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Mexico’s highly efficient freight railways are operated by privately owned concessions. The system adopted for the concessions by the 1995 Railway Law provides exclusive rights to manage vertically integrated track and train companies over specified sections of the network and was designed to create competition between the companies in key markets. Competition is provided for in several ways; through parallel tracks, through alternate routes and through rights to use each other’s tracks on specific sections of the network. In this report, preparations for the establishment of the new rail regulatory agency are reviewed and compared to comparable regulatory arrangements in other OECD countries to ensure effective implementation of the new institutional arrangements.
High quality logistics is a key for the economic performance of any country. Well-functioning logistics both domestically and internationally is a necessary precondition of national competitiveness. As an open economy, Chile relies heavily on trade for its economic growth. Lower transport and logistics costs as well as effective coordination between operators and public and private sector would improve Chile’s competitiveness, boost exports and diversify production and trade patterns.
This article provides an overview of the potential implications of climate change for the financial management of disaster risks. It outlines the contribution of insurance to reducing the economic disruption of disaster events and policy approaches to supporting the penetration of disaster insurance coverage and the capacity of insurance markets to absorb disaster risks, including through the use of capital markets instruments and international co-operation in risk pooling. It concludes with a number of recommendations for improving the financial management of disaster risks in the context of climate change and some areas of further work.
JEL classification: G22, G23, H84, Q54
Keywords: Climate change, natural disasters, extreme events, insurance, reinsurance, catastrophe bonds
This article on public equity financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) complements earlier OECD work on market-based finance for SMEs. The development of this market segment could promote investment in SMEs and, together with securitisation and other non-bank debt financing instruments, encourage an enhanced allocation of risk and risk taking, and thus support growth. Despite the benefits of public SME equity, its share is small and an equity gap exists for risk financing more generally. A number of important impediments to the wider use of public equities for SMEs are identified, such as admission cost and listing requirements, lack of liquidity, educational gaps, limited ecosystems, and tax treatment, all of which require attention by regulators and policy makers alike.
Climate change is a major political and economic challenge. This paper sketches out its relevance for the financial sector. Necessary low-carbon investments imply a significant yet manageable financing gap. However, we argue that beyond capital mobilisation that has attracted most attention until now, the main challenge is ensuring a transition-consistent capital reallocation. The financial sector has a key role to play in that respect, complementary to appropriately designed climate policies. To help the financial system fulfil its role, the understanding of the economics of climate change should be deepened and a sector-wide businessoriented appropriation of these issues should be promoted.
JEL classification: Q54, E10, E44, G12, G14, G21, G22, G23, G28.
Keywords: Climate change, low carbon, climate finance, green finance, investment, capital allocation, financial system, risks
This paper examines student learning time as a key educational resource. It presents an overview of how different OECD countries allocate instruction time. It also develops a model to understand the effective use of allocated instruction time and examines how different OECD countries compare on this. The paper confirms the value of sufficient instruction time as a key educational resource, but the key conclusion is that what matters the most is the way in which allocated time is used. Student learning time and academic achievement seem to have complex and curvilinear relationship with diminishing returns to scale. The paper also cautions that there should be realistic expectations on how effectively students can learn throughout the school day and year. Accordingly, it suggests that instruction could be organised to better optimise times when students are better able to concentrate. Evidence on lost instruction time in different OECD countries points to areas of potential increased effectiveness within existing time allocations, for example by improving classroom management and matching instruction to better meet students’ learning needs.
Governments world-wide have sought value for money by augmenting the traditional approach to public infrastructure delivery and management by introducing private capital. Two well established platforms for private capital participation are the Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) Model and the Project Finance Model (broadly termed PPPs). This paper reviews available evidence on the efficiency in delivery and operation of major infrastructure of each platform relative to the traditional approach. Overall the basic concern with the RAB model is that its application might lead to excessive capital expenditures, to strategically inflate the base on which the return is being calculated. By contrast, given the complexity of PPP projects and the inherent uncertainty associated with such long-lived contractual commitments, it is questionable whether competition leads to efficient outcomes. Both approaches have some potential advantages and this paper investigates, whether it is meaningful to merge them.
