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This report examines the form regulation should take in rail freight markets to promote efficiency in railways and the wider economy. It analyses issues of monopoly, scale economies, competition, mergers, ownership and the structure of the rail industry. Experience in North America, Australia, Japan, the European Union and countries from eastern and western Europe is reviewed. The need for regulation differs by market and, together with political constraints, this means that regulatory models can not be transferred wholesale from one continent to another. However, each region provides important lessons for reforms currently under consideration in all ECMT and OECD countries.
Reaching climate neutrality requires economic transformations of unprecedented scale and speed. Immediate action from the business community can avoid unnecessary costs, create wellbeing co-benefits and prepare local businesses with a better competitive position in the future climate neutral economy. This report shows what reaching climate neutrality by 2040 means for Hamburg businesses and identifies key actions they need to undertake. It provides insights where the Hamburg economy and its businesses stand on the way to climate neutrality and on their needs to advance, drawing on a business survey. The study also shares insights from action plans of selected comparison cities. It points to cross-sector as well as to sector-specific challenges and opportunities for Hamburg businesses. This includes making better use of low-cost renewables, addressing energy efficiency in buildings as well as challenges and opportunities in activities in and around the port and in industry. It highlights Hamburg's potential as a hydrogen hub as well as the need to adopt circular economy practices. It illustrates that a regional and business perspective are necessary to achieve climate neutrality in prosperity, requiring individual and collective business action.
The Korean labour migration system has expanded since the mid-2000s, primarily in the admission of temporary foreign workers for less skilled jobs. Its temporary labour programme, addressed largely at SMEs in manufacturing and based on bilateral agreements with origin countries, has become the largest such programme in the OECD. Structural changes in the labour force, with a rapidly shrinking and highly educated youth population, keep the underlying demand for this programme strong. Yet skills levels of workers are increasing, and there is interest in increasing Korea's share in global talent mobility, including international students and innovative entrepreneurs. This book addresses the question of how to ensure that international recruitment can help meet urgent needs in the labour market which cannot be met locally, and how the temporary labour migration programme - and other migration streams - can evolve to ensure that Korea meets its policy objectives. This review first examines the characteristics of the Korean labour market and main challenges where labour migration can help address demand. Following a discussion of various programmes and procedures, the review assesses how labour migration is playing a role in different sectors and how programme governance could be improved. It then explores the channels for high-skilled migrants and how these could be improved in light of international experience.
Infrastructure sectors -- particularly railroads, telecommunications, electricity and natural gas -- are vital in providing necessities of life to the Russian Federation’s citizens and key inputs into the rest of the economy. A top priority of the current government in Russia is to reform the infrastructure sectors, specifically in such sectors as rail transport and electric power, to create an efficient and effective regulatory regime that supports the creation of competition where possible and provides more effective protection to consumers in those spheres where competition is not possible. This book compiles the proceedings of four meetings held at the request of the Minister for Antimonopoly Policy of the Russian Federation, on the reform of railroads, telecommunications, electricity and natural gas, during December 2000-September 2001. This review is part of the OECD's ongoing co-operation with non-Member economies around the world.
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.
Despite its rapid economic growth over the past decades, Poland’s economic inactivity rate remains above the OECD average and regional differences in labour force participation persist. This report sheds light on the drivers of economic inactivity across Polish regions and analyses them in light of both individual and structural factors associated with labour force participation. It highlights the need for more inclusive active labour market policies to help integrate the economically inactive into labour markets across Poland. A better integration of services provided by national and local institutions, as well as a strengthened role of the social economy, is needed to address the complex needs of economically inactive persons.
Regions and Innovation Policy addresses the needs of national and regional governments for greater clarity on how to strengthen the innovation capacity of regions. The first part of the book examines strategies, policies and governance, explaining why regions matter, what makes smart policy mixes, and multilevel governance. The second part of the book looks at agencies, instruments and country information, showing how agencis can maximize their impact and what policy instruments work. The final chapter provides country-by-country summaries of what countries are doing.
This report offers guidance on how to manage industrial transition and is directed towards all policymakers seeking to improve the “what” and “how” of policies that promote industrial change. It identifies how regions in industrial transition can become more competitive and more resilient in the context of major shifts brought about by globalisation, decarbonisation and ongoing technological change. It takes stock of discussions emanating from a series of peer-learning workshops jointly organised in 2018 by the European Commission and the OECD. The report presents a number of implementation tools that policymakers have at their disposal to activate regional innovation potential to help tackle these challenges and the often accompanying ones such as an unsuitable skills base, unemployment due to deindustrialisation, and limited investment opportunities.
