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This book explores the social, economic and environmental forces that may combine to attract migrants of various types and backgrounds to OECD countries, as well as those that may persuade migrants to leave their countries or to stay at home. By analysing different pull and push factors and constructing five different scenarios of migration in the future, this volume casts light on major determinants of global migration flows, which OECD countries will look particularly attractive for migrants, where the pressures to migrate be especially strong and what kind of migration-related issues will policy makers likely be facing as 2030 approaches.
Money's destiny is to become digital. Throughout the ages physical money in the form of objects, coins and notes has increasingly been replaced by more abstract means of payment such as bills of exchange, cheques and credit cards. In the years to come that trend to virtual money will continue apace. As technological advances in ICT and biometrics come on-stream, as intangibles progressively become the primary source of value-added in the burgeoning knowledge economy, and as the public at large come to grasp the advantages of digital transactions, virtual forms of payment will dominate. How quickly will this happen on a major scale, and will cash disappear altogether? How will it affect our daily lives? Will it deepen already existing rifts in society? Does virtual money threaten control of the money supply, raising the spectre of greater inflationary risks? Or will it put central banks out of business? This book tackles these and many other critical questions, offering timely suggestions on why and how to make the transition to the world of digital money.
This book addresses the rising productivity gap between the global frontier and other firms, and identifies a number of structural impediments constraining business start-ups, knowledge diffusion and resource allocation (such as barriers to up-scaling and relatively high rates of skill mismatch).
Analysis based on micro and industry-level data highlights the importance of reallocation-friendly policies, including well-functioning product, labour and risk capital markets, efficient judicial systems, bankruptcy laws that do not excessively penalise failure, housing policies that do not unduly restrict labour mobility, and improvements in public funding and organisation of basic research which do not excessively favour applied vs basic research and incumbents vs young firms.
The Future of Rural Manufacturing provides insights on the transformations that have occurred in manufacturing across rural regions in recent decades. It describes opportunities and challenges in this context, highlighting those relating to climate and demographic change and digitalisation, as well as shifting patterns in globalisation. With support from the European Commission, the project combines a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The former examines broad trends in manufacturing performance across OECD rural (TL3) regions between 2000 and 2019, with deeper dives that draw on more granular microdata in 14 OECD countries. Case studies were conducted across 12 regions in Slovenia, Germany, Italy, and France. They comprised interviews with over 300 local, regional, and national actors across government, private sector, universities, research institutes, NGOs and non-profit community organisations. The project also benefited from foresight and futures workshops conducted in January and July 2022 with experts and policymakers across OECD countries.
As the 20th century draws to a close, powerful forces of change are converging that could set the stage for a long, sustained economic boom in the next few decades -- the transition to a knowledge-based society with its potentially huge productivity gains; the emergence of more deeply integrated, global markets for goods, services, capital and technology; and a fast-growing environmental awareness that could greatly accelerate the shift to new, less resource-intensive production and consumption patterns. The result could be several decades of above-average economic growth, substantial increases in income and wealth, and significant improvements in well-being across the world.
But what will it take to unleash these dynamic forces? Not only will it call for a range of initiatives to establish the rules and frameworks for guiding the transition to a sustainable global knowledge economy, but above all, it will require exceptional efforts among decision makers in government, business and society at large to encourage continuous innovation, creativity and high levels of investment, and to promote bold new approaches to closer international co-operation and institution building. Inevitably some countries will benefit more than others, but a long boom with all its wealth creating capacity would offer a unique opportunity to reverse the trends of the last decades towards deepening inequality and exclusion.
This book reviews the forces driving economic and social change in today's world. It asesses the likelihood of a long boom materialising in the first decades of the 21st century and explores the strategic policies essential for making it happen.
