N°
1049
21 mai 2013
Measuring Total Factor Productivity at the Firm Level using OECD-ORBIS Peter N. Gal
Recent OECD research has utilised harmonised cross-country firm level data to explore the contribution of public policies to cross-country differences in productivity, innovation and resource allocation. This paper describes the steps taken to and the trade-offs involved in constructing...
N°
1047
22 mai 2013
R&D, Patenting and Growth Ben Westmore
This paper uses panel regression techniques to assess the policy determinants of private sector innovative
activity – proxied by R&D expenditure and the number of new patents – across 19 OECD countries. The
relationship between innovation indicators and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth is...
N°
1045
17 avr 2013
Reforms for a Cleaner, Healthier Environment in China Sam Hill
China’s exceptional economic expansion has led to rising energy demand and pollution as well as
other environmental pressures. Strong efforts by the government have moderated emissions of some types
of air and water pollution from high levels but others, including greenhouse gas emissions,...
N°
1044
16 avr 2013
Making the Tax System Less Distortive in Switzerland Andrés Fuentes
The tax burden in Switzerland is low in international comparison, largely reflecting the substantial non-tax
compulsory contributions towards the health and pension systems which are managed by private
institutions. Taxation of personal income and labour earnings is relatively high, whereas the...
N°
1043
11 avr 2013
The Determinants of Informality in Mexico's States Sean Dougherty, Octavio Escobar
Informality has important implications for productivity, economic growth, and the inequality of income. In recent years, the extent of informal employment has increased in many of Mexico's states, though highly heterogeneously. The substantial differences across states in terms of informal...
N°
1042
11 avr 2013
Legal Reform, Contract Enforcement and Firm Size in Mexico Sean Dougherty
Legal systems provide the basic institutions for firms and markets to operate. Their quality can have important consequences on the size distribution of firms, who rely on them for contract enforcement. This paper uses the variation in legal system quality across states in Mexico to examine the...
N°
1041
05 avr 2013
Improving the Economic Situation of Young People in France Hervé Boulhol
The economic situation of young people is unsatisfactory. Educational inequalities have been widening for over a decade, due to a sharp decline in the results of the most highly disadvantaged students. The unemployment rate for the 20-24 age bracket has not dropped below 16% for nearly 30...
N°
1040
27 mars 2013
Improving Employment Prospects for Young Workers in Spain Anita Wölfl
The unemployment rate among young people has reached painfully high levels, in particular among those
young people with low levels of education. There are two crucial policy priorities to improve employment
prospects for youth in Spain. First, in the very short term, there is need for quick...
N°
1039
27 mars 2013
Youth Labour Market Performance in Spain and its Determinants Juan J. Dolado, Marcel Jansen, Florentino Felgueroso, Andrés Fuentes, Anita Wölfl
This paper provides both descriptive and empirical evidence about the main youth labour market problems
in Spain. Using the experiences of other EU economies as a benchmark, we document the performance of
Spain as regards a wide set of youth labour market dimensions. These include employment...
N°
1038
27 mars 2013
The Efficiency and Equity of the Tax and Transfer System in France Balázs Égert
Taxes and cash transfers reduce income inequality more in France than elsewhere in the OECD, because of
the large size of the flows involved. But the system is complex overall. Its effectiveness could be enhanced
in many ways, for example so as to achieve the same amount of redistribution at...
N°
1037
27 mars 2013
Income Inequality and Poverty in Colombia - Part 2. The Redistributive Impact of Taxes and Transfers Isabelle Joumard, Juliana Londoño Vélez
Income inequality in Colombia has declined since the early 2000s but remains very high by international standards. While most of the inequality originates from the labour market, wealth – and thus capital income – is also highly concentrated and the tax and transfer system has little...
N°
1036
27 mars 2013
Income Inequality and Poverty in Colombia - Part 1. The Role of the Labour Market Isabelle Joumard, Juliana Londoño Vélez
Income inequality in Colombia has declined since the early 2000s but remains very high by international standards. Income dispersion largely originates from the labour market, which is characterised by a still high unemployment rate, a pervasive informal sector and a wide wage dispersion...
N°
1035
20 mars 2013
Policy Options to Durably Resolve Euro Area Imbalances Yvan Guillemette, David Turner
A simple econometric framework is presented linking current account balances of euro area countries
to intra and extra euro area competitiveness, cyclical positions, fiscal positions and the oil price. The
framework is then used to cyclically-adjust observed current account balances and...
