While growth has picked up, more needs to be done for Japan to overcome two key challenges – a record high government
debt ratio and an accelerating decline in its working-age population.
While growth has picked up, more needs to be done for Japan to overcome two key challenges – a record high government debt ratio and an accelerating decline in its working-age
population.
Economic, Political and Legal Environment of JapanSazedul Ekab
Japan has the third largest economy in the world. It suffered a recession in 2008-2009 due to a drop in global demand for exports. The government has implemented economic reforms known as "Abenomics" focused on monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms to boost growth. However, Japan still faces challenges such as a large public debt, dependence on energy imports, and low inflation. Key economic indicators for Japan include a GDP of $4.6 trillion in 2014, foreign exchange reserves of over $1.2 trillion, and a trade deficit in September 2015.
Las perspectivas son mejores, pero no suficientemente buenas Perspectivas eco...OECD, Economics Department
El documento resume las perspectivas económicas globales de la OCDE, señalando que se espera un modesto repunte del crecimiento a nivel mundial, aunque por debajo de las tendencias históricas. El crecimiento de la productividad y los salarios sigue siendo lento, y existen riesgos financieros. Se necesitan reformas para compartir mejor los beneficios de la globalización y asegurar que sea inclusiva, mediante un sistema internacional más equitativo y políticas domésticas de apoyo al empleo y la educación.
While growth has picked up, more needs to be done for Japan to overcome two key challenges – a record high government debt ratio and an accelerating decline in its working-age
population.
Economic, Political and Legal Environment of JapanSazedul Ekab
Japan has the third largest economy in the world. It suffered a recession in 2008-2009 due to a drop in global demand for exports. The government has implemented economic reforms known as "Abenomics" focused on monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms to boost growth. However, Japan still faces challenges such as a large public debt, dependence on energy imports, and low inflation. Key economic indicators for Japan include a GDP of $4.6 trillion in 2014, foreign exchange reserves of over $1.2 trillion, and a trade deficit in September 2015.
Las perspectivas son mejores, pero no suficientemente buenas Perspectivas eco...OECD, Economics Department
El documento resume las perspectivas económicas globales de la OCDE, señalando que se espera un modesto repunte del crecimiento a nivel mundial, aunque por debajo de las tendencias históricas. El crecimiento de la productividad y los salarios sigue siendo lento, y existen riesgos financieros. Se necesitan reformas para compartir mejor los beneficios de la globalización y asegurar que sea inclusiva, mediante un sistema internacional más equitativo y políticas domésticas de apoyo al empleo y la educación.
1) The project aims to develop a framework, indicators, and policy toolkit to help governments design coherent housing strategies that balance goals like affordable housing, economic resilience, labor mobility, and environmental sustainability.
2) Key activities will examine how policies can enhance housing outcomes and economic performance, promote labor mobility, incorporate local factors, and reduce inequality and environmental impacts.
3) The project will pull expertise from across the OECD to provide holistic and actionable policy advice to member countries.
This document discusses political norms and their importance for reforms. It begins by explaining what political norms are, using examples from principal-agent models of how beliefs and expectations shape political interactions. It then discusses insights from standard and strategic principal-agent models regarding incentives, selection of leaders, and the roles of non-cooperation, beliefs, and legitimacy. The document analyzes examples from India on electricity subsidies and measures of integrity and public service motivation among local leaders. It concludes by emphasizing the need for deep reforms, the challenges of reforming political institutions globally, and the opportunities for policy experiments and evaluation to strengthen trust in government.
The document discusses how emotions influence perceptions, values, and decisions. Emotions are communicated through facial expressions, voice, body language, and language, and are perceived and interpreted to identify specific emotions like jealousy and happiness. It also discusses how emotions have evolved to enhance survival and each emotion serves a purpose like anger for conflict or fear for danger. Facial expressions are an important way to measure emotional state and send emotional messages. When perceiving emotions in communication, it's important to consider the emotional messages and differentiate between experienced and signaled emotions.
