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Spain and Denmark are two European countries differing considerably in their development and productive structures as well as in their internationalisation process. This affects many dimensions of each economy, most notably their trade volumes, market sizes and product specialization. Spain and Denmark also differ significantly in labour market outcomes as well as in the design of labour market policies and institutions and the role they played in facilitating labour reallocation. For these reasons, it is instructive to compare them, in particular as they have demonstrated substantial labour market adjustments due to changing international economic conditions. While the results of direct comparisons cannot always be translated into policy action due to country-specific institutional settings and varying economic circumstances, comparative analysis has the potential to yield useful insights into best practices and transferrable policy lessons. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to consider the evolution of trade and labour market outcomes in Denmark and Spain since the early 1990s, in order to provide policy-relevant insights on the relationship between production, trade and labour markets in these countries. Special focus is given to the increased weight of some emerging economies in world trade patterns and how they have affected the trade patterns of these two European countries and their employment behaviours.
This report presents the findings of the OECD indicators for assessing the economic and trade impact of specific trade facilitation measures in OECD countries. Twelve trade facilitation indicators (TFIs) have been constructed, corresponding to the main policy areas under negotiation at the WTO, with the aim to estimate the impact of addressing specific facilitation hurdles in the trade procedures of a given country. For OECD countries, the policy areas that seem to have the greatest impact on trade volumes and trade costs are advance rulings, information availability, formalities and procedures and inter-agency cooperation. If all TFIs are added their cost reduction potential would reach almost 10% of trade costs, which is an estimate consistent with existing literature. The use of individual trade facilitation indicators should enable countries to better assess which trade facilitation dimensions deserve priority. The OECD TFI project is now expanded to cover countries outside the OECD area.
The use of tradable greenhouse gas (GHG) units to meet emissions reduction goals is likely to continue after 2012 as many countries have expressed support for using market mechanisms to promote and enhance the cost-effectiveness of mitigation. Most such mechanisms would use tradable GHG units but it is not yet clear how such units will be accounted for and recognised as contributions toward national pledges or targets.

This paper examines the systems and processes that may be required to achieve effective use of tradable GHG units by first considering what international framework would be required to provide a reliable, functional platform for use of tradable GHG units. One effective system would be for national emissions to be reported using common inventory accounting rules, with subsequent additions and deductions according to net flows of tradable units. The paper then analyses more detailed options for two core aspects of GHG unit accounting: governance of international crediting mechanisms and systems for tracking international unit transactions.

For crediting mechanisms, three options are presented for deciding which units may be eligible to count towards national emissions targets: i) only units issued from a centralised mechanism regulated by the UNFCCC would be eligible, ii) units issued from country-led systems would be eligible provided that they are verified to meet internationally-agreed eligibility criteria and iii) a transparency approach whereby all units would be accepted provided that countries meet minimum disclosure requirements. For unit tracking systems, three further options are presented: i) a continuation of the existing International Transaction Log (ITL) that performs both technical and policy-related checks, ii) a ITL or similar tool that performs only technical compatibility checks, and iii) a decentralised system with no central hub. Accounting issues related to domestic emissions trading system units are also explored, notably in cases where such units are traded internationally. The paper concludes that only certain combinations of the various options presented would lead to a viable system that is both practical and provides sufficient assurance of the environmental integrity of units.

It is important to understand the nature and drivers of informality, as its social and economic consequences are wide-ranging. This paper critically reviews the current state of cross-country research on informality and discusses how existing data sources can be more effectively employed and extended to shed light on the link between public policies and informality. A number of interesting findings emerge. The informal economy is multi-faceted and a wide range of definitions and measures are required to capture its diverse activities. However, most existing – and widely used – cross-country estimates of informality suffer from large measurement problems, which reduce the reliability of existing empirical evidence on the extent and drivers of informality. Accordingly, future research on informality should be closely linked to obtaining better data, particularly at the household and firm levels.
Trade deficits and surpluses are sometimes attributed to intentionally low or high exchange rate levels. The impact of exchange rate levels on trade has been much debated but the large body of existing empirical literature does not suggest an unequivocally clear picture of the trade impacts of changes in exchange rates. The impact of exchange rate volatility on trade also does not benefit from a clear theoretical cause-effect relationship. This study examines the impact of exchange rates and their volatility on trade flows in China, the Euro area and the United States in two broadly defined sectors, agriculture on the one hand and manufacturing and mining on the other. It finds that exchange volatility impacts trade flows only slightly. Exchange rate levels, on the other hand, affect trade in both agriculture and manufacturing and mining sectors but do not explain in their entirety the trade imbalances in the three countries examined.
Trade logistics facilitate trade. Quality logistics services play an important role in facilitating the transportation of international trade in goods: inefficient logistics services impede trade by imposing an extra cost in terms of time as well as money. As developed nations shift from traditional manufacturing and agriculture and are increasingly engaging in international vertical specialization, the need for efficient logistics services becomes ever more important. High quality logistics services improve the competitiveness of a country’s exports by reducing the cost involved in transporting goods – especially for countries that are disadvantaged by being far from major markets. This paper investigates the role that trade logistics play in the volume and value of international trade and the extent to which poor quality logistics constitute a barrier to trade. It examines the different impact of logistics quality on goods that are transported by sea and by air. The differentiated impact of trade logistics such as infrastructure on low, middle and higher-income countries is analysed.
Residential mobility is closely tied to housing market forces and has important implications for labour mobility and the efficient allocation of resources across the economy. This paper analyses patterns of residential mobility across OECD countries and the role of housing policies in enhancing or hampering residential mobility. Based on cross-sectional household data for 25 countries, the results suggest that differences in residential mobility across countries are partially related to differences in public policies. After controlling for household and country-specific characteristics, residential mobility is higher in countries with lower transaction costs, more responsive housing supply, lower rent controls and tenant protection. Residential mobility tends also to be higher in environments with greater access to credit, suggesting that financial deregulation – by lowering borrowing costs and facilitating access to mortgage finance – facilitates mobility. This cross-country evidence is supported by city and state-level evidence for the United States, which also highlights the potential risks that high leverage rates pose to residential mobility.
The purpose of this Round Table is to assess the economic effects of major transport infrastructure projects. The term "major projects" is used to designate qualitative leaps, be it the mapping out of new road or rail rings to link disparate radial penetration routes or the introduction of more-targeted innovations tackling frequency, speed or automation…
French

