Browse by: "2012"

Switzerland has low greenhouse gas emissions per capita as compared to other countries, which reflects the strong reliance on energy sources emitting few greenhouse gas emissions, especially in electricity generation, and little heavy industry. Greenhouse gas emissions have remained almost the same since 1990, as emission reductions in the residential and industrial sector were offset by increases from the transport sector. It is estimated that, in aggregate, marginal abatement costs are relatively high in Switzerland and meeting the 2020 target of a 20% emission reduction below the 1990 level will necessitate more cost effective policies. In particular, more needs to be done in the road transport sector, the domestic sector with the largest potential for emission reductions at relatively low cost. The incentive for energy saving renovations in rented dwellings could be raised by a better design of existing policies. And the policies in the industrial sector could be made more effective with the transition towards linking the Swiss and the EU emission trading systems.

This report reviews the existing evidence on pension fund investment in infrastructure in “new” markets, covering a number of non-OECD countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa, as well as some OECD countries like Chile and Mexico. In the African, Asian, and Latin American countries surveyed, domestic pension funds invest more than USD 15 bn in infrastructure projects, around 1.3% of the total assets managed (USD 1.1 trillion as of December 2010). Foreign pension funds, given their large size, could be a potentially major source of funding, but most have only recently started investing in infrastructure projects and have focused their attention in mature markets. The report concludes with a series of policy recommendations to facilitate infrastructure investments in new markets.

Taxes, loans and grants, trading schemes and white certificates, public procurement and investment in R&D or infrastructure: known collectively as “economic instruments”, these tools can be powerful means of mobilising the finances needed to achieve policy goals by implementing energy efficiency measures. The role of economic instruments is to kick-start the private financial markets and to motivate private investors to fund EE measures. They should reinforce and promote energy performance regulations.

China faces the dynamic of rapid economic development that drives ever increasing energy use, primarily electricity, and consequently increasing CO2 emissions. It has taken a pledge to curb its emissions intensity, and is exploring various policy approaches to fulfil that aim, including emissions trading. This report explores the conditions needed for effective functioning of a CO2 emissions trading system in China’s electricity generation sector. It is based on extensive discussions with power generation stakeholders and observers of the electricity sector in China, as well as quantitative analyses of the impact of a CO2 emissions trading system (ETS) at plant, company and provincial levels.

At the October 2011 Governing Board Meeting at Ministerial Level, IEA member countries endorsed the IEA Electricity Security Action Plan (ESAP). The proposed electricity security work program reflects the challenge of maintaining electricity security while also seeking to rapidly reduce carbon dioxide emissions of the power systems. In particular, the large-scale deployment of renewables needed to meet low-carbon goals is technically feasible. However, it will lead to more volatile, real-time power flows, which will create new challenges for maintaining electricity security.

This research paper seeks to answer three central questions: (i) how can different forms of liberalisation be classified; (ii) how have liberalisation policies and measures affected conflict-affected and fragile states; and (iii) what are the essential institutional governance pre-conditions to manage the liberalisation-fragility interface?

This research suggests that no single country conforms entirely to classical liberalism. Fragile states – many of which have long communist, socialist and patrimonial histories – exhibit a cocktail of economic personalities. They may best be referred to as “liberal-hybrids”. Research shows that while such states are highly exposed to global transmission channels for liberal market policies, many of these liberal hybrids fared better through the global financial crisis because of their adaptive mechanisms. There is, therefore, a great need to deepen understanding of the drivers of fragility and resilience in fragile states, and redefine proscriptive ideological approaches that drive economic and development policies in different directions. This paper focuses on four key pillars of liberal order policies: financial liberalisation, trade liberalisation, foreign direction investment and exchange rate management. These aspects are fundamental to growth, but “test” fragile institutions and societies too severely in many cases – aggravating fragility and creating inequitable growth patterns. Policy responses to mitigate risks and maximise benefits from adoption of these liberal order policies in fragile contexts have been stronger in theory (as the Post-Washington consensus era draws to a close) than in practice; fragile states are still subject to blueprint prescriptions and competitive political pressures.

