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Over 50% of Portuguese graduates are out of work for more than six months after leaving university, against the OECD average of 42%. This suggests that universities need to do more to improve graduates’ chances on the labour market and, in many ways, the Bologna reform provided European Union universities with an opportunity to tackle this issue. This paper describes how the Bologna process led to reform at the Catholic University of Portugal’s Faculty of Economics and Management, starting in 2005. Undergraduate studies were reduced from four to three years and strategies were implemented to improve graduates’ employability. The primary aspect of the reform was a competency-based approach to curricula development, along with the creation of three new courses dealing specifically with transferable skills: critical thinking, systemic thinking and communication and teamwork.

This paper outlines the need for adopting a more scientific approach to specifying and assessing academic standards in higher education. Drawing together insights from large-scale studies in Australia, it advances a definition of academic standards, explores potential indicators of academic quality and looks at approaches for setting standards. As learner outcomes need to be placed at the forefront of work on academic standards, this paper concludes by exploring the implications of this position for student assessment and institutional change.

The wireless broadband methodology is the result of several rounds of contributions from, and indepth discussions among, member countries. The new indicator will assist in informing policy makers and other stakeholders in this increasingly important market segment. The OECD began collecting and reporting broadband data in 2000 as a way to capture and record significant changes in OECD markets for Internet access. The OECD set the minimum threshold for broadband at a download speed of 256 kbit/s at the time, primarily to exclude ISDN technologies at 144 kbit/s and to include the majority of commercial offers then available via other technologies.
Passenger vehicles are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and prodigious consumers of petroleum, making their fuel economy an important focus of energy policy. Whether or not the market for fuel economy functions efficiently has important implications for both the type and intensity of energy and environmental policies for motor vehicles. There are undoubtedly imperfections in the market for fuel economy but their consequences are difficult to quantify. The evidence from econometric studies, mostly from the US, is reviewed and shown to vary widely, providing evidence for both significant under- and over-valuation and everything in between. Market research is scarce, but indicates that the rational economic model, in general, does not appear to be used by consumers when comparing the fuel economy of new vehicles. Some recent studies have stressed the role of uncertainty and risk or loss aversion in consumers’ decision making. Uncertainty plus loss aversion appears to be a reasonable theoretical model of consumers’ evaluation of fuel economy, with profound implications for manufacturers’ technology and design decisions. The theory implies that markets will substantially undervalue fuel economy relative to its expected present value. It also has potentially important implications for welfare analysis of alternative policy instruments.
There is an increasing concern in the development community about the increase in the ‘feminisation of bad jobs’ of many developing countries. Indeed, recent analysis shows a growing proportion of women are in jobs with poor working conditions and low pay. But what is driving this phenomenon? This paper addresses this issue by looking at the role of social institutions, i.e. traditions, social norms and informal laws, in shaping labour market outcomes. By applying the newly established Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) of the OECD on 44 developing countries, the paper finds that social institutions influence to a great extent activity patterns and job quality for women. Our results suggest that addressing discriminating social institutions is crucial for advancing gender equality.

This article provides estimates of the private Internal Rates of Return to tertiary education for women and men in 21 OECD countries, for the years between 1991 and 2005. IRR are computed by estimating labour market premia on cross-country comparable individual-level data. Labour market premia are then adjusted for fiscal factors and costs of education. We find that returns to an additional year of tertiary education are on average above 8% and vary in a range from 4 to 15% in the countries and in the period under study. IRR are relatively homogenous across genders. Overall, a slightly increasing trend is observed over time. The article discusses various policy levers for shaping individual incentives to invest in tertiary education and provides some illustrative quantification of the impact of policy changes on those incentives.

International migration in Latin America today presents several features that will remain constant up to 2030, and new issues will emerge such as the growing feminisation of migration, the special case of indigenous people or human rights aspects. A concentrated migration pattern to the United States and Spain dominate the region. Although this will continue during the next decades, there will also be an incipient pattern of diversification of destinations (other European countries, Canada and Japan). Little progress has been made regarding the productive use of remittances, and the agreements and programmes targeted for temporary labour migration have not become widespread and also continue to include meagre migrant worker quotas. Today, the main destinations for intraregional migrants are Argentina, Costa Rica and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, but there are some modest signs of change in the future.

Peers play a significant role in assessing faculty members’ performance and in determining others’ career outcomes, such as tenure and promotion. However, the literature is fairly silent on how faculty members formulate their impressions of others’ performance. As part of a larger study, this paper explores factors that significantly correlate with peer ratings of research performance and the reliability of peer ratings. Using a random sample of 236 faculty members from a wide range of accredited business schools in the United States, the authors conducted a web-based survey of faculty in business management to examine the predictors of peer ratings of research performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

A brief review of long run projections of demand for road transport suggests that problems related to road network congestion and greenhouse gas emissions are likely to become more pressing than they are now. Hence we review, from a macroscopic perspective, popular policy measures to address these problems: stimulating modal shift, regulating land use to reduce car use, and boosting low carbon technology adoption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We find that these policies can produce tangible results, but that they may have unintended consequences that drive up costs considerably.