N°
1034
08 mars 2013
Labour Market, Welfare Reform and Inequality in the United Kingdom Christophe André, Clara Garcia, Giulia Giupponi, Jon Kristian Pareliussen
Employment has risen by more and unemployment has risen less than expected, given the path of
output. Nevertheless, long-term and youth unemployment and involuntary part-time work are high. A
polarised labour market risks worsening income inequality, which is high by OECD standards, despite...
N°
1033
08 mars 2012
Work Incentives and Universal Credit Jon Kristian Pareliussen
Under the Universal Credit reform, the main means-tested benefits except the Council Tax Benefit will be pooled into one single benefit with one single taper rate. The reform will give people better incentives to work, reduce complexity and contribute to reducing poverty. The reform could...
N°
1032
08 mars 2013
Strengthening Social Cohesion in Luxembourg Jean-Marc Fournier, Clara Garcia
Luxembourg is a rich and fast-growing country. However, inequality of disposable incomes has trended up modestly over the past decades and relative poverty has risen reflecting mainly the rapid growth of high incomes. The relatively high inequality of market incomes is substantially reduced by...
N°
1031
08 mars 2013
The Price of Oil – Will it Start Rising Again? Jean-Marc Fournier, Isabell Koske, Isabelle Wanner, Vera Zipperer
Following a sharp drop amidst the global economic crisis and a subsequent recovery, the spot price of crude oil has been broadly stable for the past couple of years. This paper discusses the factors that drive oil demand and supply and, hence, the price of the resource. A set of oil demand...
N°
1030
27 fév 2013
The System of Revenue Sharing and Fiscal Transfers in China Xiao Wang, Richard Herd
The main features of China’s current sub-national finance arrangements date back to the 1994 tax reform. China has a multi-level government structure that shares national tax revenues through a system of tax sharing and transfers, and divides spending assignments and responsibilities. Local...
N°
1029
13 mars 2013
The Declining Competitiveness of French Firms Reflects a Generalised Supply-Side Problem Hervé Boulhol, Patrizio Sicari
This short paper analyses the decline of France’s trade balance over the past 15 years. While the loss in export market shares is comparable to that of the major OECD countries except Germany, it is one of the largest among the countries of the euro area. The determinants of this outcome seem...
N°
1028
25 fév 2013
Do the Average Level and Dispersion of Socio-Economic Background Measures Explain France's Gap in PISA Scores? Hervé Boulhol, Patrizio Sicari
OECD’s PISA publications highlight the impact of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) on students’ results within countries. The focus here is to investigate whether ESCS measures could contribute to differences in aggregate educational outcomes between countries. There is some evidence...
N°
1027
21 fév 2013
Labour Market Performance by Age Groups: A Focus on France Hervé Boulhol, Patrizio Sicari
This paper analyses the age structure of employment rates across OECD countries with a focus on France. The statistical contribution of each age group to total unemployment-rate differentials is also computed. An estimate of the sensitivity of age-specific unemployment rates to the economic...
N°
1026
21 fév 2013
Moving Towards a Single Labour Contract Nicolas Lepage-Saucier, Juliette Schleich, Etienne Wasmer
This paper discusses the pros and cons of a single labour contract. After reviewing the current state of dualism in labour markets
and the recent labour reforms in Europe, we discuss the various proposals to eliminate dualism. Next, we emphasise the costs of
dualism and discuss whether they...
N°
1025
18 fév 2013
Boosting Productivity in Australia Vassiliki Koutsogeorgopoulou, Omar Barbiero
Australia’s productivity growth has decelerated markedly around the turn of the century. Part of the decline is probably temporary, but raising multifactor productivity is key to ensure that living standards continue to grow strongly, especially if the currently strong terms of trade weaken...
N°
1024
18 fév 2013
Housing, Financial and Capital Taxation Policies to Ensure Robust Growth in Sweden Muge Adalet McGowan
Extensive structural reforms since the early 1990s have strengthened the resilience of the Swedish
economy to shocks. However, more needs to be done to better manage near-term risks and ensure that
growth remains sustainable in the longer run. Reforming the housing market would reduce the...
N°
1023
18 fév 2013
Labour Market and Social Policies to Foster More Inclusive Growth in Sweden Stéphanie Jamet, Thomas Chalaux, Vincent Koen
Sweden is a very egalitarian country but inequalities have risen and some groups are poorly integrated
into the labour market. For growth to become more inclusive, the gap between the cost of labour and
productivity for some groups needs to be reduced, transitions from education to work should...
