Browse by: "2023"

This paper evaluates the link between educational policies and i) student performance and ii) macroeconomic measures of productivity. The analysis has two stages. First, using the 2015 and 2018 PISA databases, it quantifies the relationship between student test scores and the characteristics of students taking the tests, their school environment and national educational systems. Second, assuming that these relationships reflect the effect of different characteristics/policies on student test performance, the second stage converts the latter into an estimated effect on macroeconomic measures of productivity using a new measure of human capital as an intermediary variable. This new measure of human capital, devised in previous OECD work, combines student test scores and mean years of schooling with estimated elasticities that suggest the former is more important. The analysis shows a positive association between spending on education and student test scores, but only for levels of student expenditure below the OECD median, suggesting scope for currently low-spending countries to raise student performance with potential gains to long-run productivity. Boosting participation in early childhood education as well as improving teacher quality is found to generate large aggregate productivity gains. There are significant, but smaller, macroeconomic gains for many countries from limiting grade repetition and ability grouping across all subjects as well as increasing the accountability of schools. Finally, the results provide evidence for income inequality having a major influence on productivity through a human capital channel.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of co-ordination amongst organisations engaging in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Co-ordination is the first pillar of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus adopted by the DAC in 2019. Effective co-ordination is critical to the success of HDP Nexus approaches. However, despite a limited donor base and implementing entities, challenges persist in co-ordinating actions across humanitarian, development, and peace sectors. Exploring a spectrum of co-ordination approaches, this paper aims to inform policy discussions with a renewed attention on development effectiveness and coherent approaches.

Open government data has become a vital instrument for addressing both longstanding and emerging policy issues. In particular, the recent pandemic and the green transition have underscored the need for governments to ensure access to timely, relevant, and high-quality data to foster resilience and facilitate a comprehensive whole-of-society response. This paper presents the main findings of the fourth edition of the OECD Open, Useful, and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index for 2023, which benchmarks efforts made by governments to design and implement national open government data policies. It encompasses over 670 data points collected from 36 OECD countries and 4 accession countries throughout 2022.

This paper traces the history of China’s development co-operation system and looks into its practices, touching upon implementation gaps with established international norms and practices.

This paper identifies different types of climate change mitigation strategies countries adopted over the last two decades and assesses the policy synergies they might generate. The analysis exploits the rich policy repository of the OECD’s Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework (CAPMF). This is the most comprehensive and harmonised mitigation policy database to date, covering more than 120 policy instruments and 50 countries over 2000-20. Statistical cluster analysis yields four types of mitigation strategies, which differ in the variety and stringency of mitigation policies. Until the mid-2000s mitigation strategies were similar and based on few policies and low overall stringency. They started to differentiate in the mid-2000s and then in the mid-2010s as some countries enlarged the variety of policy instruments and raised stringency. Regression results indicate that emissions are negatively associated with the overall stringency of the country’s mitigation strategies. Moreover, this relationship is stronger for mitigation strategies comprising a larger set of instruments, pointing to larger policy synergies.

This paper analyses employment dynamics across firms during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of job retention schemes (JRS) in shaping these dynamics. It relies on a novel collection of high-frequency harmonised micro-aggregated statistics, computed using administrative data on employment and wages from electronic payroll records across 12 countries linked to monthly information on policy support during COVID-19, as well as on a new indicator of JRS de-jure generosity. The analysis highlights four key findings: i) the employment adjustment margins varied over time, adjusting mainly through the intensive margin in 2020, while both the intensive and the extensive margins contributed to employment changes in 2021; ii) the reallocation process remained productivity enhancing, although to a lower extent on average compared to 2019; iii) JRS were successful in their purpose of cushioning the effect of the crisis on employment growth and firm survival; iv) JRS support did not distort the productivity-enhancing nature of reallocation.

High employment growth has sustained Israel’s high GDP growth in recent decades, but demographic change and labour market duality put future growth at risk. Policy action is required to stimulate employment and raise labour productivity, especially among population groups with weaker labour market outcomes. A particular concern is closing employment gaps of Haredim and Arab Israelis and ensuring gender equality in the workplace, which would simultaneously improve opportunities for all Israelis and the aggregate labour productivity of the economy. This will require setting appropriate work incentives and providing better support for working parents; improving skills at all stages of the learning cycle; as well as increasing mobility and improving reallocation towards high-productivity jobs and firms, in particular in the high-tech sector.

This paper, based on preliminary results of the 2023 OECD SBO Survey on Budget Frameworks, takes stock of OECD countries’ practices in top-down and medium-term budgeting. It shows that OECD countries’ fiscal frameworks can be characterised by strong reliance on multiple fiscal rules or objectives for enforcing fiscal discipline, with medium-term and top-down budgeting not used yet to their full potential in some countries. Drawing on the OECD Spending Better Framework, this paper advises that countries that wish to strengthen their fiscal frameworks reinforce the processes and institutions that underpin effective medium-term and top-down budgeting systems. Central to this is producing and publishing more regularly baseline projections of government expenditures and setting credible multi-year expenditure ceilings that serve as stringent guidelines for budget planning, while also allowing for some degree of flexibility under clearly defined conditions.

