Browse by: "2007"

This study provides a comparative analysis of the public procurement review and remedies systems of Member States. Twenty-four separate overviews of public procurement systems in the 24 participating Member States were produced on the basis of national responses to a detailed questionnaire. An in-depth review of these country system overviews provided the comparative analysis portion of this study.

The paper addresses two core questions: do investment banks’ recommendations have an impact on the allocation of portfolio flows in the emerging-markets asset class? Above all, are these recommendations related to the business of investment banks? In order to answer these questions, we constructed a unique database covering the period 1997-2006 for all the bond recommendations made by the major investment banks that dominate the emerging bond markets. The most important findings are as follows: 90 per cent of the underwriters recommend buying or maintaining in their portfolios the bonds issued by the countries where they are acting as lead managers; and investment banks’ recommendations are also correlated with the relative size of the secondary bond market. In fact, there is a phenomenon that we call “too big to underweight” meaning that investment banks do not send negative signals to investors of countries that, given their size, are considered important for their business. Finally, by using panel data analysis, we found that the impact of investment banks’ recommendations on portfolio capital flows is more significant and more predictable than some macroeconomic variables such as interest rate, economic growth and inflation rate. The first of the three major policy lessons at stake is that there is a need for more detailed information disclosure by investment banks in order to determine if past recommendations are related to macroeconomic variables and financial variables or whether they are associated with the investment banks’ business in emerging economies. Second, government agencies should do a strategic monitoring on what market is writing about their respective country vulnerabilities. Finally, given that banks’ recommendations and portfolio flows are related, an international co-operation scheme could be established to encourage investment banks to cover more countries.

The European Commission requested Sigma to carry out a study on the regulatory management capacities of the ten countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 to learn more about their Better Regulation practices, exchange good practices and make suggestions for further improvements. This study was carried out by way of peer reviews taking place between March 2005 and October 2006. The topics examined were notably: the origins of EU Better Regulation policy, regulatory management processes, the tools used in these processes (impact assessment, consultation, simplification, alternatives and accessibility), enactment processes and the enforcement and compliance of laws in the NMS, with reference to intellectual property law and environmental laws. Each peer reviews led to a country report that was sent to the Commission and the Member State in question. Publication of each country report was left to the discretion of the Member State in question. A synthesis was drawn up summarizing all findings and making recommendations addressed to all new Member States in general.

A recent trend in individual accounts schemes is the introduction and expansion of investment alternatives to plan members. The goal of investment choice is to enable plan members to select the optimal investment portfolio that matches their particular risk-return preference and ultimately, maximizes their retirement income. This document focuses on some key analytical and policy issues regarding investment choice by pension plan/fund members in occupational defined contribution and personal pension arrangements during the accumulation stage. The document covers the following selected OECD countries, Australia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic and Turkey. Furthermore, it covers some non-OECD countries such as Chile, Estonia, Hong Kong (China), Israel, Latvia, Peru, Russia and South Africa.

Annuities are specifically designed to cover the risk that an individual outlives their own resources by transferring such risk to an insurance undertaking. Despite an increasing need for annuity products (due to increasing longevity, decreasing state pensions, a rise in Defined Contribution pension plans etc.), these markets remains under-developed in many OECD countries. This paper attempts to address why this is the case and what policy options exist for encouraging annuity markets to develop.

Underfunded pension funds are in the same position as other creditors when their sponsoring firm becomes insolvent, having to join the queue claiming the remaining assets of the firm. Arguments for granting pension fund priority rights over other creditors are the same as for introducing pension benefit guarantee schemes – i.e. market failure and diversification. Arguments against such a priority position focus around the impact on other creditors and potential disruptions to capital markets.

The OECD’s report on priority pension claims within bankruptcy found that pension claims (unlike wages) rarely receive priority over other creditors. More concerning, it can be difficult for pension fund creditors (being a diverse group without strong financing) to get their voice heard properly within insolvency procedures. Difficulties with providing such priority status to pension creditors stem from problems with changing bankruptcy laws and the strength of other financial creditors. The OECD’s report concludes that priority rights should be given to unpaid and due contributions from the plan sponsor and that care should be taken that pension beneficiaries be treated at least as well as other creditors in any bankruptcy or restructuring process (e.g. ensuring their representation on creditor committees).

