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The extent to which firms face price-elastic demands for their products is important in the application of competition law and in judgments made as to whether they have significant market power. In the context of the airport industry, assessing price-elasticities is complicated by the fact that one major type of consumer of airport services, the air passenger, is not charged directly for use of terminals and airside infrastructure. Instead, the airport derives its revenues from charges to airlines and from the supply of non-aeronautical services. The charges to airlines then become one of many input costs that the airlines recoup from passenger fares, and this intermediation has significant implications for the demand analysis.
This report examines examples of new and emerging governance models that aim to support the responsible development of diagnostics and treatments based on the latest advances in biomedicine. In particular, it presents programmes and initiatives that aim to manage uncertainty in the development and approval of new medical products and thereby to improve the understanding of the risk/benefit balance. It also identifies some of the main challenges for policy makers, regulators and other communities involved in the translation of biomedical innovation and health technologies from the laboratory bench to point of care.
La prise en compte du développement durable dans l’évaluation des projets d’investissement est un sujet d’actualité à la fois en termes de réflexions et au niveau des prises de décisions. Au plan de la réflexion, on mentionnera les nombreuses études et recherches pour évaluer les atteintes à l’environnement et les traduire en termes monétaires, à la fois pour les atteintes qu’on appellera par la suite « de flux » telles que la pollution ou le bruit, et celles qu’on appellera « de stock » qui exercent leurs effets par accumulation sur le long terme telles que le réchauffement planétaire ou la réduction de la biodiversité. En ce qui concerne la prise de décision, on remarque que dans de nombreux pays, on s’efforce de mieux intégrer ces préoccupations dans la conception des projets et dans l’analyse coût-bénéfice auxquels ils donnent lieu. La France n’échappe pas à ce mouvement ; récemment un groupe de travail a été constitué pour mettre à jour les modalités d’évaluation des investissements publics, et les travaux de ce groupe, qui viennent de s’achever, ont accordé une grande place aux considérations de développement durable et de prise en compte du long terme. Le présent texte s’appuie largement sur les travaux de ce groupe de travail. On s’efforcera dans ce qui suit de les analyser au regard des connaissances scientifiques, mais aussi de les replacer dans le contexte institutionnel et politico-administratif français.
English
Factoring sustainable development into the appraisal of investment projects is a topical issue at both the analytical and the decision-making level. In the area of analysis, we find numerous studies and research projects devoted to the assessment of environmental damage and its translation into monetary terms. The analysis concerns both “flow” damage such as pollution and noise, and “stock” damage with long-term cumulative effect, such as global warming and the reduction of biodiversity. In the area of decisionmaking, efforts are being undertaken in many countries to achieve better integration of these concerns in project appraisal and the related cost-benefit analysis. France is no exception: a working party recently set up to revise the methodology for appraising public investment projects has just completed its deliberations. It paid close attention to considerations of sustainable development and the factoring of the long term, and the present paper is based largely on its recommendations. In what follows, we shall endeavour to analyse those recommendations in the light of scientific knowledge and place them in the French institutional and politico-administrative context.
French

This paper considers the impact of social entrepreneurship in European communities, finding that working with such enterprises and helping them develop can result in widespread gains for public budgets. Starting and running such a business can pose a number of problems though, as it must not only overcome entrepreneurial challenges, but also those that arise from the social dimension. The report concludes that promoting policies that create a favourable environment for such entrepreneurs, is crucial for them to fulfil their potential.

