Browse by: "2018"

Port container trucking is currently one of the most challenging aspects of the love-hate relationship between ports and cities. This paper highlights important examples of emerging good practices at and around the marine port terminal. Hinterland connectivity and landside productivity are increasingly important for port performance. Yet conflicts over congestion, pollution and other negative impacts of container traffic are an increasing source of tensions. Managing these tensions requires a clear understanding of the issues and identification of the stakeholders involved in the transport system of the immediate port hinterland.

Article 13.7b of the Paris Agreement mandates all Parties to regularly provide information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under Article 4. This information provided by Parties shall also undergo a Technical Expert Review (Article 13.11). This paper examines the information needed to track progress towards different types of NDCs and explores current experiences and the associated challenges relevant to reporting this information. The paper also identifies issues and options for how this information could be reviewed and how this review could facilitate reporting improvements. The paper identifies key linkages between Articles 4, 6 and 13 of the Agreement related to reporting and reviewing information to track progress. The paper highlights that the relevant linkages need to be taken into account when developing guidance under these Articles to ensure an internally-consistent tracking progress system.

At the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries committed to mobilising US$100 billion each year for climate action in developing countries by 2020. As negotiations on a new climate agreement intensified in the lead-up to COP21 in 2015, an understanding of the progress made towards this commitment was important in keeping everyone around the table. In this context, the OECD estimated that US$62 billion had been mobilised in 2014, up by US$10 billion since 2013. Updated estimates towards the US$100 billion commitment will be needed in the run-up to 2020, along with new information about climate finance beyond this goal. But further progress relies on robust and transparent tracking of the different streams of climate finance.

This paper describes and evaluates the OECD methodology to estimate Air Emission Accounts (AEAs) for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), in line with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA).

Investment facilitation stands increasingly high in the global economic agenda. Little conceptual research has been undertaken on the topic, however, this paper makes an attempt to remedy this gap. It proposes a structured approach to investment facilitation and aims to initiate a discussion on the development of an international framework to facilitate investment in support of sustainable and inclusive growth.

This report identifies proven measures that decrease road freight’s CO2 emissions. Goods transport by road consumes around 50% of all diesel fuel and accounts for 80% of the global net increase in diesel use since 2000. Projections see road freight activity at least doubling to 2050, offsetting efficiency gains and increasing road freight CO2 emissions. The report highlights policy areas that need adjustment for effective decarbonisation of road freight and points to fields where more robust evidence through further research is needed. It collects insights held at a workshop organised by the International Transport Forum in June 2018 in Paris and features the results of a survey among experts.

The development and implementation of public administration reform (PAR) and sector strategies are both processes that require identifying the core problems a given country administration is facing, setting clear objectives and targets to address those problems, and translating these into specific actions. This Toolkit is designed for the preparation, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of PAR and sector strategies. It is designed to support governments and public administrations that are committed to meeting the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 16 and the SIGMA Principles of Public Administration. The Toolkit provides practical insights and advice, as well as easy-to-use tools for those involved in the development and implementation of PAR and sector strategies. It was developed by gathering, reviewing and compiling lessons learned, recommendations, advice and tools developed and promoted by SIGMA and the rest of the OECD Public Governance Directorate.

Using cross-country time series panel regressions for the last two decades, this paper seeks to identify the main policy and institutional factors that explain the share of self-employment across European countries. It looks at the aggregate share of self-employed as well as its breakdown by age, skill and gender. The generosity of unemployment benefits, and to a lesser extent, spending on active labour market policies appear to be robust determinants of the long-term share of self-employed in European countries. No significant relation is found between the stringency of employment protection and aggregate self-employment. However, there are significant, and oppositely signed, impacts on high- and low-skilled self-employed separately. Both the tax wedge and the minimum wage appear to be positively related to the share of self-employed in the long term, but the relation holds for some categories of workers only.

With still large government debt and interest payments in many OECD countries, actively adjusting debt maturity can help to minimise debt servicing costs. Temporarily lengthening the maturity of new debt issuance may lower debt servicing costs in the longer term and reduce rollover risks if interest rates increase gradually over a prolonged period and to a high level. However, if market interest rates increase fast and stay high, shortening debt maturity would be financially more beneficial though at the cost of higher rollover risks. Illustrative scenarios considered in this paper show that adjusting debt maturity may take several years before producing fiscal savings. They are likely to be moderate at best for most G7 countries, ranging from less than 0.1% to ⅓ per cent of GDP per year on average, with the exception of Italy where they could be significantly higher. In countries where debt maturity management has small fiscal effects, lengthening the debt maturity may still be pursued to reduce rollover risks.

This paper looks at market access and national treatment commitments for services in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and in 95 regional trade agreements (RTAs) involving the countries that are covered in the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI). The objective is to quantify the impact of legal bindings on trade in services that result from a reduction in the uncertainty faced by exporters. Bilateral bindings indices are created for five broad service sectors (professional services, computer services, telecoms, financial services and transport services). They indicate how close the sector is from a fully bound regime with no possibility to introduce any new trade barrier, by comparing commitments with the actual trade regime. These bilateral indices are then tested over the period 2000-2014 in a structural gravity model. Despite differences across sectors, the results confirm that the legal bindings typically found in services trade agreements tend to have a positive impact on exports even if no actual liberalisation takes place.

