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This paper explores the impact of policies and institutions on unemployment in OECD countries over the past decades. Reduced-form unemployment equations, consistent with standard wage setting/price-setting models, are estimated using [...]

Renting accommodation in Switzerland is considerably more expensive than in other OECD countries with high per capita income, especially for households on modest incomes. High costs in the construction industry, [...]

Almost all workers are educated at least to the upper secondary level and vocational education contributes to one of the most successful transition performances of youth to employment in the [...]

As in most OECD countries, the global financial crisis pushed the Swiss economy into recession. However, despite the weight of financial intermediation in economic activity and significant losses of the [...]

Decisive action by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) since the outbreak of the crisis has supported financial stability and economic activity. A distinct monetary framework that directly targets the three-month [...]

Beyond 2010: How Will the Global Economy Rebalance? Achieving sustained healthy growth over the medium term will depend critically on addressing the supply disruptions generated by the crisis and rebalancing [...]

The global economy is beginning to recover from the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression and the deepest recession since World War II. Global economic activity is starting [...]

After a deep global recession, economic growth has turned positive, as wide-ranging public intervention has supported demand and lowered uncertainty and systemic risk in financial markets. Nonetheless, the recovery is expected to be slow, as financial systems remain impaired, support from public policies will gradually have to be withdrawn, and households in economies that suffered asset price busts will continue to rebuild savings. Risks to the outlook remain on the downside. Premature exit from accommodative monetary and fiscal policies is a particular concern because the policy-induced rebound might be mistaken for the beginning of a strong recovery. The key requirement remains to restore financial sector health while maintaining supportive macroeconomic policies until the recovery is on a firm footing. At the same time, policymakers need to begin preparing for an orderly unwinding of extraordinary levels of public intervention. Policies also need to facilitate a rebalancing of global demand, because economies that experienced asset price busts will need to raise saving rates, and there is a need to bolster potential growth in advanced economies, which has suffered as a result of the major financial shocks. Rising unemployment and setbacks to progress in poverty reduction pose social challenges that also must be addressed., The Global Recession Is Ending The global economy appears to be expanding again, pulled up by the strong performance of Asian economies and stabilization or modest recovery elsewhere (Figure 1.1). [...]

The current crisis gives occasion to revisit an old question: should monetary policy be used to prevent asset price busts? The question has at least three aspects, each of which [...]

After a deep global recession, economic growth has turned positive, as wide-ranging public intervention has supported demand and lowered uncertainty and systemic risk in financial markets. Nonetheless, the recovery is [...]

The global economy is beginning to recover from the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression and the deepest recession since World War II. Global economic activity is starting [...]

The current crisis gives occasion to revisit an old question: should monetary policy be used to prevent asset price busts? The question has at least three aspects, each of which [...]

Beyond 2010: How Will the Global Economy Rebalance? Achieving sustained healthy growth over the medium term will depend critically on addressing the supply disruptions generated by the crisis and rebalancing [...]

Austria's growth performance hinges inter alia on the quality of its education system. While the latter has long equipped the Austrian labour force with good vocational skills, it now faces [...]

During the economic expansion, Austria made progress with fiscal reform, notably on pensions and with respect to the spending framework, although there was also some backtracking. However, much remained to [...]

Austria has one of the higher GDP per capita levels in Europe, but owes this position to a strong pace of convergence until the early 1990s. Over the past decade [...]

The global financial crisis put an end to Austria's economic expansion. By late 2008, Austria had entered recession, albeit less abruptly than some of the euro area countries, and the [...]

Despite progress over the past decades, Greece's educational indicators lag behind those of other OECD countries. PISA scores are low, a large number of tertiary students study abroad, and attainment [...]

The Greek economy has not escaped the consequences of the global economic crisis, but, it has so far weathered the storm relatively well. It nevertheless remains vulnerable going forward because [...]

Putting public finances on a sound footing is a major policy challenge for Greece. The high public debt, at about 100% of GDP, and repeated fiscal slippages limit the room [...]

As in most other OECD countries, the fiscal situation in the UK has deteriorated sharply. While to date the discretionary fiscal stimulus has been relatively modest, after around the turn [...]

The United Kingdom, like many OECD economies, is experiencing a severe recession as a consequence of a series of global shocks and any recovery in 2010 is likely to be [...]

