OECD Economic Surveys: Israel 2016 (eBook)

Oecd (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2016 | 1. Auflage
144 Seiten
OECD Publishing (Verlag)
978-92-64-25032-1 (ISBN)

Infos

This 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Israel examines recent economic developments, policies and prospects. The special chapters cover: Special Features: Boosting competition on Israeli markets and Improving the pension system.

Inhalt

Table of contents 5
Basic statistics of Israel, 2014 9
Glossary 10
Executive summary 11
The economy has strong fundamentals, but productivity performance has been weak 12
Per capita GDP and productivity 12
Income inequality and poverty are high 12
Poverty rate relative to threshold of 50% of median disposable income 12
The fiscal framework is not conducive to inclusive growth 12
Expenditure on educational institutions 12
Assessment and recommendations 15
The economy is resilient and has sound fundamentals 16
Figure 1. Macroeconomic performance has been solid 17
The short-term outlook is expected to improve 18
Figure 2. Effective exchange rates and export performance 18
Table 1. Macroeconomic indicators and projections 19
Table 2. Possible shocks to the Israeli economy 20
Narrowing divides between communities 20
Figure 3. Better Life Index (BLI) reflects the great diversity of the Israeli population 21
Maintaining an expansionary monetary stance and public debt reduction remains appropriate 23
Monetary policy in a challenging context 23
Figure 4. Monetary policy indicators 24
Preserving financial stability 23
Figure 5. Financial indicators, 2014 25
Figure 6. Household debt is low, and the risk profile of new mortgages has been reduced 26
Adjusting the fiscal framework to better address the nation’s economic and social needs 26
Figure 7. The general government accounts have strengthened 27
Figure 8. Revised medium-term fiscal targets 28
Figure 9. Cutting public expenditures has led to inadequate spending in some key sectors 30
Productivity-enhancing reforms to boost growth and make it more inclusive 29
Figure 10. Productivity gap and TFP 31
Strengthening competition in the sheltered sectors of the economy 31
Figure 11. Trade openness is relatively low and product market regulation stringent 31
Figure 12. The productivity gap between the exposed and sheltered sectors is large and price levels high 33
Figure 13. Tariff and non-tariff trade barriers are high 34
Figure 14. Regulation in retail trade is restrictive 35
Figure 15. The banking sector has an oligopolistic market structure 36
Raising the education level of disadvantaged groups 38
Figure 16. The economic benefits of boosting average education are potentially large 39
Figure 17. Resources and outcomes in education have increased, but further progress is needed 40
Well-designed reforms to promote social cohesion and share the fruits of growth 41
Better integrating the disadvantaged groups into the labour market 41
Figure 18. The employment rate has increased, but wage growth has been quite sluggish 42
Improving supply conditions on the housing market 42
Figure 19. Supply conditions in the housing market have improved somewhat 43
Improving the pension system and the welfare of retirees 44
Figure 20. The ageing process and public pension costs are quite moderate 45
Table 3. Gross and net pension replacement rates 45
Figure 21. The employment rate of seniors has risen strongly, but their poverty rate remains high 46
Table 4. Total pension-related public spending 47
Strengthening climate change policy 48
Figure 22. GHG emissions have risen less than GDP 48
Bibliography 49
Annex 1. Progress in structural reform 53
Annex 2. Quantification of the impact of product market reforms in Israel 59
Thematic chapters 63
Chapter 1. Boosting competition on Israeli markets 63
Product market shortcomings hurt growth 64
Significant shortcomings are disrupting many markets 64
Figure 1.1. Foreign trade indicators 65
Figure 1.2. Product market regulation 66
Figure 1.3. Employment by enterprise size class 67
Flawed product markets reduce productivity and drive up costs and prices 67
Figure 1.4. Per capita GDP and productivity 68
Figure 1.5. TFP, productivity gap and sectoral trade share 68
Figure 1.6. Comparative price levels 70
Room for progress on competition laws and their application 69
Box 1.1. Israel’s main competition bodies 71
Figure 1.7. The competition regulatory framework and its enforcement 71
Major reforms have been introduced to reduce the high level of economic concentration 72
Figure 1.8. Number of mergers filed 72
Antitrust practices could be better detected and penalised 73
Making state intervention more effective 75
It is worth pursuing privatisations and the reform of public enterprises 75
Figure 1.9. Restrictiveness of regulation of state-owned enterprises 76
The rationalisation of public procurement management has been too slow 77
Figure 1.10. Size of government procurement 77
Regulations should be made more competition-friendly, including in the environmental domain 78
