“…Broadly speaking, it means making health-care systems more attentive to the needs of individual patients and ensuring they get the appropriate care for acute episodes as well as care aimed at stabilising their health over long periods in less costly environments. These issues are of particular interest to patients with chronic conditions and the elderly who may find it difficult to "navigate" fragmented health-care systems that are often found in OECD countries. …”

“…However, indexation to prices is less costly, allowing a larger initial pension than under earnings indexation for a given budget constraint. …”

“…Restrictions on internal trade also continue to exist, and implementation of the Agreement on Internal Trade is less effective than it could be. More attention needs to be focussed on removing those regulations that restrain competition, particularly in professional services. …”

“…Nevertheless, there is scope to go further by: increasing participation in early childhood education and care of children from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds and improving the quality of such education; improving teaching quality; reducing stratification in the school system; and making tertiary education more attractive and responsive to labour-market requirements. …”

“…Moreover, Canada’s bio-energy production, in particular the production of second-generation bio-ethanol (from cellulose), is under pressure in light of less costly bio-energy production overseas. Against this background, governments are striving to ensure the long-term viability of the sector. …”

“…The results indicate the STW raises hours flexibility by increasing the output elasticity of working time and helps to preserve jobs in the context of a recession by making employment and unemployment less elastic with respect to output. A key finding is that the timing of STW is crucial. …”

“…The government put in place a safety net composed of severance pay and early retirement schemes that, combined with natural attrition, yielded a reduction in the SOE workforce of almost one million people in less than a decade. While the largely voluntary nature of the schemes may have caused some adverse selection and made them more costly than necessary, the benefit has been to avoid social discontent. …”

“…By combining household survey data with growth projections for 145 countries, it shows that Asia accounts for less than one-quarter of today’s middle class. By 2020, that share could double. …”

“…The purpose of this Test Guideline is to determine the effects on the reproduction of a substance administered with food to birds.Birds are fed a diet containing the test substance in various concentrations for a period of not less than 20 weeks. A minimum of three dietary concentrations of the test substance is required. …”

“…The result of poor regulation and formalities is that national economies become less able to grow, compete, adjust, and create jobs. …”

“…A collaborative approach between government levels to overcome some of these problems, as recently initiated by the Council of Australian Governments, would help to develop better governance arrangements and improve spending assignments. A less complex system of inter-governmental transfers would also contribute to a more effective specification of spending responsibilities. …”

“…This trend is partially explained by labour market dualism, with an increasing proportion of non-regular workers who are paid significantly less than regular workers, as well as by other factors, including the ageing of the workforce. …”

“…Only five OECD countries devote less of their national income to pharmaceuticals. …”

“…Some empirical studies have analysed the political drivers of private international liquidity, but paradoxically very few have looked at the political economy of bank flows. Even less research exists on the role of politics in explaining cross-border banking movements towards emerging democracies. …”

“…All modified contracts were changed for the first time less than 3 years after the initial signing of the concession. …”

“…However, direct empirical evidence of the positive effects of these policies on productivity is less forthcoming. A pervasive theme from the analysis is the importance of coupling policies aimed at encouraging innovation or technological adoption with well designed framework policies that allow knowledge spillovers to proliferate. …”

“…Measures of financial leverage give less warning and typically only deteriorate once the economy begins to slow and asset prices are falling. …”

“…As a return to high revenue buoyancy will not be immediate, there are challenges for delivering the same with less money but it is also an opportunity to reconsider provision of public services. …”

“…Income inequality is close to the OECD average, but the tax and benefit system is less redistributive than those in most OECD countries. …”

“…We estimate whether student achievement depends more or less on SES in school systems employing these institutional features. …”