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While women account for more than half of university graduates in several OECD countries, they receive only 30% of tertiary degrees granted in science and engineering fields. This publication presents the proceedings of a recent international workshop to assess the underlying causes behind the low participation of women in scientific careers, especially at senior levels, and to identify good practice policies to attract, recruit and retain women in scientific careers in public and private research.
This annual publication describes the recent trends in international migration, the magnitude of flows, the different channels for immigration and the nationality of the immigrants concerned. It shows that the criteria for admission to host countries is becoming more selective and more oriented to labour market needs. The report also examines recent policy developments for the control of flows and the integration of immigrants. Special attention is given to the links between migration, free trade and regional economic integration.
Detailed country notes present the main migration characteristics of twenty-six OECD countries and Bulgaria, Romania, and the Slovak Republic. The latter country is included for the first time in the notes. Finally, immigration and social transfers is the topic of a special chapter focusing on analytical issues and results obtained in several OECD countries.
A statistical annex provides tables on foreign and immigrant populations, foreign workers, migration flows and naturalisations.
This report addresses the lack of data on pathways followed by young adults with disabilities beyond secondary education in most OECD countries. It describes the activity undertaken by a sample of Czech, Danish, Dutch, French and Norwegian young adults with disabilities and its evolution, as well as looking into the factors that have facilitated or hindered high-quality transition processes to tertiary education and employment. Do upper secondary schools enable students with special educational needs to move successfully to tertiary education and employment? Are young adults with disabilities supported appropriately when leaving upper secondary schools? Do universities’ and colleges’ admission and support strategies foster transition to and success within tertiary education?
The report shows that young adults with disabilities who left upper secondary education in 2007 have mostly accessed tertiary education, while those leaving tertiary education the same year have mainly entered the labour market. It also reveals that due to low-quality support at upper secondary level and the relative absence of transition issues in upper secondary schools’ policies and strategies, transition to tertiary education and to employment is closely linked with parental support and involvement, and young adults with disabilities coming from a low socio-economic background have less transition opportunities than those coming from a high socio-economic background. It demonstrates that young adults with disabilities who moved on to tertiary education consider they have gained the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers, as well as self-confidence and better inclusion opportunities.
This report also shows that persistent inactivity beyond secondary education has a strong disaffiliation effect. It restricts individuals’ participation opportunities and deprives individuals from social and economic independence as well as from personal well-being.
International competition, accelerating technological change and shifting societal concerns are important drivers of structural change, both within and across firms, industries and regions. As well as bringing undoubted opportunities, structural adjustment raises acute challenges. This must be acknowledged in making the case for open markets. This brochure aims to identify, for both developed and developing countries, the requirements for successful trade-related structural adjustment via the reallocation of labour and capital to more efficient uses, while limiting adjustment costs for individuals, communities and society as a whole. It draws on a longer study incorporating detailed sectoral case studies...
In a rapidly changing world, the success of nations, communities and individuals may be linked, more than ever before, to how they adapt to change, learn and share knowledge. This report helps clarify the concepts of human and social capital and evaluates their impact on economic growth and well-being. Although the evidence on social capital is less developed, reflecting the novelty of the concept in economic and social science, the report draws on a number of empirical studies which suggest potentially important linkages between human and social capital. The evidence suggests that human and social capital can be of key importance in contributing to a wide range of positive outcomes, including higher income, life satisfaction and social cohesion. Although there is no evidence for systematic "under-investment" in either human or social capital, concerns are expressed about the distribution and quality of each form of capital and how this might impact on future well-being. There is limited scope for public policy to change the quality, stock and distribution of human and social capital in the short-term. However, a number of areas are discussed in which public, private and voluntary actors may leverage long-term improvements in both human and social capital.
Employee stock option plans have become a common component of remuneration packages in multinational enterprises. This publication presents and examines the many important tax issues that arise for beneficiaries and companies.
