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The present note summarises the main findings of the research conducted under the auspices of the OECD/MOFTEC Co-operation Programme on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between the fall 1999 and the spring 2000 on Main Determinants and Impacts of FDI on China’s Economy. The OECD/MOFTEC Co-operation Programme on FDI was established in the spring of 1999. The present study was one of the most important activities conducted during this initial phase of joint work. It will provide the analytical underpinning to the investment policy dialogue which both parties have agreed to pursue over the coming year.

Because of its size, China’s “open door policy” launched twenty years ago constitutes a unique and vast laboratory for the study of major structural changes in China and the world economy. It also provides an opportunity to test the benefits and the shortcomings of the economic policies which have been followed by the Chinese authorities and identify the improvements that could be ...

This report describes the organisation of employment services, labour market programmes, unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and social assistance in Poland according to the legislation that was in force until January 2009, when the Act on employment promotion and labour market institutions was amended. The decentralisation of employment service began in 1998 and was completed in 2002. Since decentralisation, local-level poviat labour offices (PUP) report to local mayors (starosta or prezydent miasta na prawach powiatu). However, state structures at a regional level supervise the performance of both the PUP and, at the regional level, the voivodeship labour offices (WUP). These offices must follow some centrally-defined rules and legal standards: for example, a Ministerial guideline in 2007 defined minimum numbers of staff they should employ by main function. However, their operational costs are in principle borne by the respective territorial levels of government. Under-financing is common, and there are concerns that decentralisation has led to more uneven service provision and performance. Local budgets may be used to finance the outsourcing of some PUP labour market services, but local authorities usually find that in-house provision is cheaper.
in 1991 when the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic commenced transition to a market economy. Labour offices, in addition to providing placement and related services, manage jobseeker retraining and subsidies for job creation, administer unemployment insurance benefits, and provide guidance for the employment of foreign labour in the Czech Republic and for Czech nationals working abroad. They monitor and enforce compliance of employers with employment legislation: in 2005 some responsibilities were transferred to the newly-created National Labour Inspectorate but labour offices remain responsible in the areas of undeclared work and the conclusion of employment contracts. In 2004 the administration of state social support benefits (i.e. mainly child allowances, parental allowances and housing benefits, some but not all of them being means-tested) was, except in Prague, transferred from municipalities to the local labour offices. The Employment Service Administration at national level is part of the organisational structure of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. At local level, it manages the 77 district labour offices: 14 of these, so-called “authorized” labour offices, act as an intermediary between the Ministry and the other district labour offices in their region. The 77 labour offices operate 167 detached workplaces (some of which only serve as first contact points for state social support benefits) and 8 branch offices in Prague.
This report documents the main features of the Public Employment Service (PES) in Slovak Republic, with attention to unemployment benefit administration as well as employment services. The current institutional structure was established in 2004. The Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (COLSAF), a budget organisation of the state, governs 46 territorial local offices, corresponding to the needs of labour market administration rather than the political division of the country into districts. The local offices administer social assistance benefits and state social support1. They also take jobseekers’ applications and supporting documentation for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, but subsequent administration is now handled by the national Social Insurance Agency. Local offices are now allowed to outsource many employment services, including the professional counselling of jobseekers. In a context of restrictions on staff numbers, by 2006 they had contracted about 8% of total spending on placement and related services out to external providers. Expenditure on placement and related services, not including general management and administration costs, is estimated here to be about 0.07% of GDP, which is around the OECD average, although the Slovak Republic has long had the highest, or near-highest, unemployment rate in the OECD. Since 2004, unemployment has fallen sharply, and employment service staffing has increased: by 2006, there were on average 116 registered jobseekers per front-line local-office staff member (counting information, counselling and placement officers) which was a big improvement on the workload indicators a few years earlier.

The Metagora pilot experiences were each planned, designed and implemented as part of a coherent whole.Their local processes therefore converged into common achievements.This chapter summarises the lessons formulated collectively by the Partners Group. It also highlights two key products of the project: the Inventory of Initiatives and the Training Materials.

