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This article builds on and extends the quantitative part of OECD Trade Policy Working Paper No 35 co-authored by Enrico Pinali and Massimo Geloso-Grosso. The Working Paper includes detailed case studies as well as a discussion of specific GATS issues related to the logistics services sector. The author would like to thank Dale Andrew, Henk Kox and Delegates to the Working Party of the Trade Committee for useful comments on the Working Paper and Paul Swaim and Mark Pearson for useful comments and suggestions on this version. The usual disclaimer applies.
Public expenditures on health and long-term care (hereafter, LTC) are a matter of concern for governments in most OECD countries. These expenditures have recently accelerated and are putting pressure on public budgets, adding to that arising from insufficiently reformed retirement schemes and other forms of social spending. The growth of public spending on health and long-term care in OECD countries has been limited for some time via the implementation of cost-containment policies. These policies acted essentially through wage moderation, price controls and postponement of investment in the case of health care. A large share of long-term care has been informally provided by families. However, the scope for containing health and LTC expenditures along these lines is narrowing.
Andrea Bassanini and Romain Duval are economists at the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs and the OECD Economics Department, respectively. Catherine Chapuis-Grabiner, Sébastien Martin and Rebecca Oyomopito provided excellent research assistance. Comments from Sveinbjorn Blöndal, Wendy Carlin, Jean-Philippe Cotis, Martine Durand, Jorgen Elmeskov, Michael P. Feiner, David Howell, Etienne Lehmann, Edmond Malinvaud, John P. Martin, Giuseppe Nicoletti, Stefano Scarpetta, Paul Swaim, Raymond Torres and participants to the joint WP1/WP5 EPC-ELSAC meeting in Paris, January 2006, and the Séminaire Fourgeaud, Paris, May 2006, are also gratefully acknowledged. Any errors are the responsibilities of the authors alone. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of its member countries.
This article analyses the engagement of universities with the community in three domains: the consequences of the university simply “being there”, contractual and other partnerships, and the relationship between the institution and its members. The consequences are then explored for the values espoused and practiced by the universities, including the possibility of their codification into a set of “ten commandments”.
On the basis of available evidence, the Steering Group concluded that “activist” hedge funds and private equity firms could help strengthen corporate governance practices by increasing the number of investors that have the incentive to make active and informed use of their shareholder rights. It was agreed that, from a corporate governance perspective, there was no need to promote a special set of principles for private equity firms and “activist” hedge funds, but that the opportunities and challenges that follow from their ownership strategies should instead be analysed within the general framework of the OECD Principles, also taking into account existing voluntary standards established and promoted by the industry.
This paper offers a framework for assessing and developing the role of ministries in the policy process, covering OECD member countries, central and eastern European countries (CEECs), and countries of the Western Balkans (ex Yugoslavia and Albania). The analysis is based on a background paper and country papers prepared for a CARDS seminar held in Budva (Montenegro) in November 2005, which are supplemented by the results of a written questionnaire completed by participants during the event.
Increased national and international competition within higher education has triggered an interest in branding within the sector. Higher education institutions are, as a consequence, currently re-examining their profile and image. This article addresses the problems higher education institutions face in this process, and points to the benefits and dangers of branding as a strategy for survival in the higher education market. The aim of the article is to investigate the potential relationship between branding and organisational change. Drawing on recent insight into organisational theory, we discuss how branding, a process of linking organisational identity and the external image of a given organisation, can enhance institutional development and stimulate organisational change. We conclude that while a branding process with these characteristics is necessarily incremental and on-going, it can also maintain the social responsibility of higher education even in a period when the sector is becoming an industry.
Private equity, by focusing on under-performing companies that can be transformed and subsequently re-floated, fosters rapid corporate restructuring – enhancing productivity. M&A and private equity deals are very strong at present, and private equity use of leverage is accelerating sharply...