This paper takes stock of informal employment in Russia analysing its incidence and determinants. Using the regular 2003-11 waves and an informality supplement of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) it develops several measures of informal employment and demonstrates that the incidence varies widely across the different definitions. We also show that the determinants of informal employment are roughly stable across the different measures: workers who are males, relatively young, unskilled and employed in construction and trade and related services have a higher likelihood to have an informal job. We also take a look at the issue of labour market segmentation along the informal-formal divide by estimating an informal-formal wage gap at the means and across the entire wage distributions. We find only weak evidence for labour market segmentation in Russia when estimating an informal-formal wage gap for salaried workers at the mean. The results of quantile regressions show a wage penalty in the lower half of the distribution and no gap in the upper half for informal employees. In contrast, informal self-employed and entrepreneurs have conditional mean wages that are higher than the mean wages for the formally employed. Across the entire wage distribution, however, we find a negative wage gap in the lowest quartile and a strongly positive wage gap in the highest quartile, pointing to a segmented informal sector with a lower free entry tier and an upper rationed tier. This Working Paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Survey of the Russian Federation (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/russia).
This report evaluates the corporate governance practices of Colombian SOEs against the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The assessment was prepared based on information provided by the Colombian authorities, an analysis of the available literature and interviews with authorities, consultants, academics, and company as well as stakeholder representatives. Following a brief introduction, Part A of the report provides information about the context in which Colombian SOEs operate, including the main aspects of the regulatory framework and its key actors. Part B refers successively to the different chapters of the Guidelines, evaluating Colombian norms and practices in their light. The final section sets out the report’s conclusions and recommendations. Complementary information can be found in the five annexes. The review was prepared at the request of the Colombian authorities and approved by the OECD Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices.
In times of increasing environmental awareness, the port-city relationship has gained a new meaning since ports have been seen as the origin of both negative and positive externalities affecting the public wellbeing. While the former are the result of port expansion, the latter are the result of transforming obsolete port areas into recreational facilities. Therefore, in order to support effective policy-making, in this research is emphasized the need of measuring these environmental externalities. Considering their non-market nature, the contingent valuation method is introduced as an economic tool capable of overcoming this obstacle. Thus, the cases of two ports in Spain, namely Valencia and Castellón, are reviewed. The policy implications of this are discussed with the aim to improve the understanding of the changing relationship between ports and cities.
Green skills, that is, skills needed in a low-carbon economy, will be required in all sectors and at all levels in the workforce as emerging economic activities create new (or renewed) occupations. Structural changes will realign sectors that are likely to decline as a result of the greening of the economy and workers will need to be retrained accordingly. The successful transition to a low-carbon economy will only be possible if workers can flexibly adapt and transfer from areas of decreasing employment to new industries. This paper suggests that the role of skills and education and training policies should be an important component of the ecological transformation process.
This paper provides a framework for analysing the character and degree of ownership engagement by institutional investors. It argues that the general term “institutional investor” in itself doesn’t say very much about the quality or degree of ownership engagement. It is therefore an evasive “shorthand” for policy discussions about ownership engagement. The reason is that there are large differences in ownership engagement between different categories of institutional investors. There are also differences in ownership engagement within the same category of institutional investors such as hedge funds, investment funds, etc. These differences arise from the fact that the degree of ownership engagement is determined by a number of different features and choices that together make up the institutional investor’s “business model”. When ownership engagement is not a central part of the business model, public policies and voluntary standards aiming to improve the quality of ownership engagement among institutional investors are likely to have limited effect. Based on an empirical overview of the relative size of different categories of institutional investors, the paper identifies a set of 7 features and 19 choices that in different combinations define the institutional investor’s business model. These features and choices are then used to establish a taxonomy for identifying different degrees of ownership engagement ranging from “no engagement” to “inside engagement”.
The definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA) has for 40 years been the global standard for measuring donor efforts in supporting development co-operation objectives. It has provided the yardstick for documenting the volume and the terms of the concessional resources provided, assessing donor performance against their aid pledges and enabling partner countries, civil society and others to hold donors to account. Yet for all its value, the ODA definition has always reflected a compromise between political expediency and statistical reality. It is based on interpretation and consensus and therefore allows for flexibility. It has evolved over the decades, while preserving the original concepts of a definition based on principal developmental motivation, official character and a degree of concessionality. While agreement on the ODA concept was a major achievement, discussion of the appropriateness of this measure has never ended. The paper documents the evolution of the ODA concept and proposes a possible new approach to measuring aid effort.
  • The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis has meant a significant number of countries have cut public spending on education. Despite GDP rising in most OECD countries between 2009 and 2010, public expenditure on educational institutions fell in one-third of them.
  • Teachers’ salaries were either frozen or cut between 2009 and 2011 in 12 out of the 25 OECD countries with data available. This may discourage the highest-performing students from joining the teaching profession.
  • Demand for education and training is increasing even as austerity continues to put pressure on the resources allocated to education. Educational institutions will have to do more with less in the coming years.
French
Inclusive entrepreneurship policies are intended to give everybody the opportunity to start up in business or self-employment regardless of their social background and to improve labour market outcomes for people who are under-represented or disadvantaged in entrepreneurship and self-employment. This may occur directly, through increasing the number and quality of businesses and self-employment start-up activities, or indirectly, by providing an improved pathway to employment for people who do not eventually start-up or remain in business or self-employment. They work by targeting specific populations such as youth, seniors, women, the disabled, ex-offenders, ethnic minorities, and the unemployed with tailored interventions or improved accessibility to mainstream actions in areas such as access to start-up financing; training, mentoring and consultancy; entrepreneurship education and awareness raising; network building; or improvements to social security and business regulation systems.

Capital investment is a key function of government. However, for a number of reasons it has proven difficult for governments to ensure that capital investment represents value for money, is affordable, and is budgeted and accounted for in a prudent and transparent manner. This article discusses these challenges facing governments. Using the findings of a survey conducted among OECD countries and enhanced engagement countries in 2012, this article provides an overview of what governments are doing with respect to planning and prioritisation, procurement, construction, operation and management, monitoring and evaluation, and budgeting and accounting for capital projects. The article concludes with a number of recommendations for capital budgeting and procurement.

