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World leaders have pledged to act to change the energy future. Some new policies are in place. But the trends in energy demand, imports, coal use and greenhouse gas emissions to 2030 in this year’s World Energy Outlook are even worse than projected in WEO 2006. China and India are the emerging giants of the world economy. Their unprecedented pace of economic development will require ever more energy, but it will transform living standards for billions. There can be no question of asking them selectively to curb growth so as to solve problems which are global. So how is the transition to be achieved to a more secure, lower-carbon energy system? WEO 2007 provides the answers. With extensive statistics, projections in three scenarios, analysis and advice, it shows China, India and the rest of the world why we need to co-operate to change the energy future and how to do it.
Education is vital for economic success, both at the national and the individual level. But education also has significant social effects. This report is OECD’s first attempt to gather and synthesise developments in measuring these social effects. The report focuses on two broad areas: health, and civic and social engagement. In general, better educated people are healthier, and take more part in civic activities. Why should this be so? This publication draws on findings from 13 OECD countries (Austria, Flemish Belgium, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom [England and Scotland] and the United States) to provide new models and insights into these important contemporary issues.
This book provides new insights about learning by synthesising existing and emerging findings from cognitive and brain science and exploring how this new information might impact teaching, parenting, and educational policy making. It shows what the latest brain imaging techniques and other advances in the neurosciences actually reveal about how the brain develops and operates at different stages in life from birth to old age and how the brain is involved in acquiring skills such as reading and counting. It also presents scientific insights into what happens when the brain malfunctions in conditions such as dyslexia or Alzheimer's disease.
China Education Daily nominated this book as one of the "100 most influential education books for teachers" on December 15, 2011.
This manual explains what GDP and GNI and their components are and what they mean. It shows how they are used and what they are used for. And it does this in an easily understood way. Opening with a chapter showing how national accounts concepts relate to macroeconomics, the books goes on to systematically deal with volume and prices, international comparability, production, final uses, household accounts, business accounts, government accounts, and financial accounts. It also has chapter on how national accounts data are gathered and the history of the national accounts system. Three special chapters examine national accounts in China, India, and the United States. Previously published only in French, this manual has been revised and expanded to have a truly global perspective.
This report provides the reader with the first available internationally comparable figures on key transport trends. It analyses the transport situation in the western and eastern European countries, as well as the Baltic States and the CIS. For the first time, data are provided on transport among ECMT associated countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA. Coverage is provided for Freight Transport, Passenger Transport, and Road Safety for 1970, 1990, 2000, 2004, and 2005.
Containing sprawl is a major preoccupation of many urban planners, who view sprawl as responsible for driving up environmental costs and congestion. Nevertheless, many economists see benefits to sprawl, allowing households access to larger and cheaper properties. This Round Table examines the costs and benefits of sprawl, shedding light on the linkages between urban form and economic growth, and explored the tradeoffs involved in trying to contain sprawl. Discussions were based on papers prepared by Elizabeth Deakin (UC Berkeley), Matthew Kahn (Tufts University), Gilles Duranton (University of Toronto) and David Banister (University College London).
This Round Table is one of a series of research events to discuss tools to improve transport planning. It addressed the macroeconomic effects of transport infrastructure policies, and aimed at identifying analytical and empirical tools that could determine the overall volume of public expenditure for transport infrastructure investment. It also sought to identify state-of-the-art methods for assessing the macroeconomic impact of transport infrastructure investment. Background papers were provided by David Canning (Harvard University), Charles Hulten (University of Maryland) and Andreas Kopp (OECD/ECMT Transport Research Centre).
Much of the current policy debate has considered infrastructure charges as a form of “fiscal” instrument for managing transport demand. The Round Table analysed the opportunities for setting infrastructure service prices so that they also provide guidance for the supply of services. It discussed the possibilities of increasing the finances available for transport infrastructure investment and maintenance by introducing a quasi-market for transport infrastructure services. The general public impression is that charges are a just another tax increase in disguise. Infrastructure charging that uses a mix of “fees for service” and capacity expansion criteria is expected to correct this impression, and thus to improve the political acceptability of infrastructure pricing.
One of the main missions of nuclear regulators is to protect the public, and this cannot be completely achieved without public confidence. The more a regulatory process is transparent, the more such confidence will grow. Despite important cultural differences across countries, a number of common features characterise media and public expectations regarding any activity with an associated risk. This workshop identified a common understanding of transparency and main stakeholders' expectations together with a number of conditions and practices aimed at improving the transparency of nuclear regulatory activities.
This report draws on key findings and recommendations emerging from available donor evaluation reports, assesses factors that have contributed to the success (or failure) of past programmes, and provides guidance for enhancing the effectiveness and impact of future trade-related assistance. It provides a timely input to the ongoing discussions amongst the aid and trade communities on effectively designing and delivering “aid for trade” as a complement to the Doha Development Agenda.