Aucun pays ou économie ayant participé à l’enquête PISA 2012 ne peut affirmer que tous ses élèves de 15 ans ont acquis un bagage de compétences minimum en mathématiques, en comprehension de l’écrit et en sciences. Quelque 28 % des élèves se situent en deçà du niveau seuil de competences dans au moins l’une de ces matières, en moyenne, dans les pays de l’OCDE. L’obtention de mauvais résultats scolaires à l’âge de 15 ans ne résulte pas de l’action d’un facteur de risque isolé, mais plutôt de la combinaison et de l’accumulation de différents obstacles et désavantages entravant le parcours des élèves tout au long de leur vie. Les élèves fréquentant des établissements où le soutien et le moral des enseignants, ainsi que leurs attentes à leur égard, sont d’un niveau plus élevé, sont moins susceptibles d’être peu performants en mathématiques, même après contrôle du niveau socio-économique des élèves et des établissements.
No country or economy participating in PISA 2012 can claim that all of its 15-year-old students have achieved basic proficiency skills in mathematics, reading and science. Some 28% of students score below the baseline level of proficiency in at least one of those subjects, on average across OECD countries. Poor performance at age 15 is not the result of any single risk factor, but rather of a combination and accumulation of various barriers and disadvantages that affect students throughout their lives. Students attending schools where teachers are more supportive, have better morale and have higher expectations for students are less likely to be low performers in mathematics, even after accounting for the socio-economic status of students and schools.
Household debt has risen markedly since the turn of the century and stands at a historically high level in most OECD countries. This paper offers an overview of developments in household debt over the past decades across a large sample of OECD countries, highlighting both common trends and country specificities. It examines the vulnerabilities associated with high household debt for households, the financial system and the wider economy. Finally, it describes the challenges faced by policymakers at the current juncture and outlines responses in terms of monetary, micro and macro-prudential, and housing policies.
Recent demographic, economic and political trends have drawn attention to the issue of effectiveness and efficiency in the use of resources in the education sector. In the context of the renewed interest for the optimisation of resource use, this paper attempts to review the literature on budgeting and accounting in OECD education systems. The analysis of accounting and budgeting in education systems provides an understanding of decision-making processes regarding education policies and projects, in terms of prioritisation, planning, allocation, monitoring and evaluation of resource use. The subjects covered in the paper also help to understand how resources are distributed. Greater requests for transparency from citizens are indeed pressuring governments to justify how public resources are allocated, and which variables determine the levels of funding flowing to schools. Finally, accounting standards and budgeting methods are studied in the current paper as they may also have an impact on effectiveness and efficiency of resource use. This report first explores governance questions underlying budgeting and accounting. Subsequently, the report reviews procedures and tools adopted by countries for budgeting and accounting. Finally, it presents methods for evaluation and monitoring of resource use. The paper attempts to identify trends and commonalities in country practices in primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education; however, there are great variations on the studied topics across and within countries.
Governments have been examining the potential role of joint government interpretations of investment treaties at OECD-hosted intergovernmental investment roundtables. Now well-established in the model BITs and treaty practice of the NAFTA governments, express provisions for such joint interpretations have recently been included in an increasing range of treaties and investment policies around the world. But while a significant number of major recent treaties contain such express provisions, most investment treaties do not expressly address joint interpretations and thus leave the issue to more general rules. This paper addresses the general legal framework applicable to joint agreements by treaty parties about the interpretation of treaties. It outlines some key concepts and distinctions in treaty interpretation, and then considers the effects of treaty interpretations and amendments on third parties and in particular on investors covered by a treaty. Joint government interpretation can be binding or non-binding on investment arbitration tribunals. The paper concludes with brief consideration of possible criteria that could affect the persuasiveness of non-binding guidance.
According to the 2015 DAC Survey on mobilisation, USD 36.4 billion was mobilised from the private sector in 2012-14 through official development finance interventions in the form of guarantees, syndicated loans and shares in collective investment vehicles (development-related investment funds). Overall flows followed an upward trend over the period covered by the survey, with guarantees mobilising the largest share (59%). Multilateral development banks took the lead in mobilising finance mostly through guarantees, followed by the national development finance institutions. Middle-income countries received the largest share of the amount mobilised, mainly targeting the energy, industry and banking sectors. Of the total amount mobilised, 19% was climate-related, most of it focusing on climate change mitigation. This working paper provides more details about the Survey results.
