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Over the past ten years, some general trends have been observed in information technology (IT) policy developments in OECD Member countries.

In recent years there has been an acceleration in the liberalisation of OECD national telecommunication markets.

Where do OECD countries stand on international telecommunication pricing practices regarding accounting rates and collection charges?

This paper surveys the empirical literature on the links between innovation, market structure and firm size. The review shows that there is little evidence in support of the Schumpeterian hypothesis that market power and large firms stimulate innovations: R&D spending seems to rise more or less proportionally with firm size after a certain threshold level has been passed, and there is little evidence of a positive relationship between R&D intensity and concentration in general. However, positive linkages between concentration/size and innovative activity can occur when certain conditions are met, including high sunk costs per individual project, economies of scale and scope in the production of innovation rents. Recent empirical work suggests that R&D intensity and market structure are jointly determined by technology, the characteristics of demand, the institutional framework, strategic interaction and chance ...

This publication is the product of the Workshop on the Internationalisation of Policy Making which SIGMA organised in July 1995 at the College of Europe Natolin, near Warsaw. The purpose of the Workshop was to provide an opportunity to senior practitioners from Central and Eastern European countries to discuss the implications of the internationalisation of policies for governmental systems, and to examine structures and processes for the integration of domestic and international aspects of policy making. Drawing on the experience of OECD Member countries, and of different "generations" of Member countries of the European Union, the Workshop enabled the participants to compare different types of coordination mechanisms, and to draw practical advice for the improvement of policy-making systems.

Modern society relies heavily on information and communications. New advanced information technologies are being developed and exploited on an increasing scale by both the private and public sectors, providing new business opportunities for supplying industries as well as user industries. Governments realise that adequate action is needed to facilitate and accelerate this transition in order to benefit fully from the economic and social opportunities. Their conviction is that information infrastructures are expected to stimulate economic growth, increase productivity, create jobs, and improve the quality of life. Therefore, governments view that the developments in information infrastructures must be encouraged and supported, and existing or foreseen obstacles need to be removed. Governments themselves have an important role in adjusting the legal and regulatory frameworks. These frameworks cover a range of policy areas (employment, culture, legal, etc.), usually addressed by separate ministries and agencies. In addition, as information infrastructures are not limited by national boundaries, governments have begun to co-operate to discuss a set of common rules in order to build a global information society. Such co-operation began at the G-7 Information Society Conference, in Brussels (February 1995), and continued at the Information Society and Development Conference in South Africa (May 1996). This paper aims to provide an outline of positions adopted by, or proposed for adoption by governments on the issues of information infrastructures, as of May 1996. Reports from the following OECD countries have been examined: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The EU initiatives are expected to provide an integrated vision for the European Union countries.

For a long time European Economic and Monetary Union was mainly considered an internal European issue and external consequences were largely ignored. In contrast to most previous analyses, this paper looks at a number of international implications of monetary union. It is argued that several factors could contribute to the euro becoming an international currency in the future and a competitor to the US dollar in this respect. The degree of uncertainty attached to this outcome, however, remains considerable and in any event the emergence of the euro as a major international currency is likely to take some time. Given the expected size of the euro-zone and the likelihood of the euro becoming an international currency, fiscal and monetary policies in the area are likely to have a significant impact on the macroeconomic environment in the rest of the world. An important issue is how will monetary union affect major bilateral exchange rate developments and their volatility. A number of ...

In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of international recruitment and movement of the highly skilled. Modern industries and services increasingly rely upon the acquisition, deployment and use of human expertise to add value in their operations. When this expertise is not available locally, employers frequently import it from abroad. This takes place in the context of two fundamental and interrelated processes: the development of internal labour markets by employers, on the one hand, and of the institutional framework by governments to facilitate the global interchange of skills, on the other.

The principal flows of highly skilled workers today reflect the global expansion of world trade, the international expansion of trans-national corporations, and the activities of institutions such as governments and recruitment agencies. Although not straightforward, there appears for example to be a positive relationship between flows of skilled labour and ...

The Domain Name System (DNS) maps Internet addresses and is a necessary element enabling communication routing to function.

The signature of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), which entered into force on 1st January, 1995, marked a turning point in efforts to strengthen and extend intellectual property protection. Under the terms of the Agreement, many developing countries are now committed to extending the scope of intellectual property rights to areas not formerly covered, such as micro-organisms, plant genetic material and techniques used for genetic manipulation. While the likely impact of strengthening intellectual property protection is a subject of intense debate and, indeed, has been at the forefront of preoccupations related to environmental degradation and the need to protect biodiversity, it is poorly researched.

This paper reviews the different forms and scope of intellectual property rights relevant to technology transfer in agriculture; reviews the commitments made by developing countries under the TRIPS agreement and the alternatives ...

