Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-42). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-93). Also available in print.

Governments aim at reducing skill mismatch because of the adverse effects that it can trigger at the individual and firm level as well as at the country level. Skill mismatch has been defined as a persistent phenomenon with long lasting cross-country differences (Mavromaras et al., 2013). This phenomenon could thus be explained by equivalent cross-country differences in national public policies. The purpose of this thesis is to test the impact of public policies on the probability of being skill mismatched across OECD countries. This thesis explores the recent OECD Survey of Adult Skills from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies using an alternative measure of skill mismatch. Data for public policies come from a wide variety of sources. The results show that both policies targeted on firms (‘demand side of skills’) and policies dealing with the available workforce (‘supply side of skills’) can result in a reduction of skill mismatch levels. Regarding the demand side of skills, countries with smooth regulations on the firing of permanent employees, with efficient policies increasing the allocative efficiency and with a strong focus on entrepreneurship seem to experience lower levels of skill mismatch. For the case of the supply side of skills, housing policies efficient at increasing labour mobility together with a higher participation in lifelong learning and higher investments in active labour market programmes and education are expected to be associated with a reduction of skill mismatch.

The major themes of this thesis are the impact of Intellectual Property (IP) systems on foreign direct investment spillovers and bilateral FDI flows. This thesis consists of three empirical studies. The first study integrates in the existing theoretical frameworks the distinct effect of the public IP enforcement element of IP systems on FDI horizontal spillovers. By employing a meta-analysis approach and the ordered probit model estimation technique, it finds that the strength of public IP enforcement in a host country has a positive effect on FDI horizontal spillovers but it dampens the positive effect of IP law protection on FDI horizontal spillovers when it becomes too strong. The second empirical study examines the impact of IP systems on FDI vertical spillovers. This study employs a similar conceptual and empirical approach and finds that the strength of public IP enforcement has a positive effect on FDI vertical spilloversbut a negative moderating effect on the relationship between the strength of IP law protection and FDI vertical spillovers. In the third empirical study, a gravity model is applied to test the effect of IP systems on bilateral FDI flows in OECD countries. Using the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood, it finds both the strength of IP law protection and the strength of public IP enforcement to have a positive effect on bilateral FDI flows. The broad implication of these findings is that countries should strengthen both their IP law protection and enforcement but apply appropriate measures to mitigate the negative effect resulted from excessive IP protection.

This thesis focuses on the comparison of tax reform in four selected OECD countries. For the purposes of this study were chosen following countries: Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America. The aim is to make mutual comparison of tax reforms. In all these countries, especially in the last ten years many changes and each country is dealt with differently. While the Czech Republic and Slovakia seek to adapt to EU legislation, tax system and then fairer taxation, in Germany, the main objective was to reduce the tax cost of labor and in the USA modernization, simplification and computerization of taxation. The first part of this thesis explains the tax reform and its historical development up to the present economic crisis. The second part describes the tax systems and reforms in each country. In the last chapter there is a mutual comparison of these reforms from different perspectives and at the end are a few suggestions for future reforms.

Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The Doha Round of negotiations on the liberalisation of agricultural trade inherited complications from its predecessor - the Uruguay Round (UR). It needs to be noted, as one of the fundamental differences, that agriculture sectors in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) get support from their governments. In contrast to the situation, in the developing countries, agriculture is taxed to generate government revenue. The subsidies that farmers receive in the developed countries affect farmers globally through world prices (world prices depression). Therefore protection and greater subsidies should be not encouraged. As such, after a long time of preferential treatment, agriculture trade was tabled as a separate issue of negotiations at the UR and resulted to the round to be prolonged. However, one of the achievements of the UR was imposing of bound tariffs on agricultural products and determining tariff equivalence for non-tariff measures. Then, the Doha Round (DR) also known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) which is the first round to place development and focus strongly on agricultural liberalisation as a tool for development. International trade theory supports agricultural liberalisation, as negotiated in the DDA. Therefore, the DDA, in seeking more liberalised agricultural markets, continues a theoretically sound approach, as in the UR. The effects of liberalising agricultural trade in the DDA will differ across countries, whereas some will gain, others may loose, and the same situation is true for different sectors within an economy. The focus of the DDA on agriculture, as a tool of development, links well to the fact that agriculture in the developing countries accounts for a substantial share of their gross domestic products (GDPs) and exports. This situation, therefore, calls for a closer consideration of the possible impact of agricultural liberalisation in South Africa even though agricultural share of GDP is less than 4 percent.

