Browse by: "2009"

Data to measure and analyse the increasing role of institutional investors in capital markets has been collected and published by the OECD for a number of years.

This dataset is now integrated in the framework of the OECD Financial Accounts. This article presents an overview of institutional investors’ assets, their components and their development in the aggregate and by country.

Good governance is increasingly recognised as an important aspect of an efficient private pension system, enhancing investment performance and benefit security. Yet, despite regulatory and industry initiatives, governance weaknesses persist across OECD and non-OECD countries.
This paper highlights the main governance challenges faced by policymakers (particularly with trust-based pension systems), and draws on recent policy initiatives to propose possible solutions to strengthen governance arrangements.

This financial crisis, ending a period of search for yield and increased risktaking,
has triggered various policy responses, ranging from more ad-hoc measures initially to more structured and co-ordinated financial sector rescue actions as the crisis evolved.
Lessons drawn so far should help to devise longer-term, more encompassing and more consistent policies. Various reforms are being proposed by the financial industry as well as by official authorities and international standard-setting bodies, many of which arrive at similar conclusions regarding the causes of and remedies for the crisis.
Shortcomings in risk management, including compensation schemes, governance structures, liquidity and counterparty risk, need to be addressed.

The first section of this article presents a combined analysis of households’ financial and non-financial balance sheets across OECD countries over the period 1995-2006, based on two OECD data collections – financial balance sheet accounts and households’ financial and non-financial assets.

The scope of the study mainly covers households’ gross wealth (financial, dwellings and land) and therefore does not include debt. The second section, based on the OECD households’ financial and non-financial assets database, analyses financial risks borne by households investing their savings either in investment fund shares, in life insurance reserves or in pension schemes, and how these allocations have changed and developed over time in various OECD countries.

The present financial crisis may be added to a growing list of episodes worldwide in which financial sector problems have become systemic in nature. Many OECD countries have been affected, either directly or through the transmission of problems cross-border. Most financial crises share a number of common elements.
For instance, financial innovation has often played a role in distress episodes, in many cases, having much to do with their idiosyncratic aspects. For example, structured credit products and the latest incarnation of the originate-and-distribute model of intermediation have been at the epicentre of the current crisis. It differs from other crisis episodes in having a sub-component of the residential mortgage sector as its trigger, while previous crises have more often been prompted by problems in the commercial mortgage market and with corporate clients.

As the need for investment in infrastructure continues to grow, private sector financing for infrastructure projects has developed around the world. Given the long-term growth and (potentially) low correlation aspects of infrastructure investments, pension funds have also shown interest in increasing their exposure to this area, along with their move into alternative assets. Such investments cover a wide spectrum of projects – from economic infrastructure such as transport, to social projects such as hospitals – and involve different forms of financing (primary vs. secondary, debt vs. equity, private vs. listed, direct vs. indirect). Data explaining the size, risk, return and correlations of this diverse asset class is therefore limited, which may be making pension fund investors cautious. Given investing in such assets also involves new types of investment vehicles and risk for pension funds to manage – such as exposure to leverage, legal and ownership issues, environmental risks as well as regulatory and political challenges – such caution may well be justified. However, if governments wish to help infrastructure developers tap into potentially important sources of financing such as pension funds, certain steps can be taken. This paper is designed as an overview piece, discussing if pension funds should invest in infrastructure on a theoretical basis, whether they do in practice, and, if not, how (and if) regulators can encourage and assist them to do so.

Cette étude examine l'évolution des réformes de la fonction publique que les pays d'Europe centrale et orientale se sont engagés à préparer eux-mêmes pour l'adhésion à l'UE qui a eu lieu en mai 2004 (5e élargissement de l'UE). Nous nous sommes intéressés à la situation actuelle dans les huit pays de l'ECO (PECO) qui ont adhéré à l'Union européenne (EU) en 2004. La recherche qui appuie cette étude a été effectuée avant que la crise économique actuelle n'éclate ; par conséquent, elle ne tient pas compte des effets prévisibles de la crise sur le développement de la fonction publique dans les pays concernés.

China currently has a highly diversified structure of pension regulation and supervision. In this paper we first review the legal framework of private pension fund regulation and supervision in other economies, including Australia, Chile, Hong Kong China, Poland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Then, based on international practices and experiences identified, and taking into account China‘s unique situation, we examine potential ways to improve the current private pension regulatory and supervisory structure in the country.

This paper suggests some avenues to explore as new sources of value creation and capture in the agro-food sector. The range of opportunities for value creation is vast, and this paper does not pretend to be exhaustive. New strategies are being prepared by different stakeholders in the sector, in an uncertain and competitive context of globalisation where the expectations of consumers and society in general are evolving.

Rédigées à l’attention des chefs d’établissements, des conseils d’administration et des concepteurs, ces directives fournissent des indications en matière de planification et de conception de l’espace avec pour objectif la fourniture d’installations d’apprentissage permanentes conçues pour les élèves ayant des besoins éducatifs spéciaux dans les 26 comtés de l’Irlande. Ces directives reflètent nombre des changements récents dans le système éducatif irlandais, des changements qui ont accentué la nécessité de créer des espaces supplémentaires en mesure d’accueillir l’éventail croissant de services d’enseignement et de soutien destinés aux élèves présentant des troubles autistiques, des troubles émotifs et/ou des problèmes comportementaux, des troubles du langage, des déficiences auditives ou visuelles, des troubles multisensoriels ou d’autres besoins.

