Sean Dougherty - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sean Dougherty

OECD Economics Department working papers, 2013

Complete document available on OLIS in its original format This document and any map included her... more Complete document available on OLIS in its original format 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.

OECD Fiscal Federalism Studies, 2019

FISCAL FEDERALISM WORKING PAPER SERIES This series is designed to make available to a wider reade... more FISCAL FEDERALISM WORKING PAPER SERIES This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies drawing on the work of the OECD's Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language (English or French) with a short summary available in the other. OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the author(s). Working Papers describe preliminary results or research in progress by the author(s) and are published to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues on which the OECD works. Comments on Working Papers are welcomed, and may be sent to the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations,

Public Sector Economics

* The opinions expressed and arguments employed here are solely those of the authors and do not n... more * The opinions expressed and arguments employed here are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. Comments and suggestions from Rolf Alter, Luiz de Mello, Isabelle Chatry and two anonymous referees were most appreciated. The paper was written while Andoni Montes Nebreda was visiting the OECD.

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-entific ... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-entific research documents, whether they are pub-lished or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et a ̀ la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

The linkage between foreign technology inflows and total factor productivity (TFP) is examined at... more The linkage between foreign technology inflows and total factor productivity (TFP) is examined at the industry level over the period 1980 to 1995. Appropriate foreign technology transfers, measured by transfer contracts and foreign direct investment (FDI), are found to have a very strong effect on TFP growth. Relatively labor-intensive industries are best able to independently assimilate new technology. Domestic R&D is found improve productivity, but to be most effective when closely integrated with technology transfer efforts. Technology transfers are found to be of comparable importance with ownership in explaining TFP. Export orientation, while a predictor of differential TFP performance, is not as powerful an indicator as technology transfer. A newly developed data set of technology transfer contract flows is integrated with factor statistics from the Second and Third Industrial Census to perform the analysis. 1.

International Economics and Economic Policy, 2021

This paper discusses the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 crisis across levels of government. It con... more This paper discusses the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 crisis across levels of government. It contrasts the composition of revenues and expenditures of different levels of government and their main institutional differences. For revenues, an error correction model is used to estimate the short-term elasticities of different levels of government, showing that subnational governments' (SNGs) revenues are less sensitive to economic downturns than central governments', mostly because SNGs tend to rely more on recurrent taxes on immovable property. For expenditures, central governments are often responsible for the bulk of expenditure on social protection, while SNGs have a higher investment-to-revenue ratio. The combination of these differences of expenditure assignment with the substantial budget and borrowing constraints that SNGs face creates a tendency towards pro-cyclicality at the subnational level and counter-cyclicality at the central level. Furthermore, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, in order for SNGs to have the fiscal capacity for necessary measures to tackle the outbreak, central governments supported SNGs mostly through intergovernmental grants. As a consequence, central governments have absorbed most of the shock.

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2021

This paper examines the role of institutions-notably the degree of administrative decentralisatio... more This paper examines the role of institutions-notably the degree of administrative decentralisation across levels of government-in health care decision-making and health spending as well as life expectancy. The empirical analysis builds on a new methodology to analyse health sector performance. In particular, the present analysis examines the impact of centralisation versus decentralisation of responsibilities across levels of government, making use of newly collected data on governance and expenditure assignment, as well as non-linear empirical specifications. An interlocking U-shaped relationship is found with respect to expenditure and life expectancy. Under moderate decentralisation, public spending in health care is lower, while life expectancy is higher, compared with more centralised systems; however, in highly decentralised systems, public spending is higher and life expectancy is lower. This finding of a "fish-shaped" relationship for decentralisation and outcomes also helps to understand recent reforms of OECD health systems, which have often reverted towards more moderate degrees of administrative decentralisation.

OECD Economic Policy Papers, 2020

Synthesising good practices in fiscal federalism: Key recommendations from 15 years of country su... more Synthesising good practices in fiscal federalism: Key recommendations from 15 years of country surveys The design of intergovernmental fiscal relations can help to ensure that tax and spending powers are assigned in a way to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Decentralisation can enable sub-central governments to provide better public services for households and firms, while it can also make intergovernmental frameworks more complex, harming equity. The challenges of fiscal federalism are multi-faceted and involve difficult trade-offs. This synthesis paper consolidates much of the OECD's work on fiscal federalism over the past 15 years, with a particular focus on OECD Economic Surveys. The paper identifies a range of good practices on the design of country policies and institutions related to strengthening fiscal capacity, delineating responsibilities across levels of government and improving intergovernmental coordination .

OECD Journal on Budgeting, 2019

are gratefully acknowledged. This article sheds light on the role of subnational governments in h... more are gratefully acknowledged. This article sheds light on the role of subnational governments in health systems across OECD countries. The views in this article show a move away from traditional measures of decentralisation, such as the share of subnational government expenditure of total expenditure, to measures capturing a range of responsibilities in the health sector. The data comes from the 2017 OECD Survey on Performance Measurement Systems in the Health Sector and Responsibilities across Levels of Government. The results show that despite health representing a large sector of subnational government expenditure, central governments still have considerable decision-making power. This power applies to key policy-making and budgeting decisions.

