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Going for Growth 2008 Policy Options for Long-Term Growth in the US Presentation: Jørgen Elmeskov OECD Acting Chief Economist Discussant: Peter Orszag Director of the Congressional Budget Office

Event Description:

Across the OECD, governments are seeking to undertake structural reforms to strengthen economic growth. Going for Growth 2008 takes stock of recent progress in implementing policy reforms to improve labor productivity and utilization that were identified as priorities in the 2007 edition. The set of internationally comparable indicators provided here enables countries to assess their economic performance and structural policies in a broad range of areas.
In addition, this issue contains five analytical chapters covering:

• Why working hours vary across OECD countries
• What the scope is to improve performance of primary and secondary schools in OECD countries
• How policies can enhance investment in higher education
• How geographical factors affect GDP per capita
• What impact domestic regulation has on international trade in services

Biographies:

Jørgen Elmeskov is Director of the Policy Studies Branch of the OECD Economics Department and responsible for the Department until a new Chief Economist is nominated. He has worked in the OECD since 1986 in various capacities, being associated, inter alia, with the OECD Jobs Strategy, the OECD Growth Project and the Organisation’s work on climate change and on globalisation. He also chaired the editorial board of OECD Economic Studies. He was a Member of the Danish Government’s Welfare Commission, whose proposals triggered recent pension reforms aimed at delaying retirement and linking future changes in retirement age to developments in life expectancy. Mr. Elmeskov is of Danish nationality and has a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.

Peter R. Orszag is the seventh Director of CBO. His four-year term began on January 18, 2007. Before joining CBO, Dr. Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. While at Brookings, he also served as Director of The Hamilton Project; Director of the Retirement Security Project; and Codirector of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture with the Urban Institute. In previous government service, Dr. Orszag served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Senior Economic Adviser at the National Economic Council during 1997 and 1998. Earlier, he served as a staff economist and then Senior Adviser and Senior Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and obtained an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall scholar.