Browse by: "2010"

In all OECD countries, governments collect revenues through taxes and redistribute this public money, often by obligatory spending on social programmes such as education or health care. Their tax systems usually include “tax expenditures” – provisions that allow certain groups of people, such as small businessmen, retired people or working mothers, or those who have undertaken certain activities, such as charitable donations, to pay less in taxes.

The use of tax expenditures by governments is pervasive and growing. At a time when many government budgets are threatened by population ageing and adverse cyclical developments, there is a pressing need to avoid inefficient government programmes, some of which may utilise tax expenditures.

This book sheds light on the use of tax expenditures, mainly through a study of ten OECD countries: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. This book will help government officials and the public better understand some of the technical and policy issues behind the use of tax expenditures. It highlights key trends and successful practices, and addresses a broad range of government finance issues, including tax policy making, tax and budget efficiency, fiscal responsibility and rule making.

Les actions menées par les administrations publiques revêtent une importance cruciale au quotidien. Quantifier et mesurer leurs interventions peut aider les responsables publics à prendre de meilleures décisions et conduire à une plus grande responsabilisation des administrations vis-à-vis des citoyens.

 

Panorama des administrations publiques est une nouvelle publication biennale de l’OCDE. Elle propose plus de 30 indicateurs décrivant les principaux éléments qui concourent à la performance des administrations. Cette publication compare les cadres politiques et institutionnels des administrations publiques de l’ensemble des pays de l’OCDE, tout autant que leurs revenus, leurs dépenses et leur situation vis-à-vis de l’emploi public. Elle présente également des indicateurs décrivant les politiques et pratiques publiques en matière d’intégrité, d’administration ouverte (« open government ») et d’administration électronique. Enfin, elle introduit plusieurs indices composites synthétisant les aspects clés des pratiques publiques en matière de gestion des ressources humaines, de pratiques et procédures budgétaires et de gestion réglementaire. Pour chaque graphique, l’ouvrage fournit un lien dynamique (StatLink) qui renvoie le lecteur à une page internet où figurent les données correspondantes au format Excel®.

L’externalisation des fonctions et des services à des prestataires externes est une pratique établie dans de nombreux pays développés et en développement. D’une part, l’externalisation peut offrir un soutien essentiel aux États qui doivent fournir d’urgence des services de base. D’autre part, elle risque de contourner les États et nuire à leur relèvement à long terme. Le Partenariat pour la gouvernance démocratique de l’OCDE a été formé en 2007 afin d’aborder dans une optique plus stratégique cette question majeure.

Le guide ne prend pas position en faveur ou contre l’externalisation. Ce n’est pas non plus un manuel technique. Ce guide est destiné aux praticiens de terrain et aux décideurs des politiques publiques dans les États qui sortent d’un conflit ou qui sont considérés comme fragiles. Son but est d’aider les décideurs et les praticiens à faire des choix éclairés sur les types d’externalisation les mieux adaptés à leur pays. C’est un outil permettant aux décideurs d’évaluer la viabilité de l’externalisation — de façon temporaire ou sur le long terme — dans la prestation d’un service essentiel (tel que l’éducation de base, la santé, l’eau et l’assainissement) ou d’une fonction gouvernementale (telle que la gestion des finances publiques et les ressources humaines). Le guide illustre ces points à l’aide d’études de cas tirées des expériences acquises dans de nombreux États fragiles, allant de l’Afghanistan à Haïti et au Libéria.

This review presents a general picture of the overall regulatory reform frameworks in Italy, examining quality regulation, competition policy and professional services. The review also offers a special focus on multi-level governance, where key issues include local public services, commercial distribution, local transport and energy.

The review finds that Italy has made significant progress using regulatory reform since the first OECD review in 2001. Administrative simplification and the increasing role of competition policy, combined with devolution of state powers to regions, have helped. But there are still key challenges for regulatory policy and its implementation, including enforcement, capacity in the civil service, impact analysis for evidence-based decision-making, and building a culture of consultation. The current global economic crisis is an opportunity for Italy to further clarify how the state intervenes in the economy, to improve multi-level co-ordination, and to expand competition in specific sectors.