This working paper presents evidence on changes in income distribution and poverty in thirteen OECD countries over the two decades up to the first half of the 1990s. While country experience has been variable, income and poverty rose in most countries. Both earnings and capital and self employment incomes contributed to these developments, partly offset by an increase in the importance of (progressive) taxes and transfers in total income. Increases in the share of no-worker households appears to have contributed to widening income distribution. Transfers appear to be relatively evenly spread across income groups in a number of countries, reflecting the weight of age-related transfers. An analysis of average incomes and poverty by household type, suggests that the retirement-age population has tended to do better, while younger households and households with children have become less well off and poverty has tended to shift from the old to the young. This mainly reflects ...

Discussion of Internet traffic exchange is important because some parts of the communication industry are asking governments to address an increasing number of regulatory issues.

Internet telephony is a voice service over the Internet. It is different from the present telephony service which is transported over the circuit switched public telephone network because Internet telephony is transported using Internet protocols over packet switched networks. Internet telephony calls can be set up between personal computers and also from a computer to a normal telephone.

This document, based on country surveys carried out by the OECD, compares the experiences of OECD countries in dealing with confidentiality constraints in an effort to meet the demand for policy-relevant analysis using micro-data. It shows that countries have made significant efforts to implement confidentiality rules and practices which balance increasing demands for microdata for policy analysis with the protection of confidential information on individual firms or establishments. Country-specific descriptions of data sources for micro datasets, the legal framework, and conditions for access to and use of data are provided for Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States ...

Over the past decades, the majority of information and communication technology (ICT) products have undergone rapid technical change. To the extent that such technical progress benefits consumers and users, quality improvements should be reflected in official price and quantity indices. When this is not the case, there is a tendency to overestimate price movements and underestimate volume changes of ICT products. All statistical offices deal with this issue, but the degree and nature of quality adjustment of price indices of ICT products varies considerably across OECD countries. The present work does not venture to determine “best practice” for quality adjustment in statistical offices. However, it simulates measurement effects on key economic variables (real output, private final consumption, government expenditure, investment, exports and imports), and productivity, under the assumption that the price indices of ICT products are fully quality-adjusted. The paper draws on ...

When a severe freeze hit Quebec in January 1998, schools and universities were forced to remain closed for up to 23 days. Here is an account of how school authorities handled the crisis and the lessons they learned.

This Technical Paper analyses the main policy issues raised by regulatory reform in air transport in sub–Saharan Africa. Its basic premise is that improving air infrastructure is of paramount importance for the region as it tries to integrate more thoroughly into the world economy. On the basis of the experience of OECD countries with privatisation, liberalisation, and regulatory design, the author analyses progress being made in sub– Saharan Africa and identifies three important case studies: the restructuring of the regional airline of Francophone Western Africa, the sell–off of the state–owned airline of Kenya, and the overall reform process in South Africa, by far the largest market in the sub–continent.

The analysis highlights the importance of regional dynamics in the upgrading of the air transport industry in developing and emerging areas. Sub–Saharan Africa has made smaller progress in this respect than, for instance, Central America. As the start of the Millenium Round and ...

The Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Scotland and Wales commissioned a research project into the development of estate management statistics for the higher education sector. The key tasks of the research were to identify key estate management “performance indicators”, develop robust definitions for the statistics underlying these indicators and produce preliminary comparative information.

Reports on trends in international direct investment tend to focus on recent developments. While such information is clearly of most relevance for policymakers and others interested in the pace and scale of globalisation, it fails to provide any perspective on the nature of globalisation itself. By their nature, recent developments give more weight to the cyclical element in global investment flows. A country’s performance in terms of annual inflows is often taken as a measure of the appropriateness of its policies and, by extension, of its relative attractiveness as a location for investment. Such important issues can only be assessed over a long time period and relying on more sources of information than simply flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). This study focuses on such long-term trends and includes, where appropriate, other estimates of multinational activity.

By focusing on long-term patterns, this paper demonstrates how FDI has evolved from an activity largely ...

This paper reviews recent trends in international strategic alliances, which have grown more than fivefold between 1989 and 1999 paralleling the increase in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The paper covers frequency, type, purpose and geographical patterns of international alliances during the 1990s as an important aspect of industrial globalisation and analyses sectoral trends in industries such as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and airlines. While international alliances provide firms with strategic flexibility, enabling them to respond to changing market conditions, they can also be effective paths for achieving global scale in enterprise operations along with M&As and greenfield investment. Driving forces behind international strategic alliances include cost economising in production and R&D, strengthening market presence, and accessing intangible assets. The paper presents the recent and comprehensive data available on strategic alliances and ...