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1. The importance of wages in the analysis and forecasting of macroeconomic developments needs no emphasis. Nominal wage inflation is a crucial component of price inflation, while real wages importantly influence the demand for labour and for other factors of production. More generally, the way in which nominal wages are set is an important determinant of whether or not there is any short- or longer-run trade off between inflation and employment. The way that wages evolve in the current situation of recovering output and profits, where inflation has declined and unemployment remains high, will be critical in determining whether there are pressures which might contribute to a resurgence of inflation. This paper analyses the historical determinants of nominal wages in ten OECD economies and considers the implications for future wage, and hence inflation, developments.
2. The Phillips curve represents a dynamic adjustment process of nominal wages to equilibrium and disequilibrium phenomena ...

This paper surveys empirical studies of the costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. It updates and extends an earlier paper, which focused on baseline emission scenarios and the aggregate cost of emission reductions. It attempts to explain some of the differences in simulation results and highlights some major policy issues ...

The study examines agricultural development in Namibia in the context of the economic environment, with a view to providing policy perspectives which may assist in the process of reform towards a more equitable and dynamic economy. It shows that the improvement of smallholder incomes provides the only means of improving the position of the majority of poor Namibians, and examines how best to raise agricultural output without endangering the large-scale farmers who are vital to the economy.

The significance for agricultural development of the customs and monetary agreements between Namibia and South Africa, and other external policies, is examined. The reform of pricing and marketing structures in Namibia is constrained by these external arrangements, but they also provide some benefits. The assessment of these and other issues provides the basis for an analysis of the reform options facing Namibian agriculture and the links between agricultural and economywide policies ...

This paper provides evidence on the reductions of NOx/SOx emissions induced by the adoption of carbon abatement policies. It describes the methodology to compute emissions of these pollutants and the way they were introduced in the OECD GREEN model. This required a compromise between the “top-down” structure of the model and the very detailed information that, in principle, is required to compute NOx/SOx emissions. The simulation results suggest that, on average, the reductions relative to Baseline levels of NOx/SOx emissions may be in the same order of magnitude or are higher than the abatement imposed on carbon emissions ...

The OECD Social Expenditure data base (SOCX) allows the monitoring of trends in aggregate social expenditure and changes in its composition. But aggregate social expenditure may sometimes fail to reflect the true ‘effort’ of a country in providing social support. Account needs to be taken of the effects of tax systems and transfers which, although mandatory, are not paid by government.

In order to get from a “gross” to a “net” concept of social expenditure various adjustments to raw data are needed. These adjustments concern: methods of benefit payment (“net” or “gross” of tax); the varying extent with which governments use fiscal instruments rather than cash transfers to pursue social policy goals; and the different degree to which government requires other economic agents to provide social expenditures. The analysis also addresses the automatic budget effects related to the stage of the economic cycle.

This analysis is a first attempt to capture in a comprehensive manner the effect ...

The purpose of this paper is to examine and highlight policy implications of developments taking place in new technologies which are impacting on international telecommunication prices and the accounting rate and settlements system, used by telecommunication operators to compensate each other for terminating international telecommunications traffic.

Italy has been one of the few industrial countries resorting to incomes policy in the current decade. Many Italian observers have attributed to this policy the remarkable slowdown in wage and price inflation. However, no apparent progress has been made concerning labour market unbalances, as the unemployment rate remains 4 percentage points above the already high level inherited from the 80s.

This paper analyses this experience: it looks at the evidence of changes in the bargaining structure stemming from the incomes policies agreements, discusses their possible long run impact in terms of NAIRU and features of the inflationary process, presents a quantitative assessment of the specific contribution of those agreements to the inflation outcome. The analysis is carried out by looking at the presence of structural breaks in an aggregate-wage equation and resorting to counterfactual simulations of a large macroeconomic model (the Bank of Italy quarterly model). The empirical results ...

Confronted with a growing need for educational buildings and a significant lack of funds, Belgium’s Flemish Community carried out an inquiry into building needs at all levels of education. This article concentrates on the methodology used for the inquiry, the findings and the consequences for Flemish educational building policy.

This paper contains an overview of net total (public and private) social expenditure indicators. These indicators have been developed to supplement available historical information on gross social expenditure trends by accounting for the varying impact of the tax system across countries. Tax systems can affect social spending in three ways:

• Governments levy direct taxes and social security contributions on cash transfers.
• Governments levy indirect taxes on goods and services bought by benefit recipients. And,
• Governments may award tax advantages similar to cash benefits and/or grant tax concessions aiming to stimulate purchase of insurance coverage by private agents.

The paper summarises the methodological framework as previously developed, but extends coverage to thirteen countries for which information for 1993 and/or 1995 is now available: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom ...

This paper reviews some of the difficult challenges facing debt managers in the years to come. In countries experiencing a rapidly diminishing gross debt, particularly the United States, this raises the issue of whether private-sector securities can serve as a substitute for the traditionally important government debt market. In the euro area, following the creation of the common currency, the issue is how to avoid that independent debt management strategies hamper the creation of a more efficient euro-area financial market. Turning to Japan, the level of debt is projected to rise rapidly and there is a need to improve the liquidity of the Japanese government bond market. To this end, a number of measures could be introduced to make debt management more efficient, yielding significant cost saving ...