Un soumissionnaire évincé qui croit que la procédure de marché public conduite est constitutive d'une violation des lois correspondantes doit avoir accès à un contrôle et à un recours. Les procédures de contrôle des marchés publics sont destinées à offrir une voie de recours efficace aux soumissionnaires lésés. Cette étude vise à améliorer la compréhension et la connaissance de la façon dont les États-membres de l'UE1 organisent l'instruction des plaintes et les voies de recours. Il comprend un débat sur les motifs du choix de divers modèles. Il est à souhaiter que ce document incite les actuels et futurs pays-candidats, les autres pays-partenaires de Sigma et les États-membres de l'UE à entreprendre, si nécessaire, des actions pour améliorer la qualité des systèmes de contrôle et de recours. Un accent particulier sera porté, au plan juridique et institutionnel, sur la disponibilité des voies de recours dans le cadre de l'application de la directive 89/665/CEE sur les procédures de recours en matière de passation des marchés publics et de la directive 92/13/CEE sur les procédures de passation des marchés des entités opérant dans le secteur de l'eau, de l'énergie, des transports et des télécommunications. Cette étude jettera en outre la lumière sur la culture du contrôle et des recours et sur le fonctionnement de ces systèmes dans la pratique.

Les pays des Balkans occidentaux, motivés par les exigences du processus de Stabilisation et d'Association et la perspective d'adhérer à l'UE, s'efforcent d'améliorer leurs capacités en matière d'élaboration de politiques, notamment au niveau des ministères. Dans les pays des Balkans occidentaux ainsi que dans certains nouveaux États membres, les ministères concernés ne disposent souvent que de peu de moyens pour développer des choix de politiques, en effectuer l'analyse, en contrôler l'application et les évaluer.

La mise en œuvre successive des plans d'allègement de la dette "Pays pauvres très endettés" (PPTE) et Initiative d’allègement de la dette multilatérale (IADM) ont permis de réduire considérablement la charge du service de la dette pour les pays africains qui en ont bénéficié. Dotés d'une solvabilité restaurée et par ailleurs confrontés à des besoins de financement importants, ces pays souhaitent désormais se ré-endetter. Ce Repère d'Hélène Djoufelkit (Agence Française de Développement, AFD), dont la publication fait suite à un séminaire d'experts consacré aux économies africaines et organisé conjointement le 8 juin 2006 par l'AFD et le Centre de Développement, évalue les conditions d'un tel processus de ré-endettement.

The total amount of debt relief accorded to African countries in the framework of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative is expected to reach $43 billion concerning 33 countries. The 15 African countries presently qualified for this Initiative will benefit from restored creditworthiness. Moreover, faced with considerable financing needs, African countries are prepared to take on new debts. Development partners can support this process of re-indebtedness provided that they employ extremely concessional, even counter-cyclical lending instruments, and also by strengthening co-ordination within the Debt Sustainability Framework.

This paper examines how uncertainty regarding future mortality and life expectancy outcomes, i.e. longevity risk, affects employer-provided defined benefit (DB) private pension plans liabilities. The paper argues that to assess uncertainty and associated risks adequately, a stochastic approach to model mortality and life expectancy is preferable because it permits to attach probabilities to different forecasts. In this regard, the paper provides the results of estimating the Lee-Carter model for several OECD countries. Furthermore, it conveys the uncertainty surrounding future mortality and...

L'amélioration de la compétitivité de l'économie par la hausse de la productivité est l'un des principaux enjeux identifiés par l'Union européenne dans la stratégie originelle de Lisbonne et la nouvelle stratégie de Lisbonne pour la croissance et l'emploi (adoptée en 2000 et 2005 respectivement). L'amélioration de l'environnement et des processus réglementaires au niveau des institutions de l'UE et des États membres est un facteur-clé pour créer un environnement commercial favorable à une hausse de la productivité.

La définition du rôle des conseillers politiques est actuellement un sujet hautement pertinent dans la plupart des démocraties, et particulièrement dans les nouveaux États membres de l'UE ainsi que dans les pays candidats et ceux du programme CARDS ; pourtant, il existe peu d'informations comparatives. Pour combler cette lacune, à l'automne 2005, le programme Sigma a lancé une étude sur questionnaire visant à recueillir l'expérience des divers pays.

