Services liberalisation can be an emotive issue where the tertiary sector has been largely dominated by the state and where, consequently, its employees have civil-servant status. This applies as much in Asia as it has done in Europe. Despite this reality, however, it can be shown that services...

Voluntary approaches include environmental agreements negotiated with industry and public programs which firms can volunteer to participate in. They are increasingly supplementing or replacing other environmental policy instruments, such as regulations, taxes and tradable permits

The May 2003 OECD Joint Global Forum on Trade and Competition brought together experts and officials from economies at all levels of development. Against the backdrop of an increasingly globalised economy, the interface between these two policy domains is receiving growing attention

This book explores the interface between environmental and social elements of water pricing policies in OECD countries. It focuses on the affordability of water services, as well as on the social measures aimed at resolving these affordability problems

OECD member countries have committed themselves to maintaining and expanding the freedom for international capital movements and current invisible operations under the legally binding OECD Codes of Liberalisation. This publication explains the content and structure of the OECD Codes and the way...

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are increasingly portrayed as a threat to the free global exchange of goods and services. They involve an ever-growing share of world trade. The proportion of world trade covered by such accords is expected to grow from 43% today to 55% in 2005, if all regional...

Although delivery of goods is vitally important for residents and industries in urban areas, the presence and operations of goods transport vehicles in urban areas are often regarded more as a nuisance than an essential service. Relatively little has been done by governments to facilitate the...

Building on the path-breaking work Multifunctionality: Towards an Analytical Framework, this report takes the subject a step further. It attempts to guide policy-makers to the best possible decisions taking account of the multifunctional character of agriculture

The reform of environmentally harmful subsidies is a high priority for OECD countries. But is there agreement on a common definition of subsidies and on methods to measure them? Are enough reliable data and methods available to identify, measure and analyse environmentally harmful subsidies?...

Low incomes and high unemployment in rural areas are issues of concern to policy makers in all countries. With the ongoing structural adjustment in primary agriculture employment opportunities are diminishing, while off-farm employment in rural areas is growing, albeit gradually