This report on the shipbuilding industry in Viet Nam is one of a series of such reports intended to provide an insight in the shipbuilding sector of both OECD and non-OECD economies.

This report on the shipbuilding industry in China is one in a series of reports to provide an insight into the shipbuilding sectors of both OECD members and non-OECD economies.

Shipyards can undertake a variety of activities, not all related to the construction of new vessels. While there are yards that are largely dedicated to new buildings, and others dedicated to ship repair and maintenance, in practice that distinction is blurred, as both activities can be undertaken in most yards. This report examines the interaction between these yards, in particular how feasible it is for yards to move from one activity to the other, or perhaps to engage in both at the same time. The relevance of this is that if there are few barriers for yards to move between activities, then this will have an impact on the availability of shipbuilding capacity to meet expansions or contractions of new-building demand.

The various reforms introduced in France since the end of the 1990s are transforming the field of institutional research, which has historically been hierarchical and centralised, by giving more leeway to the different levels of territorial administration. In this new context, who is involved in orienting and planning research? The wide diversity of actors is problematic: the current evident lack of co-ordination between institutions and levels of territorial administration is blurring the direction and planning of research. Moreover, the role of territorial communities in defining policies relating to innovation and competition is continuing to grow. The impact of the recent reforms is analysed specifically in terms of the direction, planning and co-ordination of research.

Academic staff in Ukraine face a convergence of institutional and professional pressures precipitated by a national economic crisis, projected declines in enrolment and dramatic changes to institutional procedures as institutions implement the Bologna Process. This article examines the extent to which these pressures are reshaping the way academic staff engage in their day-to-day work, their careers and their role in their university. Findings indicate that faculty are caught in a confluence of conflicting demands that elicits adaptive coping strategies and threatens to undermine national efforts to modernise Ukraine’s higher education system.

Universities around the world have been affected by the recent global economic crisis. Many are challenged by reduced resources, yet they also face greater demands to help spur recovery in their respective countries. This paper explores how colleges and universities in the United States were affected by, and subsequently responded to, several 20th century periods of economic and social turmoil. These included the Great Depression of the 1930s, World Wars I and II and economic dislocation in the early 1980s. For some of them, the ability to adapt to sudden constraints and new opportunities led to unprecedented strengths. The effects of longer-term trends also played a critical role. This paper offers some lessons from these earlier periods that may have relevance today.

The student-faculty ratio is of great significance to policy makers and media as a popular measure of education and teaching quality. Due to its simplicity and the availability of data, it is often used in higher education policy for allocating resources and for ranking universities. This is especially so in some European countries which do not have selective admission policies and where universities have to cope with huge numbers of students. However, there is no definition and no empirically validated data for an appropriate student-faculty ratio. To close this gap, we constructed a model with parameters relevant for high quality teaching and education and validated them empirically by conducting a survey among university professors in business administration. The results clearly illustrate that student-faculty ratios are discipline specific and depend whether the university is research or teaching oriented.

Given that higher education systems everywhere have opened to the masses, this paper analyses to what extent this phenomenon has really been accompanied by an effective democratisation of access and success in Portugal and Brazil. It looks at the expansion of higher education and discusses how the political system and higher education institutions have responded to the need for better educated populations and increased demand for tertiary education. Equity of access is analysed by comparing the ratio of candidates from different socio-economic backgrounds to overall capacity. This indicates that the apparent democratisation of academic access is in fact only relative; on this basis, there are grounds for concern as disadvantaged social backgrounds seem to generate high rates of academic failure and dropout.

