Responding to the Going for Growth Policy Priorities

Against the background of a stronger need for reform in the wake of the crisis, this chapter assesses the progress that each country has made over the past five years in a broad range of structural policy areas where government action could boost long-term growth. Two-thirds of OECD countries have sought to address at least one of the five policy weaknesses that were identified over the period. However, such reforms have been mostly incremental rather than radical in nature, and have seldom fully addressed the underlying policy deficiencies. Reforms have also been more frequent where they were expected to deliver immediate benefits – such as for increased spending on active labour market policies or tax cuts – than where they might have hurt the short-term interests of specific groups – such as with incumbent investors, farmers and permanent workers under competition policy, agricultural policy and job protection reforms.

Economic Policy Reforms 2010: Going for Growth

Responding to the Going for Growth Policy Priorities

an Overview of Progress since 2005