En cinquante années, la conteneurisation est devenue l’épine dorsale de la mondialisation. Ce processus peut s’expliquer par une interaction vertueuse entre trois grands types de facteurs : des facteurs techniques, économiques et organisationnels. En effet, la conteneurisation n’est à l’origine qu’une simple innovation technique. Mais le conteneur, outil intermodal, ouvre la voie à de nouveaux schémas organisationnels de transport qui s’inscrivent dans la durée. Ces facteurs organisationnels mettent en cause les acteurs du transport qui ont dû redéfinir les frontières de leur métier respectif, afin de mettre en oeuvre des chaînes de transport porte à porte fiables et globales par leur étendue géographique. Ces possibilités ouvertes par la conteneurisation seraient restées lettre morte, si elles n’avaient pas correspondu à de profonds bouleversements des facteurs économiques depuis les années 1970. La très forte croissance du commerce international des produits manufacturés, systématiquement supérieures à celle de l’ensemble du commerce international, elle-même supérieure à celle du PIB, caractérise une accentuation de la division internationale du travail qui n’était possible que sous-tendue par un puissant système de transport.

Pension reform around the world in recent decades has focused mainly on the formal sector. Consequently, many of those working in the informal sector have been left out of structured pension arrangements, particularly in developing countries – a serious problem given this group are often low income earners, vulnerable to economic volatility and change. However, since the turn of the millennium, efforts in a range of countries have increasingly highlighted improving pension coverage for informal sector workers. This paper provides an overview of selected country experience in this regard, and provides some suggestions for governments in developing countries considering implementing their own pension reform to ensure that informal sector workers receive the retirement income they need.

The maritime sector is undergoing constant change, as is particularly apparent in the shift in competition that has unfolded in recent years. Whereas in the past shipowners and ports used to compete with one another, the competitive struggle is now increasingly unfolding at the level of logistics chains. Today, market players are selected not so much for their stand-alone competitiveness, but on the basis of whether or not they belong to a successful maritime logistics chain. This explains why certain market players are continuously trying to gain greater control over these chains, including through vertical and horizontal alliances, mergers and acquisitions. This contribution considers in greater detail these concerted efforts to increase market power through extensive integration. First, we deal with the competitive shifts that have occurred in the port and maritime arena. Subsequently, we look at the strategic behaviour exhibited by the main market players (shipowners, terminal operating companies, port authorities, logistics service providers, etc) and analyse their objectives. Finally, we assess the consequences of the strategies pursued in the context of the anticipated future scenarios.

These guidelines offer information on space planning and design for school principals, boards of management and designers to make permanent learning facilities available for pupils with special educational needs across the 26 counties of Ireland. The guidelines reflect many of the recent changes in the country’s educational system, changes that have placed greater demands on schools for additional space to account for a growing range of teaching and support services for pupils with autistic spectrum disorders, emotional disturbance and/or behaviour problems, speech and language difficulties, hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment, and other needs.

In 50 years, containerisation has become the backbone of globalisation. That it has done so can be attributed to the beneficial interaction of three broad types of factor: technical, economic and organisational. In the beginning, containerisation was nothing more than a simple technical innovation. However, as an intermodal tool, the container paved the way for new and long-term organisational models in the transport sector. These organisational factors challenged transport actors, who had to redefine the demarcation lines between their respective businesses in order to bring reliable door-to-door transport chains with a global reach into operation. The opportunities that containerisation offered would have remained a dead letter had they not coincided with the deep upheavals in economic factors since the 1970s. The very strong growth in international trade in manufactured products, systematically higher than growth in international trade overall -- itself higher than GDP growth -- marks a deeper division in international labour, which was made possible only through the support of a strong transport system.

The main findings of the paper are based on the OECD survey of policy initiatives in diet, health and nutrition and a review of the relevant literature. Overall survey responses indicate that most efforts focus on two main types of activities: first, increasing information on diet and health to consumers to enable them to make informed food choices and, second, promoting increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, particularly amongst children. The survey results provide information on policy experiences and programmes in OECD countries.

This paper discusses why the development of pension systems is important for the African region. It also looks at the current pension arrangements in selected African countries. The paper was designed as an overview/background document to provide context and assist discussion at the OECD/IOPS Global Forum on Private Pensions, which was held in Mombasa, Kenya on the 30th/31st October, 2008. The OECD and IOPS acknowledge the leadership of other organizations in terms of development and African specific issues – notably the World Bank, International Labor Organistaion (ILO) and IMF.

Before joining the EU in May 2004, Central and Eastern European countries were required to professionalise their civil services. Most were perceived as having made improvements sufficient to be granted EU membership status. But what happened next? Five years after accession, this paper answers the question.