In the wake of the financial crisis there has been renewed focus on the importance of a country’s net external debt position in determining domestic interest rates and, relatedly, its vulnerability to a crisis. This paper extends the panel estimation of OECD countries described in Turner and Spinelli (2012) to investigate the effect of external debt and its interaction with government debt on the interest-rate-growth differential.
This blog, written by ODI's Anna Locke, discusses land governance and transparency definitions, initiatives and key lessons. The post is part of Wikiprogress' spotlight on governance.
This blog post on trust in governments is a compilation of presentations given at the OECD Workshop entitled "Joint Learning for an OECD Trust Strategy", held on 14 October 2013.
Strengthening OECD firewalls can only do so much to combat a phenomenon which thrives on weak governance. This report highlights that donor agencies can support this goal through their central role in linking OECD and developing countries, and using their aid to support governments willing to tackle these issues.
The OECD High Level Risk Forum (HLRF) brings together policy makers from government, practitioners from the private sector and civil society, and experts from think tanks and academia to identify and share good practices with the aim to deepen understanding of how to govern and manage complex national risks.
Using panel data for OECD countries, this study investigates the extent to which changes in government spending on education, health and other areas influence long-term growth.
In many OECD countries, government debt reached levels over recent years that call for reduction over the medium to longer term to ensure public finance sustainability. This paper investigates the international transmission of fiscal consolidation shocks via trade flows.
How can we earn back the trust of young people? Improving openness, transparency, accountability, and access to information is essential. On the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day and Transparency International’s 20th Anniversary, the OECD and Transparency International are inviting young people for a discussion about how to push the integrity agenda forward together.
This blog, by Wikichild co-ordinator Melinda George, takes a look at the well-being aspects and the quality of public service provision in the OECD's "Government at a Glance 2013" report. The post is part of Wikiprogress' December spotlight on governance.
The metropolitan region of Aix-Marseille in the south of France needs to tackle its fragmentated governance if it is to return to more inclusive and sustainable economic growth, according to a new OECD report.
The economic crisis has hit certain regions and cities harder than others in the OECD area, calling for better regional policies across levels of governments to foster an inclusive and sustainable recovery, according to two new OECD reports.
Ministers responsible for regional, urban and territorial development from around the world will gather in Marseille, France on 5-6 December 2013 to share good practices and future opportunities in three areas: effective public investment strategies, inclusive growth in cities and regions, and new frameworks for fitting policies to places.
The OECD and the Scrutiny Committee on Law Implementation of the French Senate co-organised a conference on 5 December 2013 on “Law evaluation and better regulation: the role for parliaments” at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris.
This report examines cross-border collaboration on innovation, building on case studies of cross-border areas that include the following countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and Ireland.
Wikiprogress online discussion on Latin America entitled "Quality Urban Life: How to make it a reality?".
The global economic crisis has undermined trust in government. Today only four out of ten citizens in OECD countries say they have confidence in their national authorities. Not surprisingly, trust declined in the countries hit hardest by the crisis, such as Ireland, Greece, Slovenia and Portugal.
This Forum took stock of the key challenges and trends in regulating money in politics; identify emerging risks and opportunities; shape a common understanding of the policy options ahead and trade-offs in enhancing fairness, integrity and transparency in decision making including in the realm of political finance; and mobilise partners to work together and promote synergies in the future agenda.
The report "Regulatory Reform in the Middle East and North Africa" assesses progress in the implementation of regulatory policy within the MENA region and highlights good practices from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia.
This report assesses progress in the implementation of regulatory policy within the MENA region and highlights good practices from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia.
The global economic crisis has had a profound impact on people’s well-being, reaching far beyond the loss of jobs and income, and affecting citizens’ satisfaction with their lives and their trust in governments, according to a new OECD report.
The 9th OECD Rural Development Policy Conference in Bologna, on 23-25 October 2013, will launch the publication "Rural-Urban partnerships: an integrated approach to economic development".
Good public policies are central to well-functioning economies. Better policies on innovation, combined with high-quality regulations and a more efficient public administration, can help Colombia create jobs, boost economic growth and support development, according to three new OECD reports.
This report provides a framework to understand the changing relationships between urban and rural areas. Specifically, it documents the characteristics of these partnerships and the factors that can hinder as well as enable rural-urban co-operation.
Urbanisation in China has long been held back by various restrictions on land and internal migration but has taken off since the 1990s, as these impediments started to be gradually relaxed. People have moved in large numbers to richer cities, where productivity is higher and has increased further thanks to agglomeration effects.
The recent crisis has revealed large differences in external competitiveness between euro area member countries. Since nominal exchange rate devaluation is not an option for members of a currency area, governments in troubled member countries have been considering so-called fiscal devaluation, i.e. a shift from employers’ social security contribution to value added tax, as an alternative means to restore competitiveness.