Even prior to the recent financial turmoil, Italy was being left behind by economic growth in many other countries. Low productivity growth has a number of causes, some of which [...]

Along with the rest of the OECD, Italy is facing a deep and possibly prolonged recession. A decade of slow productivity growth and gradually deteriorating competitiveness meant that the financial [...]

Against the backdrop of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, this chapter studies how financial stress in advanced economies is transmitted to emerging economies. Crises in advanced economies [...]

Appendix 1.1. Commodity Market Developments and Prospects The authors of this appendix are Kevin Cheng, To-Nhu Dao, Nese Erbil, and Thomas Helbling. Financial turmoil and a sharp deterioration in global [...]

Since the beginning of the decade, France has seen a marked decline in its export performance, leading to growing concerns on the part of the authorities and of civil society [...]

Despite the great progress France has made in opening its markets for goods and services, and in strengthening the overall framework for competition, there are still regulatory barriers to entry [...]

The authorities have undertaken numerous structural reforms since the lest OECD Economic Survey was published in June 2007. Many of those reforms go in the direction of the recommendations offered [...]

Even though New Zealand's banks are sound, global interdependencies and accumulated domestic imbalances mean that the economy is being affected by the worldwide financial and economic crisis. New Zealand has [...]

This chapter seeks to explain the divergence in current account behavior between emerging Asia and emerging Europe. It identifies financial liberalization and EU integration as the main drivers of the [...]

This chapter examines the current commodity price boom and evaluates the risks that the associated relative price adjustment could ratchet up inflation, as during the 1970s. Despite some recent easing [...]

This chapter investigates whether fiscal policy should be used to combat business cycle fluctuations, especially downturns. Can discretionary fiscal policy successfully stimulate output? Or does it do more harm than [...]

Against the background of the global outlook outlined in Chapter 1, this chapter discusses how the main countries and regions that make up the worm economy are coping with intense [...]

This chapter examines why some episodes of financial stress lead to economic downturns and others have only a limited impact on the overall economy. The analysis indicates that episodes of [...]

The world economy is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s. Against an exceptionally uncertain background, global [...]

Norwegian policymakers face challenging times. The economy is operating with great pressure on production capacity, the labour market is tight and there are signs of overheating--which would all argue for [...]

Outlook and Risks for the Global Economy The spreading crisis ill financial markets has further dampened the global outlook since lit(, publication of the January 2008 World Economic Outlook Update. [...]

This chapter examines how innovations in housing finance systems in advanced economies over the past two decades have altered the role of the housing sector in the business cycle and [...]

As discussed in Chapter 1, a global slowdown in activity, led by a sharp downturn in the United States and the spreading crisis in financial markets, will create more difficult [...]

The global expansion is losing speed in the face of a major financial crisis. The slowdown has been greatest in the advanced economies, particularly in the United States, where the [...]

Norway has a robust macroeconomic policy framework to manage the potentially destabilising impact of its oil wealth. Nonetheless, emerging macroeconomic imbalances due to the unusually large terms of trade shock [...]

Prudent management of national resource abundance has been the hallmark of Norwegian public governance and a cornerstone of Norway's economic success. Norway has rationally decided to exploit finite natural resources [...]

Despite a solid growth performance there is both scope and need for further improvements Growth over the past decade has been among the strongest in the OECD. Finland also ranks [...]

Using data collected through a survey of over 4 000 manufacturing facilities in seven OECD countries the determinants of investments in environmental research and development (R&D) are assessed. It is [...]

A strong macroeconomic performance to build upon but some important challenges to address Over the last decade, macroeconomic performance has been impressive: GDP growth has been robust and cyclical fluctuations [...]

The economy is in a healthy state 1. The Norwegian economy is in fine form at present. Per capita incomes are high, rising briskly, and evenly spread. Competition from abroad [...]

Despite strong economic growth, the fiscal situation has been deteriorating 1. Greek GDP is estimated to have grown by well above 4% in both 2003 and 2004, thus outperforming not [...]

This chapter outlines the key challenges facing the French economy. Although a modest economic upturn seems to be established, low growth and, especially, high unemployment characterise recent economic performance. The [...]

Turkey is at a crossroads After hitting the most severe crisis of its recent history in 2000-01, the Turkish economy bounced back and is now among the fastest growing economies [...]