Ce document a été préparé par le programme Sigma à la demande du cabinet du premier ministre de la République tchèque. L'OCDE a beaucoup travaillé au cours des dernières années sur les questions relatives à la dimension organisationnelle de l'administration nationale et, en particulier, sur le phénomène « d'agencification » et son impact sur les structures de gouvernance. Il a déjà produit un nombre important d'analyses1, notamment une étude comparative globale intitulée Les autres visages de la gouvernance publique : agences, autorités administratives et établissements publics (2002)2. Sigma a également édité des études sur le sujet dans le cadre de la gestion des dépenses publiques et en référence avec les pays en transition3

Les États membres de l'UE ont besoin de structures de gestion des marchés publics. Les tâches concernées vont de la rédaction de la législation afférente et de l'élaboration des politiques de marchés publics à la formation de responsables des acquisitions et à la publication des avis de marché. La majorité des États membres de l'UE sont dotés d'instances centrales de gestion des marchés publics au sein de leurs structures gouvernementales. Bien qu'elles diffèrent en termes de responsabilités, fonctions et tâches, ces instances ont plusieurs caractéristiques en commun.

The issue of pension benefit security has returned to the foreground of both economic and political debate in many OECD countries - following high profile losses of pension benefits due to plan sponsors becoming bankrupt and leaving underfunded pension schemes. Some countries have dealt with pension benefit protection via strong funding rules (the route taken for example by the Dutch authorities). Two OECD papers examine other methods for increasing benefit security in retirement – via pension benefit guarantee schemes (such as the Pension Protection Fund recently introduced in the UK) and the position of pension creditors within insolvency proceedings (which has been examined, for example, in Canada).

Pension Benefit Guarantee Schemes are insurance type arrangements - with premiums paid by pension funds - which take on outstanding obligations which cannot be met by the insolvent plan sponsors. Arguments for such schemes stem from ‘market failure’ (with workers not fully understanding the trade off between pensions – deferred wages – and current income), and diversification– as most workers are highly exposed to the insolvency of the plan sponsor (in terms of current and retirement income) and cannot properly diversify this risk (particularly where the pension is funded by book reserves). However challenges to these schemes exist – mainly in the form of moral hazard and adverse selection – which are problems for all insurance contracts, and potentially in the form of systematic risk (as bankruptcies tend to be correlated, as does pension underfunding across schemes, and indeed as are these two factors).

Though setting up benefit guarantee schemes successfully is often a challenge in practice (particularly maintaining true political independence), they can be run successfully - as the funds operating in practice show. Though the problems of the USA guarantee scheme, the PBGC, are well known, similar schemes also exist in Sweden, Germany, Ontario – Canada, Switzerland and Japan and one has recently been launched in the UK. Lessons can be learnt from all these schemes - for example the UK’s PPF is working to apply fully risk adjusted premiums, whilst the Swedish fund can take a lien on plan sponsor’s assets to protect its own financial position. One of the key conclusions from the OECD’s report is that, to work effectively, these schemes must have suitable independence and powers to set and collect appropriately risk-adjusted premiums – but they also need to be considered along with other benefit protection policies (notably effective funding rules).

This paper analyses the negotiations which will take place with the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and attempts to identify where the major problems are likely to lie. The experience of the fifth enlargement of the European Union to the 12 countries of Central and Eastern Europe is used extensively in this analysis for two reasons: firstly, because the offer made to these countries is likely to be the starting point for the offer to be made to the countries of the Western Balkans; secondly, because the problems which occurred in the negotiations for the fifth enlargement are likely to be the main areas of negotiation with the six countries.

This Working Paper is structured in two sections. The first section presents the contributions and limits of composite indicators of regulatory management systems. The second section provides an overview of regulatory management systems, including regulatory policies, institutions, processes and tools. This report assesses regulatory policies in member countries as well as their regulatory management systems using the 1998 and 2005 indicators. The results complement the results presented in Working Paper N°4, “Indicators of Regulatory Management Systems” and also contributed to the OECD project on Government at a Glance (see www.oecd.org/gov/indicators/govataglance).

While defining appropriate roles for political advisers is a highly relevant topic in most democracies and especially in EU NMS, as well as candidate and CARDS countries today, surprisingly little comparative information exists. To fill this gap, in Autumn 2005, the Sigma Programme launched a questionnaire-based study to collect country experience, as well as a series of seminars on the topic. The first part of this publication provides an overview on the role of political advisers and their relationship with civil servants in OECD countries. In a second part, detailed country chapters on political advisers in Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Spain, as well as Great Britain are presented.

The main purpose of the paper is to provide orientations based on a comparative approach to policy makers on drafting legislation on the organisation and functioning of the state administration. It is therefore written in a practice oriented way, although it nevertheless attempts to draw some generalisation.