Browse by: "O"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
Indicators of "trust", "confidence", "optimism" or "sentiment" among consumers and/or investors, are published continuously in the mass media. More importantly, these indices seem not only to reflect how the state of the real economy is perceived by private agents, but can also help predict the future course of the business cycle. Moreover, in econometric analyses they have even been found to "cause" business activity. In this paper, we intend to provide a theoretical foundation for how "pessimism" and "optimism", in conjunction with estimation errors committed by private agents and contagion effects, can drive the real economy. Furthermore, the model presented is capable of incorporating the revision of expectations of private agents through Bayesian updating and to create a fully endogenized business cycle of private consumption.
For many years Greece has not made a systematic effort to redesign the whole tax system. Changes to taxation have been made in a piecemeal fashion, and many of them have led to a complex and non-transparent system, characterised by narrow bases and fairly high rates. There has also been a general lack of strong and uniform tax enforcement. Despite the considerable progress, in recent years, in broadening the tax base and improving tax compliance as well as administration, more needs to be done to enhance efficiency and equity and the overall performance of the tax system. To this end the government has indicated that it plans to introduce wide-ranging measures in 2002. The evidence, reviewed in this paper, suggests that the main priorities for reform should include: further improving transparency and reliability of the tax system including the abolition of the practice of tax amnesties and bank secrecy fo tax purposes; eliminating the strong bias in favour of the self-employed and ...
This paper reviews the Finnish tax system and the scope for further tax reform. Finland is among the most egalitarian countries in the OECD and a high tax burden is required to finance the associated public spending. Nevertheless, capital and corporate income taxation was substantially and effectively reformed in the early 1990s, through significant rate cuts cum base broadening measures. But, despite income tax cuts since the mid-1990s, high taxes, especially on labour income, still hamper growth potential and distort economic behaviour. In this respect, the poor performance of the Finnish labour market is revealing. Tax reforms have a major role to play in improving the long-term performance of the Finnish economy. Though the scope is limited, the tax burden should be shifted as much as possible from labour to property and consumption, while the earned-income tax allowance should play a smaller role, enabling cuts in statutory rates. Redesigning social security contributions to ...
The recent tax reforms have improved incentives to work and removed barriers to the internationalisation of Spanish firms, and have helped to make the tax system simpler and more neutral, especially as regards saving. However, the structure of tax wedges, combined with significant labour market rigidities, continues to inhibit job creation, and particularly job creation for the unskilled. Furthermore, certain tax privileges, in particular incentives favouring owner-occupied housing, and the multiplicity of tax rates and systems applying to business profits, hamper economic efficiency and/or weaken income redistribution. Also, while the territorial authorities’ taxing powers have been increased considerably since 1997, they remain modest by comparison with their prerogatives as regards spending. The absence of adequate mechanism for controlling expenditure at the territorial level, plus the tax revenue guarantees extended to the regions by central government, could jeopardize ...
This paper reviews different methods for assessing and comparing across countries the impact of climate change mitigation policies and policy packages on emissions. Broadening and deepening past and recent mitigation policies’ stocktaking efforts, as well as mapping them to their emission base, is key to comparing pricing and non-pricing policies and feed comparable information to ex-post empirical and ex-ante analytical models. Ex-post empirical approaches can provide benchmark estimates of policies' effectiveness from past data and furnish key parameter estimates to calibrate ex-ante analytical models (partial equilibrium, general equilibrium and integrated assessment models). Moreover, they can complement ex-ante analytical models by empirically validating their assumptions and informing models’ choices. Ex-ante analytical modelling are well suited to provide long-term forward-looking projections also on yet-to-be implemented policies. Sector specific models, such as energy system models, are well suited for a granular assessment of the impact on emissions of a wide range of price- and non-price-based policies. Outputs from the ex-ante sector-specific models can then feed into a Computable General Equilibrium model to quantify the effect of individual policies and policy packages on emissions, taking into account second order effects and reducing the risk of double counting the effect of policies.
This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.
This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.
This paper suggests that: (i) national communications be produced more frequently while their focus is streamlined; (ii) reporting guidelines be revised to improve transparency about mitigation commitments/actions/targets that countries have indicated to the international community as well as other obligations taken under the UNFCCC and subsequently; (iii) standard reporting formats be used for more of the information in national communications; (iv) a flexible reporting framework be established for non-Annex I countries, where the information in (and possibly timing of) national reports is “tiered” according to national circumstances; (v) an increased emphasis be placed on reporting of “key” issues; (vi) information routinely provided on adaptation measures and policies be formalised; (vii) reporting on “support” be increased and its structure improved; and (viii) in reports from non-Annex I countries, the provision of information that is already routinely provided be formalised.
