Browse by: "2010"

This paper provides a broad overview of policy goals and instruments and commonly used performance and policy indicators related to land transport. Two policy aspects, infrastructure investment and externalities, are explored in more depth. A review of planning and decision making in individual countries reveal significant variations between countries as regards how cost-benefit analysis affect decision making about infrastructure investment. There is scope for improvements in the use of cost-benefit analysis. Estimates of external costs for fifteen European Union countries are provided, together with estimates on the extent of pricing to internalise external costs. Fuel taxes amounted to around 2% of GDP in 2000, roughly corresponding to estimated external costs related to environmental and health effects. There is a potential to reduce congestion by introducing congestion charges. This can be done in a revenue-neutral manner by transforming existing vehicle taxes and road tolls.

This paper uses a simple dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to explore the qualitative impact of productivity shocks on current account positions via their impact on the saving behaviour of households. The analysis shows that the direction of the impact is ambiguous from a theoretical point of view. This impact depends in particular on consumer’s willingness to shift consumption over time relative to their willingness to shift consumption between different types of goods, on whether they believe the shock to be temporary or permanent, and on the sector in which the shock occurs.

Managing risks from extreme events will be a crucial component of climate change adaptation. In this study, we demonstrate an approach to assess future risks and quantify the benefits of adaptation options at a city-scale, with application to flood risk in Mumbai. In 2005, Mumbai experienced unprecedented flooding, causing direct economic damages estimated at almost two billion USD and 500 fatalities. Our findings suggest that by the 2080s, in a SRES A2 scenario, an ‘upper bound’ climate scenario could see the likelihood of a 2005-like event more than double. We estimate that total losses (direct plus indirect) associated with a 1-in-100 year event could triple compared with current situation (to $690 – $1890 million USD), due to climate change alone. Continued rapid urbanisation could further increase the risk level. Moreover, a survey on the consequences of the 2005 floods on the marginalized population reveals the special vulnerability of the poorest, which is not apparent when looking only through a window of quantitative analysis and aggregate figures. For instance, the survey suggests that total losses to the marginalized population from the 2005 floods could lie around $250 million, which represents a limited share of total losses but a large shock for poor households. The analysis also demonstrates that adaptation could significantly reduce future losses; for example, estimates suggest that by improving the drainage system in Mumbai, losses associated with a 1-in-100 year flood event today could be reduced by as much as 70%. We show that assessing the indirect costs of extreme events is an important component of an adaptation assessment, both in ensuring the analysis captures the full economic benefits of adaptation and also identifying options that can help to manage indirect risks of disasters. For example, we show that by extending insurance to 100% penetration, the indirect effects of flooding could be almost halved. As shown by the survey, the marginalized population has little access to financial support in disaster aftermaths, and targeting this population could make the benefits of such measures even larger. While this study explores only the upper-bound climate scenario and is insufficient to design an adaptation strategy, it does demonstrate the value of risk-assessment as an important quantitative tool in developing city-scale adaptation strategies. We conclude with a discussion of sources of uncertainty, and of risk-based tools that could be linked with decision-making approaches to inform adaptation plans that are robust to climate change.

This report discusses the most relevant issues concerning using student test results in OECD countries. Initially the report provides an overview of how student test results are reported in OECD countries and how stakeholders in these countries use and perceive of the results. The report then reviews the literature relating to using student test results for accountability and improvement purposes. Two general findings can be drawn from the literature: (1) accountability based on student test results can be a powerful tool for changing teacher and school behaviour, but it often creates unintended strategic behaviour, and (2) no test can be a perfect indicator of student performance. Drawing from these findings the report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using student test results for accountability and improvement. The discussion touches upon four themes: (1) assessment design, (2) the use of test results, (3) stakeholder involvement, and (4) implementation.

The aim of this paper is to explore the most problematic aspects of information access legal regimes and to provide some guidelines to policy makers, including legislators, governments and public administrators. The analysis is based on the comparison of Freedom of Information Acts (FOIAs) and their administrative/judicial enforcement in 14 EU member states and the EU institutions.

The importance of cities in climate policy stems from the simple reality that they house the majority of the world’s population, two-thirds of world energy use and over 70% of global energy use emissions. At the international level, global carbon markets have become an important new source of financing for mitigation projects and programmes. Yet to date, the participation of urban authorities and of urban mitigation projects in the global carbon market remains extremely limited. The under-representation of urban carbon projects can be linked both to the difficulties to implement urban mitigation projects and to the difficulties for cities to access the carbon market. This paper reviews 10 in–depth case studies of urban projects proposed and operating within the realm of Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. It explores the drivers of success for projects, examining in particular: types of projects that have been successful and their profitability; leadership and other roles of various actors in project initiation development and operation (i.e. local, regional and national governments as well as international, private sector or other non-governmental organisations); the role of local cobenefits; and project financial structure and risk management approaches. This paper also considers how these lessons learned may inform decisions in the future about how to best tap the potential for carbon markets to offer increased levels of financial support for urban mitigation projects or programmes.

