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5201. Economic Survey of Greece, 2005

Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Recent and prospective growth performance is good. The Greek economy has continued to grow vigorously, buoyed especially by low nominal and real interest rates and an expansionary fiscal policy stance, largely reflecting public works in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2004. The outlook is for some slowing activity in the near term, triggered by fiscal consolidation, but a subsequent pick-up in growth thereafter. However, inflation is likely to remain above the euro-area average, to a certain extent eroding Greece's international competitiveness. Fiscal consolidation is the main priority. The fiscal audit, performed by the new government in close collaboration with Eurostat has revealed a very loose fiscal policy since the late 1990s, culminating in a general government deficit of 6% of GDP in 2004. The government debt-to-GDP ratio has remained stubbornly above 100%, despite uninterrupted strong growth during the past eleven years. Reining in government deficits is of vital importance both to meet the fiscal objectives of EMU, and to prepare for demographically-related budget pressures that will start emerging in a decade's time. Moreover, sustained high public debt makes Greece relatively more vulnerable to changes in interest rates and market sentiment, while it's servicing threatens to crowd out public spending in areas important for Greece's ambitions to reach income levels elsewhere in the EU.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Greece

5202. Economic Survey of New Zealand, 2005

Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
The economy has continued on its strong upward course and living standards – measured as real GDP per person – have risen steadily over the past decade, putting the country on track towards the government’s objective of returning to the top half of the OECD. But capacity has become increasingly strained, and monetary policy has been tightened to ensure inflation remains well anchored. The country’s prospects are bright, with potential growth projected to remain comfortably above 3% per year over the medium term
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Australia/Pacific and New Zealand

5203. Helping workers to navigate in globalised labour markets

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Fears that "globalisation" implies increasing job losses and lower wages are an important source of popular ambivalence towards the increasingly open character of OECD economies. Although such concerns are not new, recent developments appear to have heightened workers' apprehensions that rising trade competition threatens their jobs, wages and employment conditions, particularly in the higher-wage OECD countries. Increased international sourcing of production activities — including the "offshoring" of some white-collar jobs in information technology (IT) and business services — has led some commentators to conclude that a large share of high-wage OECD workers will soon be in direct competition with workers in countries where wages are far lower. EU enlargement and the increasing integration of large, labour-surplus economies such as India and China into the world trading system also reinforce anxieties about "delocalisation" and "a race to the bottom".
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, and Human Welfare

5204. From unemployment to work

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
All OECD governments recognise the need to provide income support for the unemployed. But how do they ensure that income support provides a cushion for a brief period to enable the person to find a new job, without becoming a permanent alternative to work? Cutting benefit levels would automatically increase the incentive to move from welfare to work, but it would not help people to find suitable employment and would aggravate social hardship for those who do not enter employment at all. Providing income support for jobseekers while at the same time strengthening their incentive to work is a puzzle that most OECD countries are still trying to solve.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Government, and Human Welfare

5205. Intellectual property and competition policy in the biotechnology industry

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
The science of biotechnology has been pushing the frontiers of human knowledge and intellectual property (“IP”) for three decades. As scientists developed techniques for isolating and creating genetic material and began to apply them commercially, a new industry grew and so did its appetite for patent protection. Although the wisdom of granting patents on DNA is still debated, the policy of OECD countries to allow such patents has been fairly well settled for some time. The door was therefore open for biotechnological innovators to create a flood of IP, and they did
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology

5206. Economic Survey of France, 2005

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
France has high productivity per hour worked and a sophisticated social welfare system, but it also suffers from low labour force participation and high structural un employment. This poor labour market performance contributes to a persistent budget deficit which is exacerbating, rather than alleviating, the fiscal pressures arising from ageing. Rising public debt threatens fiscal sustainability. It is partly a result of insufficient public expenditure control an d insufficient public understanding of the need to meet long-run challenges as well as short-term targets. Aspects of the labour code designed to protect employees, and some aspects of the system of social transfers have had some unintended but perverse consequences leading to structurally high levels of unemployment and low participation rates. Dynamism and growth of activity and employment are held back by a lack of competition in a large number of service sectors.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe and France

5207. Economic Survey of Sweden, 2005

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
The Swedish economy has undergone impressive changes and has delivered a remarkable surge in productivity since the mid-1990s. Consequently, per capita incomes are slowly making up the ground lost in earlier decades. Labour market performance, however, has been less inspiring. Employment rates have yet to recover to their 1990 peaks and hours of work need to increase to support the welfare state.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe and Sweden

5208. Economic Survey of Austria, 2005

Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
The Austrian economy has demonstrated the capacity to take advantage of positive external developments. Important challenges remain, however, in two areas: Fiscal performance needs to be improved despite substantial progress in securing the sustainability of government finances: government debt is still relatively high, fiscal consolidation also incorporates significant one-off measures and fiscal federal relations are often inefficient. Trend growth is still held back by low labour force participation of older workers – also a potential source of future growth deceleration, high seasonal inactivity, relatively weak productivity growth in the services and a sub-optimal environment for innovation activities.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government

5209. Preserving Biodiversity and Promoting Biosafety

Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Biodiversity – the variety of life and of habitats on Earth – is vital to human welfare. The loss or degradation of biodiversity can have important economic, environmental, and social consequences. Altering a watershed (the area draining into a common waterway), for example, not only leads to the potential loss of an ecosystem – through loss of habitat – but may also create economic costs for water filtration in cities using its water.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Environment, and Human Welfare

5210. Paying for Performance: Policies for Government Employees

Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, governments battling budget pressures and public perceptions of civil servants as under-worked and overpaid have been seeking ways to make the public service perform better. Alongside government re-organisation and privatisation of services such as telecommunications and water, governments have been modernising the management of their civil servants.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Government