This report examines why some policy reforms get implemented and others languish by examining 20 structural reform efforts in 10 OECD countries over the past two decades. The case studies cover a wide variety of reform attempts in three key areas: pensions, labour- and product-market regulation. Key factors in the political, economic and reform-specific arenas are identified as helping or hindering reform, and these findings are cross-checked using a relatively simple set of Spearman rank correlations. The report’s two-pronged analytical approach – quantitative and qualitative – results in unique insights for policy makers designing, adopting and implementing structural policy reforms.
Table of contents:
Executive Summary Part I. Structural Policy Reform: Learning from the Past Chapter 1. Introduction: Why past can be prologue -Annex 1.A1. Statistical methods and data sources Chapter 2. Key determinants of successful structural reform Part II. Case Studies in Pension-System Reform Chapter 3. France: The 2003 pension reform Chapter 4. Italy: The 1994 pension reform proposals Chapter 5. Mexico: The reform of the federal employees' pension system, 2001-07 Chapter 6. Poland: Reform of the general pension system, 1996-99 Chapter 7. Poland: Reform of the farmers' social security system, 2003-05 Chapter 8. United States: The 2005 Social Security reform debate Part III. Case Studies in Labour Market Reform Chapter 9. France: the contrat d'insertion professionnelle, 1994 Chapter 10. Germany: The Hartz reforms of the labour market, 2002-05 Chapter 11. Italy: The Treu (1997) and Biagi (2002) reforms Chapter 12. Mexico: Labour law reform 2001-03 Chapter 13. The Netherlands: Reform of disability insurance, 2002-06 Chapter 14. Spain: Labour market reform 1994 and 1997 Chapter 15. Sweden: Sickness insurance, 1990-2002 Chapter 16. United States: The 1996 welfare reform Part IV. Case Studies in Product-Market Reform Chapter 17. Australia: Power-sector reform 1990-2004 Chapter 18. Australia: Water reform, 1004-2004 Chapter 19. Germany: Retail opening hours 1999-2004 Chapter 20. The Netherlands: Rent deregulation 2004-07 Chapter 21. Spain: Retail entry and opening hours, 1995-2004 Chapter 22. Sweden: Postal liberalisation, 1992-99
