Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Tweet[IWS] OECD: 2008 UNITED STATES ECONOMIC SURVEY [9 December 2008]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Economic Survey of the United States 2008 [9 December 2008]
http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,3343,en_2649_33733_41803296_1_1_1_1,00.html
Executive Summary
http://www.oecd.org/document/11/0,3343,en_2649_33733_41807435_1_1_1_1,00.html
[exerpt]
Contents
Chapter 1: Key policy challenges
The United States is facing very difficult economic conditions. After a long period of robust economic growth, a protracted downturn in the housing market has triggered a severe financial crisis, which is weighing heavily on real activity. The authorities have vigorously used monetary and fiscal policies to attenuate the downturn, in GDP growth. Further support would be desirable, if financial and economic conditions do not quickly improve. As soon as the recovery is firmly established, however, substantial fiscal consolidation will be required to put public finances on a sustainable long term path. Financial sector regulation will also need to be reformed to overcome the weaknesses exposed by the crisis, in particular by moving to a more unified, comprehensive and objective-oriented model of supervision. Despite recent economic difficulties, the longer term outlook for the US economy remains favourable, supported by solid productivity growth. Nevertheless, the fruits of growth have not been evenly distributed in recent decades, raising questions about the social sustainability of such growth. There are also growing concerns about highly unequal financial access to health care in the United States, which may contribute to the mediocre health status of the population by international comparison despite very high levels of expenditure. Health insurance reform to give better financial access to health care to low-income persons would help to overcome some equity and efficiency concerns. US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to be a major contributor to global emissions. Substantial reductions will be required if global co-operation to combat climate change is to succeed. Appropriate pricing on carbon emissions to reflect their environmental cost would allow emission reductions to be achieved at lowest economic costs.
Chapter 2: Overcoming the Financial Crisis
The financial crisis that emerged in mid 2007 has caused considerable economic disruptions in the United States and elsewhere, and exposed major flaws in the global financial system. After examining the origins of the crisis, this chapter recommends specific policy responses to resolve the immediate problems and discusses how to make the US financial system more resilient and stable in the future.
Chapter 3: Health Care Reform
In spite of improvements, on various measures of health outcomes the United States appears to rank relatively poorly among OECD countries. Health expenditures, in contrast, are significantly higher than in any other OECD country. While there are factors beyond the health care system itself that contribute to this gap in performance, there is also likely to be scope to improve the health of Americans while reducing, or at least not increasing spending. This chapter focuses on two factors that contribute to this discrepancy between health outcomes and health expenditures in the United States: inequitable access to medical services and subsidised private insurance policies; and inefficiencies in public health insurance. It then suggests two sets of reforms likely to improve the US health-care system. The first is a package of reforms to achieve close to universal health insurance coverage. The second set of reforms relates to payment methods and coverage decisions within the Medicare programme to realign incentives and increase the extent of economic evaluation of different medical procedures.
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Economic Survey of the United States 2008 [9 December 2008]
http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,3343,en_2649_33733_41803296_1_1_1_1,00.html
Executive Summary
http://www.oecd.org/document/11/0,3343,en_2649_33733_41807435_1_1_1_1,00.html
[exerpt]
Contents
Chapter 1: Key policy challenges
The United States is facing very difficult economic conditions. After a long period of robust economic growth, a protracted downturn in the housing market has triggered a severe financial crisis, which is weighing heavily on real activity. The authorities have vigorously used monetary and fiscal policies to attenuate the downturn, in GDP growth. Further support would be desirable, if financial and economic conditions do not quickly improve. As soon as the recovery is firmly established, however, substantial fiscal consolidation will be required to put public finances on a sustainable long term path. Financial sector regulation will also need to be reformed to overcome the weaknesses exposed by the crisis, in particular by moving to a more unified, comprehensive and objective-oriented model of supervision. Despite recent economic difficulties, the longer term outlook for the US economy remains favourable, supported by solid productivity growth. Nevertheless, the fruits of growth have not been evenly distributed in recent decades, raising questions about the social sustainability of such growth. There are also growing concerns about highly unequal financial access to health care in the United States, which may contribute to the mediocre health status of the population by international comparison despite very high levels of expenditure. Health insurance reform to give better financial access to health care to low-income persons would help to overcome some equity and efficiency concerns. US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to be a major contributor to global emissions. Substantial reductions will be required if global co-operation to combat climate change is to succeed. Appropriate pricing on carbon emissions to reflect their environmental cost would allow emission reductions to be achieved at lowest economic costs.
Chapter 2: Overcoming the Financial Crisis
The financial crisis that emerged in mid 2007 has caused considerable economic disruptions in the United States and elsewhere, and exposed major flaws in the global financial system. After examining the origins of the crisis, this chapter recommends specific policy responses to resolve the immediate problems and discusses how to make the US financial system more resilient and stable in the future.
Chapter 3: Health Care Reform
In spite of improvements, on various measures of health outcomes the United States appears to rank relatively poorly among OECD countries. Health expenditures, in contrast, are significantly higher than in any other OECD country. While there are factors beyond the health care system itself that contribute to this gap in performance, there is also likely to be scope to improve the health of Americans while reducing, or at least not increasing spending. This chapter focuses on two factors that contribute to this discrepancy between health outcomes and health expenditures in the United States: inequitable access to medical services and subsidised private insurance policies; and inefficiencies in public health insurance. It then suggests two sets of reforms likely to improve the US health-care system. The first is a package of reforms to achieve close to universal health insurance coverage. The second set of reforms relates to payment methods and coverage decisions within the Medicare programme to realign incentives and increase the extent of economic evaluation of different medical procedures.
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 3:00 PM
