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The development of a regulatory framework which meets EU standards is a major concern in central and eastern European countries, and this not only to foster economic development but also to ensure the wellbeing of the citizen. To achieve this goal, it is important to create a sound institutional structure, to dispose of staff qualified in law drafting, to set up efficient procedures for co-ordination and consultation, and to ensure that the possible impact of new legal instruments is assessed before they are adopted. SIGMA has been requested by several of its beneficiary countries to assist them in this extremely difficult task to set up efficient and effective structures and procedures for law drafting. Besides several workshops which have been carried out regarding crucial issues in law drafting, this checklist has been developed to provide countries with an additional means for self assessment. This checklist offers a means for evaluating structures, procedures and techniques for preparing and drafting legislation, and for identifying methodologies that may be helpful when changes are under consideration. Law drafting comprises two stages: policy development, and preparation of the legislative text to give effect to the policy adopted. The checklist is primarily concerned with the latter. The checklist draws upon experience gathered in OECD and central and eastern European countries. In particular, it takes into account work carried out by the Regulatory Management and Reform Group of the OECD’s Public Management Service (PUMA) and concerns of the EU Phare Programme voiced in the context of the approximation of law with regard to EU accession.

This publication is a tool for designers of new civil service pension schemes in central and eastern Europe. It presents civil service pension schemes in five OECD Member countries and ten central and eastern European countries. In most central and eastern European countries, people employed in the public administration are covered under common national pension schemes, usually defined in a common pension law. As part of efforts to improve the professionalisation and quality of public administration, countries are defining civil service categories of personnel through civil service legislation. Some countries will introduce specific pension provisions for the public administration employees subject to this legislation. There are at least three obvious reasons for this: to secure the independence of civil servants, to make a public sector career more attractive, and to shift the costs of current remuneration into the future. In most OECD Member countries, civil servants have separate and specially designed pension schemes. These are either totally independent of the common national pension schemes or complementary to them. Conditions vary between countries and so do principles for financing. In one country there might also be several schemes for various categories of state officials and employees. “Pay-as-you-go” schemes financed by the annual state budget exist in several OECD Member countries. When they were introduced, national civil services were small and common pension schemes for the working population at large were lacking. Over the last 30 years, the rapid growth of western public services has not had any major impact on pension costs in pay-as-you-go schemes for demographic reasons and, until recently, the financing of pensions has in many countries stayed unchanged. The long-term nature of pension schemes and the strong interest that civil servants and their unions have in keeping them intact has added to the difficulty of changing them. With changing demography, pensions are becoming a heavy burden on the budget. Pensions imply both considerable running costs and heavy long-term liabilities. That is why many OECD Member countries today are trying to find new solutions to fund the financing costs. Different funding and actuarial techniques can be used to achieve this.

This checklist is intended to supplement the Civil Service Legislation Contents Checklist, (Sigma Papers: No.5 OCDE/GD(96)21, February 1996). The previous checklist was principally concerned with matters that could usefully be considered when a civil service bill (i.e. the draft of primary legislation governing the civil service) was in preparation in a central and eastern European country. The present checklist deals with matters that can usefully be considered in connection with the secondary instruments that may be needed to implement the Civil Service Act enacted by the Parliament. It begins with a narrative section describing the types of instruments that are typically used for this purpose in OECD Member countries and factors that are widely taken into account when such instruments are being prepared and drafted. This is followed by a checklist of questions which law drafters in particular may find useful in the drafting process. These questions concern the general approach to secondary regulation rather than the substantive contents of instruments dealing with particular topics. Such contents are necessarily dictated by the contents and details of the primary legislation and are likely to vary considerably from one country to another. This checklist, as for the primary legislation checklist, is not intended as directions for approaching these matters but rather as guidance to best practice. Final choices must reflect local circumstances.

This publication is the product of a project which SIGMA started in autumn 1995. The country papers were completed in late spring 1996, and since that time some countries have reviewed their training strategies. Lithuania, for example, has adopted a regulation concerning the qualification of civil servants, which includes training. The rationale for launching this project was the recognised need for more detailed information on training systems and on the organisation of training in central and eastern European countries. This information is essential to the efforts by countries in transition, working in collaboration with the donor community, to develop demand-driven training strategies, efficient structures for civil service training, and cost-effective and sustainable training activities.

As the population in OECD countries ages and requires longer periods of care and as more children are cared for outside their homes, there is growing recognition of the significance of caring services both economically and socially. Up to now the policy discussion has focussed mainly on two central issues: quality of care and cost of care. These issues are closely inter-linked with how employment in the caring sector is expanding and developing, an issue which has however received relatively little attention.