The Impact of Regulation on International Investment in Finland examines what drives FDI into Finland and which domestic regulatory aspects may discourage foreign investment. The report analyses trends in FDI flows towards Finland and other Nordic-Baltic countries and discusses the benefits of foreign investment for the Finnish economy. It provides a comparative overview of the regulatory frameworks in force in Finland and its Nordic-Baltic peers, outlining both economy-wide and sector-specific findings, and explores how changes in these regulatory frameworks are linked to changes in FDI inflows in the region. Foreign investors’ views on Finland’s business environment complement these findings. The report underlines potential areas for reform and suggests policy actions that could further improve Finland’s investment climate and contribute to attracting and retaining more FDI, while also strengthening its positive impact.
Tables of national competitiveness give an easily comparable ranking of the winners and losers of global economic competition. But they don't explain why the “poor” countries are four times less productive than the “rich” ones or why some rich countries are twice as productive as others. Using empirical data from over 50 countries, this book shows how even small differences in a number of factors combine to boost or block productivity. Governments need such information to set priorities. Investors need it too, and two new rankings are proposed as alternatives to a simple comparison of industrial productivity. The first, called the “investor ranking”, is based on infrastructure, human capital and total factor productivity. The second, “exporter ranking”, is for investors whose prime concern is for a production platform well-integrated into world trade. Combining the new rankings with a more traditional one produces three groups of countries, termed balanced, high potential, and vulnerable. Group membership reserves some surprises: you may be rich, but that doesn’t mean you’re not vulnerable.
This report contributes to the discussion of interconnections between scarce resources by highlighting the nexus between land, water and energy (the LWE nexus). It focuses on a dynamic, integrated, and disaggregated analysis of how land, water and energy interact in the biophysical and economic systems. The report provides projections for the biophysical and economic consequences of nexus bottlenecks until 2060, highlighting that while the LWE nexus is essentially local, there can be significant large-scale repercussions in vulnerable regions, notably on forest cover and in terms of food and water security.
The analysis is based on coupling a gridded biophysical systems model with a multi-regional, multi-sectoral dynamic general equilibrium modelling assessment. Numerical insights are provided by investigating a carefully selected set of scenarios that are designed to illustrate the key bottlenecks: one scenario for each resource bottleneck, plus two scenarios that combine all bottlenecks, with and without an overlay of climate change.
"A careful and vigorously argued monograph… an important book that future research in this area will have to take into account."
– eh.net book review by Hugh Rockoff of Rutgers University.
This book examines the historical, diplomatic, economic, and strategic aspects of the European Recovery Program (ERP) - popularly known as the Marshall Plan - which brought Europe out of the chaos, hunger, poverty, desperation, and ashes of World War II. In it, authors from a variety of countries who are scholars, policy makers, and business leaders, address applications of the Marshall Plan’s lessons learned to the 21st century for capacity building, human and sustainable development, and the role of public, private partnerships in emerging market economies and democratic societies.
The Frascati Manual, issued in 1994, is the basic international source of methodology for collecting and using research and development statistics. This fifth edition reflects recent changes in the structure of national science and technology systems and revisions in standard international classifications.
Analysts and policy makers have made increasing use of patent indicators to analyse the rate and direction of technological activity. The Patents Manual, issued in 1994, provides information on how patent data can be used as indicators, and also shows how these can be linked to other statistics on science, technology and economic activity (R&D, scientific publications, trade, production, etc.).
In 2000 commentators everywhere were hailing the boom in some western economies as the dawn of a new economy. In 2001, with a slowdown biting in the US economy, dot.coms folding and information and communications technology firms feeling the pinch globally, the headline writers have swung the other way, saying that it was all a myth. Was it?
The New Economy: Beyond the Hype looks past the elation and gloom to help policymakers think and act with the facts. It explores the causes of the discrepancy in economic performance in the OECD area. It shows that while technology has had a pervasive and profound effect on economies and societies, it alone was not the reason for fast growth. What counts more is how that technology is put to work. The book argues forcefully that whatever the outlook for the business cycle, we are now faced with a new economic environment. It urges policymakers to adopt a comprehensive growth strategy combining five policy areas that can engage ICT, human capital, innovation and entrepreneurship in the growth process alongside policies to mobilise labour and increase investment for the long term. Naturally, good fundamentals -- macroeconomic stability, openness and competition, as well as sound economic and social institutions, and proper social protection -- are a prerequisite for success.