OECD countries receive a little less than half (97 million in 2000) of the world’s total migrants, of which 3.8 million are from Northern Africa and 1.2 million are from West Africa. West African migration is on the rise, due mainly to an increase in intra-regional mobility (7.5 million). Within the OECD, North America receives the most West African migrants, followed by Europe. This article explores further some current trends in West African migration and outlines some of the issues that could affect this migration in the future, including climate change and demographic concerns in Europe. A European-North African-West African dialogue is proposed to address these future issues and help promote more structured means of cooperation.

In this paper, we aim to examine how voluntary carbon markets can provide a valuable contribution to strengthening domestic and international climate policies. Voluntary markets are defined as small and unregulated segments of an established carbon market that are driven by voluntary offsetting of GHG emissions.
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.
Eastern Germany is well on its way to becoming a modern economy and developing its high growth potential. Start-ups and young businesses have become key contributors to the region’s growth due to their dynamism and their capacity to renew the local knowledge base. In the context of a global economic crisis, we need to reflect upon the role of start-ups and their capacity to contribute to local economic development. Over the last years, the entrepreneurship activity gap between western and eastern Germany has been significantly reduced, leading to almost equal levels in both parts of the country. The total business start-up rate in Germany, amongst the age group 18 to 64 years, was 1.7 percent in 2007. The entrepreneurial potential however, especially amongst the highly qualified, is far from being exhausted.
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 report presents a detailed analysis of changes in both poverty and inequality since the fall of Apartheid, and the potential drivers of such developments. Use is made of national survey data from 1993, 2000 and 2008. These data show that South Africa’s high aggregate level of income inequality increased between 1993 and 2008. The same is true of inequality within each of South Africa’s four major racial groups. Income poverty has fallen slightly in the aggregate but it persists at acute levels for the African and Coloured racial groups. Poverty in urban areas has increased. There have been continual improvements in non-monetary well-being (for example, access to piped water, electricity and formal housing) over the entire post-Apartheid period up to 2008. From a policy point of view it is important to flag the fact that intra-African inequality and poverty trends increasingly dominate aggregate inequality and poverty in South Africa. Race-based redistribution may become less effective over time relative to policies addressing increasing inequality within each racial group and especially within the African group. Rising inequality within the labourmarket – due both to rising unemployment and rising earnings inequality – lies behind rising levels of aggregate inequality. These labour market trends have prevented the labour market from playing a positive role in poverty alleviation. Social assistance grants (mainly the child support grant, the disability grant and the old-age pension) alter the levels of inequality only marginally but have been crucial in reducing poverty among the poorest households. There are still a large number of families that are ineligible for grants because of the lack of appropriate documents. This suggests that there is an important role for the Department of Home Affairs in easing the process of vital registration.
The pensionable age is the most visible parameter of retirement-income systems. This paper surveys pensionable ages in the OECD for a period of a century: back to 1950 and forward to 2050. Average pensionable age in OECD countries dropped by nearly two years during the second half of the 20th century to 62.5 for men and 61.1 for women. Legislation already in place will increase it almost to 65 for both sexes by 2050. At the same time, life expectancy has increased in most countries at most times. Between 1960 and the turn of the century, life expectancy after pensionable age is grew from 13.4 to 17.3 years for men and 16.8 to 22.1 years for women on average in OECD countries. However, life expectancy after normal pension age is projected to reach 20.3 and 24.6 years (for men and women respectively) in 2050. This continued increase is projected despite many OECD countries having already legislated for phased increases in the pension age in the future.
Economic regulation is a controversial issue, especially in the transport sector. This paper analyses a number of general transport and mode-specific issues that can provide indications for setting up regulatory bodies and orienting their strategies. It also looks at a specific national case study (Italy) where no specific regulatory institution for the transport sector has existed until now.
French
This paper provides evidence on and discussion of recent developments in global transport markets and analyzes what policies look most promising for stabilizing CO2- emissions from light-duty vehicles. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, recovery is uncertain and unevenly spread across the globe. This has potential impacts on global trade patterns and commodity flows, and hence on key freight transport flows. For the management of future greenhouse gas emissions from transport, our analysis strongly suggests that technologies to improve fuel economy and ultimately transform the energy basis of transport are the key, as there are very strong upward pressures on demand volumes. This of course does not mean that demand…
French
Transport is the sector with the highest final energy consumption and, without any significant policy changes, is forecast to remain so. In 2008, the IEA published 25 energy efficiency recommendations, among which four are for the transport sector. The recommendations focus on road transport and include policies on improving tyre energy efficiency, fuel economy standards for both light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles, and eco-driving. Implementation of the recommendations has been weaker in the transport sector than others. This paper updates the progress that has been made in implementing the transport energy efficiency recommendations in IEA countries since March 2009. Many countries have in the last year moved from "planning to implement" to "implementation underway", but none have fully implemented all transport energy efficiency recommendations. The IEA calls therefore for full and immediate implementation of the recommendations."

Aid for trade is a tool designed to interlock aid and trade policies in pursuit of raised living standards and reduced poverty. This paper demonstrates why trade matters for boosting productivity and economic growth and explains why some countries are unable to reap the gains from trade. It does on to analyse how aid for trade can help strengthen the impact of trade on growth and poverty reduction, and which policy tools can best reinforce the impact of trade on poverty reduction. It underlines the need for a tailored, country-based approach to economic integration, and summarises the main policy conclusions and the potential gains-from-trade that are at stake.

French
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