This document summarizes research on how beliefs about fairness affect attitudes toward inequality and demands for redistribution. It finds that people are more opposed to inequality and support more redistribution when they believe inequality is due to luck rather than individual effort. Support for redistribution also depends on target-specific beliefs about the traits of taxpayers and recipients. For example, union members support taxes on the rich more than transfers to the poor, while those with college degrees show the opposite pattern. Overall, attitudes are conditional on beliefs about both the causes of inequality and the perceived worthiness of different social groups.
1. The document discusses the rise of political polarization and anti-establishment voting. It examines two perspectives on the origins: economic factors vs. cultural backlash.
2. It finds that distrust in institutions is common among all anti-establishment voters. This distrust correlates with lower life satisfaction and economic insecurity from factors like the financial crisis, globalization, and inequality.
3. Cultural values around trust in others also explain polarization, with progressive vs. conservative cultures split between radical left and right votes. Loneliness in post-industrial societies may also contribute as the yellow vest movement involved isolated workers.
This document discusses social investment and welfare reforms in Europe. It contains the following key points:
1. It examines employment trends and child poverty rates in European countries since the 1990s, finding mixed results regarding welfare states and social outcomes.
2. It argues for taking a "social investment" approach to welfare policy, using policies like early childhood education to support skills, employment, and gender equality across people's lifetimes.
3. The Great Recession showed the importance of automatic stabilizers and discretionary macroeconomic policies, as well as implementing social investment and reforms through cooperation across party lines.
This document discusses the political economy of reforms. It notes that initial reforms often generate winners and losers, increasing inequality, and this distributional impact can lead to public backlash and the rise of anti-reform populists. It also discusses how the 2008 financial crisis and expansion of the internet further eroded public trust in elites and established parties. To move forward, the document argues for policies promoting fair competition, redistribution, rebuilding trust in institutions, and better communication strategies to counter populist narratives online.
This document discusses challenges for implementing political and economic reforms. It notes that fragmented political landscapes and weak public finances make reforms difficult due to low returns on compromise and high costs of breaking promises. However, reforms are still needed that increase both efficiency and equality. Examples given include education, healthcare, competitive markets, tax collection, and policies to increase women's labor participation. The rise of populism and radical right parties is also discussed as contributing to political fragmentation by appealing to voters who distrust establishment parties. Evidence from Sweden links increased inequality and job insecurity to greater voter support for radical right parties. Reforms need to address the needs of young people to gain their engagement and support.
Laying the foundations for stronger and more inclusive growth OECD economic s...OECD, Economics Department
The document analyzes Argentina's economy and provides recommendations. It finds that while reforms since 2016 have benefited the economy, challenges remain. Continuing reforms are needed to achieve stronger, more inclusive growth by reducing imbalances, strengthening institutions, integrating globally, and completing structural changes in markets, workforce policies, and fiscal policy. Faster progress on reforms would help Argentina realize further gains from policies already enacted and lay the foundation for robust, shared prosperity.
This document discusses the debate around using the EU budget for economic stabilization. It provides an overview of current proposals, including the European Investment Stabilization Function and a euro area budgetary instrument for competitiveness and convergence. Specific risk sharing schemes are examined, including one based on compensating countries for export shocks. While risk sharing and risk reduction can complement each other, combining them poses challenges around enforcement. There is academic agreement that a central fiscal capacity is needed, but political agreement remains divided due to moral hazard concerns. The current strategy is to establish a small instrument focused on convergence and competitiveness that could expand over time.
This document discusses fiscal stabilization in the euro area. It contains the following key points:
1) Many euro area countries had high debt levels compared to their economic output prior to the global financial crisis, leaving them with little fiscal space to respond to economic downturns.
2) Countries that experienced large negative output gaps during the crisis period tended to have higher public debt levels.
3) A moderately sized central fiscal capacity could help provide meaningful countercyclical stabilization for euro area countries in response to economic shocks.
4) Many euro area countries did not reduce debt levels sufficiently during good economic times, leaving them vulnerable when recessions occurred.
