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Every three years, when PISA results are published, the world’s media focuses on countries’ rankings in mathematics, reading and science performance. Often, what is lost in the subsequent national-level soulsearching about how to improve student performance is the fact that many countries have raised their game significantly since the first PISA test was conducted in 2000. In fact, half of the countries and economies that have participated in at least three PISA cycles have improved significantly in reading performance since 2000, a third have improved in mathematics performance since 2003, and almost a third have improved in science performance since 2006.

• Entre 2000 et 2012, le pourcentage de jeunes adultes (25-34 ans) diplômés de l’enseignement tertiaire a augmenté de plus de 3 % par an, en moyenne, dans les pays de l’OCDE.
• En moyenne, dans les 24 entités nationales et infranationales ayant pris part à l’Évaluation des compétences des adultes de l’OCDE, 39 % des adultes ont atteint un niveau de formation supérieur à celui de leurs parents.
• Un jeune âgé de 20 à 34 ans dont les parents sont diplômés de l’enseignement tertiaire est 4.5 fois plus susceptible de suivre une formation de niveau tertiaire qu’un jeune adulte dont les parents ne sont pas diplômés de ce niveau d’enseignement.

• Between 2000 and 2012, the proportion of young adults (25-34 year-olds) with a tertiary qualification has grown by more than 3% per year on average in OECD countries.
• On average across 24 national and sub-national entities participating in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills, 39% of adults have achieved a higher level of education than their parents.
• A 20-34 year-old with tertiary educated parents is 4.5 times more likely to participate in tertiary education than a young adult whose parents did not have a tertiary qualification.

The stepwise liberalisation of the EU internal aviation market resulted in 1993 in an open internal market that generated a series of supply side responses, which are partly comparable with the changes demonstrated in the deregulated US domestic air transport market. However, the starting point was quite different between these two markets. For example, until the deregulation in 1978, US legacy carriers operated a domestic crisscross network whereas the two flag carriers, Pan Am and TWA operated at various US gateways in stand-alone international networks based on the bilateral air service agreements concluded between the US and other states. After the deregulation, domestic major carriers transformed their crisscross domestic networks into radial hub and spoke networks (except the Delta hub at Atlanta that already existed before the deregulation). The domestic hubs in these networks also became the launching platforms for international operations when these domestic major carriers started to use their domestic feed for international operations. All in all, the former domestic major carriers became the new flag carriers in international markets, whereas the former two flag carriers went bankrupt due to the lack of domestic feed in order to adequately compete with these new internationally operating airlines.

• Almost one in three teachers across countries participating in the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) reports having more than 10% of potentially disruptive students with behaviour problems in their classes.
• Teachers with more than one in ten students with behaviour problems spend almost twice as much time keeping order in the classroom than their peers with less than 10% of such students in their class.
• Behaviour issues such as intimidation or verbal abuse among students are associated with student absenteeism.
• Schools that promote participation of students, teachers and parents in school decisions, combined with a culture of shared responsibility and mutual support, tend to have lower incidence of student misbehaviour.

Italian ports handled approximately 460 million tonnes of cargo in 2012 according to the last statistical report of the Italian Association of Port Authorities1 (Assoporti, 2014). This is more or less the same amount as the port of Rotterdam alone. The cargo handled at the port of Antwerp – the second largest port in Europe – was equivalent to the amount of the biggest five Italian ports. This picture is illustrative of the current Italian port situation in which 24 Port Authorities (PAs), established by the port law (nr. 84/1994), are considered main national gateways even if most of them are only small ports compared to the main international competitors. Only four out of the 24 PAs surpassed the 30 million tonnes in 2012 and only 2 of them (Genoa and Trieste) have frequently handled more than 50 million tonnes in the last years. On the other hand, in 2012 passenger transit accounted for almost 40 million passengers, due to the role of home ports of some harbours in the cruise sector and few ferry terminals – mainly involved in the traffic to/from the islands – that make the National passenger statistics comparable with the main European competitors. Figure 1 shows the location of the Italian Port Authorities.

• L’amélioration de la performance d’un pays dans l’enquête PISA n’est liée ni à sa situation géographique, ni à son niveau de richesse nationale, ni à sa culture.
• Dans la plupart des cas, les pays qui ont enregistré une amélioration marquée de leur performance dans l’enquête PISA – à savoir l’Allemagne, le Brésil, la Grèce, l’Italie, le Mexique, la Tunisie et la Turquie – sont ceux qui sont parvenus à réduire leur pourcentage d’élèves peu performants.
• Même au fil du temps, l’excellence et l’équité ne constituent pas deux objectifs incompatibles, comme en attestent les progrès observés en Allemagne, en Italie, au Mexique, en Tunisie et en Turquie.

