This report presents the conclusions from a seminar on families and childcare services held in Ankara, Turkey, on 5 June 2008. The seminar was organised by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Labour...

We compute public sector performance (PSP) and efficiency (PSE) indicators, comprising a composite and seven sub-indicators, for 23 industrialised countries. The first four sub-indicators are u0093opportunityu0094 indicators that take into account administrative, education and health outcomes...

A central puzzle in international finance is that real exchange rates are volatile and, in stark contradiction to effcient risk-sharing, negatively correlated with cross-country consumption ratios. This paper shows that incomplete asset markets and a low price elasticity of tradables can account...

The paper extends the standard intertemporal model of the current account to include two important stylised facts: (1) the persistence of current account positions and (2) the relevance of the fiscal balance. Specifically, the paper derives a closed form solution for consumption in the presence...

We live in a service economy, but the extent of development of service employment differs across developed countries. This paper assesses the role of structural factors and institutions in explaining the common patterns and main differences in the recent expansion of service employment in OECD...

This brochure in the EU action on climate change series provides an overview of the many ways in which the EU is assisting developing countries in adapting to the negative effects of climate change and mitigating its causes, with a special focus on cooperation with developing countries in Asia.

The negative external effects of profit orientated businesses on the environment and society are most visible and destructive in developing countries, where compensation measures for adversely affected groups rarely exist and where high corruption rates often impede meaningful enforcement of...

The study investigates the contribution of selected important agricultural production systems and technologies (incl. rainwater harvesting, conservation agriculture, rice intensification system, organic farming, agroforestry systems and transgenic plants) to higher food production and food...