“Taiwan's birth rate at world record low”, opening the newspapers in Taiwan, we often could see the similar titles once in a while, the total fertility rate is 1.03‰ in 2010 which means each woman only give birth to 1.03 child a life. The population is one of the key factors to form the country. The low birth rate phenomenon occurred not only in Taiwan, but also in many developed countries. Demographers, governmental and international institutions have feared that lowest-low fertility might prove to be persistent in both developed and developing countries. Demographers in the mid-1990s could not have predicted that fertility would fall so rapidly to such levels. Not only did fertility but also other indicators related to fertility and the family adjusted suddenly and we are approaching the recent fertility decline from a broader perspective that considers the traditional and cultural legacies which affect the everyday life of ordinary citizens. The article would take the experience of OECD countries and discuss the phenomenon of the fertility measures and observe the plausible approaches of education authorities deal with low birth rate in developed countries and Taiwan.

Abstract This thesis includes three separate empirical studies on economic demography and health economics. The first study explores the effect of alcohol consumption on divorce across 23 OECD countries during the period 1960–2010. We find strong evidence that alcohol consumption is a major socioeconomic factor which influences divorces in these countries. We find robust evidence on the relationship between alcohol consumption and divorce rates both in the short and long run. In addition, using worldwide survey data on values we explore whether the change in values with respect to marriage, and moral values can explain our findings. It is noteworthy, that alcohol consumption has a significant effect on divorces even after controlling for moral values. The second and third studies concentrate on the economics of suicide. In the second study, we explore the effects of unemployment on the well-being of the regional population with disaggregated suicide data across gender and age in Finland during 1991–2011. Our findings suggest that the increased job insecurity is associated with higher number of suicides than what is expected in good economic times. The effect is significant especially for the prime working-age (35–64 years old) male suicides. The second main contribution of this study is to relate the concept of social norm to unemployment. We show that in high unemployment areas the association between job loss and suicide mortality is not as severe as in low unemployment areas. An implication is that the burden of unemployment is reduced when it becomes socially more common and acceptable. The goal of the third study is to provide evidence on the effects of economic crises on suicides in 21 OECD countries over the period between 1970 and 2011. In conclusion, this study shows that over 60 000 suicides are attributable to the economic/financial crises since 1970. Two main findings emerged from the data. First, the impact of the most recent global financial crisis (2008) on suicides was not particularly stronger than that of the previous major economic/financial crises. Second, stock market crashes and banking crises are the most severe economic crises in terms of excess suicides when calculated on population-level data. / Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja koostuu kolmesta empiirisestä tutkimuksesta. Tutkimukset keskittyvät väestötason kysymyksiin avioerojen määrään vaikuttavien sosioekonomisten tekijöiden, sekä makrotaloudellisten tekijöiden ja itsemurhien välisen yhteyden näkökulmasta. Ensimmäisessä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan alkoholin kulutuksen vaikutusta avioerojen määrään 23 OECD-maassa vuosina 1960–2010. Tutkimuksessa havaitaan alkoholin kulutuksen olevan yksi merkittävimmistä avioeroihin vaikuttavista sosioekonomisista tekijöistä sekä lyhyellä että pitkällä aikavälillä tarkasteltuna. Tutkimuksen mukaan alkoholin kulutuksella näyttäisi olevan vaikutusta avioerojen lukumäärään myös silloin, kun moraaliarvoissa tapahtuneet muutokset on huomioitu. Toinen ja kolmas tutkimus keskittyvät itsemurhien taloustieteeseen. Toisessa tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan työttömyyden vaikutuksia hyvinvointiin. Aineistona käytetään maakuntatason sukupuoli- ja ikäryhmäjaoteltua aineistoa itsemurhakuolleisuudesta Suomessa vuosina 1991–2011. Tutkimuksen mukaan kasvava epävarmuus työpaikan pysyvyydestä voi johtaa korkeampiin itsemurhalukuihin kuin mitä olisi odotettavissa parempina taloudellisina aikoina. Tämä tulos näyttäytyy erityisesti työikäisten miesten keskuudessa. Toinen tutkimuksen päätuloksista liittyy sosiaalisten normien näkymiseen siinä, miten työttömyys vaikuttaa itsemurhakuolleisuuteen. Tulokset osoittavat, että korkeamman työttömyyden alueilla työn menettämisen ja itsemurhakuolleisuuden välinen yhteys ei ole niin voimakas kuin matalamman työttömyyden alueilla. Sosiaalisten normien vaikutus näyttäisi suojaavan ihmisiä itsemurhakuolleisuudelta niissä tapauksissa, jolloin työttömyys on yleisempää. Kolmas tutkimus tarjoaa tietoa talouskriisien vaikutuksista itsemurhiin 21 OECD-maassa vuosina 1970–2011. Tutkimuksen mukaan yli 60 tuhannen itsemurhan voidaan katsoa olevan yhteydessä talouskriiseihin vuodesta 1970 lähtien. Löydökset osoittavat, etteivät viimeisimmän globaalin finassikriisin vaikutukset itsemurhakuolleisuuteen poikenneet merkittävästi aikaisempiin laajoihin kriiseihin verrattuna. Lisäksi pankki- ja osakemarkkinakriiseillä näyttäisi olevan muita talouskriisejä vakavammat vaikutukset itsemurhakuolleisuuteen väestötasolla tarkasteltuna.