The demand for caring workers has increased dramatically in the past twenty-five years. Caring occupations are major employers of women across OECD countries and their working conditions, career opportunities, and earnings patterns have a significant impact on women’s overall situation in the labour market. This report examines caring occupations in the childcare and the elderly care sectors and the opportunities they offer women as these occupations are changing with respect ...

This paper sets out a framework within which the problem of corruption may be analysed in any specific country. It does not seek to establish the importance of such activity in a general sense, or seek to propose particular economic policy or institutional programmes that should be pursued in order to reduce the impact on the development process. Rather, the objective is to provide a structure for two distinct areas of analysis. Firstly, it considers the investigation of the determinants of corruption, emphasising the environment in which corruption evolves — whether shaped by international, national or specific institutional factors — and the manner in which the different parties to corruption interact and organise themselves in conducting these activities.

Secondly, the paper focuses on the importance of corruption for economic development by considering the different forms of corruption and the characteristics of these forms that are most critical for economic activity ...

Central Bank Audit Practices describes common approaches, practices and trends relevant to the audit of central banks, with a view to supporting public administration reform efforts in central and eastern European countries. The study provides a basis for further discussion between decision-makers and practitioners on how the audit regime could be developed to ensure good governance of central banks. This study originates from a discussion on today’s important audit issues which was arranged by the European Court of Auditors together with the presidents of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) of central and eastern European countries and held in Luxembourg on 21-23 October 1996. Follow-up discussions between representatives of SAIs and central banks and SIGMA made it apparent that a focused comparative study could be of high value to officials with responsibilities for the design of audit strategies and policies, as well as to auditors. From the outset it was decided that the study should focus on auditing of central bank activities and not on banking. This meant that aspects of the banking system, such as the regulatory structure of financial institutions or supervision of the financial sector, although very interesting and relevant, have been excluded from the scope of the study or are only briefly mentioned. The study is furthermore limited in that it provides an overview of four European Union Member States (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden). These countries do not represent the entire variation to be found in the EU. The reader is also asked to keep in mind that current practices might undergo important changes as a result of the introduction of the European Economic and Monetary Union.

This paper provides an initial analysis of the main issues in network-based production and delivery of music and audio-visual services content. It is intended to provide a basis for a more comprehensive comparative analysis of the international development of new network-based services by the main content-producing information and entertainment industries (printed, music and motion picture, radio and TV broadcasting).

Late last year the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced the launch of a national competition for funding infrastructure projects in Canadian research institutions.

During the 1990s, China has experienced a surge in imports of services, particularly those of communication, insurance and other business services, despite the fact that the authorities have maintained a plethora of restrictive measures limiting access to the service sector. Not only does this cast strong doubt over the effectiveness of these measures currently in place but also raises some important political-economy questions regarding the market access issues related to this sector.

Following a brief review of the country’s efforts made since 1994 to sustain its openeconomy reforms, the paper takes stock of major policy developments in the service sector and discusses the pros and cons of liberalisation of services.

The paper argues that a further liberalisation of services would be imperative for China to develop a more viable and dynamic service sector and stands to gain the full benefits of globalisation. The protective measures imposed for short-term, political ...

Digital television, whether delivered via terrestrial transmissions, via satellite transmissions, via cable, or via some other medium, will be an important component in the audio-visual market.

As in other OECD countries Australia’s population is ageing progressively. On unchanged policies, this will increase government outlays for public pensions and health care, causing a deterioration in budget balances, and reduce economic growth (mainly by lowering growth in the labour force). Nevertheless, the prospective deterioration in Australia’s budget finances is much less than in most other OECD countries because the government only provides the first pillar of retirement income arrangements and means tests this age pension. Moreover, superannuation (private pension fund) benefits are growing, reducing entitlements to the age pension. Even so, the budget costs of population ageing could be lowered by reducing the scope for early retirees to draw on superannuation savings and by requiring individuals to prefund part of the costs of long-term aged care. But the greatest challenge facing Australia policy makers in reducing the costs of population ageing is to roll back the trend ...

The period of democratic transition began in November 1989 and was mainly defined by the following events: the ending of the totalitarian rule of the Communist Party on 17 November 1989; the beginning of the reconstruction of state administration and the centralized economic system in January 1990; the first democratic parliamentary elections to the Federal Assembly, the Czech National Council and the Slovak National Council in June 1990; the dissolution of the Federation on 1 January 1993; and the subsequent establishment of a public management system for the newly independent Czech Republic.