Focusing first on domestic tax issues, it considers what tax treatment would provide no tax-related incentives for a company to either increase or cut the use of stock options, and would be neutral regarding the choice of either granting stock options or paying ordinary salary. The approach is non-prescriptive and serves to provide a benchmark for policymakers. This is complemented by a survey of taxation of stock options in OECD countries in 2002 that calculates the effective rate of tax and compares it with tax on ordinary salary.
Cross-border taxation issues are then discussed. Issues such as the timing of the benefits from stock options, the distinction between employment income and capital gains and the identification of the services to which they relate are relevant to the application of tax treaties, which are based on the OECD Model Tax Convention, and the resulting changes to the Model's Commentary are fully explained. Finally, the effects on transfer pricing are analysed in three circumstances: when an enterprise grants stock options to employees of a subsidiary in another country, when using transfer pricing methods that are affected by remuneration costs, and when employees benefiting from stock options are involved in activities that are the subject of a cost contribution arrangement.
This annual publication provides unique information on direct taxes levied from employees and their employers in all OECD countries. In addition, the book specifies family benefits paid as cash transfers. Amounts of taxes and benefits are detailed program by program, for eight households types, which differ by income level and household composition. Results include the tax burden for one- and two- earner families.
Over the past 20 years, the management of the public service has changed tremendously in most OECD countries. First, governments have tried to reduce the size of their public employment to decrease the costs of producing government services, either directly or indirectly by contracting out the production of services to the private sector under the assumption that it would be more efficient. Second, in many cases, governments have tried to apply general good management principles to the management of public employees. As a consequence, many areas of public employment have lost their uniqueness and have become quite similar to the general employment system in the different countries. This book takes stock of the main changes in the management of public services across OECD countries. It also examines how countries manage to find a balance between, on the one hand, attention to fundamental values such as fairness, equity, justice and social cohesion to maintain political confidence in the government system as a whole and, on the other hand, a focus on efficiency, productivity and effectiveness.
Over the last decade, labour market policy in the United States has been undergoing a period of significant restructuring. In the face of welfare reform initiatives, persistent unemployment and declines in real income among some groups (particularly the less skilled), and continued economic expansion, there is pressure on the public employment service (PES) to improve effectiveness. But, it must also come to terms with resource limitations.
How have reforms fared so far -- what seems to be working well or not so well? Which of the new approaches may require revision in the event of an economic downturn? Where might adjustments lead to improved effectiveness? While considering such questions, this publication provides an in-depth look at the PES and recent policy initiatives in the United States. Areas of concern about recent reforms are outlined and options for making policies more effective are presented.
Greece, Ireland and Portugal, on the periphery of Europe, are still influenced by a history of migration from agriculture to urban areas and to other countries, and have all received extensive assistance from the European Union's Structural Funds.
Which of these countries' varied, often innovative, strategies in relation to unemployment benefits, hiring subsidies and job creation measures, have been most effective? Employment services have taken on particular responsibility for training, but does this help the long-term unemployed? With a legacy of older workers who left school early, and continuing high levels of self-employment, how can placement performance be improved? This publication examines how the Public Employment Service can actively promote and manage transitions out of unemployment into market work, both directly and via labour market programmes.
The Missing Entrepreneurs 2014 is the second edition in a series of annual reports that provide data and policy analysis on inclusive entrepreneurship, and on its barriers, by target social groups across the European Union. Inclusive entrepreneurship involves business start-ups and self-employment activities that contribute to economic growth and social inclusion - notably of youth, women, seniors, immigrants and the unemployed. In addition to inspiring policy practices, this issue contains special thematic chapters on entrepreneurship by ethnic minorities, pro-entrepreneurship welfare support systems and support for entrepreneurship from unemployment.
Entrepreneurship development is an important requirement for achieving of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. It is also a means to respond to new economic challenges, to create jobs and to fight social and financial exclusion. The impact of the global financial and economic crisis calls for giving entrepreneurship and self-employment a stronger role in economic and social development policies.
This book collects and synthesizes information and data on entrepreneurship activities in Europe, focusing on people that are at the greatest risk of social exclusion. These groups include young people, older people, women, ethnic minorities and migrants, people with disabilities and the unemployed.
