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Pension Benefit Guarantee Schemes are insurance type arrangements - with premiums paid by pension funds - which take on outstanding obligations which cannot be met by the insolvent plan sponsors. Arguments for such schemes stem from ‘market failure’ (with workers not fully understanding the trade off between pensions – deferred wages – and current income), and diversification– as most workers are highly exposed to the insolvency of the plan sponsor (in terms of current and retirement income) and cannot properly diversify this risk (particularly where the pension is funded by book reserves). However challenges to these schemes exist – mainly in the form of moral hazard and adverse selection – which are problems for all insurance contracts, and potentially in the form of systematic risk (as bankruptcies tend to be correlated, as does pension underfunding across schemes, and indeed as are these two factors).
Though setting up benefit guarantee schemes successfully is often a challenge in practice (particularly maintaining true political independence), they can be run successfully - as the funds operating in practice show. Though the problems of the USA guarantee scheme, the PBGC, are well known, similar schemes also exist in Sweden, Germany, Ontario – Canada, Switzerland and Japan and one has recently been launched in the UK. Lessons can be learnt from all these schemes - for example the UK’s PPF is working to apply fully risk adjusted premiums, whilst the Swedish fund can take a lien on plan sponsor’s assets to protect its own financial position. One of the key conclusions from the OECD’s report is that, to work effectively, these schemes must have suitable independence and powers to set and collect appropriately risk-adjusted premiums – but they also need to be considered along with other benefit protection policies (notably effective funding rules).
By Rosalind M.O. Pritchard
The efficient and safe management of spent fuel produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants is an important issue. In this context, partitioning and transmutation (P&T) of minor actinides and long-lived fission products can play an important role, significantly reducing the burden on geological repositories of nuclear waste and allowing their more effective use. Various systems, including existing reactors, fast reactors and advanced systems have been considered to optimise the transmutation scheme. Recently, many countries have shown interest in accelerator-driven systems (ADS) due to their potential for transmutation of minor actinides. Much R&D work is still required in order to demonstrate their desired capability as a whole system, and the current analysis methods and nuclear data for minor actinide burners are not as well established as those for conventionally-fuelled systems...
Norway is a prosperous country with a healthy economy and a very high standard of living. Norway provides a truly unique example of long-term budgetary planning through its successful management of oil assets by means of the Government Pension Fund – Global. This article examines the annual budget process which is an important factor in the health of Norway’s public finances. The cabinet has a central role in formulating the budget via the annual budget conferences. Parliament has a strong formal position, and the Ministry of Finance has a long tradition of providing objective and unbiased information to Parliament. The article also describes the high degree of managerial flexibility, the system of accountability for results, human resource management, financial management and reporting, the use of performance information, and the role of local and regional governments.
The public finance system of Singapore consists of four “pillars”: the budget sector itself; the Central Provident Fund; the government investment agencies; and various special funds not consolidated into the budget. The budget process is characterised by close interministerial co-operation and the use of constitutional fiscal rules, spending ceilings for ministries (“block budgets”), across-the-board budget extractions (spending cuts), endowment funds, central manpower controls, and continual underspending. Parliament has a limited role. The President of the Republic has an important role as “fiscal guardian”. The article describes these particular features of the Singapore budget process, and discusses other elements of budget implementation and government management such as the organisational structure of the government, the execution of budget appropriations, personnel management, financial management and reporting, and performance and results initiatives.
Following the Rose Revolution of November 2003, the government of Georgia has undertaken large reform initiatives in the area of fiscal policy. These efforts have focused on taxation, tax administration, and the budget process, including cash and debt management. A new budget system law became effective in January 2004, establishing a comprehensive framework for the functions and responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance and the spending agencies via a two-stage prioritisation process guided by the annual “Basic Data and Directions” document.
Since 2000, three consecutive governments in Croatia have focused their policies on modernising the public administration and reforming the budget process. This article examines the budget process in Croatia in the light of its two unique characteristics: a very detailed account structure, and a large number of extra-budgetary funds and quasi-fiscal activities of public enterprises. The steps in the annual budget process are described, including the roles of specific actors (budget users, line ministries, the Central Government Treasury), and the limited role of Parliament in the formulation of budget policy.
The Swiss budgeting system is characterised by three special features: the political environment; the debt containment rule; and the nature of the federal budget as a transfer budget. Prominent features of the political environment are direct democracy, consensus and federalism.
Thailand has a sophisticated budget formulation process which has delivered solid fiscal results over time. This article discusses aspects of the budget process, including strategic performance budgeting, central development planning, the steps in the budget preparation timetable, and the roles of the spending ministries, the Bureau of the Budget and the Central Fund.
In June 2003, the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance of Chile requested the OECD to carry out a review of the Chilean budgeting system in a similar fashion as it does for its member countries. The OECD responded positively to this request, recognising that Chile is an established observer of the OECD Working Party of Senior Budget Officials and recognising the strong interest in the Chilean budgeting system expressed by members of the Working Party.
This article examines trends in Australian university staffing through an analysis of ten years’ staff statistics, 1994-2003. An introduction which considers definitions, methodological issues, and overall changes in patterns of casualisation, sex and the distribution of academic and general (“non-academic”) staff categories is followed by an examination of changes in participation of university staff by sex and by age. Although most of the focus in the discourse about university staffing concerns academic staff, these staff comprise only 42% - 43% of total university staffing in Australia. Therefore it is relevant to investigate changes which have occurred in the majority group of university staff. The characteristics of academic and general staff are quite different, so each category has been considered separately. In particular the progress of women in senior academic posts and in university management is considered, as are patterns of aging, particularly in academic fields of education.
This review of the Romanian budget system was carried out as part of the Budget Project of the Working Party of Senior Budget Officials (SBO). The Budget Project aims to initiate and foster regional networks of Senior Budget Officials outside the OECD area. This review served as a basis for the examination of the Romanian budget system at the first meeting of the network of Senior Budget Officials of Central and Eastern Europe, held on 10-11 November 2004 in The Hague.
This review of the Slovenian budget system was carried out as part of the Budget Project of the Working Party of Senior Budget Officials (SBO). The Budget Project aims to initiate and foster regional networks of Senior Budget Officials outside the OECD area. This review served as a basis for the examination of the Slovenian budget system at the first meeting of the network of Senior Budget Officials of Central and Eastern Europe, held on 10-11 November 2004 in The Hague...