In February 2014, transport officials from the European Union (E.U.) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow to discuss a possible comprehensive air transport agreement between both sides. At the meeting’s conclusion, the ASEAN states invited the European Commission to launch the internal processes necessary to secure a mandate to commence negotiations on an agreement. In particular, ASEAN welcomed Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas’ statement that he would propose to the Commission to seek authorization from the Council of the European Union to start negotiations (E.U.-ASEAN Joint Declaration, 2014).

Numerous studies on the aviation industry have confirmed that significant benefits can be brought by liberalizing the international market. After a comprehensive review of the recent studies on this issue, Fu and Oum (2014) concluded that there is strong evidence that liberalisation introduces substantial economic benefits to the countries involved. In the airline industry, liberalisation has led to increased airline competition, decreased average fares, increased frequency, improved load factor and airline productivity, increased traffic volumes and new route services. These changes not only lead to higher employment and economic output in the aviation industry, but also provide better inputs to other related sectors such as tourism, trade and logistics. Yet despite such well recognized benefits, mostly developed countries have liberalised their air service agreements, notably the United States followed by the EU. As of 2003, 57 liberalisation agreements out of 87 involved the U.S. As of October 2012, over 400 liberalized agreements were reached among 145 economies, among which more than 100 were U.S. open-skies agreements (ICAO 2013). In most other markets, air liberalisation has made limited progress over the past decades, even in regions characterized with strong economic and international trade growth.

Les modèles de gravité sont utilisés pour explorer les déterminants du commerce, avec des estimateurs linéaires avec effets fixes et un estimateur de Poisson (comme dans Santos Silva et Tenreyro, 2006) avec des effets fixes. Au-delà des déterminants habituels du commerce tels que le PIB, la distance, la contiguïté, les zones de libre-échange et la langue, cette analyse se concentre principalement sur le rôle de la réglementation des marchés de produits et de son hétérogénéité, et sur le rôle de la protection de l'emploi. Le marché unique a un impact positif important sur le commerce. Un ensemble large de réformes qui alignerait les indicateurs de réglementation des marchés de produits (RMP) à la moyenne de la moitié des pays les plus performants et qui réduirait l'hétérogénéité des réglementations par un cinquième pourrait augmenter l'intensité des échanges au sein de l'UE de plus de 10%. Cette analyse utilise également des sous-composantes de l’indicateur RMP (par domaines de réglementation) et de l’indicateur OCDE de la réglementation dans les secteurs de l'énergie, des transports et des communications (ETCR) (par secteur) pour se concentrer sur les éléments de réglementation qui comptent le plus pour le commerce. En particulier, la rigueur de la réglementation aérienne et des télécommunications a un effet négatif sur l'intensité des échanges. Les résultats empiriques sur l'impact de la législation de protection de l'emploi sur l'intensité des échanges sont quelque peu mitigés. Ce Document de travail a trait à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE de l’Union européenne, 2014 (www.oecd.org/fr/eco/etudes/etude-economique-union-europeenne.htm).

Ce document utilise la base de données de la réglementation des marchés de produits de l'OCDE (RMP) pour mesurer l'hétérogénéité entre pays de la réglementation des marchés de produits pour l'ensemble de l'économie, pour les principales sous-composantes de l'indicateur RMP et pour l'économie de l'internet. L'hétérogénéité entre pays de l'UE est assez proche de l'hétérogénéité entre les pays de l'UE et les pays hors de l’UE. Les réformes sont associées dans la majorité des cas à une réduction de l'hétérogénéité, et l'hétérogénéité dans les pays a diminué davantage lorsque qu’ils étaient plus loin des pratiques courantes. Ce Document de travail a trait à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE de l’Union européenne, 2014 (www.oecd.org/fr/eco/etudes/etude-economique-union-europeenne).

Les prestations de l’Assistance sociale (AS) sous conditions de ressources jouent un rôle important en tant que socles de protection sociale en soutenant les ménages en difficultés financières. Ce document présente des données sur les types de prestations d’aide sociale dans une sélection de pays de l'OCDE et de l'UE. Il donne un aperçu du rôle des prestations d'aide sociale dans les systèmes de protection sociale et évalue la générosité des prestations versées. Il étudie ensuite les dynamiques de réception de prestations d’aide sociale sur la base de micro données en décrivant les tendances globales de réception et les taux de transition et présentant de nouvelles données sur la durée des épisodes et les périodes de répétition. La dernière partie du document résume les données empiriques récentes sur les effets de persistance dans la réception des prestations et examine ses sources éventuelles et implications politiques.