OECD Journal on Budgeting, 2019

OECD Productivity Working Papers, 2017

This article analyses and compares ten institutions that have a mandate to promote productivity-e... more This article analyses and compares ten institutions that have a mandate to promote productivity-enhancing reforms. The selected bodies include government advisory councils, standing inquiry bodies, and ad hoc task forces. We find that well-designed pro-productivity institutions can generally improve the quality of the policy process and political debate, and can make a significant contribution to evidence-based policy-making. Our findings also support the view that concentrating knowledge and research on productivity in one independent, highly skilled and reputed body can help create the momentum and the knowledge that are required to promote long-term productivity growth. Institutions located outside government have more leeway in promoting reforms that challenge vested interests and produce results that go beyond the electoral cycle. Smart government bodies can allow experimental policy-making and a more adaptive, evidence-based policy process. To be successful, pro-productivity institutions require sufficient resources, skills, transparency and procedural accountability to fulfil their tasks; a sufficiently broad mission, oriented towards long-term well-being and with both supply-side and demand-side considerations; policy evaluation functions; and the ability to reach out to the general public in a variety of ways. Over the past two decades, promoting productivity growth has risen as one of the key challenges facing policy-makers around the world. Despite being widely acknowledged as an intermediate, rather than final, goal of economic policy, productivity is considered as a key driver of long-run economic prosperity. As Paul Krugman (1994) famously observed, "productivity isn't everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. A country's ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker." Against this background, economic data since 2000, and particularly since the Great Recession, show a slowdown in productivity growth that reflects a mix of cyclical and structural factors (OECD, 2016a). Explanations vary across countries, and include weak investment in

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2013

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2012

G-MonD Working Paper n°38 For sustainable and inclusive world development ha l-0

India’s growth performance has improved significantly over the past 20 years, but has been uneven... more India’s growth performance has improved significantly over the past 20 years, but has been uneven across industries and states. While some service industries, notably in the information and communications technology sector, have become highly competitive in world markets – yielding considerable gains for employees and investors – manufacturing industries have lagged and improved their performance only recently. A divergence in performance has taken place, with firms in those states and sectors with the best institutions gaining, and those in the more tightly regulated states and sectors falling further behind. As a result, the competitive landscape is uneven across sectors and states and a high degree of concentration continues to prevail in different industries. While this is partly the result of the legacy of licensing, change has been politically difficult, making it harder for the manufacturing sector than for the service sector to expand. The need for further institutional refo...

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2015

Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Cooperation... more Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 06-Mar-2015 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ English-Or. English ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT BOOSTING GROWTH AND REDUCING INFORMALITY IN MEXICO ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT WORKING PAPERS No. 1188 By Sean M. Dougherty OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the author(s).

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2008

Profil de croissance de l'Inde et obstacles à une accélération de la croissance La croissance en ... more Profil de croissance de l'Inde et obstacles à une accélération de la croissance La croissance en Inde s'est sensiblement améliorée depuis une vingtaine d'années, mais les performances sont inégales d'un secteur ou d'un État à l'autre. Si certaines industries de services, notamment dans le secteur des technologies de l'information et des communications, sont désormais très compétitives sur les marchés mondiaux-à l'origine de gains considérables pour les salariés et les investisseurs-les industries manufacturières restent à la traîne et n'ont commencé que récemment à améliorer leur performance. Les écarts se sont creusés, les entreprises des États et secteurs dotés des institutions les plus efficaces allant de l'avant, tandis que celles des États et secteurs plus strictement réglementés accusaient plus encore leur retard. D'où un paysage concurrentiel fort dissemblable d'un secteur ou d'un État à l'autre, et une forte concentration, notamment aux mains de la puissance publique, dans plusieurs secteurs d'activité. S'il faut y voir pour une part un héritage du système des autorisations administratives, les évolutions ont été politiquement délicates, rendant plus difficile l'expansion du secteur manufacturier que celle du secteur des services. Il est impératif de poursuivre les réformes institutionnelles, en privilégiant la réglementation des marchés de produits et du travail, aux niveaux aussi bien de l'administration centrale que des États. Ce document de travail se rapporte à l'Étude économique de l'Inde 2007 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/inde).

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2008

Over the past decade, labour market outcomes have improved in India, with net employment rising m... more Over the past decade, labour market outcomes have improved in India, with net employment rising markedly for the economy as a whole. However, these gains have arisen primarily in the unorganized and informal sectors of the economy, where productivity and wages are generally much lower than in the formal organized sector. It is only India's organized sector that is subject to labour market regulation, and here employment has fallen. The role of employment protection legislation in affecting employment outcomes is controversial both in the OECD area and in India. This paper looks at the impact of employment protection legislation and related regulation on the dynamics of employment in the organized sector of the economy, using newly constructed measures of national regulation and state labour reforms. We find that while reforms have taken some of the bite out of core labour laws, more comprehensive reforms are needed to address the distortions that have emerged. This working paper relates to the 2007 Economic Survey of India (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/india).

OECD Journal: Economic Studies, 2009

OECD Economics Department working papers, 2013

OECD Fiscal Federalism Studies, 2019

Public Sector Economics

International Economics and Economic Policy, 2021

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2021

OECD Economic Policy Papers, 2020

OECD Journal on Budgeting, 2019

OECD Productivity Working Papers, 2017

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2013

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2012

G-MonD Working Paper n°38 For sustainable and inclusive world development ha l-0

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2015

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2008

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2008

OECD Journal: Economic Studies, 2009