Browse by: "D"

Promoting innovation requires innovative government policy. Innovation through the creation, diffusion and use of knowledge has become a key driver of economic growth and provides part of the response to many new societal challenges. However, the determinants of innovation performance have changed in a globalising, knowledge-based economy. Government policy to boost innovation performance must be adapted accordingly, based on a sound conceptual framework. Synthesising the results of a multi-year OECD project on national innovation systems (NIS), this publication demonstrates how the NIS approach can be implemented in designing and implementing more efficient technology and innovation policies.

This publication provides an overview of the duties and responsibilities of boards in company groups across 45 jurisdictions. The introduction outlines the global landscape of company groups, their economic role and the principal challenges they present with respect to corporate governance polices. Part I develops a typology of legal and regulatory approaches that jurisdictions have taken to address these challenges. Part II highlights differences and commonalities across jurisdictions, especially as they relate to: how directors may take into account group interests; procedures for managing conflicts of interest; compensating losses incurred by a group company for the benefit of the group; transparency around group purposes and allocation of business opportunities; and allocation of responsibility for company policy and oversight between parent and subsidiary boards. Additional chapters offer case studies of recent and specific approaches to company group governance in Colombia, India, Israel and Korea.

Groundwater has provided great benefits to agriculture irrigation in semi-arid OECD countries, but its intensive use beyond recharge in certain regions has depleted resources and generated significant negative environmental externalities. The report provides a characterisation of the diversity of groundwater systems, reviews policies in OECD countries, and proposes a package of recommendations to ensure that groundwater can sustain its services to agriculture and contribute to climate change adaptation.

Driving while impaired by drugs – whether licit or illicit – has emerged as an important road safety issue. This report provides a state-of-the-art review of the role and impact of drugs in road accident risk. It reviews the legislation, deterrence and roadside detection practices in member countries as well as preventative measures to combat drug use while driving. It provides recommendations on strategies to adopt in addressing this issue, with a view to contributing to a safe system approach and saving further lives on the roads.

This report highlights countries’ practices in implementing the OECD Council Recommendation on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD). It illustrates how governments can use institutional mechanisms for PCSD to address complex international problems together – including implementing the 2030 Agenda – and explores how policy coherence principles can be applied to promote whole-of-government approaches to policymaking. The report also applies a PCSD lens to the ocean – one of Earth’s largest global public commons and an obvious cross-border policy challenge. A growing number of countries are developing ocean economy strategies to connect sectoral policy silos, manage ocean resources and regulate ocean activities in a way that supports sustainable development that leaves no one behind.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. The internal and external governance of regulatory agencies are essential to determining how regulators and the sectors they oversee perform. The OECD has developed an innovative framework that looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can enhance regulators’ performance. In this report, the framework is applied to the external governance of Mexico’s energy sector and its three regulatory bodies, the Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment (ASEA), the National Hydrocarbons Commissions (CNH) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), following a structural reform of the sector and its regulatory institutions. The review offers insights into the progress and challenges in the implementation of the reform, highlighting the importance of structured co-ordination and accountability mechanisms based on a common strategic agenda, alignment of processes for good regulatory outcomes as well as sufficient operational flexibility. The report is complemented by forthcoming reviews of the internal governance arrangements of the three regulatory agencies, constituting a comprehensive body of work on the regulatory governance of Mexico’s energy sector.
 

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. The report uses PAFER to assess elements linked to both the internal and external governance of Portugal’s Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE). The review acknowledges the well-respected status of ERSE within the institutional framework, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and identifies a number of challenges and opportunities to help the regulator prepare for the future, including in the context of deep market transformation and the COVID-19 crisis.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public services. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. The report uses PAFER to assess elements linked to both the internal and external governance of Peru’s Water and Sanitation Services Regulator (Superintendencia Nacional de Servicios de Saneamiento, Sunass). The review acknowledges the technical expertise of Sunass within the institutional framework, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and identifies a number of opportunities to help the regulator prepare for the future, including in the context of sector-wide challenges and the COVID-19 crisis.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how they, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators to assess both the internal and external governance of Peru's Transport Infrastructure Regulator (OSITRAN). The review discusses OSITRAN's good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. This report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) to assess both the internal and external governance of Peru's Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (OSIPTEL). The review acknowledges OSIPTEL's achievements and good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators to assess both the internal and external governance of Peru's Energy and Mining Regulator (Osinergmin). The review discusses Osinergmin's achievements and good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.