Bringing together economic analysis and regional and country practice from the participating regions and countries on the topics of the future of work, entrepreneurship, innovation, transitioning to a climate-neutral economy and inclusive growth, the report identifies cross-cutting lessons to help policy-makers better design the next generation of smart specialisation and regional innovation strategies.
This report builds on work presented in the OECD’s 2019 report Regions in Industrial Transition: Policies for People and Places. It considers industrial transition as a complex and enduring challenge in regional development that traditional policy levers have not always been able to satisfactorily address. Beginning with an overview of how to characterise these regions, it then explores why they require tailored policy approaches and posits whether adopting a more experimental path in governance arrangements and policy initiatives could make inroads in meeting industrial transition objectives.
The report shares findings emanating from the experiences of eight regions and two countries that designed and implemented experimental initiatives to advance their industrial transition process and Smart Specialisation Strategies, with the support of the European Commission. It features a framework of governance and policy areas that influence industrial transition, and applicable to experimentation. Combining this with insights from each experiment studied, the report presents a toolkit of policy levers for policy makers grappling with industrial transition, and a checklist for those wishing to apply an experimental approach to industrial transition initiatives. Finally, the report contains a synopsis of the initiatives designed and implemented by the regions and countries participating in this project.
Mining plays a crucial role in Brazil’s economy. Nonetheless, the efforts and resources devoted to regulatory quality in the sector, including the enforcement of rules, have not always been commensurate. This report identifies the gaps, barriers, implementation flaws and inefficiencies in the regulatory framework of the mining sector in Brazil. It takes stock of the recent reforms in the mining sector in Brazil, identifies areas that pose the greatest challenges for effective regulation in mining. It also describes the reforms that created the National Mining Agency of Brazil, its governance arrangements and its current regulatory practices. These are assessed against OECD principles in regulatory policy and mining regulation, as well as against country experiences from Australia, Chile, and Mexico. Finally, recommendations are provided to support further reform efforts.
The report provides a description and an assessment of the recent actions carried out by the Mexican government to enhance the quality of regulation and regulatory governance in the rail sector in Mexico. In particular, the report identifies and describes recent regulatory reforms in the rail sector; the progress in implementing OECD recommendations relative to rail regulation issued in 2017; the reforms that led to the Mexican Rail Regulatory Agency, as well as the legal powers granted. It also documents the current regulatory practices of this Agency. The reforms and practices are assessed against OECD principles and country experiences. Finally, the report provides recommendations for continuing the reform efforts.
Although SMEs are a major source of growth and job creation, SMEs appear to be under-represented in the international economy relative to their contribution in national and local economies. Two original OECD-APEC surveys investigated how SME policy makers and SMEs perceive the barriers to SME access to international markets. This proceedings presents a report on the results of the surveys, a synthesis of the conference discussions, and the main outcome of the conference: the Athens Action Plan for Removing Barriers to SME Access to International Markets.
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.
This annual publication reflects recent efforts made by the OECD to improve the quality and availability of industrial R&D expenditure and researchers, scientists and engineers data. The publication presents estimated R&D expenditure data covering a period of 23 years for 15 OECD countries, as well as a zone total for the European Union. It then presents estimated R&D researchers, scientists and engineers data covering a period of 22 years for seven OECD countries. The greater international comparability of this data makes it invaluable for economic research and analysis.
The publication presents R&D expenditure data (ANBERD) for 16 OECD countries, as well as a zone total for the European Union. The coverage of ANBERD has been extended to 58 sectors, including extended coverage of the services, starting with the survey year 1987.
This annual publication presents R&D expenditure data (ANBERD) for 19 OECD countries, as well as a zone total for the European Union. The coverage of ANBERD has been extended to 58 sectors, including extended coverage of the services, starting with the survey year 1987.
This annual publication reflects efforts made by the OECD to improve the quality and availability of industrial research and development (R&D) expenditure data. The publication presents R&D expenditure data from the Analytical Business Enterprise Research and Development database (ANBERD) in ISIC Revision 3 for 19 OECD countries, as well as a zone total for the European Union. The coverage of ANBERD has been extended to 58 sectors, including wider coverage of the services, starting with the survey year 1987.