N°
1022
19 fév 2013
Educational Attainment and Labour Market Outcomes in South Africa, 1994-2010 Nicola Branson, Murray Leibbrandt
In this paper we document the impact of education levels on labour market outcomes from 1994 to
2010 using national household survey data. We show that higher levels of education are strongly rewarded
in the labour market in terms of earnings and that a tertiary qualification improves an...
N°
1021
18 fév 2013
Education Quality and Labour Market Outcomes in South Africa Nicola Branson, Murray Leibbrandt
In this paper we include measures of school quality in regressions determining the labour market
premiums to education level. We use the matric exemption score and the pupil/teacher ratio of the
respondents’ closest school during childhood as proxies for education quality. We find that...
N°
1020
30 jan 2013
Do Policies that Reduce Unemployment Raise its Volatility? Alain de Serres, Fabrice Murtin
In this paper we examine whether past labour market reforms aiming at reducing the rate of unemployment have raised its long-run volatility. Using non-linear panel data models applied to 24 OECD countries between 1985 and 2007, as well as Monte-Carlo techniques, we do not find any evidence of...
N°
1019
05 fév 2013
Slovakia: A Catching Up Euro Area Member In and Out of the Crisis Jarko Fidrmuc, Caroline Klein, Robert Price, Andreas Wörgötter
The Slovak economy experienced a strong but short recession in 2009. The recovery afterwards was driven by exports and investment. While GDP growth was one of the strongest in OECD, employment did not reach the pre-crisis level and unemployment remains stubbornly high. This paper argues that...
N°
1018
29 jan 2013
Improving the Fiscal Framework to Enhance Growth in an Era of Fiscal Consolidation in Slovakia Caroline Klein, Robert Price, Andreas Wörgötter
The challenge for fiscal policy in Slovakia is to achieve fiscal consolidation in a way which supports the fragile recovery and protects spending on areas which are important for re-embarking on a trajectory of high trend growth and underpinning a catch-up in living standards. While the...
N°
1017
29 jan 2013
Investing Efficiently in Education and Active Labour Market Policies in Slovakia Caroline Klein
In Slovakia, educational outcomes are below the OECD average and are too dependent on the socioeconomic background of students. Unemployment is high and the school-to-job transition process does not work well. Spending on education and active labour market policies are very low by international...
N°
1016
28 jan 2013
The Performance of Road Transport Infrastructure and its Links to Policies Henrik Braconier, Mauro Pisu, Debra Bloch
Despite the economic importance of the road transport sector, there is no systematic cross-country evidence on the sector’s efficiency. This paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing the social efficiency of the road transport sector, including non-market inputs – such as travel time...
N°
1015
28 jan 2013
The US Labour Market Recovery Following the Great Recession Wendy Dunn
Although job creation has improved, since the end of the 2007-08 recession, the effects of the recession on the labour market remain severe. Unemployment duration is still extremely high, and many have withdrawn from the labour market altogether. Because the weakness is largely cyclical in...
N°
1014
14 jan 2013
Why do Russian Firms Use Fixed-Term and Agency Work Contracts? Larisa Smirnykh, Andreas Wörgötter
This study looks into the use of fixed term contracts and agency work in Russia during and shortly after the crisis 2009-10 with the help of an enterprise survey. The results of variance analysis show that the use of fixed-term or agency work contracts is not uniform across sectors, size and...
N°
1013
14 jan 2013
The Equity Implications of Fiscal Consolidation Lukasz Rawdanowicz, Eckhard Wurzel, Ane Kathrine Christensen
In several OECD countries, ongoing fiscal consolidation might have a negative impact on the static income distribution. However, this conclusion should be treated only as an approximate first step in the analysis. A full assessment of distributional effects of consolidation packages would need...
N°
1012
14 jan 2013
The Dutch Labour Market Mathijs Gerritsen, Jens Høj
The well performing labour market has delivered low unemployment and relatively stable wage developments. However, it is divided into a small flexible segment and a large more rigid segment, where the adjustment burden of external shocks falls disproportionally on the first group. At the same...
N°
1011
14 jan 2013
Reforming Policies for the Business Sector to Harvest the Benefits of Globalisation in the Netherlands Mathijs Gerritsen, Jens Høj
The Netherlands has strongly benefited from globalisation, which boosted international trade, cross-border investment and economic growth over the latest decades. Looking ahead, the Netherlands needs to shift the trade and investment orientation from traditional slow-growing markets to faster...