This publication examines the opportunities and challenges, for business and government, associated with technologies bringing about the “next production revolution”. These include a variety of digital technologies (e.g. the Internet of Things and advanced robotics), industrial biotechnology, 3D printing, new materials and nanotechnology. Some of these technologies are already used in production, while others will be available in the near future. All are developing rapidly. As these technologies transform the production and the distribution of goods and services, they will have far-reaching consequences for productivity, skills, income distribution, well-being and the environment. The more that governments and firms understand how production could develop in the near future, the better placed they will be to address the risks and reap the benefits.
The OECD draws on 60 years of experience to help governments develop policies that will ensure better lives for people around the world. The goal of the Organisation is to shape policies that foster prosperity, sustainability, inclusiveness and well-being for all. This brochure, created for the 60th anniversary of the creation of the OECD, shows the journey travelled and what the organisation has become today.
For more information about the 60th anniversary of the OECD you can visit https://www.oecd.org/60-years.
This report explores the growth prospects for the ocean economy, its capacity for future employment creation and innovation, and its role in addressing global challenges. Special attention is devoted to the emerging ocean-based industries in light of their high growth and innovation potential, and contribution to addressing challenges such as energy security, environment, climate change and food security.
The report examines the risks and uncertainties surrounding the future development of ocean industries, the innovations required in science and technology to support their progress, their potential contribution to green growth and some of the implications for ocean management. Finally, and looking across the future ocean economy as a whole, it explores possible avenues for action that could boost its long-term development prospects while managing the use of the ocean itself in responsible, sustainable ways.
This book provides an overview of the key challenges currently faced in China and OECD's main policy recommendations to address them. Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, the book tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of China, focusing on how its government can make reform happen.
This report examines why some policy reforms get implemented and others languish by examining 20 structural reform efforts in 10 OECD countries over the past two decades. The case studies cover a wide variety of reform attempts in three key areas: pensions, labour- and product-market regulation. Key factors in the political, economic and reform-specific arenas are identified as helping or hindering reform, and these findings are cross-checked using a relatively simple set of Spearman rank correlations. The report’s two-pronged analytical approach – quantitative and qualitative – results in unique insights for policy makers designing, adopting and implementing structural policy reforms.
Historically low productivity gains and record high inequality are major challenges for policy makers around the world. Both concerns have been exacerbated by the global financial crisis but took roots well before and reflect fundamental challenges with the way our economies function.
This report proposes a new comprehensive approach to promote better productivity performance and reduce inequalities. It not only gathers the most recent empirical evidence on the main factors behind slowing productivity gains and rising or persisting inequalities but also suggests possible common foundations and linkages between these two trends. It stresses the risk of a vicious cycle setting in, where individuals with fewer skills and poorer access to opportunities are confined to unproductive and often precarious jobs. This reduces aggregate productivity and widens inequality. The report focuses on how to expand the productive assets of an economy by investing in the skills of its people and providing an environment where all firms have a fair chance to succeed, including in lagging regions. It draws preliminary conclusions on the type of policy packages that are needed and on their implications for policy making. It also sets an agenda for future research to deepen empirical evidence and make concrete country-specific policy recommendations.
The Productivity-Inclusiveness Nexus proposes a new approach to boost productivity growth while, at the same time, reducing inequalities of income and opportunities. The report begins by examining the trend slowdown of productivity growth, which has been observed in many OECD countries over recent years, and the longer-standing rise - and persistence - of inequalities of income, wealth, well-being and opportunities. It then gathers the most recent empirical evidence on some of the common foundations behind these trends and considers possible linkages. The analysis aims to shed light on policy insights to address both issues together, creating room for synergies and win-win policies.