Quoting a joint analysis undertaken by the OECD and the IEA, G-20 leaders committed in September 2009 to “rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.” This report draws on previous OECD work to assess the impact on international trade of phasing out fossil-fuel consumption subsidies provided mainly by developing and emerging economies. The analysis employed the OECD’s ENV-Linkages General-Equilibrium model and used the IEA’s estimates of consumer subsidies, which measure the gap existing between the domestic prices of fossil fuels and an international reference benchmark. It shows that a co-ordinated multilateral removal of fossil-fuel consumption subsidies over the 2013-2020 period would increase global trade volumes by a very small amount (0.1%) by 2020. While seemingly negligible, this increase hides the large disparities that are observed across countries (or regions) and products. Under the central scenario, which assumes a multilateral subsidy removal over the 2013-2020 period, trade in natural gas would be most affected, with a 6% decrease by 2020. A reduction in the volume of both imports and exports from oil-exporting countries would be partly compensated by an expansion of trade flows (both imports and exports) involving OECD countries. This reallocation of trade flows would be most prevalent in products of energy-intensive industries. Looking beyond 2020, the contribution of oil-exporting countries to total world trade volumes would continue to be lower in 2050 than under the reference scenario.
The European Union Treaty of Lisbon brought a new dimension to cohesion – the territorial dimension, which has become one of the most frequently discussed aspects for achieving cohesion and, at the same time, one of the challenges for EU policies. The ‘territorial dimension’ determines many socio-economic problems and presents challenges for the European Social Fund (ESF), which has to enhance its flexibility and highlight the capacity and needs of specific territories at national, regional and local levels at the programming and implementation stages. While our understanding of the national and regional levels has advanced, the dynamics with the local level need further consideration, chiefly in the context of Europe 2020 strategy, and regarding the territorial dimension of the European Social Fund and mechanisms of territorialisation.

This paper discusses the conceptualisation of territoriality and the different levels of applicability in regional development approaches. The paper draws on OECD and other organisations research and analysis; particularly the work of the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED). The paper argues that the local level is emerging as the key spatial dimension where EU development instruments apply and therefore a systemic local approach may be needed when designing national and regional cohesion policies and instruments. The paper is divided into 5 sections discussing: 1) The importance of an integrated spatial approach to development; 2) The success of the local approach to development: complexity, integration and the policy mix; 3) Integrating territorial mechanisms for job creation, employability and inclusive growth; 4) Fostering education policies for qualification and skills rich ecosystems; and 5) The way forward.

This working paper summarises the main findings of a data collection exercise documenting the size of the national state-owned enterprise (SOE) sectors in OECD countries (in terms of number, employment and economic value of enterprises), and provides a breakdown by main sectors and types of incorporation. The data is based on questionnaire responses from national governments, covering the years 2008 and 2009. Twenty-seven of the Organisation.s 34 member countries have contributed to date. Employment in SOEs across the OECD area exceeds 6 million people, and that the value of all SOEs combined is close to US$ 2 trillion. In addition to this, the State in many countries holds minority stakes in listed enterprises that are large enough to confer effective control. These enterprises employ a further 3 million people and are valued at close to US$ 1 trillion. Hence, while state ownership of enterprises has declined in recent decades, SOEs and similar entities continue to account for a significant part of the corporate economy in many countries. Following decades of privatisation, the remaining SOEs have a strong sectoral concentration. Around half (in value terms) of all SOEs in OECD countries are located in the network sectors, mostly transportation, power generation and other energy. A further fourth of total valuation is accounted for by financial institutions. In addition, among the partly state-owned listed companies there are many partly privatised telecommunications companies. In other words, not only do state-invested enterprises remain significant, they are also increasingly concentrated in a few ¡°strategic¡± sectors of great importance to the competitiveness of the rest of the business sector.
This paper addresses the often neglected question of how macroeconomic risk is shared across and within economies, and identifies reforms that could contribute towards achieving more desirable risksharing outcomes. For risk-sharing across countries, the paper discusses possibilities for international insurance as well as shock-spreading and risk-mitigating policies. Within countries, it assesses the possibilities for individuals to protect their wealth, labour and capital income against various forms of macroeconomic risk and discusses the desirable boundaries between private and government-sponsored risk-sharing institutions. The paper then presents new empirical and model-based evidence about how the short-term impact of selected macroeconomic shocks (including financial crises) is shared across different groups of agents, and analyses how such distributional effects are shaped by differences in institutions. For example, individuals on low incomes, and especially young people, seem in general to lose most from adverse macroeconomic shocks. Also, it appears that across countries two broad types of institutions can be identified that facilitate risk sharing between high and low income earners, namely “social protection” and “reallocation-facilitating” institutions. Based on countries’ reliance on these types of institutions, four broad “models” of risk sharing are identified across the OECD and the BRIICS.
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