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Governments everywhere are increasingly interested in assessing the effects of their policies and the effectiveness of public institutions, and competition agencies are no exception. This Reference Guide contains an in-depth overview of all the issues linked to ex-post assessments and contains numerous examples and references. It constitutes an excellent resource both for the competition authorities who are planning to start performing ex-post evaluations and for those who already do it but want to improve the quality of their assessment. The Reference Guide complements a Guide for assessing the impact of competition authorities' activities (2014) and a Factsheet on how competition policy affects macro-economic outcomes (2014).
The Russian Federation has undergone a major reform of the pension system which has resulted in a shift from a single, publicly managed system to one supplemented by a mandatory, privately managed occupational funded component and voluntary pension arrangements. The reform aimed to tackle a set of problems of demographic, social and economic order inherent to retirement income provision and was viewed as a way to improve old-age security of retirees in Russia by ensuring long-term financial and fiscal stability of the pension system and adequacy of pension benefits. This book examines these reforms and new challenges related to the reforms. Most prominent among the challenges is the need to further strengthen the pension system regulatory capacity and enforcement powers of the authorities in charge of the oversight of private pension institutions.
Reforms to China’s enterprises are central to the effort to complete the transformation to a market economy that has been underway since 1978. Reforms have become all the more urgent with the severe financial problems now being suffered by a large portion of China’s businesses, and with China’s prospective entry into the World Trade Organisation. Enterprise reforms involve both state owned and non-state businesses, and encompass a wide range of individual policies to bolster financial performances, improve behaviour, and provide supporting institutions and infrastructure essential to a modern enterprise economy.
The study in this volume describes the main reforms that are being undertaken in each of these areas, the progress that is being made, the problems that are being encountered, and the challenges that remain to be overcome. The overall message is that the enterprise reforms are now at a critical juncture. Important progress is being made; but much more remains to be done and rapid advances are needed in several key areas if the overall reform process is to be sustained and China is to realise its growth potential.
Topics covered: the current situation of China’s enterprises; economic restructuring and SOE reorganisation; establishing effective corporate governance mechanisms; the role of the financial system; developing social security programmes.
This report assesses the state of Armenia’s sanitation services, which are in poor shape, and proposes ways forward for reforming the sector by: ensuring equitable access by all and identifying solutions that work for the poorest and most remote communities; generating economies of scale and scope, and reducing both investment and operational costs for the efficient delivery of sanitation services; and moving towards sustainable cost recovery for the sanitation sector, by identifying how much funding can be mobilised from within the sector and how much external transfers are required. The state of Armenia’s sanitation services are inadequate, with 51% of the population in rural areas using unimproved facilities, causing direct damage to the environment and exposing inhabitants to health risks, and better access but degraded sewerage-system infrastructure in urban areas, posing health hazards due to potential cross-contamination between sewage and drinking water. According to preliminary estimates, EUR 2.6 billion of investments will be required to meet Armenia’s sanitation needs, with approximately EUR 1 billion needing to be spent in the next 7 to 10 years. Given the country’s current economic situation, this investment will have to be spread over time and targeted to avoid further deterioration of infrastructure and increase of the financing gap.
This book presents an in-depth historical and analytical review of the reform process in the Russian insurance sector. The report examines the state of the Russian insurance industry, analyses market dynamics and structure, and assesses the major reform initiatives that have occurred in the sector over the past years. Of crucial importance in the reform process was the revision of the organisational structure of the Russian insurance business, improvement of solvency and capitalization requirements for insurance companies, liberalization of the market, and enhancement of supervisory oversight with the establishment of the Federal Service for Insurance Supervision.
The report concludes with a series of policy recommendations for policymakers and insurance market players. They are designed to further improve the legal and regulatory framework and to strengthen the insurance industry management structure, operational mechanisms and competitive capacity.
Regional Integration in the Union for the Mediterranean: Progress Report monitors major trends and evolutions of integration in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The Report examines five domains of regional integration, namely trade integration, financial integration, infrastructure integration, movement of people, as well as research and higher education. It presents an original analysis of the patterns and challenges of integration in the Euro-Mediterranean region, which highlights the interdependence of the areas examined – e.g. how to increase regional trade without affordable transport connectivity? The Report offers new insights, based on specific quantitative and qualitative performance indicators that are monitored over time. Almost 100 graphs and tables in the report cover data for the 42 member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean and, when relevant, for partners of the region. The Report includes key takeaways and policy recommendations on how to foster regional integration in each of the five domains.
An analytical framework for assessing and managing the relationship between regional agreements and the world multilateral trading system. Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are increasingly portrayed as a threat to the free global exchange of goods and services. Moreover, should the WTO-approved Doha Round of multilateral talks end in deadlock, many member countries would likely place even greater emphasis on regional agreements. This book provides WTO members with an analytical framework for assessing and managing the relationship between regionalism and the world multilateral trading system.
Providing appropriate financial security for retirement is an issue of crucial importance to OECD Member and non-member countries alike. The approaches adopted to implement the necessary reforms vary depending on each country’s economic, social and demographic environment. Increasingly, however, reform programmes involve the establishment or extension of private pension arrangements -- the focus of attention of the International Network of Pension Regulators and Supervisors (INPRS), a group of over 130 regulatory and supervisory authorities representing more than 60 countries. In April 2001, the INPRS and the OECD (which provides the Secretariat for the Network) brought together policy makers and experts to analyse the key policy implications arising from the growth of private pensions. This volume contains a selection of the papers presented at that meeting.