A fragmented school network resulting from demographic shifts and regional economic developments can place a significant financial burden on education systems across OECD Member and non-Member countries. This is the case in Latvia, which has made the reorganisation of its school network a policy priority. The Latvian Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) is working jointly with municipalities to ensure high-quality education for every child regardless of school location. On this basis, the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities provided technical assistance to Latvia through capacity building workshops and the co-construction of a geospatial simulation model to identify schools to be considered for closing or merging. This report presents the key findings of the geospatial modelling, confirming there indeed is considerable scope for consolidating the school network and offers concrete policy recommendations for MoES and education stakeholders to consider for advancing Latvia’s school network reorganisation initiative.

For implementing their economic and social policies, governments have traditionally relied on direct spending but increasingly use “non-standard” policy instruments, such as loans and guarantees. However, in many OECD countries, loans and guarantees are not yet submitted to the same scrutiny than direct spending as part of the budget process, and future costs associated with the use of these policy instruments are often not estimated, nor provisioned, making them appear initially costless. In turn, this generates risks of potentially biased budgetary decision making, deviations from medium-term spending plans and limited transparency. Considering experiences of OECD countries, this paper advises that budget offices take a leading role in proposing budgetary treatments for loans and guarantees that ensure an even-level playing field with traditional spending and put considerations of efficiency of spending above optimisation of short-term fiscal outcomes.

This paper explores different frameworks of subnational investment promotion and facilitation and focuses on the link between these frameworks and the degree of and the degree of countries’ decentralisation, their role in regional FDI attractiveness and local development, and their relations with the levels of FDI regional disparities. It also examines characteristics of subnational investment promotion strategies and the quality of institutional relationships within regions, across regions and with the central government.

Ce document donne un aperçu du développement des énergies renouvelables dans les régions ultrapériphériques de l’Union européenne (RUP de l’UE), se concentrant sur la capacité de ces énergies à contribuer à la transition verte tout en ouvrant des perspectives de développement économique durable. Il décrit les cadres d'action et les outils mis en place par les RUP de l’UE pour agir dans le domaine des énergies renouvelables, et formule des recommandations politiques. Ce document s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet conjoint UE-OCDE sur les régions ultrapériphériques du monde.

Cities have a pivotal role to play in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Smart city solutions can help enable and accelerate the net-zero transition by, among many others, curtailing energy use, accelerating the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, improving resource efficiency, reducing transport demand, and fostering necessary behavioural change. This paper summarises the proceedings of the 3rd OECD Roundtable on Smart Cities and Inclusive Growth, which took place on 3 July 2023 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. It discusses concrete solutions that can boost the net-zero transition, explores the barriers to scaling up smart city solutions and the enabling factors that can help overcome them, and proposes ways to strengthen the net-zero objective in the OECD Smart City Measurement Framework.

The rapid acceleration in the pace of AI innovation in recent years and the advent of content generating capabilities (Generative AI or GenAI) have increased interest in AI innovation in finance, in part due to the user-friendliness and intuitive interface of GenAI tools. The use of AI in financial markets involving full end-to-end automation without any human intervention remains largely at development phase, but its wider deployment could amplify risks already present in financial markets and give rise to new challenges. This paper presents recent evolutions in AI in finance and potential risks and discusses whether policy makers may need to reinforce policies and strengthen protection against these risks.

Este relatório resume os resultados do trabalho de colaboração entre a OCDE e o PlanAPP, o Centro de Competências em Planeamento, Políticas e Prospetiva da Administração Pública em Portugal. Apresenta as principais conclusões e recomendações do projeto em quatro áreas estratégicas para o país: i) políticas públicas informadas por evidências e confiança nas instituições públicas, ii) avaliação das políticas públicas, iii) prospetiva e iv) planeamento estratégico.

Ce document présente une vue d'ensemble des chaînes de valeur agroalimentaires dans les régions ultrapériphériques de l'UE (RUP de l'UE). Il évalue les tendances émergentes, discute des opportunités et des défis, examine les cadres politiques et les outils qui peuvent renforcer la participation bénéfique des RUP de l'UE dans les chaînes de valeur agroalimentaires internationales, et propose des actions prioritaires. Ce document s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet conjoint UE-OCDE sur les régions ultrapériphériques du monde.

Ce document présente une vue d'ensemble de l'économie de la mer dans les régions ultrapériphériques (RUP) de l'UE. Il examine les opportunités et les défis auxquels les RUP de l'UE sont confrontées à la lumière des tendances mondiales émergentes, et propose des actions prioritaires pour faire de l'océan un vecteur de compétitivité et d'internationalisation. Ces actions pourraient être menées en collaboration avec l'UE et des partenaires spécifiques au bassin, tels que les petits États insulaires en développement des Caraïbes, de l'Atlantique et de l'océan Indien. Ce document s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet conjoint UE-OCDE sur les régions ultrapériphériques du monde.