There is a broad recognition that the development of cross-cutting, high-quality, shared, and accessible information about a society’s progress is crucial to ensure that decision-making is simultaneously responsive and responsible at all levels. There is no single correct way to manage a project to measure societal progress - different projects will have different goals, audiences and resources. However, there are certain steps which most projects should consider when planning and implementing the process. This paper presents advice and practical guidelines for anyone who is considering running a societal progress indicators project. It identifies six key steps in the process, from defining the issue and selecting collaborators, through producing and disseminating the indicators, to ensuring they are used and remain relevant.

Botnets – networks of machines infected with malicious software – are widely regarded as a critical security threat. Measures that directly address the end users who own the infected machines are useful, but have proven insufficient to reduce the overall problem. Recent studies have shifted attention to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the providers of Internet access to end users, as possible control points for botnet activity….

Large shifts in countries’ external current account positions can be disruptive, often reflecting sudden stops in the flows of external finance and leading to exchange rate and banking crises. As a result, an empirical literature has emerged on the sustainability of, and the determinants of large swings in, current account positions. We shed further light on this issue by testing for the presence of unit roots in the current account balance-to-GDP ratios of a large set of mature and emerging-market economies using a methodology that allows for structural breaks in intercepts and trends. We then construct a chronology of current account reversals that is consistent with sustainability of external positions and use it to estimate the factors explaining the likelihood and magnitude of such reversals using a selection model with ordered probit in the first stage. We find that most of the factors that explain the probability of reversals, such as trends in capital flows, in the budget balance and in external positions, also influence their magnitude. But there are a few exceptions. For instance, the stance of monetary policy and the magnitude of external imbalances prior to a reversal seem to be more powerful predictors of the probability of reversals than of their magnitude.

Turkey has considerably improved its terms of access to the global capital market. Progress in macroeconomic fundamentals has enhanced credibility and reduced risk premia and capital costs. This has had broad effects on capital supply conditions in the entire economy. Real interest rates have declined, and funds of lengthened maturity are becoming available for a broader range of borrowers and fund users, offering a basis for broader–based long–term growth. Estimations in the paper suggest that reinforcing fiscal institutions, price stability, governance quality, political stability and trade and growth performance would help Turkey to continue to improve its integration with the international capital market and reduce durably its capital costs. This paper relates to the 2010 OECD Economic Review of Turkey (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/turkey).

This paper reviews international research in the field of dropout from upper secondary education and training in OECD countries in order to present possible solutions to policymakers faced with the completion challenge. The paper begins by presenting existing definitions of dropout and upper secondary completion and states that dropout must be understood as the final step in a process of disengagement that begins early. Causes that lead to dropout in OECD countries are then studied, and the paper illustrates that causes of dropout are highly complex and intertwined. Finally, to address these causes or risk factors, the paper reviews research that had been carried out on piloted or implemented measures across OECD countries. It finds that successful measures address several risk factors and involve action both within school, outside school and at systemic level simultaneously. The paper concludes by presenting a set of solutions according to educational level and emphasizes that preventive measures to reduce dropout should start early. Early identification enables broader, less costly measures to be set up earlier and leaves the more costly one-on-one measures for later stages of education to the remaining at risk students that have not yet been picked up. Overcoming the completion challenge requires a close cooperation between educational authorities and many other parts of government such as social and labour services, health services and justice system in some countries.

The Marche region is one of the most industrialised regions in Italy and is considered a region of excellence, not only for its economic performance, but also for its cultural, natural and social richness. Marche belongs to what has come to be called the “Third Italy”: a model of development based on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in industrial districts. Its economy is driven by the performance of a myriad of SMEs, which have been characterised by a high level of creativity and innovation in the past…

Putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions is a cornerstone policy in climate change mitigation. To this end, many countries have implemented or are developing domestic emissions trading systems. This paper reviews key design features of mandatory emissions trading systems that had been established or were under consideration in 2010, with a particular focus on implications for the energy sector.

Informality remains pervasive in Latin American and Caribbean labour markets. Many "middle-sectors workers" (around the middle of the income distribution) are employed informally and contribute irregularly to a public or private pension. Governments should consider extending social pensions and stimulating (even financially, via defined matching contributions) individual savings.

Le RIA est un réseau de centres éducatifs implantés dans les quartiers défavorisés du Mexique, offrant aux communautés à faibles revenus un accès à des ordinateurs, à Internet et à des modules d'enseignement de qualité. Ce projet a pour objectif de passer la barre des 230 000 utilisateurs d'ici 2012...

It has always been a controversial tool, generating accusations of unacceptable principle, improper application, inadequate evidence base and bias. One early application was to the appraisal of the proposed third London Airport where a critic labelled the project appraisal as “nonsense on stilts” and the method was defended against accusations of being “bastard science and/or insidious poison in the body politick” (Self 1970, Williams, 1973). Since that time, appraisal has found itself at the centre of public disputes about the road planning system, the treatment of environmental impacts, the socalled “roads generate traffic” issue and the relationship between transport and the economy. The…

Income is very unequally distributed in Latin America - but so too are opportunities for upward mobility. Early childhood development is a powerful mechanism to level the social playing field. More and better secondary education is key. Better administration of schools, combining greater flexibility with more accountability, a modern system of evaluation and incentives for school administrators and teachers are important ingredients for reforms.