Convergence in per capita health expenditures and health outcomes in the OECD countries

Our analysis of 19 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over the period 1972 to 2006 provides evidence of convergence in per capita health care expenditures for 17 countries, while the US and (to a lesser degree) Norway follow a different path. A simple decomposition of per capita health expenditures reveals that the divergence of the US comes from the divergence of the ‘ratio of health care expenditures to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)’ component, while Norway's divergence is mainly caused by the ‘labour productivity’ component. Interestingly, our results suggest that convergence in per capita health expenditures among the 17 OECD countries does not lead to convergence in health outcomes. Finally, we extend our analysis to examine convergence in various determinants of health expenditures.     

Factor mobility, government debt and the decline in public investment

This paper aims at explaining the declining level of public investment in OECD countries. The theoretical framework hints to the relevance of a number of demand and supply factors—ranging from the yield of public investment to institutions like the EU deficit limits. The econometric results indicate that the decline is due to three developments: first to the increase in the public capital stock; second to the pile-up of public debt which has restricted the ability to finance new investment; and third to the increasing mobility of factors adding to the financing difficulties. In contrast to that neither the privatisation process nor EU deficit restrictions of the Maastricht Treaty have a robustly significant impact.

资产规模、覆盖率与替代率:国际视野的我国企业年金现状

我国的企业年金制度已有10余年历史,但整体水平仍相对滞后。无论是从资产规模、覆盖率和替代率,还是从税收优惠政策来看,我国企业年金的发展与OECD国家相比还存在较大差距。加快建设企业年金,应扩大覆盖面,促进集合年金和职业年金的发展;提高替代率,完善企业年金的税收优惠政策。     

Rural employment in industrialised countries⋆

This paper assesses the recent changes in rural employment in the OECD countries, highlighting the growing role of employment in services and, in some cases, manufacturing activity. In many, but not all, rural areas the secular decline in agricultural employment has been more than counterbalanced by growing employment in these other sectors. However, the diversity of employment growth within and between rural areas is stressed, as are the implications of this diversity for policy. A range of explanations for the relative economic success of some rural areas is explored. These include the impacts of globalisation; restructuring of the labour market; new‘consumption’ demands on the rural areas; and human mobility. The paper concludes that traditional theories do not explain the diversity of outcomes in rural areas. New approaches are needed. Recent analyses under the banner of‘the new economic geography’ has advanced our understanding of the pre‐conditions for rural development to occur, but understanding the diverse pattern of rural employment outcomes within the same kind of geography remains a challenge which needs to be addressed by inter‐disciplinary approaches and methods.     

Broadband expectations and the convergence of ranks

Broadband Internet service to widely held to be a significant contributor to economic development and global competitiveness, and comparison of adoption rates across countries are common. This paper presents evidence that the relative broadband Internet adoption ranks across the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (“OECD”) countries are converging to the wireline telephone adoption ranks in the mid 1990s. This was a time when wireline telephone service had reached maturity, but before consumers began to abandon traditional telephone services for mobile services and Internet telephone technologies. As such, in the absence of better data on household adoption, wireline telephone rank is a useful proxy for a country's ultimate fixed-line broadband penetration rank. Having such an educated guess available regarding broadband rank should reduce the amount of anxiety over rankings, since similar rankings across the two services implies suitable broadband performance. Large departures, alternately, may be a cause for concern or delight. Like prior analyses, the findings suggest that the adoption of communications services is largely an economic and demographic issue.     

The effects of risk and time on entrepreneurship

The paper deals with the socioeconomic background of entrepreneurship. It is especially concerned with the actual relationship between entrepreneurship and risk and time perception (time preferences). It can be predicted that in societies characterized by risk aversion and a preference for short-term risk seeking, there will be optimum conditions for the development of entrepreneurship. The converse is true of societies characterized by short-run risk-averse behaviour or long-term risk seeking. Proxies are proposed for risk and time preference in OECD economies, and tests are developed. Empirical investigation verifies theoretical predictions. It is established that over the period examined (2000–2004), the economies in question have shifted to a non entrepreneurial territory where risk and time are combined. This change is capable of producing conditions which favour entrepreneurial development.     

The need for economic policy coordination between Europe,Japan, and the United States: Policy recommendations for the 1990s

Better policy coordination between Europe, Japan, and the United States is urgently needed in order to restore economic growth and to diminish mutual trade imbalances. Using the EC Compact model it is shown how coordinated fiscal policies can contribute to reaching these goals in the 1990s. For Europe, the most plausible fiscal policy option seems to be a combination of lower direct taxes, public spending cuts, and wage moderation; for Japan a more expansionary fiscal policy is feasible. For the United States, however, public spending cuts or tax increases are necessary conditions for better economic performance. In addition, for all three blocks a swap between tax reduction and wage moderation is recommended.     

Industrial Productivity Growth Linkages Between OECD Countries, 1970–90

Technology ‘spillovers’ are increasingly being recognized as sources of productivity growth. International ‘convergence’ in productivity levels has also been noted in recent studies. This paper reports a study of international total factor productivity (TFP) growth for 11 industrial sectors in seven OECD countries. Spillover variables are defined based on interindusty and international invention input–output (I(IO)) weights. These variables are tested against import-weighted variables. The study concludes that I(IO)-weighted R&D ‘spill-ins’ are important determinants of TFP growth and that convergence is dependent on domestic RBD.     

启动社会良知对资本权力的制约——简评2004版《OECD公司治理准则》

在OECD2004年初颁布的新版公司治理准则中,公司治理已经开始从更倾向公司内部的权利关系的授予、监控、制约安排,向注重内外部的各种利益相关因素的协调转变;从更倾向于公司高层的权术安排游戏,向企业员工和债权者等原来忽略的因素倾斜.OECD的苦心在于,在企业追逐利益的过程中应当透过形式上的治理结构安排和切实的运作行为,让所有人看得到企业的社会责任和道德伦理之所在.