Browse by: "2018"

Portugal’s services markets are among the most heavily regulated in the OECD. As vital inputs into the business sector, services provided by professionals, such as lawyers and engineers, generate up to 1.8 times their value in outputs by firms that use them. However, structural flaws in the regulation make professional services highly expensive for firms, diminishing their ability to compete effectively. Regulatory restrictions also hamper innovation and efficiency within the professions. Against this backdrop, this report examines regulations for 13 self-regulated professions (lawyers, solicitors, notaries, bailiffs, architects, engineers, technical engineers, certified accountants, auditors, economists, customs brokers, nutritionists and pharmacists). From 923 pieces of legislation analysed, the report makes 348 individual recommendations for amending or removing provisions to improve competition, and makes a detailed inventory of the analysis underlying the work. Analysis of Portuguese legislation and professions was complemented by research into international experiences and wide consultations with stakeholders from the public and private sectors. The OECD recommendations aim to remove or modify overly restrictive provisions in order to facilitate the access or exercise of the professions, to benefit businesses and consumers alike. This report identifies the sources of those benefits and gives estimates of their impact. Provided all recommendations are fully implemented, the benefit to the economy from lifting the barriers in the 13 liberal professions is estimated at around EUR 130 million a year.

Portugal’s services markets remain among the most heavily regulated in the OECD. Inland and maritime transports in Portugal are a vital part of the business environment, ensuring the movement of goods and passengers and inputs for the business sector. Regulatory restrictions limit the ability of firms to effectively compete in the markets, whether as providers or customers, while hampering innovation, efficiency and productivity. Against this backdrop, this report analyses Portuguese regulations for road, railway and maritime transport, and many ancillary services (such as vehicle inspection centres), as well as Portugal’s ports. The report examines 1 064 pieces of legislation and makes 417 individual recommendations for amending or removing restrictive provisions to improve competition, and makes a detailed inventory of the analysis underlying the work. Analysis of Portuguese legislation was complemented by research into international experiences and wide consultations with public and private sector stakeholders. The OECD recommendations aim to remove or modify the provisions to benefit businesses and consumers alike. This report identifies the sources of those benefits and gives estimates of their impact. Provided all recommendations are fully implemented, the benefit to the economy from lifting the barriers in the land and maritime transport sectors is estimated to be around EUR 250 million a year.

This report presents policy options for extending the life of road assets by mitigating deterioration caused by trucks. Beyond traditional engineering responses, it considers the role of trucks in road asset deterioration from a broader, demand-oriented perspective.

This document aims to support cities in setting road safety targets and to monitor progress in improving urban road safety. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists account for nearly 80% of urban traffic fatalities. Cities should thus intensify efforts to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. This document presents traffic safety indicators for different road user groups collected in 31 cities to facilitate the evaluation, monitoring and benchmarking of road safety outcomes. It places a particular attention on measuring the risk of fatality per unit distance travelled.

This report presents international experience and lessons learned from integrated transport development in large-scale urban regions and city clusters. It serves as an input to discussions around city cluster development in China and other emerging economies. First, it assesses how regional urbanisation delivers socio-economic benefits via both agglomeration and network externalities. It then examines differences in how these benefits are delivered in single versus clustered city networks. The role of governance structures and how they might best be adapted to ensure positive outcomes is also discussed. Finally, the report addresses the potential for reforming local government financing mechanisms in China in order to guide urban growth in a sustainable manner.

This report examines how efficiency and resilience can be balanced in the management of multi-modal supply chains. It investigates the trade-off between supply chain resilience and efficiency, the approaches to sustainability in supply chain management, innovation and technological development, collaboration and alliances and risk mitigation. The report summarises findings from an ITF Roundtable held in April 2018.

This report assesses how road pricing impacts are distributed amongst citizens. It specifically examines how the reallocation of road space can improve the wellbeing of the community at large, looks at the relationship between road tolling and public transport pricing, and explores how simulation models can help develop measures to minimise negative impacts of road pricing. It also reviews current road pricing schemes in Sweden and Singapore. The report summarises the findings of an ITF Roundtable held in Auckland, New Zealand, in December 2017 that brought together 18 experts from eight countries.

Road and Rail Infrastructure in Asia: Investing in Quality discusses the challenges facing the region and possible policy options, including those previously or currently used in Emerging Asian countries, with reference to the experiences of OECD member countries. It provides analysis and recommendations for the region’s policy makers to consider in their efforts to improve the quality of infrastructure. In particular, it highlights the importance of considering the spill-over effects of infrastructure in investment decisions. A comprehensive infrastructure impact evaluation does not simply consider the financial feasibility of an individual project, but attempts to judge the full extent of the externalities of planned investments, looking at the positive and negative economic, social and environmental effects over different time periods. The report first presents project case studies, illustrating how policy makers have incorporated the principles of quality infrastructure. It then examines the local economic impact of infrastructure, the role of local governments in infrastructure development and the benefits and challenges of their involvement. It then goes on to discuss different infrastructure financing options including funding from public and private sectors, as well as public-private partnerships, and concludes with a focus on fostering improved alignment between national development strategies and infrastructure planning.

This report examines how ports can accommodate changes in maritime transport (such as the arrival of mega-ships) while adapting to developments in the hinterland (notably in their host cities). It presents considerations and recommendations for policy-makers to help find a mutually beneficial balance between port and city, with a special section dedicated to Buenos Aires and its container port. The publication summarises the results of a Roundtable held in Buenos Aires in 2017.