The School for the Physical City was built in an office building in the central business district of Manhattan for 500 students, in grades 7 through 12, who use the city’s infrastructure as a vehicle for studying traditional academic disciplines. It is one of the new, small theme schools inaugurated in 1993/94 by the New York City (NYC) Board of Education with support from four nonprofit organisations, initiated under the New Visions School Programme by the federal government.

Crony capitalism and self-fulfilling expectations by international creditors are often suggested as two rival explanations for currency crisis. This paper examines a possible linkage between the two that has so far not been explored: corruption may affect a country’s composition of capital inflows in a way that makes it more likely to experience a currency crisis that is triggered/aided by international investors’ self-fulfilling expectations. Using data on bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) and bilateral bank loans, this paper finds clear evidence that corrupt countries tend to have a particular composition of capital inflows that is relatively light in FDI. Earlier studies have indicated that a country that has such a capital inflow structure is more likely to run into a subsequent currency crisis (in part through self-fulfilling expectations of the international creditors). Thus, this paper has illustrated one particular channel through which crony capitalism can increase ...

On 23 April 1999, the Ministry of Education published a new National Strategy for Education, Training and Research in the Information Society for 2000–2004.

This document is the 2nd edition of the Net Social Expenditure paper published in 1999 (Adema, 1999). It contains an overview of net (after tax) public and private social expenditure indicators. These indicators have been developed to supplement available historical information on gross social expenditure trends by accounting for the varying impact of the tax system across countries. Tax systems can affect social spending in three ways:

• Governments levy direct taxes and social security contributions on cash transfers.
• Governments levy indirect taxes on goods and services bought by benefit recipients.
• Governments may award tax advantages similar to cash benefits and/or grant tax concessions aiming to stimulate the provision of private social benefits.

The document summarises the methodological framework as previously developed, but extends coverage to eighteen countries for which information for 1997 is now available: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech ...

Is there a new paradigm emerging in education? There seem to be a number of forces coming together to challenge the current status quo. First, there is the change from industrial economy to the knowledge economy. Secondly, there is renewed questioning of the relevance of current education. Thirdly, there is a change in learning theory and pedagogy. And underpinning all this is the explosive growth in information and communications technology and the Internet.

This paper reviews public expenditure in New Zealand and the scope for further progress. Since the mid-1980s, New Zealand has been a world leader in public management reforms. Government agencies have been transformed by delegating managerial responsibility to them and replacing input controls with an output-based budgeting and management approach. The adoption of a medium-term top-down fiscal management framework contributed to a large reduction in public debt. But while the system is good at producing outputs cheaply and often in innovative, responsive, and customer-driven ways, it is not as good at choosing what to produce in the first place (i.e. technical versus allocative efficiency). This reflects insufficient evaluation of programmes, not enough focus on managing for outcomes, and a budget that is excessively fragmented. The quality of spending could also be improved by a greater willingness to extend the use of market-based mechanisms, including usercharges, competition ...

Australia’s New South Wales Education Facilities Research Group, a joint initiative between the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Public Works and Services, provides action research into issues which impact on school design. These issues include curriculum development, changes in teaching strategies and new directions in school management and organisation. The research group has a programme of work which includes the development of guidelines and training manuals for teachers, parents and students as well as architects, engineers, planners and administrators. Four examples of recent projects are outlined below.

Decentralization looms large in any analysis of Canadian economic and social policy. This trend has been especially pronounced in the area of unemployment insurance (UI) and social assistance (SA) programmes. Provinces now manage SA programmes and retain 100% of any cost savings that they achieve, while the Federal government maintains full responsibility for the passive component of UI. Under a series of provincial-federal Labour Market Development Agreements, since 1997 most of Canada's provinces have taken over administrative responsibility for the employment benefit and support measures (EBSMs) targeted on UI beneficiaries. A number of articles have examined the implications for provincial SA systems of restrictive measures in the UI programme. This paper examines the possibility that provinces may shift actual and potential SA clients onto the insurance system (now called employment insurance, EI). It concludes that within the context of EBSMs, any cost-shifting of this ...

Evaluating the importance of non-tariff measures (NTMs) affecting imports remains a major challenge. This study reports evidence on the prevalence of NTMs based on an inventory of business complaints. This data source has the advantage of drawing on experiences of economic agents that are directly involved in trading activities, of containing information on "behind the border measures", and of covering procedural aspects of NTMs. The results suggest that natural resource based industries, such as agriculture and food, mining, and textiles, are most strongly affected by NTMs relative to their export volumes. Certification procedures, quantity control measures, and technical regulations are the types of NTM most frequently complained about. Complaints about domestic governance practices, such as impediments related to government procurement, investment restrictions, or insufficient intellectual property rights protection account for almost a third of all NTM observations and are in ...