N°
1010
11 jan 2013
Health Care Reform and Long-Term Care in the Netherlands Erik Schut, Stéphane Sorbe, Jens Høj
The Netherlands, as other OECD countries, faces the challenge of providing high quality health and long-term care services to an ageing population in a cost-efficient manner. In the health care sector, reforms have aimed at introducing more competition. Despite major changes and some positive...
N°
1009
15 jan 2013
Enhancing the Inclusiveness of the Labour Market in Belgium Jens Høj
The global crisis led to a smaller increase in the unemployment rate than in most other OECD countries as employment has been sustained through intensive use of reduced working time schemes. These schemes have mostly benefited workers with permanent contracts while the higher unemployment...
N°
1008
10 déc 2012
Reducing Poverty in Estonia Through Activation and Better Targeting Sarah Flèche, Artur Radziwill
The crisis revealed the need for a strategic review of the existing social protection system in Estonia.
Extreme income fluctuations on one side and low social benefits on the other side exposed fragile groups in the
population to a significant poverty risk. The government has recently...
N°
1007
10 déc 2012
Matching Skills and Jobs in Estonia Lilas Demmou
The labour market in Estonia is volatile, increasing the risk that groups with some obstacles to enter
the labour market (youth, non-Estonian speakers and workers with no upper secondary graduation
certificate) may become long-term unemployed, due to the aggravating skills mismatch in the wake...
N°
1006
07 déc 2012
Debt and Macroeconomic Stability: An Overview of the Literature and Some Empirics Douglas Sutherland, Peter Hoeller
How does debt affect macroeconomic stability? The answer to this question has important
implications, because both public and private debt levels have reached historic highs across the OECD.
While accumulating debt can help smooth real activity, at high levels debt creates weaknesses in...
N°
1005
04 déc 2012
Debt and Macroeconomic Stability: Debt and the Business Cycle Volker Ziemann
Using a large panel of OECD countries this paper studies the link between debt and macroeconomic
stability by comparing the evolution of balance sheet aggregates and economic output in high- and lowdebt
environments. While the relationship between debt and economic growth has been extensively...
N°
1004
07 déc 2012
Debt and Macroeconomic Stability: Case studies Rossana Merola
Accumulating debt raises concerns about its implications for macroeconomic stability. This paper
sheds light on the implications of high indebtedness for the macroeconomic volatility by identifying the
main drivers of the evolution of debt in a set of countries. The country choice was based on...
N°
1003
06 déc 2012
Debt and Macroeconomic Stability Douglas Sutherland, Peter Hoeller, Rossana Merola, Volker Ziemann
Debt levels have surged since the mid-1990s and have reached historic highs across the OECD. High
debt levels can create vulnerabilities, which amplify and transmit macroeconomic and asset price shocks.
Furthermore, high debt levels hinder the ability of households and enterprises to smooth...
N°
1002
04 déc 2012
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Cost Effective Way in Switzerland Anita Wölfl, Patrizio Sicari
Switzerland has low greenhouse gas emissions per capita as compared to other countries, which reflects the strong reliance on energy sources emitting few greenhouse gas emissions, especially in electricity generation, and little heavy industry. Greenhouse gas emissions have remained almost the...
N°
1001
22 nov 2012
Strengthening Innovation in the United States David Carey, Christopher Hill, Brian Kahin
The US innovation system has many strengths, including world class research universities and firms that
thrive in innovation-intensive sectors. However, fissures have begun to appear, notably in the areas of human
capital development, the patent system and manufacturing activity, while public...
N°
1000
28 jan 2013
Long-Term Growth Scenarios Åsa Johansson, Yvan Guillemette, Fabrice Murtin, David Turner, Giuseppe Nicoletti, Christine de la Maisonneuve, Philip Bagnoli, Guillaume Bousquet, Francesca Spinelli
This paper presents the results from a new model for projecting growth of OECD and major non-OECD economies over the next 50 years as well as imbalances that arise. A baseline scenario assuming gradual structural reform and fiscal consolidation to stabilise government-debt-to GDP ratios is...
N°
999
20 nov 2012
Selected Aspects of Household Savings in Germany Christina Kolerus, Isabell Koske, Felix Hüfner
This paper uses household level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) over the period 1991 to 2008 to analyse the driving factors of movements in the German household savings rate. Specifically, it analyses the impact of the precautionary savings motive and the impact of the 2002...
N°
998
30 oct 2012
Improving the Tax System in Indonesia Jens Arnold
Indonesia has come a long way in improving its tax system over the last decade, both in terms of revenues raised and administrative
efficiency. Nonetheless, the tax take is still low, given the need for more spending on infrastructure and social protection. With the exception
of the natural...