French
This Working Paper explores progress in the integration or mainstreaming of adaptation and related objectives into national development planning. It first provides an overview of the international mechanisms, including finance, to support the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into development planning and policies in developing countries. Through a review of relevant planning documents in fifteen developing countries, it then examines key features in adaptation planning and mainstreaming of adaptation into development planning. These countries were because they have been amongst the highest recipients of adaptation-related bilateral development finance. The research provides a snapshot of current practice. Despite heightened international efforts to support developing countries, evidence of mainstreaming adaptation was only found in a few of the countries and in a few of the sectors studied here. It also found that where mainstreaming is occurring, linkages exist with other policy objectives including poverty reduction, promoting biodiversity and ecosystems, and urban and rural development. The findings may be a useful starting point to guide policy-relevant research, such as to what extent mainstreaming may be occurring on the ground (or not) and how well this progress is reflected in planning documents, as well as how to improve the effectiveness of development co-operation targeting adaptation. The paper may also help inform international efforts under the UNFCCC that are designed to support developing countries to mainstream adaptation priorities into development planning and policy.

Peru relies significantly on its abundant natural capital for economic growth, development and human well-being. At the same time, the country’s rich terrestrial and marine biodiversity is subject to high pressure as a result of land-use change, overexploitation, industrial development and illegal mining and logging activities. This paper examines Peru’s efforts to integrate biodiversity into decision-making at different levels of the government and in various sectors of the economy. The analysis finds that the Peruvian government recognises the risk that depletion of the country’s natural capital may substantially undermine the long-term sustainability of the economy. Significant progress has been made to mainstream biodiversity, for example, through the creation of an enabling institutional and legal framework. However, a number of challenges remain, requiring targeted effective solutions, such as strengthening capacity of the public sector with a focus on the sub-national level, improving the quality and coverage of data to inform biodiversity mainstreaming, and scaling up biodiversity finance including through the use of economic instruments.

We propose a series of kick-off points related to the economic appraisal of large urban infrastructure projects, taking some account of the specifics raised by the Grand Paris Express (GPE) regional automatic metro. The points, in the form of Maintained Hypotheses or Questions in Need of Answers, are crystallised around three orientations: demand model properties; overall effects on urbanisation; extensions of traditional appraisal. The conclusion contains a list of hard problems dodged and issues ignored in the discussion.
French
Despite some weakening in the 1990s, partly due to sluggish trend growth, the Swiss innovation performance has been very strong. There are, however, areas in which policy reforms could strengthen innovation further and help Switzerland maintain its lead in the face of a changing global environment. Boosting competition, simplifying administrative burdens and reforming the bankruptcy law would go a long way towards stimulating the innovativeness of small enterprises in sheltered services sectors, which becomes more crucial to sustaining high domestic innovation in a context where large firms are increasingly mobile. On the other hand,the growing knowledge economy and the increasing competition from emerging countries in skill-intensive activities press for further upgrading the vocational education system and increasing the efficiency of the university system. Regarding innovation-specific policies, budget spending priorities on education and research should be better protected and more resources devoted to bridge the gap between fundamental research and the market, especially through the activities of the Commission for Technology and Innovation. This Working Paper relates to the 2006 OECD Economic Survey of Switzerland (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/switzerland).
Housing conditions in Belgium are among the best in OECD countries according to the Better Life Index, as dwellings are of high quality and large, and housing costs are average. However, the steep increase in house prices since 2003 has put market access for first-time buyers under pressure. Housing affordability is also deteriorating for the poor, as demand for social housing has not been met while the private rental market has become expensive. As a result, access to housing is at risk of becoming less equitable if the young and poorer people are priced out. Affordability for poorer people could be improved by expanding the regional rental allowance schemes. In parallel, scaling down the disproportional support for homeownership would free up public resources and reduce the bias towards homeownership. Other challenges to the efficiency of the housing market are posed by the high level of greenhouse gas emissions due to the old age of the housing stock and the low residential mobility, which harms the labour market and contributes to congestion and air pollution. To maintain an efficient housing market, policies should aim at increasing building densities in residential areas. Tilting taxation from transaction to recurrent taxes would lower barriers for residential mobility and contribute to labour market flexibility. This Working Paper relates to the 2015 OECD Economic Survey of Belgium (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-belgium.htm)