Using this Guide will facilitate the practical implementation of the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in the areas of transparency and accountability. It provides viable policy options and a step-by-step road map on how to address typical difficulties, risks and hurdles that may be encountered. It also provides concrete examples of good practices that can serve as a reference and inspiration. The Guide will help governments, their ownership entities and other stakeholders to evaluate existing practices and support reforms.

In most countries, improving transparency and accountability in state-owned enterprises entails a number of complex challenges. Addressing these, with the help of this Guide, is an important step in the process of establishing well-governed and economically sound state-owned enterprises

Dans tous les pays de l’OCDE, l’administration collecte ses recettes par le biais de l’impôt et redistribue cet argent public, souvent sous la forme de dépenses obligatoires allouées à des programmes sociaux d’éducation ou de santé. Le système d’imposition inclut généralement des « dépenses fiscales » – c'est-à-dire des dispositions qui permettent à certaines catégories de contribuables, comme les dirigeants de petites entreprises, les retraités, les mères qui ont un emploi ou encore les personnes ayant réalisé certaines actions, telles que des dons à des œuvres caritatives, de payer moins d’impôts. L’usage des dépenses fiscales par les administrations se répand et croît. Alors que nous traversons une période où les budgets nationaux sont sous la menace du vieillissement des populations et d’évolutions cycliques défavorables, il devient urgent d’éviter les programmes publics inefficaces, dont certains peuvent recourir aux dépenses fiscales. Cet ouvrage étudie l’emploi des dépenses fiscales dans 10 pays de l’OCDE : Allemagne, Canada, Corée, Espagne, États-Unis, France, Japon, Pays-Bas, Suède et Royaume-Uni. Il aidera les hauts fonctionnaires et le public à mieux comprendre certaines des questions politiques et techniques qui sous-tendent le recours aux dépenses fiscales. Il met en lumière les tendances clés et les pratiques fructueuses, et traite d’un large éventail de questions budgétaires nationales telles que l’élaboration de la politique fiscale, l’efficacité des impôts et du budget, la responsabilisation budgétaire et l’établissement des règles.

This review of regulatory reform in Australia comes at the right time to capture the attention of the OECD community. Australia has successfully weathered the worst effects of the current economic crisis. The resilience of the Australian economy, in the face of the deepest and most widespread recession in over fifty years in OECD countries, can in part be attributed to Australia’s current and past regulatory reforms. 

Australia has built strong governance foundations for the development of good regulatory management and competition policies, which are likely to be conducive to economic growth. It aims to reinvigorate a wide agenda of national reforms and to embed past reform achievements in new working arrangements between the Commonwealth and the States. This reform agenda is likely to yield substantial economic benefits for years to come, but demands joint participation and commitment from both the Commonwealth and all States. Maintaining the momentum for reform is a critical challenge, which requires a strategic vision as well as strenuous efforts to promote change and to establish a culture of continuous regulatory improvement.

Australia is one of many OECD countries to request a broad review by the OECD of its regulatory practices and reforms. This review presents a general picture , set within a macroeconomic context, of regulatory achievements and challenges, including regulatory quality at the Commonwealth level as well as across levels of government, competition policy and market openness. It also provides a special focus on Commonwealth-state relationships.

Dedicated public-private partnership (PPP) units are organisations set up with full or partial aid of the government to ensure that the skills needed to handle third-party provision of goods and services are made available and clustered together within government. Such units enhance the capacity of government to successfully manage the risks associated with a growing number and value of PPPs. Although a relatively recent phenomenon, in 2009 more than half of all OECD countries reported the existence of a dedicated unit of some kind.  

This book provides an overview of dedicated PPP units in OECD countries, including case studies covering: the State of Victoria (Australia), Germany, Korea, South Africa (an OECD enhanced engagement country), and the United Kingdom. It examines the functions and locations of dedicated PPP units, the role they play in the procurement process and  the lessons learned for other countries that have already established or are considering establishing a dedicated PPP unit.

