10 Mar 2005
Business Dynamics and Policies Nicola Brandt
This study presents evidence on firm entry and exit, growth and survival derived with new data from Eurostat, covering nine European Union member countries. Cross-country and cross-industry patterns in firm entry rates are analysed with a special emphasis on detailed information and communication technology (ICT) related sectors, which has not been possible with previously available cross-country data. Firm entry rates turn out to be rather moderate in more mature industries...
10 Mar 2005
The ICT Productivity Paradox Dirk Pilat
Empirical analysis of the economic impacts of information and communications technology (ICT) has followed three main tracks, namely analysis with aggregate data on ICT investment, with data on ICTproducing and ICT-using industries, and with firm-level data. Firm-level data point to factors influencing the impacts of ICT that cannot be observed at the aggregate level, e.g. organisational factors or the availability of skills. Firm-level data can also point to competitive effects that may accompany the spread...
10 Mar 2005
Explaining Waiting-time Variations for Elective Surgery Across OECD Countries Luigi Sicilani, Jeremy Hurst
Waiting times for publicly-funded elective surgery are a major health policy concern in many OECD countries (like Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), but are not a concern in others (like Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United States). This paper contains a comparative analysis of these two groups of countries. It is found...
10 Mar 2005
The Contribution of Housing Markets to Cyclical Resilience Pietro Catte, Nathalie Girouard, Robert Price, Christophe André
This paper examines the linkages between housing markets and the business cycle in OECD countries, focusing on how differences in the degree of resilience to economic shocks can be affected by the structural characteristics of housing and mortgage markets. The paper focuses specifically on: the transmission channel from housing wealth to consumption and on the factors behind house price variability, which help to determine whether the housing sector plays a stabilising role or not.
10 Mar 2005
The Challenges of Narrowing the US Current-Account Deficit and Implications for Other Economies Anne-Marie Brook, Franck Sédillot, Patrice Ollivaud
This article uses the OECD’s interlink model to explore several possible channels through which a narrowing of the US current account deficit could occur. The shocks considered include dollar depreciation, fiscal consolidation, and an improvement in the non-price competitiveness of US producers. A key conclusion is that shocks would have to be very large in order to materially reduce the US external deficit, largely because of the offsetting impact of second-round effects. In addition...
