Since the early 1990s, when France's general government deficit reached a disturbing 6 per cent of GDP, the country's public finances have progressed substantially, even though significantly further improvement is required. This paper examines the tools available to policy-makers to meet this...

This paper reviews public expenditure in New Zealand and the scope for further progress. Since the mid-1980s, New Zealand has been a world leader in public management reforms. Government agencies have been transformed by delegating managerial responsibility to them and replacing input controls...

This paper uses the WITCH model, a computable general equilibrium model with endogenous technological change, to explore the impact of various climate policies on energy technology choices and the costs of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations. Current and future expected carbon prices...

This paper analyses the Hungarian public expenditure system and develops policy-oriented recommendations for its improvement. Despite substantial progress achieved in the management of public finances over the 1990s, the level of public expenditure and taxation relative to national income has...

Public sector reforms and a refocusing of spending, partly through privatisation, have created a leaner and more effective government in Mexico. Primary expenditure, at around 18 per cent of GDP in 1999, is less than half the average for the OECD. At the same time, there are important spending...

This paper assesses the public expenditure system in Poland and the scope for its reform. Though a number of important steps to control the future evolution of spending, such as pension reform and healthcare reform, have already made in Poland, much more needs to be done. Indeed budget...

This paper reviews the public expenditure system in the Czech Republic and the scope for its reform. In recent years much progress has been made in improving the transparency and management of government finances. Nevertheless, the budget and policy planning process retains a single-year and...

Mexico has embarked on a bold package of structural reforms that will help it to break away from three decades of slow growth and low productivity. Major structural measures have been legislated to improve competition, education, energy, the financial sector, labour, infrastructure and the tax...

This paper examines how import penetration affects firms' productivity growth taking into account the heterogeneity in firms' distance to the efficiency frontier and country differences in product market regulation. Using firm-level data for a large number of OECD countries, the analysis reveals...

Danish productivity has grown only weakly over the past two decades, both historically and in relation to other countries, despite sound policies and institutions. At the same time, the country has lost export market shares. Denmark needs to continue its efforts to reap the benefits of...