Norway has a well-functioning labour market with high employment and a compressed wage distribution, contributing to low inequality. Norway nevertheless faces challenges from a trend decline in employment rates among the young and prime-age men. Furthermore, immigrants and people with disabilities have significantly poorer labour market outcomes than rest of the population. Norway still faces comparatively high sick-leave absence and the share of the working-age population on disability support remains large. Relatively high school dropout rates are also of concern, in particular as opportunities for workers with low educational attainment are limited in the Norwegian labour market. This paper first describes the labour market and identifies its main strengths and weaknesses and then goes on to discussing policy areas to boost employment and ensure quality jobs for the future. These include reforms to i) sick-leave compensation and disability support, ii) early retirement incentives in old-age pensions; iii) education and skills; and, iv) integration of immigrants.

A political economy perspective of fisheries governance is presented in this paper. In most countries, formal and informal linkages exist among four components of the governance system. The legislature passes laws that authorise the implementation of policies and programmes by a fisheries agency. The fisheries agency establishes a fisheries management authority. Stakeholders often have a formal role – from advising to decision-making – in the management plan development process and approved plans are implemented by the fisheries agency. In general, governance failure (that is, undesirable public policy outcomes) has been attributed to special interest effects, rational voter ignorance, bundling of issues, shortsightedness, decoupling of costs and benefits, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. No studies demonstrate whether private interests significantly influence fishery policies and regulations, but evidence from other sectors suggests that this is very likely. One of the features that distinguishes the fishing industry from other regulated activities is that often there are no strong property rights, and regulation seeks to prevent overexploitation of a common pool resource (CPR). Fishers, in effect, impose costs on each other rather than on consumers, in the absence of regulation. A laboratory experiment was designed to simulate lobbying to influence regulation of a CPR. Results show that competition for fishery earnings weakens the incentive to effectively lobby for regulations that maximise group well-being. More experienced participants believe that their contributions to changing a regulation are not worthwhile. Instead, they focus more on competing for earnings from their use of the CPR. Correcting or mitigating government failure in fisheries might be assisted by the introduction of strong property rights, the devolution of rights and responsibilities to user groups, the use of the cost recovery and sustainable financing mechanisms, and for shielding fishery managers from the shortsighted tendencies of elected officials. But these recommendations may have difficulty in being implemented in the face of strong opposition from private interests in the fishery.

Events are a dynamic and fast-growing sector that has obvious synergies with tourism. If managed and hosted effectively, they can expand the visitor economy, provide media exposure, promote regional development, and stimulate the upgrading of infrastructure. The report focusses on those major one-off or recurring events with the ability to attract significant numbers of domestic or international participants/spectators, thus promoting changes in terms of territory dynamics and tourism development. The report considers a large number of country approaches (benefitting from inputs from Australia, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, South Africa and Turkey) to better understand events-related policy and practices used to promote tourism growth. A selection of key learnings are drawn for consideration by cities, regions and countries wishing to leverage the unique characteristics of major events to support the development of the visitor economy.

French

Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from the worst health status in the world, according to the authors of Making Medicines in Africa. As policymakers turn their focus to healthcare, in part spurred on by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the authors argue that industrial development in pharmaceuticals and the capabilities it generates can play a crucial role in addressing the healthcare needs of the continent. Through a collection of case studies on industrial policies, Making Medicines in Africa shows the successes and pitfalls along the way.

French

This report explores how mobility services using automated vehicles might change the transport landscape. How can automated transport services help enable positive outcomes for societies? How will they ensure passenger safety? What rules should apply to such new services that overlap with other, heavily regulated services like taxis and public transport? The report assesses where regulation should adapt and outlines principles for forward-looking regulation. It offers pragmatic recommendations to bring in better transport for citizens.