В этом докладе рассматриваются основные результаты проекта, касающегося снижения уровня загрязнения воздуха городским общественным транспортом в Казахстане, путем анализа для разработки программы «зеленых» государственных инвестиций в данном секторе. Этот сектор может дать возможность Казахстану решить вопросы государственной политики, связанные с окружающей средой и изменением климата, являющиеся частью государственных целей по переходу к «зеленому» пути экономического развития. Разработанная инвестиционная программа будет также способствовать модернизации автопарка городского общественного транспорта и стимулировать внутренний рынок к переходу на современные автобусы, работающие на экологически чистом топливе. Предусмотрены два этапа реализации программы: первый будет осуществляться в Костанае и Шымкенте, второй будет распространяться на все крупнейшие города в Казахстане. Как ожидается, эти инвестиции приведут в результате к существенному улучшению состояния воздуха.

L’édition de 2018 analyse les performances touristiques et les tendances politiques à travers 49 pays de l’OCDE et d’économies partenaires. Le rapport souligne la nécessité d’approches cohérentes et globales quant à l’élaboration de politiques en matière de tourisme, ainsi que l’importance de l’économie touristique, avec des données couvrant le tourisme domestique, récepteur et émetteur, les entreprises et l’emploi, ainsi que la consommation du tourisme interne. Les chapitres thématiques expliquent à quel point la compréhension des impacts potentiels concernant les tendances globales peut permettre de mieux façonner l’avenir du tourisme ainsi que la nécessité d’une transition vers l’investissement et le financement pour une croissance touristique durable.

У фокусі публікацій результатів дослідження Багаторівневе державне управління  - поступ України у сфері регіонального розвитку, територіальної реформи й децентралізації за період від  2014 року.
Уряд започаткував реформу з метою об’єднати місцеві органи влади і підсилити процес децентралізації, а також надати органам врядування  суб-національного рівня додаткові повноваження й ресурси.
За короткий час зроблено успішні кроки на шляху об’єднання територіальних громад для більшої податково-бюджетної, адміністративної та політичної децентралізації. Крім цього, розроблено  Державну стратегію регіонального розвитку на період 2015-2020 р.р.
У новостворених об’єднаних територіальних громадах відбулися перші місцеві вибори, й  деякі місцеві органи врядування вже надають ширший спектр публічних послуг.  Проте, залишається спектр важливих проблем, - від необхідності знаходити рішення, адаптувати багаторівневе державне управління і територіальний  устрій в умовах зростання нерівності до кращої структуризації процесу фіскальної децентралізації.
У даному звіті подано результати діяльності регіонів та нерівності в Україні, опис  територіальної реформи, що зараз триває, підходів до децентралізації,  проаналізовано вплив заходів фіскальної децентралізації. Звіт також містить аналіз конкретного прикладу – сектору транспорту. У звіті надано низку рекомендацій щодо дій на підтримку України задля формування умов успішної децентралізації.

This Multi-level Governance Series study focuses on Ukraine’s advances in regional development, territorial reform and decentralisation since 2014. The Government launched a reform to merge local governments and strengthen the decentralisation process, giving additional power and resources to sub-national authorities. In a short period, successful steps have been taken toward achieving municipal mergers and greater fiscal, administrative and political decentralisation, complemented by the State Strategy for Regional Development 2015-2020. The first local elections have been held and more public services are being delivered by certain local authorities. Yet, important challenges remain, ranging from a need to address rising disparities and adjusting multi-level governance practices and territorial structures, to better structuring fiscal decentralisation. This report addresses regional performance and disparities in Ukraine, provides insight into Ukraine’s current territorial reform and approach to decentralisation, explores the impact of fiscal decentralisation measures, and includes a case study of the transport sector. It also provides a set of recommendations for action to support Ukraine in meeting the conditions for successful decentralisation.

This report provides a new perspective to the nature of urban sprawl and its causes and environmental, social and economic consequences. This perspective, which is based on the multi-dimensionality of urban sprawl, sets the foundations for the construction of new indicators to measure the various facets of urban sprawl. The report uses new datasets to compute these indicators for more than 1100 urban areas in 29 OECD countries over the period 1990-2014. It then relies on cross-city, country-level and cross-country analyses of these indicators to provide insights into the current situation and evolution of urban sprawl in OECD cities. In addition, the report offers a critical assessment of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl and discusses policy options to steer urban development to more environmentally sustainable forms.

The IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report 2018 provides an overview of road safety performance for 32 countries. The report outlines the most recent road safety developments across IRTAD countries and comparative data for the main road safety indicators. It also offers detailed analysis by road user, age group and type of road. It describes the crash data collection process in IRTAD countries, the road safety strategies and targets in place and information on recent trends in speeding, drink-driving and other aspects of road user behaviour.

This report summarises the findings of an ITF Roundtable on Cycling Safety held in April 2018 with 33 researchers and practitioners from 16 countries. Cycling has a net positive effect on public health, despite the risk of injury it is often associated with. Policy makers are nonetheless concerned that increasing numbers of cyclists carries a risk of more traffic injuries and fatalities. Uncertainties also exist regarding the safety record of e-bikes and bike share systems.