The document summarizes data on economic convergence, resilience, governance, and education outcomes across EU member states from 1995-2017. It shows that while GDP per capita has converged, with many central and eastern European countries catching up to western European levels, resilience to economic shocks and human capital outcomes still vary substantially across the EU. The document also describes European Commission programs that provide support to member states for structural economic reforms.
1) The EU needs a fiscal tool for crisis management as private risk sharing is low compared to other monetary unions and failure to stabilize the economic cycle leaves long lasting scars.
2) More fiscal risk-sharing would improve coordination of monetary and fiscal policy, prevent pro-cyclical tightening, and help achieve a better aggregate fiscal stance.
3) Reforming the EU fiscal rules and designing a common fiscal capacity together could combine risk reduction through better rules with risk sharing through a fiscal capacity to help stabilize economies.
1) The European banking sector remains fragile with low bank capital and high non-performing loans. Financial integration in the euro area is still low.
2) Completing the Banking Union with a European deposit insurance and regulations on sovereign exposures can help address these issues. Introducing "safe assets" may also reduce bank risk.
3) Progress on Capital Markets Union has been slow. Expanding capital-based pension systems and standardizing rules can help foster capital markets.
4) Reforms are needed to stabilize the euro area through more market discipline and risk sharing, but they must be designed to maintain proper incentives.
This document discusses the European Commission's proposal for a European Stabilization Function (EISF) and debates around it. The EISF aims to prevent pro-cyclical fiscal tightening during economic shocks, reduce market overreactions, and contribute to EU cohesion. It would provide loans to Member States facing large unemployment shocks, proportionate to shock severity, to fund public investments with interest subsidies. While some are skeptical due to perceived lack of need, the document argues asymmetric shocks do occur and risk-sharing would be improved with public and private mechanisms. The design aims to target severe shocks and avoid moral hazard through eligibility conditions. Charts show many Member States could benefit from the EISF,
National governments face challenges in implementing structural reforms in the eurozone due to political considerations. There is a conflict between economic theory, which advocates for reforms like flexible prices and wages, and political realities. It is difficult to answer fundamental questions about what reforms to make, how to implement them, and when. While most reforms have positive economic impacts, they often backfire politically. Successful reforms require comprehensive plans to avoid targeting single sectors, income compensation mechanisms, and avoiding strategic political games. Communication and education are also important to build support.
The document summarizes the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of Portugal. It finds that while Portugal's economic recovery is well established, further improvements are needed to raise living standards. It provides several key policy recommendations to strengthen fiscal sustainability, improve financial stability, boost export performance, enhance judicial efficiency, increase labor utilization, and further reduce poverty.
Digital technologies have the potential to boost productivity but gains have been modest, with productivity growth slowing in major economies. The document examines why through three main points: 1) Low rates of digital adoption among firms, especially less productive ones. 2) Strong complementarities between digital investments, skills, and product market regulations that incentivize innovation. 3) Skill gaps negatively impact the productivity benefits of digital adoption, especially for less productive firms. To realize digital's potential, policies should promote broadband access, skills development, and encourage reallocation between firms.
1) The project aims to develop a framework, indicators, and policy toolkit to help governments design coherent housing strategies that balance goals like affordable housing, economic resilience, labor mobility, and environmental sustainability.
2) Key activities will examine how policies can enhance housing outcomes and economic performance, promote labor mobility, incorporate local factors, and reduce inequality and environmental impacts.
3) The project will pull expertise from across the OECD to provide holistic and actionable policy advice to member countries.
This document discusses political norms and their importance for reforms. It begins by explaining what political norms are, using examples from principal-agent models of how beliefs and expectations shape political interactions. It then discusses insights from standard and strategic principal-agent models regarding incentives, selection of leaders, and the roles of non-cooperation, beliefs, and legitimacy. The document analyzes examples from India on electricity subsidies and measures of integrity and public service motivation among local leaders. It concludes by emphasizing the need for deep reforms, the challenges of reforming political institutions globally, and the opportunities for policy experiments and evaluation to strengthen trust in government.