Presented to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in September 2015, this report examines the investment regulations of insurance companies and pension funds, and in particular quantitative investment limits on portfolio allocations.
This report identifies key regulatory issues in tokenised assets and markets that may warrant further attention from policy makers, in order to ensure that those tokenised assets that do fall under the purview of financial market regulators comply with regulatory requirements and are consistent with financial stability, financial consumer and investor protection, market integrity, and competition considerations.
In October 2001, the Stability Pact and the OECD launched the Regulatory Governance Initiative (RGI) to strengthen the institutional, knowledge and process capacities for developing and implementing more efficient and effective regulation, supportive of sound and competitive markets. The RGI is one of the policy implementation initiatives under the Investment Compact (the South East Europe Compact for Reform, Investment, Integrity and Growth) of the Stability Pact.
This report of the Regulatory Governance Initiative provides an assessment on the progress of regulatory governance reforms in South East Europe (SEE), and the remaining reform challenges. It includes the Governance Action Plans developed by the SEE countries. Short-term reform priorities identified by the countries provide the basis for the Agenda for Regional Action, an overview of main governance reform trends in the SEE region and recommendations for the successful implementation of reforms. The report responds to the decision, taken by the Ministers from South East Europe (SEE) at the meeting in Vienna in July 2003, to place major emphasis on reviewing progress in the area of governance at their 2004 Ministerial meeting. It aims to inform policy-makers, donors, investors and the international community of progress in regulatory governance reforms in South East Europe. Practitioners in the region can draw on this report as a guide for their work in the future.
As border barriers to international trade and investment continue to be reduced thanks to liberalisation efforts, "behind-the-border" barriers -- which are typically regulations aiming at achieving domestic objectives such as health, safety, environmental or consumer protection -- are increasingly recognised as impeding trade and competition. The OECD project on regulatory reform has undertaken to tackle these new trade problems. This Workshop is aimed at expanding the horizon to dynamic economies outside the OECD area, particularly those in Asia and Latin America. What are the regulatory reform challenges for those economies, and how can they remain competitive in a global economy? How effectively can international mechanisms help them? The discussion revealed that regulatory reform has undoubtedly become a truly "global issue". This proceedings volume examines the role regulatory failures played in Asia's economic crisis, looks at regional trade groupings such as Mercosur and sheds light on the current international debate on food regulation as well as on the latest developments concerning the Information Technology Agreeement (ITA).
Insurance intermediaries have a key role in the efficient functioning of insurance markets, and minimising information asymmetries and risk of adverse selection is an important consideration. Intermediaries can analyse the needs of insurance consumers, and advise on appropriate solutions and policies that fit these needs. As with all principal-agent relationships, the needs and goals of intermediaries and policyholders are sometimes different and sometimes conflicting. This report examines how OECD and non-OECD countries are regulating and supervising insurance intermediation, focussing on market conduct rules as well as rules related to digitalisation of intermediation. It considers areas which require further investigation to address potential conflicts of interest.
Related party transactions involve parties who can control the terms of a transaction in their favor potentially at the cost of the company. They include management, board members and controlling shareholders. The publication reviews provisions covering related party transactions and the protection of minority shareholder rights in 31 jurisdictions, both OECD and non-OECD. In addition, the regulatory and legal systems that have beeen developed in five jurisdictions are reviewed in detail and allow a wide range of experience to be compared and lessons drawn. They are, Belgium, France, Italy, Israel and India.
The combined effects of the economic crisis and the recent popular uprisings in parts of the Middle East and North Africa have brought social and economic challenges back to the centre of attention of policy makers. For governments searching to create jobs, to satisfy the growing energy demand of their populations and to diversify their economies, the appeal of renewable energies is strong. However, the right policy framework and support need to be put in place if the region wants to attract private investment in the sector and reap the benefits of its favourable resource endowment, especially as regards solar and wind energy.
This report makes the case for a stronger deployment of renewables in the Middle East and North Africa and identifies the appropriate support policies required to stimulate the necessary private investment. An assessment of existing policy frameworks in the region and examples from OECD good practice are used as pointers to help guide policy makers in their choices.
The analysis contained in this report suggests that support policies targeting the life cycle of renewable energy projects such as feed-in tariffs and power purchase agreements are more effective and less distortive than policies subsidising the initial investment, such as cost reductions. The optimal incentive scheme provides investors with stability through a guaranteed but declining minimum return while imposing enough market risk to foster technological progress.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Western Balkan economies but until recently received relatively little attention from policy makers. Governments focused on consolidating macroeconomic stabilisation and the restructuring and privatisation of large companies. The adoption in 2003 of the European Charter for Small Enterprises contributed to a change in policy perspective.
The SME Policy Index 2007 presents the first comprehensive and comparative assessment of progress made in implementing the Charter. The assessment is based on the SME Policy Index, an analytical tool designed by the OECD Investment Compact and the European Commission, and uses collaborative benchmarking to measure progress in the ten dimensions of the Charter:
• Education and training for entrepreneurship
• Cheaper and faster start-up
• Better legislation and regulation
• Availability of skills
• Improving online access for tax filing and company registration
• Getting more out of the single market
• Taxation and financial matters
• Strengthening the technological capacity of small enterprises
• Successful e-business models and top class business support
• Developing stronger, more effective representation of small enterprises
Governments of the region have already started to take action based on the results of the report through the creation in April 2007 of a South East European Investment Committee which aims to develop detailed guidelines on how to implement reforms in priority areas including the SME environment.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and UNMIK/Kosovo are assessed in this report. A second SME Policy evaluation will be conducted and published in 2009.