What interest do developing countries have in limiting the growth of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? Answering this question is crucial to moving international climate policy negotiations forward. The primary benefits for individual countries of GHG abatement remain highly uncertain and, in any case, long-term in nature. The costs, on the other hand, are near-term.

Using an economy-wide model of Chile, this study examines a hitherto neglected set of benefits from climate policy, viz., the reduction in emissions of local and regional air pollutants and the “ancillary” health benefits, in this case for the people of Santiago, the capital city. These benefits are both near-term and readily captured by the country implementing the policy. Extensive sensitivity analysis is performed in recognition of the uncertainty surrounding certain key parameter and exogenous variable values — notably, Santiago residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for reduced mortality and morbidity risk, and ...

Central and eastern European countries conduct public procurement on a highly decentralised basis, at the level of individual spending ministries, local authorities or other public bodies covered by the procurement law. However, in some cases, there may be advantages in mixing this approach with elements of centralisation, as is the case in many EU Member States. This paper reviews the experience of selected EU countries. The establishment in many central and eastern European countries of public procurement offices that are not responsible for actual purchasing but set national policy, organise training, draft legislation, etc., represents a great change from the earlier central monopoly purchasing systems. The purchasing function itself has been decentralised to hundreds or sometimes thousands of procuring entities. Many countries in the region see the new procurement model as part of the process of democratisation and do not want to replicate earlier institutions and mistakes. They are trying to move rapidly from one system to another. This paper sheds light on the various issues to be considered in deciding how procurement systems in these countries might evolve in the future. The target audience is primarily public procurement offices in Central and Eastern Europe, but the paper could also prove useful to other transition and developing countries that are in the process of modernising their procurement laws and systems.

This paper examines recent trends and drivers of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) which grew six-fold in 1991-98 and now account for more than 85% of foreign direct investment. They are prompted by a range of factors, including excess capacity and increased competition in traditional industries and new market opportunities in high-technology sectors. However, the main driver of M&As in place of greenfield investment is the need to acquire complementary intangible assets –technology, human resources, brand names, etc. In allowing for global industrial restructuring and efficiency gains, crossborder M&As can yield dividends in terms of company performance and profits. The extent to which they result in benefits for home and host countries is argued to be strongly influenced by policy frameworks ...

Economists often seek to estimate unobserved variables, representing “equilibrium” or “expected” values of economic variables, as benchmarks against which observed, realised values of these variables may be evaluated. Such comparisons are often used as economic policy indicators, for example the output gap, as measured by the ratio of actual to potential GDP, is commonly used as a measure of excess demand in assessing inflation pressures. To estimate these unobserved variables, a popular approach is the so-called semi-structural approach which includes: the Hodrick Prescott multivariate filter (developed by Laxton and Tetlow, 1992) and the Kalman filter (see, among others Harvey, 1992 and Cuthberson et al., 1992). This paper shows that the two approaches are closely linked, and specifically, it explains how to reproduce theHodrick Prescott multivariate filter using the Kalman filter. Being able to do so has at least two possible advantages. First, while the traditional HPMV filter ...

Mobile communications is one of the tremendous success stories of the telecommunications industry. By June 1999 there were 293 million mobile subscribers in the OECD area, or around one mobile phone for every four inhabitants.

Expectations of a broader convergence of living standards worldwide have spread at the same time as emerging markets and mature democracies seek to attract foreign investment in order to accelerate economic growth. In this increasingly competitive global environment, the protection of property rights becomes a convergence criterion, together with openness to international markets for goods, services and assets, and a stable macroeconomy. In the EU, multilateral surveillance procedures and convergence programmes have been implemented to facilitate progress towards a medium-term orientation of macroeconomic policy. These practices may also provide benchmarks for emerging markets, blurring the difference between “transition” and “development”: in particular, they define “converging European transitions” for EU applicants. Given that emerging economies have experienced a substantial fall in their perceived standards of living after the financial crises of 1997-99, the ability to ...

Are capital inflows associated with faster income growth? There are a large number of empirical studies that identify the most relevant determinants of a country’s growth rate. However, this literature has not explored the growth impact of the various types of capital inflows. The present study analyses the effects of the different components of private capital inflows on the growth of 44 developing countries. A dynamic panel with yearly data is estimated during the 1986-97 period. After controlling for the variables traditionally used in growth regressions, the following main conclusions emerge. First, foreign direct investment and portfolio equity flows exhibit a robust positive correlation with growth. Second, portfolio bond flows are not significantly linked to economic growth. Finally, in economies with undercapitalised banking systems, bank-related inflows are negatively correlated with the growth rate. This result holds for both short- and long-term bank-related ...