JEL classification: H400, H540, H570
Keywords: Capital investment, capital budgeting, capital projects, value for money, budgeting systems, accounting systems, transparency, procurement, public-private partnerships, PPPs, TIP, traditional infrastructure procurement

This working paper offers an evaluation of the performance of the port of Shanghai, an analysis of the impact of the port on its territory and an assessment of policies in this field. It examines port performance over the last decades and identifies the principal factors that have contributed to it. The effect of the port on economic and environmental questions is studied and quantified where possible. The major policies governing the port are assessed, along with policies governing transport and economic development, the environment and spatial planning. Based on the report’s findings, recommendations are proposed with a view to improving port performance and increasing the positive effects of the port of Shanghai.
Policy reforms aimed at boosting long-run growth often have side effects – positive or negative – on an economy’s vulnerability to shocks and their propagation. Macroeconomic shocks as severe and protracted as those since 2007 warrant a reconsideration of the role growth-promoting policies play in shaping the vulnerability and resilience of an economy to macroeconomic shocks. Against this background, this paper looks at a vast array of policy recommendations by the OECD that promote longterm growth – contained in Going for Growth and the Economic Outlook – and attempts to establish whether they underpin macroeconomic stability or whether there is a trade-off.

Brazil has developed an encompassing system for quality assessment of higher education, the National System of Higher Education Evaluation (SINAES), which includes a test for assessing learning outcomes at the undergraduate level, the National Exam of Student Performance (ENADE). The present system has been running since 2004, and also serves as criteria for accreditation of programmes and institutions, and has been used to regulate the growing private (for-profit) sector of Brazilian HE. We will present an analysis of SINAES and the many challenges it faces to be recognised as a valid tool for quality assurance and regulation for the Brazilian HE system, using data developed within the system for the engineering and medicine programmes in Brazil. The learning outcomes test is similar to the one that the AHELO project has proposed, including both general education and subject area components, thus providing some preview of issues that may arise as that project moves forward.

This paper examines the challenges of developing research resources for leading Vietnamese universities. The first part of the paper presents the background to the study, including literature review on the challenges to research resources development, and describes the research questions and research methods. The next part provides empirical findings on types of research resources, availability of resources, and challenges for resources development at leading Vietnamese universities. In the final part, the paper discusses the major findings and provides suggestions for further analysis on Vietnam’s university research sector.

Southern Cross University (SCU) has established a pathways college to increase access to and widen participation in higher education for people in regional areas of Australia. While many Australian universities have preparatory colleges associated with them, SCU College has been designed to make it unique in the sector. SCU College will operate under close contractual collaboration with the two vocational education institutes of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in its footprint, North Coast TAFE and the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE. The core offerings of SCU College will be generic associate degrees in arts, business, allied health and science, offered on SCU campuses, at learning centres on the campuses of the three partners and by distance. Graduates from the College will be able to articulate into SCU degree courses. Survey data reveal that there are thousands of people in this region who are not qualified for direct entry into university, who do not wish to study at TAFE institutes and who are unable or unwilling to travel to study. The associate degrees are designed to provide generic skills for these people within a discipline context with enhanced study support from local College staff.
The author demonstrates the process involved in creating the SCU pathways College noting that its creation fills an educational gap that responds to removing barriers and enhancing access, as well as successful outcomes noting that in detailing the main steps, strategies and design necessities involved may be of value for duplicating similar institutions, in Australia and elsewhere.

The authors present a case study discussing student-oriented initiatives to enhance academic achievement. They focus on the academic, psychosocial and motivational weaknesses of students showing how these can be overcome with strategic projects to aid students in their first year of higher education. The case study, a multi-million US dollar project at a regional, state-owned university, the University of Bío-Bío, occurred over a three-year span – 2007-10. The various initiatives created under the auspices of the project take into account the reality that 78.9% of the students are from the lower socio-economic quintiles of the population and have gaps in their linguistic and scientific knowledge, and lack the skills, learning attitudes, learning strategies and motivation necessary for success.
By means of descriptive analysis and gap analysis, it is shown that the implementation of additional academic, psychosocial and motivational support initiatives reduce student dropout rates to 8.7% and 33.7% (in first and third year, respectively); reduce course completion times to 5.1, 5.6 and 7.7 years (in 4-, 5- and 6-year courses, respectively); improve employment, with satisfaction levels of 85% and 95% among graduates and employers; and increase accredited programmes by 82%.
This article contributes to the body of knowledge focusing on methods to enhance national and international education systems, providing strategies to reduce the gap between students’ skills upon admission and those needed to attain academic success in higher education.

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