1887
  1. Home
  2. Papers
  3. Browse by: "O"

Browse by: "O"

Index

Title Index

Year Index

/search?value51=igo%2Foecd&value6=&sortDescending=true&sortDescending=true&value5=&value53=status%2F50+OR+status%2F100+OR+status%2F90&value52=&value7=indexletter%2Fo&value2=&option7=pub_indexLetterEn&value4=subtype%2Farticle+OR+subtype%2Fworkingpaper+OR+subtype%2Fpolicybrief&option5=&value3=&option6=&fmt=ahah&publisherId=%2Fcontent%2Figo%2Foecd&option3=&option52=&sortField=sortTitle&sortField=sortTitle&option4=dcterms_type&option53=pub_contentStatus&option51=pub_igoId&option2=&page=2&page=2

This paper discusses obstacles faced in implementing SMS and uses concrete examples to show how to overcome them across all modes of transport (air, maritime, rail and road) in leading countries, particularly ITF member countries.
The difficulties and problems in implementing SMS can originate from the specific cultural features of an organisation or an occupation. The cultural features can become either an enabler or a barrier for implementation of the safety management system. By understanding the cultural features better, the difficulties and problems in implementing safety management systems could be resolved.
In order to avoid that particular cultural features become a barrier for implementing safety management systems the employees’ experience and expertise should be employed in the implementation work more intensively. Key enablers for safety improvements would involve all organisational levels in the identification, discussion and implementation of potential safety issues.
New thinking is needed in safety management and, particularly, in incident reporting. Focusing on positive human factors and understanding humans as a resource of successful performance could motivate and encourage employees to report incidents more actively and thus promote rooting of positive safety culture in organisations.
No company can manage implementing the safety management system properly using only its own resources. Co-operation of companies is needed and regulatory agencies should provide support for co-operation. The industries’ voluntary co-operation programmes have proved to be effective and valuable for overcoming any obstacles in the implementation of safety management systems.

Raising manufacturing productivity is of central importance to the developing world and an essential element of policy making. Overcoming Barriers to Competitiveness is about establishing the most reliable analysis of manufacturing productivity possible and helping policy makers set their priorities. The paper demonstrates that productivity rests on five elements of the economy: infrastructure, capital, trade, education and aggregate efficiency. These factors, when multiplied together, give a true picture of a country’s situation on the productivity “league table”. More than a simple comparison, this ranking system allows the identification of which elements in each particular national or regional case require most attention. This approach can be viewed as another way of addressing the so-called “competitiveness problem” of poor countries. It does not say, however, that other areas can be totally neglected; one of the main points of the paper is that all five elements have to be ...

  • 12 Nov 2007
  • Jane Ellis, Sami Kamel
  • Pages: 50
  • in OECD Papers

The market for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects is continuing to grow rapidly, with the current portfolio expecting to deliver 2 billion tons of CO2-eq greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions by 2012, equivalent to 17% of Annex I Parties’ base year GHG emissions. In total, governments and companies have earmarked over USD11 billion for CDM funding to 2012. This study analyses the various barriers to CDM market expansion in developing countries, and makes recommendations on how some of them can be removed or reduced. It also examines the distribution of CDM projects amongst regions and sectors.

Mismatches between workers’ competences and what is required by their job are widespread in OECD countries. Studies that use qualifications as proxies for competences suggest that as many as one in four workers could be over-qualified and as many as one in three could be under-qualified for their job. However, there is significant variation across countries and socio-demographic groups. Our meta-analysis of country studies suggests that over 35% of workers are over-qualified in Sweden compared with just 10% in Finland, with most other OECD countries located between these two extremes. There is also extensive evidence that youth are more likely to be over-qualified than their older counterparts and the same is found to be true for immigrant workers compared with a country’s nationals. On the other hand, no definitive evidence has been found of the persistence of qualification mismatch, with some papers showing that over-qualification is just a temporary phenomenon that most workers overcome through career mobility and others finding infrequent transitions between over-qualification and good job matches. Across the board, over-qualified workers are found to earn less than their equally-qualified and well-matched counterparts but more than appropriately-qualified workers doing the same job. Under-qualified workers are found to earn more than their equally-qualified and well-matched counterparts but less than appropriately-qualified workers doing the same job. Over-qualified workers are also found to be less satisfied about their job and more likely to leave their work than well-matched workers with the same qualifications….
This study describes the changing patterns of intermediate goods trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in East Asia and investigates the impacts of international outsourcing on the Japanese and the Korean labour markets. The main findings of the paper are as follows. First, intra-regional trade in East Asia grew remarkably during the period 1990-2003. While overall trade with the rest of the world roughly doubled in this period, intra-regional trade in East Asia more than tripled. Second, the main factor behind increased intra-regional trade in East Asia was the trade in intermediate goods through outsourcing and the international fragmentation of production. Third, reflecting the fact that outsourcing to Asia (particularly to China) has a negative impact on the demand for workers with lower education and a positive impact on the demand for workers with higher education, relative wage shares of workers by educational attainment have changed substantially both in Japan and Korea. Fourth, our empirical analysis provides evidence of labour demand shift towards skilled labour in Japanese manufacturing as a result of outsourcing. For Korea, although the overall effects of outsourcing have been insignificant in Korea partly because a substantial part of Korean outsourcing remained directed towards Japan, our results imply that labour demand would shift away from less-skilled workers towards more-skilled workers if outsourcing to China increased and outsourcing to Japan decreased in the future.