This diploma thesis examines the impact and consequences of the implementation of deferred tuition in the Czech Republic on an quality and a system of financing of universities. The aim is to determine the real impact of tuition fees on improving the quality of university education and make recommendations for an implementation or a rejection of this form of financial participation. The first part of my thesis contains theoretical views on education and its role in the modern economy, it defines the term "education" as a kind of an economic good and describes the current system of university education in the Czech Republic. The empirical research will be comparing the current situation of university education system in the Czech Republic with the situation in the EU and OECD countries. The analysis will be based on statistical data on the number of people with university education, the volume of investment into this kind of education, the ratio of public and private funding system, the number of students enrolling on universities, total expenditures per student, applying of university student and other labor market indicators. Based on this comparison,the strengths and the weaknesses of the Czech university education will be established and its trend in the last 5 years. Within the scope of a planned introduction of direct financial participation of university students, the principle of deferred tuition will be considered as a potential tool not only to increase private funding in the system, but also to achieve a better standards of university education. The possible effects of the introduction of tuition fees in the country will be estimated based on the experience with the implementation of this system abroad (UK and Australia) and meta-analysis of expert opinion on financing university education system. The conclusion of the thesis includes a summary of the extent to which the inflow of private funds into the system changes the strengths and weaknesses of the university education in the Czech Republic and making recommendations for its implementation.

This literature review combines findings from 13 separate empirical studies from 2016-2023 with the goal of examining ethnic discrimination in the housing market across OECD countries. This review aims to highlight the various discriminations, the amount of discrimination rates and the extent of ethnic discrimination in the housing market. The findings reveal consistent and accurate evidence of ethnic discriminations against ethnic minorities from real estate agents and landlords, manifested through fewer positive responses and higher rejection rates. These studies altogether prove that ethnic discrimination in the housing market persists despite initiatives to reduce discrimination. This review contributes to a deeper and a more comprehensive understanding of the subject.