The organisation and management of EC development co-operation is embedded within the broader, and more political, external relations framework. Current reforms include more strategic and streamlined approaches, reorganisation in headquarters, and "deconcentration" of implementation authority to the field. These reforms are more sharply defining the vision, responsibilities, and processes of European aid institutions. It will be a challenge to ensure that these organisational and management reforms are increasingly results-oriented. The transition to this new form of management culture has only begun and will require a longer-term political commitment from European leadership to be successful. To implement this more strategic and developmentally oriented mandate also requires more human resources.
Good governance of public agencies requires the application of a set of regulatory and managerial tools to find the right balance between autonomy of agencies and adequate oversight from portfolio ministries and other actors. This paper provides insights from EU and OECD good practices, with a detailed analysis of EU acquis requirements for national regulatory agencies. New empirical evidence shows that public administrations in the Western Balkans and European Neighbourhood area lack clear policies and regulations for agency governance and misinterpret the EU acquis. This leads to a proliferation of agencies, duplication of functions and waste of public resources, a lack of accountability to portfolio ministries and generally a governance vacuum. Implementation of government policy is blocked and democratic accountability generally undermined. Finally, recommendations for better organisation of public administration are provided, based on the empirical analysis and lessons learned from SIGMA's engagement in such reforms.
Sweden is undergoing a major reform of its public employment service (PES) Arbetsförmedlingen, shifting its main role from providing in-house services towards monitoring of providers and working with different stakeholders in guiding and implementing labour market policies. At the same time, the PES is undergoing a significant restructuring, resulting in a downscaling of physical presence across the country and an increased digitalisation of services. To support this reform and services to jobseekers across urban and rural settings, this report a describes the main features of the Swedish labour market and employment system and analyses the challenges of the reform from a local perspective. In light of international examples, it outlines policy options for contracting services to ensure coverage in all places and for all jobseekers, managing the balance between physical and digital services, and coordinating services at the local level.
Organisational change encompasses production processes (quality management, lean production, business re-engineering), management approaches (teamwork, training, flexible work and compensation) and external relations (outsourcing, customer relations, networking). Performance improvements from organisational investments are greatest when production, management and consumer approaches are combined, and when these bundled practices are implemented in conjunction with information and communications technologies (ICT). One explanation for the “productivity” may be that organizational change is key to realising benefits from ICT, while ICT is essential to implementing organisational change, necessitating combined investments to raise productivity growth. The proportion of OECD firms that introduced organisational changes rose significantly in the 1990s and the incidence of organizational change has been highest in service sectors. Larger firms, particularly those exposed to international ...
This paper studies the differences between the organisation of budget management in selected government administrations in the Western Balkans and the Republic of Moldova and good practice across the European Union (EU). It observes that the ministry of finance (MoF) in these administrations typically engages in direct budget negotiations with a large number of budget organisations. This practice is in stark contrast with the budgeting approach observed in the EU, where the MoF only deals directly with government ministries and a limited number of constitutional bodies. The paper highlights the adverse consequences for the strategic role of the MoF for fiscal policy, the accountability of line ministries for budgeting and service delivery in their sector and the introduction of modern public financial management instruments such as medium-term budgeting and performance-based budgeting. This paper recommends that governments reduce the number of first-level budget organisations and give line ministries more responsibility for budget management in their sector. At the same time, the paper recommends strengthening line ministries’ accountability for budget management towards the parliament.
This paper investigates different varieties of so called organised decentralisation of collective bargaining in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Organised decentralisation occurs within the framework of sector agreements, which explicitly allow determination of terms and conditions at company level, and often set certain (minimum) level standards as well as procedure that have to be respected. German decentralisation is based on its dual-channel system and extensive use of opening clauses, which make workplace derogation from sector-level agreements possible. Dutch decentralisation is based on the dual-channel system and on framework agreements that allow company level bargaining as long as minimum stipulations are observed. Finally, Denmark combines a single-channel system with framework agreements setting minimum levels. Germany stands out as the least organised of the three. Opening and derogation clauses mean that terms and conditions in multi-employer agreements can be undercut. Vertical control over these derogations has suffered from the dual-channel representation in which works councils have a new role. The Netherlands exhibit some, very limited, elements of disorganisation and stable bargaining coverage. Decentralisation has mainly happened through framework agreements setting minimum levels or through the organised transfer of competencies to works councils. The Danish system leaves a lot of scope for local bargaining, the minimum levels are generally observed and bargaining coverage has not suffered. Based on these findings, we draw the conclusion that organised decentralisation requires articulation that preserves a regulatory function of multi-employer agreements. Preservation of multi-employer agreements in turn requires high bargaining coverage.
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?