Traditional welfare and employment policies have been unable to tackle the problems of high unemployment and exclusion in OECD countries and recently a wave of new approaches has emerged together with new political notions of welfare-to-work. This book describes these new approaches in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France and the Netherlands. All these countries are relying increasingly on local agencies to design and manage policy to try and ensure that policy solutions meet local needs and to bring to bear local energies, skills and resources. What is the role that local agencies can play? How can they be integrated in effective partnerships? And what policy tools can best be applied? This book gives valuable answers to these questions and shows that governments and practitioners have much to learn from each other on the practicalities of implementing effective welfare-to-work policies.
These Proceedings of the Sheffield Conference, held in November 1998 in collaboration with the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) in the United Kingdom, were prepared by the Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme of the OECD's Territorial Development Service.
Most countries offer a range of policies focused on assisting and encouraging mobility, although few have a specific and coherent mobility strategy. Many nations aim to attract the same pool of highly skilled talent; thus, relying on international flows to fill existing or future gaps in supply may entail risks. Addressing shortcomings in national policies that may limit domestic supply of skilled workers, and ensuring that the wider environment for innovation and scientific endeavour is sound, are key policy challenges for countries.
In all of the OECD countries, employment is seen to be sharply segregated by gender, with women's employment heavily concentrated in the same occupations: secretaries, primary school teachers, nurses and home helpers. These jobs, whose image has in many cases remained stereotyped and traditional, are at the heart of the information and service economy and have therefore been undergoing far-reaching changes due to information technologies, the development of a knowledge-based economy and population ageing. These transformations represent a major challenge for women's employment and for gender equality in the labour market.
Beyond the high segregation and concentration scales which are a constant of women's employment in all countries, international comparisons show that there can be differences in the status of a given occupation from one country to another. These differences can stem from the way in which occupations are defined or from how the relevant activities and work are organised. Understanding these differences is essential to identify ways to promote women's career prospects in female-dominated occupations.
The report examines the distributional effects of value-added tax (VAT) and excise tax systems in 20 OECD countries, and investigates the effectiveness of reduced VAT rates as a redistributional tool.
Social enterprises are entering a new phase of consolidation after overcoming various challenges over the last 10 years in their efforts to foster sustainable local development, help create local wealth and jobs, and fight social exclusion. This book contains recommendations for national and local policy makers and presents a set of international best practices based on new legislation that has been enacted, novel frontiers that have opened up, and support and financial tools that have been developed.
While the development of new knowledge is becoming increasingly important in the emerging knowledge-based economy, the impact of technology on growth, jobs and welfare is determined largely by the way in which technology is diffused, absorbed and used throughout the economy. For technological progress to bring not only higher productivity but also economic expansion and new jobs it is pivotal with conditions which allow for industrial restructuring, entry and expansion of small firms, growth of new industries, launching of new products, and mechanisms accounting for effective upskilling of the labour force.
This report points to a decline in public support for research and development (R&D), mainly affecting basic, long-term research, and examines the levelling-off in private sector R&D along with changes in its direction away from basic, exploratory research towards more market-driven and short-term innovative efforts. It explores how the special characteristics of national innovation systems impact on the mechanisms for innovation and diffusion of technology, and examines the rationale for policy in this area. A key challenge for policy makers is to co-ordinate measures so as to obtain consistent and credible incentives for firms and individuals. Assessing what works and what does not work in policy, the report identifies "best practices" in specific areas: management of the science base; financial support for industrial R&D efforts; technology diffusion policies and initiatives; policies for new technology-based firms; policies for facilitating growth in new demand; and policies for high-performance workplaces and intangible investment.
Despite many initiatives, OECD countries have not yet fully adapted to the characteristics and challenges of knowledge-based economies. Technology policies continue to be too piecemeal, paying insufficient attention to linkages within national innovation systems and to broader structural reforms. They focus too much on the small high-tech segment of the economy and too little on fostering innovation and technology diffusion economy-wide. There is also scope for improving the effectiveness of policies, notably through increased use of market-based instruments and better evaluation. Recommendations are put forward of measures to be taken by individual OECD countries.