Drawing on country examples, this paper proposes future avenues for international research and action: (i) grouping fragile states according to a new set of vulnerability criteria on which to base support; (ii) developing a set of leading or proxy indicators to close the action-research time gap for fragile states; (iii) modelling fragile state responses to global risks towards early warning; (iv) integrating economic and development policies at national level; (v) staggering liberalisation policies to keep pace with institutional capacities; and (vi) prioritising internal economic cohesion. To create the analytical base, three fragile state case studies could be produced exploring liberalisation adoption from ideology and prescription to uptake pattern over time. Results could be synthesised by a newly established Global & Fragile Systems Contact Group, empowered to create the new metrics required to turn the New Deal into the “real deal” for fragile and conflict-affected states.

• Le pourcentage le plus important d’élèves qui espèrent obtenir un diplôme universitaire s’observe en Corée (80 %), et le plus faible, en Lettonie (25 %).
• De nombreux élèves très performants n’envisagent pas d’aller à l’université, soit autant de talents potentiels perdus pour l’économie et la société, tandis que de nombreux élèves peu performants pensent qu’ils y parviendront, même si leurs résultats scolaires actuels semblent présager le contraire.
• Un élève sur quatre environ envisage de terminer sa scolarité à la fin du deuxième cycle de l’enseignement secondaire et nécessite donc les compétences qui lui permettront de faire une transition en douceur de la scolarité au monde du travail et à l’âge adulte. < /LI>

• The percentage of students who expect to complete university is highest in Korea (80%) and lowest in Latvia (25%).
• Many high-performing students do not expect to go to university, representing potentially lost talent to an economy and society while many low-performing students think they will make it to university, even if their current performance suggests they are not likely to succeed.
• Around one in four students expects to end his or her formal schooling at the upper secondary level and thus needs the skills to make a smooth transition into work and adulthood.

The population and labour force in the European Union are ageing. The proportion of the population in the EU-27 who are aged 55 and over rose from 25 % in 1990 to 30 % in 2010, and is estimated to reach 37 % by 2030 (Eurostat, 2012). Consequently, the workforce is also getting older – the proportion of the labour force between 55 and 69 years old increased 26.5 % between 1987 and 2010.

In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, radical Islamists are targeting fragile and conflict-affected states and encouraging the formation of groups which act against the state (either violently or subversively). These processes exacerbate existing fragility and increase conflicts among communities in countries that already suffer from poor social cohesion and integration. This paper describes the ideas and methods with which radical Islamist groups are destabilising some fragile and conflict-affected states in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Sudan, Nigeria and Chad. It also evaluates the extent to which modern communication technologies help spread these ideas among Islamists in these states. In supporting fragile and conflict-affected states that are being infiltrated by radical Islamism, international donors should tackle two related phenomena: 1) regulating the telecommunication market and use of the Internet and social media; and 2) improving education. The non-violent aspects of Islamist radicalisation processes suggest that a dialogue with radical Islamists is still possible. In this sense, some of their projects, particularly their efforts at Arabisation, could be harnessed to increase literacy levels in order to favour general education and development and diminish fragility.

The purpose of this report is to highlight energy efficiency policy action and planning in IEA member and key non-member countries over the period from September 2011 to September 2012. The report provides an overview of energy efficiency policy developments across the seven sectors covered by the IEA 25 Energy Efficiency Policy Recommendations (25 EEPR) – Crosssectoral activities, Buildings, Appliances and Equipment, Lighting, Transport, Industry and Energy Providers.

Large-scale natural disasters can have long-lasting effects on the labour market in affected areas in addition to their humanitarian and economic cost. Mass evacuations and disruptions to housing, transport, social services and infrastructure can impede labour market participation. Firms may need to lay off workers, permanently or temporarily, as they deal with physical damage and loss of customers. Even if employment levels return to their pre-disaster levels, the mix of jobs and workers may have changed, so that skills shortages coexist with relatively high unemployment rates. Governments have an important role to play in helping prevent unnecessary job losses, providing income support and re-employment assistance to displaced workers while they find new jobs and creating the environment to encourage job creation as the recovery takes hold. This paper examines the labour market impact of recent natural disasters in six OECD countries, outlines labour market and income support policies implemented to help those affected and discusses the challenges of implementing such policies in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

This report examines skill trends in 24 OECD countries over the past several decades. The skill measures used include broad occupation groups, country-specific direct measures of skill requirements from international surveys, and direct skill measures from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database applied to both United States and European labour force surveys. Each kind of data has its own strengths and limitations but they tell a consistent story.