  1. Many companies have implemented programmes that help them to respond to societal concerns about the economic, social and environmental impacts of their activities. These help them to manage their compliance with legal or regulatory requirements and their response to “softer” forms of social control of business. These voluntary initiatives by companies have included public statements -- codes of conduct --in which they commit to behavioural norms in a variety of areas of business ethics (e.g. environment, anti-corruption, etc.). Some companies have backed these up with management systems designed to help them respect their commitments. Indeed, codes of conduct often represent just the first step in a process of improving management processes in support of legal and ethical compliance. Subsequent steps include the implementation of systems of management control designed to promote compliance. These systems typically employ a range of tools including accounting and record keeping ...
Tax revenues at 20% of GDP remain low compared to other Latin American countries and the OECD average and tax evasion is pervasive. Lower oil revenues and the expiration of a number of taxes are putting strains on the budget at a time when social and development spending needs are rising. Heavy reliance on corporate income taxes reduces investment. At the same time, the redistributive impact of taxation is reduced because most of income and wealth taxes are paid by firms rather than households. Therefore, Colombia needs a comprehensive tax reform that boosts revenues and shifts the tax burden to support more inclusive and green growth. Tax loopholes and exemptions that reduce the tax base and favour mainly the rich should be reduced significantly. Strengthening the tax administration will help reduce evasion. This Working Paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Survey of Colombia. (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-colombia.htm)
This paper provides insights into what partner country governments anticipate will be their main development challenges within five to ten years, and into how they expect their relationships with DAC development assistance providers to evolve in order to meet these challenges. Based on results from an OECD-commissioned survey of 40 developing country governments, it finds that demand for development co-operation will remain strong given the economic and environmental challenges that lie ahead. However, the countries surveyed expect DAC providers to shift to a more enabling role in the coming years: providing vital finance, but in support of government-led sector programmes; delivering more and better technical and policy support; and leveraging more private finance. This paper will inform the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate’s ‘Agency of the Future’ project, which seeks to identify how DAC members’ development administrations will need to adapt in order to be fit for purpose in a rapidly changing world.
French
While past labour market reforms have been successful in terms of employment, the relative poverty risk and income inequality have remained broadly unchanged in recent years. Some social groups remain particularly vulnerable, including individuals in non-regular employment, the unemployed and the low skilled. If in employment, their jobs tend to be unstable and wages and income mobility low. Continued efforts are needed to foster economic growth in a more inclusive manner, such that the most vulnerable groups benefit from and contribute to economic growth more strongly and such that the gaps between the rich and the poor in terms of income and wellbeing are reduced. These efforts should include enhancing the labour market outcomes of the most vulnerable and increase upward income mobility among disadvantaged individuals; strengthening skills at the lower end of the skills distribution; revising the tax and benefit system to improve incentives and to ensure efficient and well-targeted redistribution; and to make health and old-age pension insurance more inclusive. This working paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Survey of Germany (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-germany.htm).

The Dutch labour market has recovered and the unemployment rate has been converging towards pre-crisis levels. Non-standard forms of work have expanded with a strong trend towards self-employment and an increased reliance on temporary contracts. These developments may reflect a preference of some individuals for a more flexible working relationship, but they could also lower job security and job quality for others. Policies need to protect vulnerable groups in the more dynamic working environment without creating barriers to labour mobility and flexibility of the overall labour market. To improve the fairness of the tax system, policies should ensure a more level playing field between workers on different types of contracts. Regulatory policies should aim at raising labour market mobility to improve the matching of skills to jobs by easing the protection on permanent employment contracts and through a more targeted approach to activation policies for disadvantaged groups. Finally, measures should improve the skills of individuals in vulnerable groups to enhance their opportunities to find better jobs.

This Working Paper relates to the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of the Netherlands 2018

(www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-the netherlands.htm).

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