The document discusses how emotions influence perceptions, values, and decisions. Emotions are communicated through facial expressions, voice, body language, and language, and are perceived and interpreted to identify specific emotions like jealousy and happiness. It also discusses how emotions have evolved to enhance survival and each emotion serves a purpose like anger for conflict or fear for danger. Facial expressions are an important way to measure emotional state and send emotional messages. When perceiving emotions in communication, it's important to consider the emotional messages and differentiate between experienced and signaled emotions.
This document summarizes research on how beliefs about fairness affect attitudes toward inequality and demands for redistribution. It finds that people are more opposed to inequality and support more redistribution when they believe inequality is due to luck rather than individual effort. Support for redistribution also depends on target-specific beliefs about the traits of taxpayers and recipients. For example, union members support taxes on the rich more than transfers to the poor, while those with college degrees show the opposite pattern. Overall, attitudes are conditional on beliefs about both the causes of inequality and the perceived worthiness of different social groups.
1. The document discusses the rise of political polarization and anti-establishment voting. It examines two perspectives on the origins: economic factors vs. cultural backlash.
2. It finds that distrust in institutions is common among all anti-establishment voters. This distrust correlates with lower life satisfaction and economic insecurity from factors like the financial crisis, globalization, and inequality.
3. Cultural values around trust in others also explain polarization, with progressive vs. conservative cultures split between radical left and right votes. Loneliness in post-industrial societies may also contribute as the yellow vest movement involved isolated workers.
This document discusses social investment and welfare reforms in Europe. It contains the following key points:
1. It examines employment trends and child poverty rates in European countries since the 1990s, finding mixed results regarding welfare states and social outcomes.
2. It argues for taking a "social investment" approach to welfare policy, using policies like early childhood education to support skills, employment, and gender equality across people's lifetimes.
3. The Great Recession showed the importance of automatic stabilizers and discretionary macroeconomic policies, as well as implementing social investment and reforms through cooperation across party lines.
This document discusses the political economy of reforms. It notes that initial reforms often generate winners and losers, increasing inequality, and this distributional impact can lead to public backlash and the rise of anti-reform populists. It also discusses how the 2008 financial crisis and expansion of the internet further eroded public trust in elites and established parties. To move forward, the document argues for policies promoting fair competition, redistribution, rebuilding trust in institutions, and better communication strategies to counter populist narratives online.
This document discusses challenges for implementing political and economic reforms. It notes that fragmented political landscapes and weak public finances make reforms difficult due to low returns on compromise and high costs of breaking promises. However, reforms are still needed that increase both efficiency and equality. Examples given include education, healthcare, competitive markets, tax collection, and policies to increase women's labor participation. The rise of populism and radical right parties is also discussed as contributing to political fragmentation by appealing to voters who distrust establishment parties. Evidence from Sweden links increased inequality and job insecurity to greater voter support for radical right parties. Reforms need to address the needs of young people to gain their engagement and support.
Laying the foundations for stronger and more inclusive growth OECD economic s...OECD, Economics Department
The document analyzes Argentina's economy and provides recommendations. It finds that while reforms since 2016 have benefited the economy, challenges remain. Continuing reforms are needed to achieve stronger, more inclusive growth by reducing imbalances, strengthening institutions, integrating globally, and completing structural changes in markets, workforce policies, and fiscal policy. Faster progress on reforms would help Argentina realize further gains from policies already enacted and lay the foundation for robust, shared prosperity.
This document discusses the debate around using the EU budget for economic stabilization. It provides an overview of current proposals, including the European Investment Stabilization Function and a euro area budgetary instrument for competitiveness and convergence. Specific risk sharing schemes are examined, including one based on compensating countries for export shocks. While risk sharing and risk reduction can complement each other, combining them poses challenges around enforcement. There is academic agreement that a central fiscal capacity is needed, but political agreement remains divided due to moral hazard concerns. The current strategy is to establish a small instrument focused on convergence and competitiveness that could expand over time.