This report provides an overview of Australia’s labour market policies, with a focus on income support benefits and employment assistance for people of working age. It traces historical developments partly since 1990 and since 1978 in the case of some data series...

This paper addresses several broad issues for governments aiming to encourage private sector investment in low-carbon climate resilient (LCR) infrastructure, in both developed and developing world contexts. LCR infrastructure is defined, recognizing the interdependencies between infrastructure systems, and the opportunities to tackle climate change adaptation and mitigation simultaneously in national strategic infrastructure plans. Review of the performance of OECD countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to three categories of gross fixed capital formation is mixed. Half of the countries analysed achieved decoupling of emissions from capital formation in the residential building sector, but only two in the transportation sector and nine in power and industry. The paper reviews future global infrastructure needs under low carbon and business-as–usual scenarios. Although cost estimates are incomplete, the technical interdependency and financial tradeoffs between infrastructure systems suggests the potential to generate virtuous cycles of low carbon growth.

Governments can encourage private investment in LCR infrastructure by improving the risk-return profile of projects. The paper provides a ranking of the most significant risks in financing LCR projects showing that policy (or sovereign) risks rank amongst the highest. The potential to finance LCR infrastructure in low income nations is challenging due to basic banking services, lack of non-bank financial services, weak risk management capacity and limited availability of long term funding. Drawing on OECD?s work on the water sector, the paper reviews financing mechanisms that help to increase access to commercial banks, bond finance, project finance and equity finance in developing countries. Green bonds are an example of a financing mechanism with strong potential for LCR infrastructure in developed countries, but supportive government policies are required. The paper concludes by considering governance arrangements that can enable and secure private engagement in LCR infrastructure investment, including public private partnerships (PPPs). Where governments have opted to use PPPs, government PPP units may be suitable administrative units for managing delivery of LCR performance as an integral part of the infrastructure project.

The paper reviews some national initiatives related to measuring the stock of human capital, indentifies some challenges to be addressed to improve the quality of existing monetary measures of human capital, and suggests developing experimental satellite accounts for education to better understand how human capital is produced and the linkages between education and its non-monetary outcomes.

This paper reviews the literature and contributes with some evidence based on the World Values Survey on the drivers of tax morale around the world, with an emphasis on developing countries. It shows that socio-economic factors such as age, religion, gender, employment status and educational attainment have a significant impact on people’s levels of tax morale. In terms of institutional determinants, it finds that the satisfaction with democracy, trust in government and the satisfaction with the quality of public services plays an important role in increasing tax morale. The paper also discusses future directions for research and policy action in this area.

The aim of this paper is to provide an interpretation of the measure of capacity utilisation provided by the European Union harmonised survey on the Italian manufacturing sector. In doing so, we evaluate its ability to correctly track cyclical turning points and its contribution in explaining consumer price index (CPI) inflation. The survey based measure results are a good co-incident indicator of business cycle, however it is generally outperformed by time series models in explaining inflation. We conclude that the standard “output gap” interpretation of the survey results is broadly confirmed by the data, however we cannot rule out at this stage that survey respondents may also consider the alternative “variable capacity utilisation” concept in answering the survey question.

Keywords: Capacity utilisation, co-integration, unobserved component models, VAR.
JEL Classification: E32, C22, E37

The US innovation system has many strengths, including world class research universities and firms that thrive in innovation-intensive sectors. However, fissures have begun to appear, notably in the areas of human capital development, the patent system and manufacturing activity, while public investments in R&D and research universities are at risk of being curtailed by budget cuts. Revitalizing the dynamism of innovation has become a priority for US policymakers. To this end, it is important that federal and state governments sustain financial support for knowledge creation. The US workforce’s skills will need to be upgraded, especially in STEM fields, and measures taken to provide more favourable framework conditions for developing advanced manufacturing in the United States. While the recent patent reform is a big step in the right direction, patent reform needs to be taken further by ensuring that the legal standards for granting injunctive relief and damages awards for patent infringement reflect realistic business practices and the relative contributions of patented components of complex technologies.