La faible espérance de vie en Inde s’expliquant largement par la mortalité liée à des maladies évitables, les gains les plus notables au plan sanitaire seront réalisés grâce à des mesures de prévention généralisées. L’accès aux services de santé publique est très variable et une part importante de la population se tourne vers les prestataires du secteur privé, qui servent essentiellement une population plus aisée. Si les autorités ont renforcé les services de santé publique, il faudra plus de professionnels de santé et plus de dépenses publiques de santé pour assurer une couverture sanitaire adéquate. Il conviendrait de donner la priorité aux services de soins primaires, à fort impact. Il conviendrait également d’améliorer la gestion des services publics de santé pour garantir une meilleure qualité de ces services par rapport aux ressources investies. Le secteur privé pourrait être davantage mis à contribution, mais devrait également être tenu de respecter des normes de qualité minimales.

This working paper describes the potential of the proliferation of new sources of large volumes of data, sometimes also referred to as “big data”, for informing policy making in several areas. It also outlines the challenges that the proliferation of data raises for the production of official statistics and for statistical policies.

Government-controlled investors, including state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds, have greatly expanded their international activities in recent years. This paper describes the existing policy landscape of international investments by government-controlled investors under both national and international frameworks.

The paper first examines host countries’ regulatory provisions dealing with inward investments by foreign government-controlled investors. The paper then documents international investment treaty practice in relation to government-controlled investors by examining, in particular, whether they are explicitly dealt with in investment treaties and, if so, how they are handled in the treaties. Finally, the paper presents other international agreements including the OECD instruments in relation to state ownership.

En 2009, le Comité de la politique à l’égard des consommateurs de l’OCDE a entrepris la révision des Lignes directrices de 1999 régissant la protection des consommateurs dans le contexte du commerce électronique. Dans le cadre de cet examen, il a exploré, dans un rapport analytique, les avantages et les difficultés, pour les consommateurs, d’acquérir des produits de contenu numérique intangibles. À la lumière de l’analyse réalisée, le Comité a mis au point les présentes orientations, qu’il a adoptées le 15 septembre 2014 et qu’il a recommandé de porter à la connaissance du public.

Investment treaty law reflects a permanent tension between stability and flexibility. Stability nurtures predictability, while flexibility helps legal systems stay in alignment with changing circumstances and evolving needs. This paper establishes an inventory of the mechanisms in investment treaty law that provide flexibility and surveys relevant treaty practice.

The paper: analyses the drivers of change in investment treaty law; provides an inventory of countries’ options – and limits – to alter their positioning vis-à-vis investment treaty law through ‘exit’ and ‘voice’; and analyses treaty provisions on, and States’ use of, flexibility in investment treaty law.

The paper finds that most treaties provide for little or no mechanism for countries to influence the use and interpretation of investment treaty law. The paper further finds that treaty provisions for ‘exit’ are likewise geared to provide stability rather than flexibility. Analysis of State practice presented in the paper shows that States rarely make use of the mechanisms available to them to influence treaty use and interpretation and that ‘exit’ from the system has likewise been rare so far.

This working paper sums up the main findings of an OECD project aiming to provide an evidence basis for focusing efforts to improve the measurement of technological and non-technological forms of business innovation, with particular focus on the role of design. It reviews a broad range of novel design-related measures, indicating their advantages and limitations in terms of policy relevance and insights. The analysis of design provides a valuable test-case for assessing the robustness of the overall framework for measuring innovation as proposed in the OECD/Eurostat Oslo Manual. It identifies a number of areas for potential development in a future revision, focused on the role of users and the implementation of the definition of innovation and innovation activities. It also identifies a range of design concepts based on an informal consultation with the design expert community.

The paper also illustrates a number of findings arising from the first-time use of a set of experimental and optional questions on design implementing a “ladder-type” model of design which describes levels of sophistication and integration of the design function within the firm. Cognitive testing and analysis of the microdata from a large and representative sample of Danish firms shows a high degree of respondent acceptance of the experimental questions and supports their predictive validity vis-à-vis a number of hypotheses on the use of design and a series of innovation and economic outcomes potentially associated to it.

Kosovo is facing crucial challenges in developing a competitive economy, providing a decent level of public service and moving closer to the EU. Developing national policies to meet these objectives will require a functional policy co-ordination, planning and development system. This review is the second in a series of SIGMA policy making reviews, looking into the required legal framework, the policy making arrangements and the capacities of Kosovo. Covering the Government, including the centre of the government and ministries, and also the Assembly, the review provides an in-depth analysis of the key aspects of Kosovo’s public governance capacities in policy making and co-ordination. Kosovo has made remarkable progress in the last decade, however many challenges still remain. The review also includes proposals to further enhance the policy making system.