This document discusses fiscal stabilization in the euro area. It contains the following key points:
1) Many euro area countries had high debt levels compared to their economic output prior to the global financial crisis, leaving them with little fiscal space to respond to economic downturns.
2) Countries that experienced large negative output gaps during the crisis period tended to have higher public debt levels.
3) A moderately sized central fiscal capacity could help provide meaningful countercyclical stabilization for euro area countries in response to economic shocks.
4) Many euro area countries did not reduce debt levels sufficiently during good economic times, leaving them vulnerable when recessions occurred.
The document summarizes data on economic convergence, resilience, governance, and education outcomes across EU member states from 1995-2017. It shows that while GDP per capita has converged, with many central and eastern European countries catching up to western European levels, resilience to economic shocks and human capital outcomes still vary substantially across the EU. The document also describes European Commission programs that provide support to member states for structural economic reforms.
1) The EU needs a fiscal tool for crisis management as private risk sharing is low compared to other monetary unions and failure to stabilize the economic cycle leaves long lasting scars.
2) More fiscal risk-sharing would improve coordination of monetary and fiscal policy, prevent pro-cyclical tightening, and help achieve a better aggregate fiscal stance.
3) Reforming the EU fiscal rules and designing a common fiscal capacity together could combine risk reduction through better rules with risk sharing through a fiscal capacity to help stabilize economies.
1) The European banking sector remains fragile with low bank capital and high non-performing loans. Financial integration in the euro area is still low.
2) Completing the Banking Union with a European deposit insurance and regulations on sovereign exposures can help address these issues. Introducing "safe assets" may also reduce bank risk.
3) Progress on Capital Markets Union has been slow. Expanding capital-based pension systems and standardizing rules can help foster capital markets.
4) Reforms are needed to stabilize the euro area through more market discipline and risk sharing, but they must be designed to maintain proper incentives.
This document discusses the European Commission's proposal for a European Stabilization Function (EISF) and debates around it. The EISF aims to prevent pro-cyclical fiscal tightening during economic shocks, reduce market overreactions, and contribute to EU cohesion. It would provide loans to Member States facing large unemployment shocks, proportionate to shock severity, to fund public investments with interest subsidies. While some are skeptical due to perceived lack of need, the document argues asymmetric shocks do occur and risk-sharing would be improved with public and private mechanisms. The design aims to target severe shocks and avoid moral hazard through eligibility conditions. Charts show many Member States could benefit from the EISF,
National governments face challenges in implementing structural reforms in the eurozone due to political considerations. There is a conflict between economic theory, which advocates for reforms like flexible prices and wages, and political realities. It is difficult to answer fundamental questions about what reforms to make, how to implement them, and when. While most reforms have positive economic impacts, they often backfire politically. Successful reforms require comprehensive plans to avoid targeting single sectors, income compensation mechanisms, and avoiding strategic political games. Communication and education are also important to build support.
The document summarizes the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of Portugal. It finds that while Portugal's economic recovery is well established, further improvements are needed to raise living standards. It provides several key policy recommendations to strengthen fiscal sustainability, improve financial stability, boost export performance, enhance judicial efficiency, increase labor utilization, and further reduce poverty.
Digital technologies have the potential to boost productivity but gains have been modest, with productivity growth slowing in major economies. The document examines why through three main points: 1) Low rates of digital adoption among firms, especially less productive ones. 2) Strong complementarities between digital investments, skills, and product market regulations that incentivize innovation. 3) Skill gaps negatively impact the productivity benefits of digital adoption, especially for less productive firms. To realize digital's potential, policies should promote broadband access, skills development, and encourage reallocation between firms.
36. より詳しい内容は…
www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-japan.htm
OECD
OECD Economics
Disclaimers:
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan
Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of
any territory, city or area.
36
Editor's Notes
Slide 1: I crafted all the bullet points by combining the titles of key recommendations to make sentences.