Chad has emerged as an important counter-terrorism partner in the Lake Chad Basin and the broader Sahel-Sahara region due to its recent political stability and military contribution to security efforts in these troubled zones. However, a closer look at developments in domestic politics, notably the continued and increasingly severe repression of the political opposition and civil society, suggests that this stability may not be built on solid foundations. This paper considers the role Chad has played in the fight against Boko Haram and other forms of regional violent extremism in an effort to take stock of the current threats the Chadian government faces from external actors. It then investigates growing domestic grievances due to an ongoing fiscal crisis, attacks on civil liberties, and a disrupted electoral calendar which risk escalating and destabilising the current government. The paper argues that the mitigation of these diverse and multi-dimensional security threats, particularly at the domestic level, would benefit from an environment that is more supportive of democratic institutions and the rule of law, thus enhancing the country’s prospects for stability in the short- and long-term.

This paper was prepared as a background document to the OECD-European Commission Seminar on ‘When to use financial instruments” held on 28 June 2017 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris, France. It sets a basis for reflection and discussion. This seminar is part of a five-part seminar series in the context of an EC-OECD project “Designing better economic development policies for regions and cities”. Other sessions in the series addressed the use of: contracts for flexibility/adaptability, performance indicators, financial instruments, and insights from behavioural science. The outcome of the seminars supports the work of the Regional Development Policy Committee and its mandate to promote the design and implementation of policies that are adapted to the relevant territorial scales or geographies, and that focus on the main factors that sustain the competitive advantages of regions and cities. The seminars also support the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) of the European Commission in the preparation of the impact assessment for the post-2020 legislative proposals and to support broader discussion with stakeholders on the future direction of the delivery mechanisms of regional policy.

This pilot study presents indicators that assess sub-central government (SCG) spending power by policy area. Traditional indicators – such as the share of SCG in total government spending – are often misleading as they underestimate the impact of central government regulation on sub-central spending patterns. In order to gauge true spending power, a set of institutional indicators is established, based on a detailed assessment of institutional, regulatory and administrative control central government exerts over various SCG policy areas. Results tend to confirm the limited discretion of SCGs over their own budget. Education in particular – the main SCG budget item in most countries – is strongly shaped by central government regulation. Federal countries tend to grant more spending power to SCGs than unitary countries.

This paper explores the relationship between various science teaching strategies and students’ science-related outcomes. The focus is on enquiry-based science teaching, teacher-directed instruction, adaptive teaching and teacher feedback. The outcomes of interest include students’ science performance, and students’ dispositions and attitudes towards science.
The findings show that the negative association between enquiry-based science teaching and science performance is greatly attenuated when lessons are delivered in disciplined science classes. This approach could help close the gender gap between girls and boys when it comes to attitudes towards science and to the decision to pursue a career in STEM-related fields. The results also show that teacher-directed instruction is a reliable strategy that is positively associated with students’ science outcomes regardless of school climate and resources. Adaptive teaching is positively correlated with science performance in the majority of countries, particularly in countries known for the use of personalised learning approaches, while teacher feedback is weakly but positively associated with science performance once students’ achievement in mathematics and reading is accounted for. In general, all teaching strategies have the potential to foster enjoyment of and interest in science, and students’ epistemic beliefs, self-efficacy in science and expectations of a career in science.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for fostering inclusive growth at the local level in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN ) region. The first section provides a brief overview of the main developmental challenges in the ASEAN region that have resulted in growing inequalities in wealth distribution. The second and third sections review evidence from developed as well as developing countries regarding TVET’s impact on employment and wages (Section 2), as well as on poverty, inequality and social exclusion (Section 3). Section 4 summarises the key findings and highlights lessons learned for the ASEAN region. Good practice examples from the region are presented to illustrate how countries have used TVET to improve economic and social outcomes at the local level.

The paper examines the role of education in shaping individuals’ attitudes towards migration in European countries using data from the 2012, 2014 and 2016 editions of the European Social Survey (rounds 6, 7 and 8). Results indicate that, despite the large influx of migrants experienced by many European countries in 2015, attitudes towards migration reported by 25-65 year olds did not vary significantly over the period considered. Education was strongly associated with individuals’ attitudes towards migration although the strength of the association and how the association changed over time varied greatly across countries. On average a difference of one standard deviation in educational participation is associated with a difference of 20% of a standard deviation in reported opposition to migration. Around three quarters of the association between education and opposition to migration can be explained by the lower economic threat, cultural threat and prejudice that individuals with higher educational participation experience.

Agriculture is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. Its potential to contribute to limiting global warming to less than 2oC by the end of the century is substantial by reducing direct emissions in crop and livestock production, by reducing indirect emissions associated with changes in land use, and by increasing carbon sequestration. Technological advancements and changes in consumer preferences that result in land-sparing are particularly promising options given food security concerns. Gains in total factor productivity will also enhance the sector’s competitiveness. Changes in domestic and trade policies are essential to maximize mitigation potential. In the absence of global application of carbon pricing, international co-ordination is needed to ensure that national mitigation efforts result in carbon reallocation, i.e. shifts in the location of production to low emissions sources. Measures of emissions relative to the economic contribution of agricultural activities can be insightful for identifying national mitigation priorities.