Today’s post is from Kate Lancaster, editor in charge of publications on government finance at the OECD. Government budgets are news. Tough choices have had to be made in these challenging economic times and we’re all interested in how our governments are managing our money.
Despite sustained efforts made in recent years to rein in budget deficits, a majority of OECD countries still face substantial fiscal consolidation needs. The choices made about which spending areas to curtail and which taxes to hike will have implications for near-term activity and long-term growth as well as for equity and the current account.
This working paper offers an evaluation of the performance of ports of Antofagasta, an analysis of the impact of the ports on their territory and an assessment of policies in this field. It examines port performance over the last decades and identifies the principal factors that have contributed to it.
This working paper offers an evaluation of the performance of the inland ports of the Slovak Republic within the framework of the Danube Axis, an analysis of the impact of the ports on their territory and an assessment of policies in this field. It examines port performance over the last decades and identifies the principal factors that have contributed to it.
The OECD and the Municipality of San Luis Potosí in Mexico launched a programme to improve municipal formalities according to the OECD Guide.
The OECD, in co-ordination with Mexico's Ministry of Economy and COFEMER, organised a workshop to train federal officials to understake competition assessment as part of the RIA framework.
Public trust is the cornerstone of effective governance, the main ingredient to promote economic growth and social progress. Like never before, our citizens have doubts about their government’s capacities to make the right decisions. Therefore, we need to take the necessary measures to recover that confidence, said OECD Secretary-General.
This workshop served to discuss how benchmarking and measuring regulatory performance can help advance a regulatory policy at the sub-national level.
On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant the right to vote to all adult women. New Zealand's Permanent Representative to the OECD Rosemary Banks says the 120th anniversary of this decision is an time to reflect on that achievement.
Newsletter on regional development for autumn 2013.
Today’s post is by Arthur Mickoleit of the OECD’s Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development. Inputs from Kareen Schramm and Sofia Varas of Chile’s Ministry General‑Secretariat of the Presidency are gratefully acknowledged.
The OECD participated in this annual event held in Stockholm (1-5 September 2013) where two major reports "Water Security for Better Lives" and "Water and Climate Change Adaptation: Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters" were launched by the OECD's Secretary-General, Angel Gurría.
An article from the OECD Insights blog about the Metropolitan Explorer - a nifty tool from the OECD that lets you explore statistics for 268 metropolitan areas in OECD countries.
This working paper presents the background and the details of the simulations behind Box 1.4 of the May 2013 OECD Economic Outlook. A small simulation model is used to evaluate the contribution that the three pillars of the government’s strategy – fiscal consolidation, growth-boosting structural reforms and higher inflation – could make to reversing the rise in Japan’s public debt ratio.
Mexico has achieved a high degree of decentralisation in public services, but the Mexican fiscal federal system has important shortcomings. States and municipalities have become heavily dependent on federal transfers to finance a growing share of public spending.
In the run-up to the financial crisis, indebtedness of households and non-financial businesses rose to historically high levels in many OECD countries; gross debt of financial companies rose dramatically relative to GDP. Much of the debt accumulation appears to have been based on excessive risk-taking and exceptional macro-economic conditions and therefore not sustainable.
The Spanish government has launched a series of ambitious public administration reforms as part of wider efforts to promote economic competitiveness and strengthen trust in government and public institutions.
This paper develops a simple model-based framework for stress testing fiscal consolidation strategies under different scenarios of future shocks
This paper provides empirical analysis that measures the cyclical properties of intergovernmental transfers (or grants). Modelling a fiscal policy reaction function this paper tests whether the transfers systems in OECD countries are pro- or counter-cyclical, i.e. whether they offset cyclical fluctuations of sub-central economies or, on the contrary, exacerbate them.
Fiscal rules that constrain sub-central government (SCG) budgeting are very common across the OECD, but there are substantial cross-country differences in their implementation and impact. This paper presents the 2011 update of the fiscal rules database established in 2005.
This paper provides an overview of fiscal consolidation efforts at the central and sub-central government level, both during the current and past consolidation episodes.
This study proposes a structured approach to selecting instruments of fiscal consolidation that are consistent with growth, equity and global-rebalancing objectives, which is then illustrated with a particular application.
Italy’s policy of fiscal consolidation and growth-friendly structural reforms has substantially improved its economic prospects, but the adverse sentiment that the country has faced in the sovereign bond market over the past years has deep roots.
After peaking in the first half of 2008, international imbalances declined sharply during the global crisis of 2008-09, in part reflecting cyclical factors such as large contractions in domestic demand on the back of bursting housing bubbles in a number of deficit countries, as well as large declines in cross-border capital flows, interest rates and commodity prices.
The Forum addressed key challenges in designing and implementing a system that ensures compliance in a cost-effective way.