Securitisation issuance has slumped in recent years, with the market having become increasingly dependent on central bank and government support in both Europe and the United States. Despite facing a number of threats that could inhibit a recovery in the shorter term, the securitisation market is expected to recover over a longer term horizon. Funding costs have improved, but investor confidence in the asset class remains weak, and the impact of regulatory reform is as yet difficult to fully assess. A long-term sustainable recovery for the securitisation market remains in the hands of regulators and policy makers. They must be awake to the possibility that a recovery in securitisation markets could be a prerequisite to unlocking credit markets in general and supporting a wider global economic recovery.

While the world has been mesmerised by China’s emergence as a major player in international trade, now being one of the world’s top ten traders, and also as an absorber of international capital (second only to the United States), China’s state-owned and other public sector enterprises have been quietly growing in importance as a source of international capital. Chinese enterprises now have foreign direct investment in virtually every country in the world and across the whole spectrum of economic activities, from merchant banking to fish processing and forestry.

This paper reviews the available aggregate data on outflows of capital from China. It also examines such data as is available on individual foreign direct investments. One conclusion which emerges is that while such outflows are growing and being disbursed on a global basis there is a significant concentration in a small number countries, in particular Australia, Canada and the United States, in addition to the strong ...

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA, the Results Act) established a performance management framework for federal departments and agencies. The framework consists of agency Strategic Plans, Annual Performance Plans and Annual Performance Reports. Additionally, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) annually prepares a Government-wide Performance Plan. Approximately 100 Cabinet departments, independent agencies and government corporations prepare these plans and reports. These departments and agencies comprise nearly the entire Executive branch of government. (The Central Intelligence Agency is statutorily exempted, and OMB has exempted about 15 very small agencies from having to comply with GPRA requirements.)

In 1998, the Government of the United Kingdom conducted a Comprehensive Spending Review which examined the resources allocated to each area of spending, and for the first time decided on and published the service improvements and reforms required in return for the resources allocated to departments’ expenditure programmes. These requirements were set out in Public Service Agreements (PSAs) for every central government department published in December 1998.  Each PSA sets out the aim and objectives of each department as well as performance targets, including measures of operations and outcomes. The government’s second spending review in 2000 resulted in revised PSAs, and excluded those expenditure programmes for which the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly have executive responsibility following the devolved constitutional arrangements.

This paper discusses the uses of outcomes in public sector management in New Zealand. It begins by describing the overall public management system within which government departments operate, and how outcomes are used within this system. It then outlines some work that is underway to improve the focus on outcomes, and the way that outcomes are used within the system. The remainder of the paper is a series of case studies of innovative uses of outcomes in the New Zealand state sector.

Over the last two decades, the focus of public sector budgeting and management in most OECD Member countries has changed from inputs towards outputs. While important elements of an input-based management approach remain, many managers are now more often judged by how their programmes perform rather than by how well they adhere to administrative controls and procedures, or how successful they are in obtaining resources for their programme. The jury is still out as to the details of actual gains and losses connected to this change, but generally it is the view of central budgeting and management institutions that this change in focus has enhanced the quality of management and increased programme effectiveness and efficiency.

