Martine Durand

Saving trends and behaviour in OECD countries

National saving ratios are generally lower now than in the 1960s or 1970s. This paper first reviews developments in national and international saving and investment trends in OECD countries since the 1960s. It then examines sectoral saving trends and considers the links between them. There are seen to be important offsets between government and private sector saving and, within the latter, between the business sector and households, so that national and private saving rates tend to be more stable than their component parts. The paper looks in particular at the reasons lying behind the volatile behaviour of household saving in certain countries in recent years ...

The OECD Better Life Initiative: How's Life? and the Measurement of Well-Being

The paper will describe a range of activities pursued by the OECD Statistics Directorate as part of its work on measuring performance „Beyond GDP‟. Recent OECD statistical work in this filed has pursued two main objectives. First, to develop better metrics of people‟s well-being in the future, where well-being is understood as a multi-dimensional concept articulated around several dimensions pertaining to both people‟s material conditions and their quality of life. In this field, the article will highlight some of the OECD methodological contributions on the measurement of material conditions (i.e. guidelines on the measurement of household wealth at the micro-level) and quality of life (i.e. guidelines on the measurement of subjective well-being), drawing on the OECD reports published in 2013. Second, to present and analyze evidence on people‟s well-being in OECD countries and other major economies based on a large range of indicators. In this field, the article will describe some of the key findings of the next edition of “How‟s Life?” (to be released in September 2013), which will focus on the impact of the recession, quality of work, sustainability and gender issues. The article will conclude by emphasizing that better well-being metrics hold the promise of changing policies, moving them away from their typical „silo‟ approach and towards a joined-up approach that takes into account policies interactions across the board.

Challenges for International Economic Policy Coordination in EMU

The euro area is unique in the sense that it consists of eleven sovereign states with a single currency. Economic policy making powers at the euro-area level differ significantly from those in fully-fledged federations. In particular, while fiscal policy is formulated in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact, virtually all fiscal competencies remain at the national level according to the principle of subsidiarity. By contrast, the European Central Bank (ECB) sets monetary policy for the area as a whole. This new framework raises the issue of co-ordination of policies at the euroarea level. It also raises issues regarding the future relations of the Economic Monetary Union (EMU) with countries outside the area. In this respect, this paper addresses the following two questions: What are the risks that the new institutional arrangements put in place in the euro area may generate more unbalanced policies — or make it more difficult to conduct stabilisation policies — than earlier, creating negative international spillovers? And related to this, does the new framework imply systemic risks for the functioning of international financial markets?

La politique migratoire française à un tournant

La politique migratoire francaise se trouve a un tournant. Face a l’emergence d’un marche du travail mondial pour les personnes hautement qualifiees et de penuries de main d’oeuvre dans certains secteurs de l’economie, la France doit s’orienter vers une plus grande diversification de ses flux migratoires, a la fois quant aux categories d’entrees, aux regions d’origine et au type de migration, tout en continuant de lutter contre l’immigration irreguliere et l’emploi illegal d’etrangers. Cela demandera un savant dosage entre des entrees de migrants selectionnes et non selectionnes, de migrants temporaires et permanents et de migrants hautement et faiblement qualifies et, d’une facon plus generale, entre ouverture et controle. Pour reussir, la France devra cooperer activement et efficacement a la fois avec ses partenaires europeens et les pays d’origine. Mais si la France veut rester une terre d’accueil, elle devra aussi imperativement mieux integrer les immigres et leurs enfants. French migration policy is at a crossroads. In the face of an emerging global labour market for highly qualified persons and of labour shortages in certain economic sectors, France must aim for a greater diversification of its migration flows, with respect to entry categories, regions of origin and type of migration, at the same time as it continues to combat irregular migration and the illegal employment of foreign nationals. This will require getting the right mix of selected and non-selected migrants, of temporary and permanent migrants, of high-skilled and low-skilled, and more generally of openness and control. To succeed, France must co-operate actively and effectively with both its European partners and countries of origin. But if France is to remain a land of welcome, it must also necessarily better integrate immigrants and their offspring.

Challenges for International Economic Policy Coordination in EMU: Institutional Setting, Financial Market Reactions and the Importance of Systemic Risk

The launch of the euro and, with it, the institutional framework that has been established are raising a number of important issues for the co-ordination of policies, not only within EMU, but also with countries outside the euro area. This paper looks at some of the challenges that the institutions and processes put in place for conducting policy in the euro area pose for international co-ordination. More precisely, it assesses whether there are risks that the new institutional arrangements may generate more imbalanced policies than earlier, thereby creating negative international spillovers. This paper also discusses whether these arrangements may create new systemic risks in international financial markets.