This report applies the PAFER to Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission and assesses its functions, practices and behaviour. It focuses on internal governance, including structures and processes for decision making, managing financial resources, attracting and retaining talent, managing data and assessing performance. The review identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for improvement, and is a companion to reviews of the internal governance of two other Mexican energy regulators, the Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment and the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the review of the external governance of the country’s energy sector, Driving Peformance of Mexico’s Energy Regulators.

This report applies the PAFER to Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission and assesses its functions, practices and behaviour. It focuses on internal governance, including structures and processes for decision making, managing financial resources, attracting and retaining talent, managing data and assessing performance. The review identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for improvement, and is a companion to reviews of the internal governance of two other Mexican energy regulators, the Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment and the National Hydrocarbons Commission, and the review of the external governance of the country’s energy sector, Driving Peformance of Mexico’s Energy Regulators.

Regulators are proactive referees of the sectors they regulate, contributing to the delivery of essential public utilities for citizens. To fulfill this function, they need to be constantly alert, checking sectoral trends as well as assessing the impact of their decisions. However, while measuring regulators’ performance is essential, it is also challenging, from defininig what should be measured to attributing impacts to regulators' decisions. To address these challenges, the OECD has developed an innovative framework that looks at the institutions, processes and practices that help regulators assess their performance. The framework has been applied to Latvia's Public Utilities Commission, which is responsible for regulating energy, communications, water and waste. The review offers unique insights into the work of a multi-sector regulator, identifying the organisational features that allow lessons and experiences to be shared across sectors and contribute to good performance. It  highlights the importance of clarifying the role and functions of the regulator and its relationship with other public institutions, setting long-term strategic objectives for the regulator's activities, and having the right regulatory tools with appropriate incentives for the efficient and effective provision of public utility services.
 

Environmental regulators strive to protect the environment and public health from pollution from economic activity. This report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) to assess both the internal and external governance of Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It looks at the EPA’s role and objectives, its financial and human resources, processes for internal management and decision making, and systems for performance assessment. The review acknowledges the EPA’s achievements and good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for improvement to help the regulator prepare for the future.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. The report uses PAFER to assess elements linked to both the internal and external governance of Ireland's Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU). The review acknowledges the achievements and good practices put in place by the regulator since its creation. It also analyses the key drivers of CRU’s performance and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.

Measuring regulators’ performance can strengthen the contribution of regulatory policies to sustainable growth and development. While measuring a regulator’s performance is a fundamental function of a “world class” regulator, it is challenging, starting with the definition of what should be measured and including the attribution of outcomes to regulators’ actions and the availability of robust and evidence-based evaluation methodologies. This review is the first application of an innovative methodology that helps regulators address these challenges and improve the way in which they assess their own performance. The mehtodology puts performance measurement in the wider context of governance arrangements of economic regulators. The review finds a close link between the independence of the regulator and performance. It also stresses the importance of focusing on regulatory tools and processes and measuring their quality to help improve performance. It highlights the need to define clear goals to develop output and outcome indicators that can be actionable and useful for the regulator. The review provides a roadmap for strengthening performance assessment by Colombia's communications regulator and is expected to help advance the better regulation agenda of other Colombian regulators and economic regulators of OECD members.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour, actions and governance are important factors in how they, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. This report uses PAFER to assess both the internal and external governance of Brazil’s Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL). The review offers recommendations for the regulator to build upon its strong technical reputation and good practices. It proposes an integrated set of recommendations to help the regulator best fulfil its role as a key actor supporting sector modernisation.

Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations is among the most cost-effective and impactful actions that governments can take to achieve global climate goals. There is a major opportunity for countries looking to develop policies and regulations in this area to learn from the experience of jurisdictions that have already adopted methane-specific regulations in order to design frameworks that are adapted and tailored to local circumstances. One of the aims of any new policy effort should be to improve measurement and reporting of emissions data, which can in turn lead to more efficient regulatory interventions. However, the current state of information on emissions should not stand in the way of early action on methane abatement. Experience shows that countries can take an important “first step” today based on existing tools, which may include prescriptive requirements on known “problem sources” combined with monitoring programmes that seek to detect and address the largest emissions sources (“super-emitters”). In terms of process, implementing a new policy or regulation should involve three distinct phases, each covered in detail in this roadmap: understanding the local setting and circumstances, regulatory design and development, and finally, implementation.