This report analyses the experience of ten OECD countries in the design and implementation of quantitative indicators used to assess the outcomes of environmental enforcement authorities’ efforts to ensure compliance with pollution prevention and control regulations. To respond to the growing demand for results-oriented work methods and the need for performance management and accountability at the time of severe budget constraints, more and more environmental enforcement authorities are working to develop indicators to characterise improvements in behaviour of the regulated community (intermediate outcomes) or environmental conditions (final outcomes) stemming from their activities. The report considers six types of intermediate and final outcome performance measures, including compliance rates and indicators of improved environmental management practices and reduced risk. Based on the OECD criteria for the evaluation of environmental indicators – measurability, analytical soundness and policy relevance – the paper identifies key challenges for developing and using specific categories of compliance assurance outcome indicators and suggests several ways to improve their effectiveness. The review of a “toolbox” of existing outcome indicators and the analysis of their respective strengths and weaknesses suggests that it is not possible to identify a “best practice” approach or a universal optimal set of indicators. The functionality of individual outcome measures ultimately depends on their purpose (e.g. internal performance assessment or external accountability) and suitability for joint analysis with the enforcement authority’s resource (input) and activity (output) indicators. The report identifies several issues for further analysis.

In this paper the forecasting performance of popular leading indicators for the German business cycle is investigated. Survey based indicators (ifo business climate, ZEW index of economic sentiment) and composite leading indicators (Handelsblatt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Commerzbank) are considered. The analysis points to a significant relationship of the indicators to the business cycle within the sample period, as measured by the direction of causality. But, their out-of-sample forecasts do not improve the autoregressive benchmark. This result may be caused by structural breaks in the out-of-sample period. As combinations of forecasts tend to be more robust against such shifts, pooled forecasts are constructed using different methods of aggregation, including linear combinations of forecasts and common factor models. In contrast to the single indicator approach, the combined indicator forecasts are able to beat the benchmark at each forecasting horizon. Therefore, the analysis points to the usefulness of pooling information in order to get more reliable forecasts.

Fragile states contributed 18 million migrants and 8 million refugees in 2000. More than 20% of these migrants and more than half of the refugees settle in other fragile states. Thus, migration is likely to be both a consequence and a possible cause of conflict and fragility. This paper asks why people from fragile states would want to move to another fragile state. Is it simply a question of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire – that migrants from fragile states have no other options than to settle in another fragile state? To investigate this question I analyse a new set of global data on the sources and destinations of migrants. This analysis generates genuinely new research for INCAF, and reveals that economic factors, such as the pull of higher incomes in destination countries, are important. The paper concludes by discussing how migration from fragile states in search of higher incomes and greater wellbeing is an important development strategy that should be supported. The research suggests that a new concept of development may be needed which looks beyond national borders to the countries where the migrants end up. This will require policies to ensure public acceptability in the host countries, however, such as bilateral agreements, temporary status for immigrants and restricting immigration to specific jobs or perhaps regions.
This paper reviews the current academic thinking on knowledge transfer channels between universities and private industry, from a human resource perspective. It also offers a general framework for “re-organising” the literature, so as to identify gaps in the understanding of organisational behavior and human resource management for university-industry knowledge transfer. The review highlights that knowledge transfer channels with highest “relational intensity” are also most valued by industry, and that most knowledge transfer channels are not currently institutionalized or formalized. It concludes that knowledge transfer between universities and industry is characterized by important management challenges, which require an understanding of the extent and nature of individuals’ involvement. However, the existing literature emphasises the outcomes rather than processes of knowledge transfer. Future research looking at knowledge transfer processes at the individual and organizational level of analysis would provide valuable information for better policy-making.
The main purpose of the paper is to provide orientations based on a comparative approach to policy makers on drafting legislation on the organisation and functioning of the state administration. It is therefore written in a practice oriented way, although it nevertheless attempts to draw some generalisation.
French
This paper has been prepared by the Sigma Programme following a request of the Government Office of the Czech Republic. The OECD has worked extensively during the last few years on issues relating to the organisational dimension of the national administration and, in particular, on the phenomenon of "agencification" and its impact on governance structures. It has already produced a significant number of analyses1, including a comprehensive comparative publication on Distributed Public Governance (2002)2. Sigma has also published on the topic in the framework of public expenditure management and with reference to transition countries.
This OECD work was prompted by the problems caused by the increasing administrative-functional deconcentration within its member countries. The main questions posed were along the lines of: Does departmentalisation (keeping the whole responsibility within a ministry) ensure better control and efficient management of administrative and other public services or, on the contrary, does agencification (in the sense of setting up separate bodies) result in better management and de-politicisation?
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error