 

Further reading

Public-Private Partnerships: In Pursuit of Risk Sharing and Value for Money (OECD, 2008)

The service sector, in aggregate, now dominates total employment and value-added in OECD countries, accounting for more than 70% of these two measures, and continues to increase in importance. While services may play a slightly smaller role in rural regions than in urban areas, they are the dominant component of the rural economy. It is clear that a vibrant service sector is both vital for a prosperous local economy and crucial for meeting the needs of rural citizens. 

This book provides an overview of the underlying problems in delivering services to rural regions.  It contains a conceptual structure for thinking about rural service delivery problems and a strategy for thinking about the role of government in service delivery, as well as a discussion of the role that innovation and public management tools like co-design and co-delivery can play in designing better service delivery approaches.  Also included are examples of different, successful policy strategies drawn from OECD countries.

 

Also available

The New Rural Paradigm: Policies and Governance (2006)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Germany (2007)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Mexico (2007)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Finland (2008)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: The Netherlands (2008)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: China (2009)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Italy (2009)

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Spain (2009)  

OECD Rural Policy Reviews: Québec, Canada (forthcoming)

 

OECD's Territorial Review of Toronto, Canada.  It finds that the Toronto region is one of the chief economic powerhouses of Canada, generating almost one-fifth of national GDP and 45% of Ontario’s GDP. The region is home to 40% of Canada’s business headquarters and is a main manufacturing hub, with major automotive, biomedical and electronics companies. Toronto is also one of the most diverse metropolitan regions in the world: half of its population is foreign born and it hosted 40% of all immigrants to Canada during 2001-2006.

Nevertheless, the region’s current economic development model is under pressure and its economic performance has been mixed in recent years. From 1995 to 2005, GDP per capita and GDP growth rates were below the Canadian average while its annual economic and labour productivity growth were lower than the average for OECD metropolitan regions. During this period, population growth boosted demand in the construction, sales and retail, professional and financial services sectors. However, the recent decline in the area’s manufacturing jobs has illustrated the structural difficulties of some traditionally strong areas, such as the automotive and electronics industries.

This Review proposes a new sustainable competitiveness agenda to enhance productivity, focusing on innovation, cultural diversity and infrastructure, as well as on green policies. To implement such an agenda, the Review proposes improving the current governance framework by intensifying strategic planning at the level of the Toronto region.

This report maps and analyses the core issues which together make up effective regulatory management for the United Kingdom, laying down a framework of what should be driving regulatory policy and reform in the future. Issues examined include: strategy and policies for improving regulatory management; institutional capacities for effective regulation and the broader policy making context; transparency and processes for effective public consultation and communication; processes for the development of new regulations, including impact assessment and for the management of the regulatory stock, including administrative burdens; compliance rates, enforcement policy and appeal processes; and the multilevel dimension: interface between different levels of government and interface between national processes and those of the EU. This book is part of a project examining better regulation, being carried out in partnership with the European Commission.

 

We expect governments to protect citizens from the adverse consequences of hazardous events. At the same time it is not possible or necessarily in the best interest of citizens for all risks to be removed. A risk-based approach to the design and implementation of regulation can help to ensure that regulatory approaches are efficient, effective and account for risk/risk tradeoffs across policy objectives. Risk-based approaches to the design of regulation and compliance strategies can improve the welfare of citizens by providing better protection, more efficient government services and reduced costs for business. Across the OECD there is great potential to improve the operation of risk policy as few governments have taken steps to develop a coherent risk governance policy for managing regulation.  

This publication presents recent OECD research and analysis on risk and regulatory policy.  The chapters discuss core challenges today. They offer measures for developing, or improving, coherent risk governance policies. Topics include: challenges in designing regulatory policy frameworks to manage risks; different cultural and legal dimensions of risk regulatory concepts across OECD; analytical models and principles for decision making in uncertain situations; key elements of risk regulation and governance institutions; the use of management-based regulation to help firms make risk-related behavioural changes; an analysis of the risk-based frameworks of regulators in five OECD countries (Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom) and across four sectors: environment, food safety, financial markets and health and safety; and the elements for designing formal guidelines for risk prioritisation, assessment, management and communication.