Latin America is looking towards China and Asia -- and China and Asia are looking right back. This is a major shift: for the first time in its history, Latin America can benefit from not one but three major engines of world growth. Until the 1980s, the United States was the region’s major trade partner. In the 1990s, a second growth engine emerged with the European investment boom in Latin America. Now, at the dawn of the new century, the increasing global economic importance of Asia, and in particular China, potentially provides a third engine of growth.
This book describes the opportunities and challenges that Latin American economies will face as Chinese importance in the world economy -- and in Latin America's traditional markets -- continues to grow.
Space applications are becoming an increasingly important part of everyday life. Weather forecasting, air traffic control, global communications and broadcasting, disaster management -- these and many other key activities would be almost unthinkable today without satellite technology. The space industry itself is relatively small compared to other manufacturing sectors, but its technological dynamism and strategic significance mean that it plays an ever more critical role in modern society.
Paradoxically, it also figures among the sectors which are the least developed in terms of robust, internationally comparable statistics and data. This book attempts to rectify that situation by assembling information from a wide range of official and non-official sources. Together these paint a richly detailed picture of the space industry, its downstream services activities, and its wider economic and social impacts. Who are the main space-faring nations? How large are revenues and how much employment is there in the sector? How much R&D goes on, and where? What is the value of spin-offs from space spending? Answers to these and other questions are provided in this first-ever OECD statistical overview of the emerging space economy.
A dynamic link (StatLink) is provided for graphs, which directs the user to a web page where the corresponding data are available in Excel® format.
Social economy -- also known as 'non-profit' or 'third sector' -- organisations have grown in number and relevance, contributing to employment, social inclusion, democratic participation and community building. Much remains to be done, however, to create the necessary enabling environment to support their creation and development and to mainstream the sector in economic and social policies. This publication offers new insights into the economic theory of social economy organisations, their role in an evolving political and economic context, and the links to local development and the empowerment of users. Building on theoretical and empirical developments in OECD member countries, the publication also presents the main challenges for the social economy in Central East and South East Europe. Recommendations for action are included.
A significant number of entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could use funds productively if they were available, but are often denied access to financing. This impedes their creation and growth. The "financing gap" was the subject of the OECD Global Conference on "Better Financing for Entrepreneurship & SME Growth", held in Brasilia, Brazil in March 2006. This book presents a synthesis of the Conference discussions on the credit and equity financing gaps, as well as on private equity definitions and measurements. It also offers a selection of papers given by some of the key stakeholders (SMEs, government and financial institutions) confronting these important issues.
The purpose of this study is to assess the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Croatia. The main characteristics of FDI in that country are described, along with its impacts on employment, fiscal revenues and trade. The study first looks at Croatia’s balance of payments statistics, compiled by the Croatian National Bank. Croatia has attracted a relatively significant amount of FDI, especially when FDI per capita statistics are compared with those of its neighbours. Reinvested earnings as a percentage of FDI have also increased in the past few years. However, most FDI has been concentrated in the services sector, especially financial services and retail andwholesale trade, reflecting foreign investor interest in the domestic market. Moreover, while greenfield FDI was higher than acquisition-related FDI in 2003-05, only 10% of manufacturing FDI was greenfield...
Concerns about the cost of implementing and monitoring agricultural policies are mounting with the development of more decoupled and targeted policies. While these costs are inherent in the policy process, reducing them will bring benefits in terms of better use of public funds, and minimising the overall economic costs of policies. The report suggests ways to do so without compromising the aims of the policies. Ways to reduce costs include sharing experiences across agencies, regions or countries, exploiting already existing administrative networks, integrating government and private information systems, reducing the number of agencies and using the latest information technologies.
Counterfeiting and piracy are illicit businesses in which criminal networks thrive. The report shows that the items that they and other counterfeiters and pirates produce and distribute are often substandard and can even be dangerous, posing health and safety risks that range from mild to life-threatening. Economy-wide, counterfeiting and piracy undermine innovation, which is key to economic growth.
The magnitude and effects of counterfeiting and piracy are of such significance that they compel strong and sustained action from governments, business and consumers. More effective enforcement is critical in this regard, as is the need to build public support to combat the counterfeiting and piracy. Increased co-operation between governments, and with industry, would be beneficial, as would better data collection.
This Test Guideline describes a method conducted as model studies to predict the degradation pathway of the active ingredient under hydrolytic conditions, to identify the degradation products, and to determine the relative amount of degradation products.
Three representative hydrolysis conditions should be investigated. Radiolabelled active test substance are used to elucidate the possible degradation pathway and for quantitation of the extent of degradation. The use of tritium (3H) as a label is not permitted due to the possibility of hydrogen exchange with the water. The proposed value for the concentration of a water soluble active ingredient in the studies required here is 1.0 mg/L. Samples may be analysed directly by chromatography or may be extracted with a series of solvents or solvent mixtures with various polarities and other characteristics depending on the nature of the expected residues. The characterisation and identification of extractable residues is made. Ideally samples should be stored at/or below -18°C. The report should include the routes of degradation observed, the degradation pathway, the composition of total radioactive residues, the limit of quantification for radioactivity determination and chromatographic separation.