diagnosis and policy actions for policy makers and advisors, offering policy responses to underpin economic diversification, enhanced competitiveness and private sector development. Finally, the book applies an innovative framework to identify barriers that hinder the development of selected sectors. It offers the design and suggests ways to implement specific policies to remove those barriers, including the selection and business analysis of Ukraine's most attractive sectors in terms of competitiveness and FDI appeal.
In all OECD countries, digital media and connectedness are integral to the lives of today’s learners. It is often claimed that these learners are "new millennium learners", or "digital natives", who have different expectations about education. This book contributes to the debate about the effects of technology attachment and connectedness on today’s learners, and their expectations about teaching.
The book sets out to answer the following questions: Can the claim that today’s students are "new millenium learners" or "digital natives be sustained empirically? Is there consistent research evidence demonstrating the effects of technology on cognitive development, social values, and learning expectations? What are the implications for educational policy and practice?
The potential of diasporas as a source of economic and social development in origin countries and whether diasporas could help foster development depend on their characteristics, such as size, composition, skill levels and degree of concentration, but also on the degree of integration into the destination countries and the economic, political and social environment in origin countries. Governments of origin and destination countries can indeed facilitate the involvement of diasporas, by supporting networks, by facilitating communication channels with the country of origin, by creating an enabling environment, or – more directly – by easing skill mobility and use. In this regard, the capacity to characterise the profile of diasporas is instrumental.
This joint OECD/AFD publication includes 140 country notes summarising diaspora sizes, including the number of children of migrants born in the destination countries; the characteristics of emigrant populations (gender, age, education, labour market outcomes); the numbers and main destinations of international students; recent migrant flows to OECD countries; and information on the desire to emigrate of different population groups. The country note information is grouped into six regions: Asia and Oceania; Latin America and the Caribbean; OECD countries; Non-OECD Europe and Central Asia; Middle East and North Africa; and Sub-Saharan Africa. The situation in each region is introduced by a separate chapter, which looks at historical migration trends, the main characteristics of diasporas originating from the region, and likely future developments and challenges.
Consumption Tax Trends provides information on Value Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax (VAT/GST) and excise duty rates in OECD member countries. It also contains information about indirect tax topics such as international aspects of VAT/GST developments in OECD member countries as well as in selected non-OECD economies, and describes a range of taxation provisions such as the taxation of motor vehicles, tobacco and alcoholic beverages. The special feature of 2012 Edition will look into "Value Added Taxes in Federal Countries".
This publication examines the role of corporate governance arrangements in providing the right incentives to contribute to the value creation process within the private enterprises and the implications of the differences in ownership structures on corporate governance practices and frameworks. It also addresses these global changes from emerging markets perspective and the distinguishing features of these economies that shape their capital markets, corporate structures and corporate governance landscape.
This publication is an important reminder that all those corporate governance rules, regulations and practices that we discuss are not a goal in themselves. They are supposed to be means to a greater end. Be it minority rights, mandatory bids, or independent directors, the rules and regulations that we put in place should serve a purpose. And it is against this purpose and these objectives that the quality of any corporate governance system should be evaluated. So, we need to find a benchmark against which we can assess new regulations and evaluate existing ones.
This report addresses the practical administration of transfer pricing programmes by tax administrations. Technical analysis of how transfer prices should be computed in accordance with the arm’s length principle is outside the scope of this report. Instead the report focuses on the practical experiences of a number of FTA member countries and some non-member countries. The report discusses ways in which the management of transfer pricing programmes can be optimised, so that transfer pricing audits and enquiries are conducted efficiently and in a timely manner, for the benefit of MNEs and tax administrations alike. It is concerned with the practical steps tax administrations need to take to correctly identify transfer pricing cases that merit audit or enquiry and then to progress those cases to as early a conclusion as possible.
This case study describes the policy-making process in Australia leading to the public release of information on every school in Australia through the My School website. Policy lessons are described to provide insight for OECD member countries which may be grappling with similar issues in developing school accountability systems, particularly those working within federal-state contexts.
While some of the lessons from this policy development and implementation process relate specifically to Australia’s circumstances, there are general policy prescriptions of broader interest to other countries seeking to improve school education through measurement and reporting of key factors of school operations and performance.
This report highlights the issues faced by local areas against the backdrop of policies or planning models that have directed local development in the past decades (e.g. introduction of new industries such as information technology/bio-technology following the de-industrialisation of mining/manufacturing industries) but today appear less suitable than expected to ensure the sustainability of local development.
This report is timely in discussing cases from 20 countries around the world and particularly signalling local strategies and initiatives for policy consideration and learning. The report considers together issues at the crossroads of modern local development in the context of demographic change: population mobility and urban shrinkage, regeneration strategies to stimulate sustainable growth, and social dynamics underpinning community stability.
This document describes some endocrine pathways that have been shown to be susceptible to environmental endocrine disruption and whose disruption could contribute to increasing incidents of some disorders in humans and wildlife populations, such as obesity/diabetes/metabolic syndrome, reproductive dysfunction, and neuro-developmental abnormalities. Assays and endpoints are described that could be used in new or existing OECD Test Guidelines for evaluating chemicals for endocrine-disrupting activity. Endocrine pathways evaluated are the hypothalamus:pituitary:adrenocortical (HPA) axis, the hypothalamus:pituitary:gonad (HPG) axis, the somatotropic axis, the retinoid signaling pathway, the hypothalamus:pituitary:thyroid (HPT) axis, the vitamin D signaling pathway, and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway.
The Development Co-operation Report is the key annual reference document for statistics and analysis on trends in international aid. This year, the Development Co-operation Report 2012 seeks to provide insights into how to address today’s sustainable development challenges, with a focus on inclusiveness and good governance to ensure that our finite resources are equitably distributed, now and in the future.
Sharing finite resources among a growing number people – and consumers – is a critical challenge. It is in this spirit that J. Brian Atwood, Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), invited several intellectual leaders on the challenges of inclusive, sustainable development to contribute to this year’s report.