A global shortage of health professionals makes it relatively easy for doctors and nurses from poor countries to emigrate to rich countries. This has raised fears of a medical brain drain from poor to rich countries and has been the subject of much - impassioned - debate. This paper questions...

High and persistent unemployment is a key policy issue in many OECD countries, particularly in Europe. Many initiatives have been taken to reduce this problem. In 1994, the OECD launched the OECD Jobs Study, which contained both a thorough analysis of the issue and a comprehensive set of policy...

This paper is a follow-up to the recommendations made by Jacques Drèze, Edmond Malinvaud and colleagues in 1993 (Drèze, Malinvaud et al., 1994). The key arguments that are of interest for discussion here are paraphrased below: 'For almost 20 years now, West European unemployment has been a...

There is plenty of evidence for market failures that motivate government intervention for innovation in general and research and development (R&D) in particular. R&D subsidies are a policy tool of major importance - both in theory and practice. The empirical evidence for the effectiveness of R&D...

Considering industrial policy from the perspective of other economic policies, this paper seeks to identify the sources and consequences of conflicts between industrial, competition, trade, and fiscal policies. The goals of industrial policy, even when economically justified in isolation, are in...

This paper critically examines the role of industrial policy in the economic development of East Asian countries with a view to drawing lessons for other countries, especially European ones. It describes the evolution of industrial policies in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore and evaluates...

This paper assesses the effectiveness of vertical industrial policies within the European Union. Vertical industrial policy is defined as government support of specific firms or industries ('picking winners' or 'supporting losers'). It is measured as state aid granted by Member States to the...

In this article we address various issues raised by the evaluation of the R&D tax credit policy. We first consider the studies that estimate the direct effects of the tax credit on R&D inputs. We discuss results obtained through different approaches and methods and show that they give a...

This policy contribution by Bruno von Pottelsberghe argues that the number of priority filings should be used as a patent-based measure of Europe's innovation performance. It also identifies several policies that may affect the R&D-patent relationship.

In this paper, Benedicta Marzinotto and Jörg Rocholl focus on the tightening of credit conditions for banking rules (Basel III), particularly the estimated macroeconomic costs range, monetary policy and the aggregate costs of the measures. The authors report that the monetary policy response to...