Un nouveau rapport de l’OCDE, intitule Soutenir le professionnalisme des enseignants et élaboré à partir des résultats de l’Enquête internationale sur l’enseignement et l’apprentissage (TALIS), définit le concept de professionnalisme des enseignants sur la base de trois grandes composantes : le socle de connaissances, à savoir les connaissances requises pour enseigner ; l’autonomie, à savoir le pouvoir de décision des enseignants sur différents aspects de leur travail ; et les réseaux de pairs, à savoir les possibilités d’échange d’informations et de soutien nécessaires au maintien de normes élevées d’enseignement. Les systèmes d’éducation diffèrent quant à l’importance qu’ils accordent à chacune des composantes du professionnalisme des enseignants. Il existe dans tous les systèmes une corrélation particulièrement positive entre d’un côté, les composantes « connaissances » et « réseaux de pairs », et de l’autre, la satisfaction des enseignants, leur sentiment d’efficacité personnelle et la perception de la valeur du métier d’enseignant dans la société. Les pratiques favorisant le professionnalisme des enseignants sont moins répandues dans les établissements accueillant des pourcentages plus importants d’élèves issus de milieux socio-économiques défavorisés. Dans ces établissements, l’investissement dans le professionnalisme des enseignants peut toutefois s’avérer particulièrement fructueux, la corrélation positive entre connaissances, réseaux de pairs et satisfaction des enseignants étant plus marquée dans les établissements difficiles.
A new OECD report, Supporting Teacher Professionalism, based on the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), conceptualises teacher professionalism as being comprised of: knowledge base, defined as necessary knowledge for teaching; autonomy, defined as teachers’ decision-making over aspects related to their work; and peer networks, defined as opportunities for information exchange and support needed to maintain high standards of teaching. Education systems differ in terms of the emphasis placed on each of the teacher professionalism domains. Across all systems there is a particularly positive relationship between knowledge and peer network domains and teacher satisfaction, self-efficacy and perceptions of the value of the teaching profession in the society. Practices supporting teacher professionalism are less common in schools with higher proportions of socio-economically disadvantaged students. However, investing in teacher professionalism can be particularly beneficial in these schools as the positive relationship between knowledge, peer networks and teacher satisfaction is amplified in challenging schools.
The number and length of school holidays differs significantly across OECD countries, meaning the number of instructional days in primary and secondary education ranges from 162 days a year in France to more than 200 days in Israel and Japan. The higher the level of education, the greater the number of instructional hours per school day. Students in OECD countries are expected to receive on average 4.3 hours of instruction per day in primary school, rising to 5.2 hours in upper secondary school. On average across OECD countries, around half of primary schools’ compulsory curricular time is focused on reading, writing and literature; mathematics; and science, amounting to 2.2 hours per school day. In lower secondary education this falls to only 1.8 hours per day. There are wide variations across OECD countries in the organisation of the learning time within and outside the classroom but there has been a recent trend of increasing classroom instruction time dedicated to core subjects such as mathematics, and a reduction in the time spent doing homework outside the classroom.
Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is a critical tool in the hands of governments to ensure that regulation achieves its objectives. Inclusive growth has become an important objective of the political agenda of OECD countries. This paper examines the potential contribution of RIA to better incorporating the inclusive growth perspective in regulatory decision-making. It does this by reviewing current RIA policies and guidance documents in a range of OECD countries, by reviewing the literature on the use of RIA to address social and environmental issues and by sampling a number of recent RIA from leading countries. Building on the available evidence, the paper proposes a number of principles and considerations for decision-makers to design appropriate systems and mechanisms for addressing inclusive growth in RIA.
Comment s’organise le temps d’apprentissage dans l’enseignement primaire et secondaire ? Les vacances scolaires varient sensiblement entre les pays de l’OCDE, tant en termes de nombre que de durée, avec un nombre de jours d’instruction dans l’enseignement primaire et secondaire allant de 162 jours par an en France à plus de 200 jours en Israël et au Japon. Le nombre d’heures d’instruction par jour d’école augmente avec l’élévation du niveau d’enseignement. En moyenne, dans les pays de l’OCDE, les élèves sont ainsi censés recevoir 4.3 heures d’instruction par jour dans l’enseignement primaire, contre 5.2 heures dans le deuxième cycle du secondaire. En moyenne, dans les pays de l’OCDE, la moitié environ du temps d’instruction obligatoire dans l’enseignement primaire est consacrée à trois matières : la lecture, l’expression écrite et la littérature ; les mathématiques ; et les sciences – soit 2.2 heures par jour d’école. Dans le premier cycle du secondaire, ces matières ne représentent plus que 1.8 heure par jour. L’organisation du temps d’apprentissage varie sensiblement entre les pays de l’OCDE, en classe comme ailleurs, mais on observe depuis peu une tendance à l’augmentation du temps d’instruction consacré en classe aux matières fondamentales telles que les mathématiques, et à la réduction du temps consacré aux devoirs en dehors de la classe.