Figure 1.11. Burdens on the economy due to environmental policies and their perceived stringency 79
Lowering import barriers would boost competition from abroad 80
Figure 1.12. Non-tariff barriers to trade and investment 80
Figure 1.13. Services trade restrictiveness index 81
Strengthening competition in the food sector 83
Reducing tariff barriers and speeding up agricultural policy reform 83
Figure 1.14. Tariffs on dairy products 84
Figure 1.15. Main characteristics of agricultural support 85
Reducing concentration and regulation in the agrifood chain 86
Figure 1.16. Ten most concentrated countries for grocery retailing within OECD 86
Figure 1.17. Regulation in retail trade 87
The economy would also benefit from greater competition in banking 88
Figure 1.18. Banking sector: efficiency, profitability and diffusion of Internet banking 89
Figure 1.19. Structure and concentration in the banking sector 90
Box 1.2. The organisation of the payment card market has encouraged rent-seeking by the financial institutions 91
Network industries can be made to work better 92
Improving postal services, telecoms, maritime freight and air transport 92
Figure 1.20. Product market indicators in postal services, telecom, ports and air transport 94
Regulatory reform and the extension of the rail network would improve land transport 96
Figure 1.21. Indicators of railway transport regulation 97
Resuming the reform of the electricity sector 97
Figure 1.22. Electricity sector indicators 98
Establishing an efficient natural gas market 100
Figure 1.23. Natural gas price 101
Recommendations for improving competition in the economy 102
Bibliography 104
Chapter 2. Improving the pension system and the welfare of retirees in Israel 109
To meet the challenge of an ageing population, Israel has embarked on significant pension reforms 110
The country is entering a phase of still moderate population ageing 110
Figure 2.1. Demographic indicators 111
Figure 2.2. Old-age dependency 112
Figure 2.3. Demographic developments: composition by community 113
A defined-contribution pension system has been implemented 112
Box 2.1. First-pillar allowances and funding 114
Figure 2.4. First-pillar pensions 115
Table 2.1. Gross and net pension replacement rates 116
Box 2.2. Adjustments to old public and private pension funds 117
Table 2.2. Main characteristics of the different types of second pillar pension plans 118
Figure 2.5. Second pillar of the pension system 119
Figure 2.6. Assets in the second pension pillar 120
Figure 2.7. Total assets cumulated in personal pension plans 121
State involvement in pension financing is relatively limited 121
Public spending on pensions is comparatively low 121
Figure 2.8. Public pension costs 122
Table 2.3. Total pension-related public spending 122
Public spending increases on pensions in the coming decades will be moderate and manageable 122
Figure 2.9. Long-term projections of first-pillar pension spending 123
Figure 2.10. Employment rate projections 124
Figure 2.11. Budgetary pensions 124
Box 2.3. Improving the governance of “budgetary pensions” and the transparency of the government’s contingent pension liabilities 125
Figure 2.12. Direct public spending on old-age and survivors’ pensions 127
Figure 2.13. Composition of budgetary pensions 127
The decline in poverty among the elderly has so far been limited 127
Average income of the elderly has increased as their employment rates have risen 127
Figure 2.14. Mean income of those over 65 128
Figure 2.15. Employment and disposable income developments among those over 65 129
Figure 2.16. Income sources of the elderly population 130
For some elderly people, poverty did not fall 129
Figure 2.17. Average income gap between elderly Arabs and non-Arabs 131
Figure 2.18. Relative poverty rates 131
Figure 2.19. Poverty rate of the elderly population 132
Figure 2.20. Inequality among the elderly 133
Figure 2.21. Basic monthly old-age pension and income supplement compared to the poverty threshold 133
Figure 2.22. Poverty rates of the elderly before and after taxes and transfers 134
Reforms to reduce the elderly poverty rate 134
Figure 2.23. Tax benefits on employers’ contributions to employee pensions, by deciles 135
Improving pension adequacy 136
Encouraging measures that stimulate financial returns and limit risk 136
Figure 2.24. Indicators of market structure of pension fund markets 137
Figure 2.25. Pension funds’ real rate of return 138
Figure 2.26. Pension funds’ fees and management costs 139
There is room to increase the senior employment rate 140
Figure 2.27. Retirement age 140
Figure 2.28. Male and female pensionable age and employment rates 141
Figure 2.29. Poverty and pension replacement rates 142
Figure 2.30. Marginal effective tax rate (METR) between conditional and absolute retirement age 143
Recommendations for improving the pension system 143
Bibliography 144

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.1.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
• ISBN-10: 92-64-25032-8 / 9264250328
• ISBN-13: 978-92-64-25032-1 / 9789264250321