The contribution of services in the United Kingdom (UK) to exports, value added, and employment is one of the highest amongst OECD countries. UK employment also depends strongly on exports of digital services: in 2019 the jobs of around 3.2 million domestic workers in digital services sectors were embodied in UK exports. Median wages in these services are considerable higher than wages in other sectors of the UK economy. Econometric analysis shows that strong growth of employment in digital services generates multiplier effects benefitting local economies in the United Kingdom, with each additional digital services job creating around 0.3 jobs in the local non-tradable sector. Continued support for plurilateral and multilateral initiatives to dismantle barriers to services trade, including via the WTO Joint Initiative on Services Domestic Regulation, can help to enable more UK firms to take advantage of the potential for further growth in digital services trade. Improving the availability of training programmes and aligning curricula with the rapidly evolving needs of exporters of digital services is crucial to enable for workers to shift into sectors with growing labour demand.

The digital transformation is having a profound impact on the international trade of the United Kingdom (UK). Digital trade exports have grown three times faster than other exports and now represent more than half of total exports, twice the OECD and EU averages. This strong performance is, in part, driven by a favourable domestic regulatory environment and an ambitious digital trade agenda in the United Kingdom’s trade and digital economy agreements. Econometric analysis shows that digital trade chapters in trade agreements can double the impact of the agreements, with issues around data protection, consumer protection, source code and cybersecurity potentially delivering the largest gains. To remain at the forefront of digital trade the United Kingdom should continue domestic reforms, including digitisation of trade documents and processes. To ensure that exporters maintain access to other markets, the United Kingdom should continue to engage in discussions on digital trade provisions in trade agreements and support ongoing multilateral and plurilateral discussions, including in the context of the WTO Work Programme on E-commerce and the Agreement on E-commerce.

Social connections refer to the ways that people interact with and relate to one another. Their role in shaping well-being is increasingly recognised by government, alongside an understanding of the role public policy plays in creating the structures that promote or hinder connectedness. To improve the evidence base on this emerging policy priority and lay the groundwork for full measurement recommendations, this paper reviews a selection of official surveys fielded in OECD countries to understand patterns in data collection, establish priority areas for harmonisation, and create an inventory of available measures. The results are encouraging, in that all countries measure social connections. Yet challenges remain: (1) despite policy attention, loneliness is included in fewer than half of surveys, (2) there is little convergence in the actual indicators used to measure concepts like “loneliness”, “social support” or "frequency of socialising", and (3) survey frequency, particularly for time use, could be improved.

For centuries, governments in high-income countries have offered financial incentives to external parties for innovative solutions to complex problems. However, open innovation mechanisms like challenge funds and prizes have been less prevalent in low-income countries. This working paper explores the effects of such mechanisms on innovation ecosystems and how challenge funds and prizes have contributed to building dynamic capabilities in public sector entities.

This working paper provides an in-depth review of the opportunities and challenges surrounding water investment in Africa. It also presents the state of play in the use of ultimate sources of funding (the “3Ts”: tariffs, taxes, and transfers) and financing for water on the continent, showing that these sources are not currently being used to their full potential and in the most efficient and equitable way. In this context, there is a wide range of options to scale up and improve water finance in Africa and to achieve SDG 6 - and, by extension, all the Sustainable Development Goals - on the continent. This paper follows the lifecycle of a project, paying particular attention to equity and affordability. It presents concrete proposals to strengthen water policy investment frameworks, build well-prepared and investment-ready water projects, scale up risk mitigation instruments for water, and diversify financing instruments and sources.

New entrants into agriculture are critical for the transformation of food systems. New entrants in OECD countries are younger, have higher levels of education and entrepreneurial skills, and are more likely to adopt new technologies than those already working in the sector. Yet, negative perceptions of farming, limited access to capital and land, lower access to services and regulatory complexities can all deter the entry to the sector. Digital technologies can make agriculture more attractive by reducing arduous tasks and health risks, enhancing working conditions, and supporting on-farm income diversification. Foresight analysis of macro trends and challenges to a digitalised, sustainable and inclusive future can be a useful tool to help anticipate farmer skills needs and transform mindsets. Governments can facilitate new entrants in agriculture, including by investing in human capital, improving digital infrastructure services, promoting innovation systems and removing barriers to entry.

Promoting health and well-being at the workplace is a valuable investment for employees, employers, governments, and society. Healthy employees are less likely to be absent or have reduced productivity. Employers benefit from improved work outputs, and health systems see reduced treatment costs. Digital tools and innovative technologies can enhance the effectiveness of health promotion programs. The market for these tools is growing globally, with employers keen to improve health and productivity. This working paper, through four case studies, underscores how wearables, mobile applications for female health, AI-driven lifestyle management applications, and health insurance engagement platforms can be utilized to promote health at the workplace. These technologies present avenues for enhancing the efficacy, efficiency, and customization of health promotion interventions. Nevertheless, they also pose challenges such as privacy issues, the requirement for digital proficiency, the necessity for conducive organisational practices for healthier work environments, and the assurance of safety and clinical suitability of the proliferating health applications and tools in the market.

This working paper reviews the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on equity and inclusion in education, focusing on learner-centred, teacher-led and other institutional AI tools. It highlights the potential of AI in adapting learning while also addressing challenges such as access issues, inherent biases and the need for comprehensive teacher training. The paper emphasises the importance of balancing the potential benefits of AI with ethical considerations and the risk of exacerbating existing disparities. It highlights the need to address privacy and ethical concerns, enhance cultural responsiveness, manage techno ableism and provide continuing professional learning in AI. Additionally, the paper stresses the importance of maintaining educational integrity amidst growing commercial influence. It encourages research on AI tools’ implications for equity and inclusion to ensure that AI adoption in education supports a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.

New Zealand’s productivity level remains markedly below the OECD frontier. Insufficient competition is an important contributor to this performance, as the relatively small number of competitors in New Zealand’s small market contributes to market concentration. Ensuring adequate competition policy settings is important for offsetting these geographic handicaps, foster innovation and support higher living standards. This paper reviews the competition landscape and the recent reforms in several concentrated markets and network sectors and provides recommendations for additional sectoral reforms or inquiries. It also provides recommendations for improving the overall regulatory landscape, including the prerogatives of the Commerce Commission and other government regulators and regulations on business entry and conduct. Finally, it addresses the question of competition enforcement in digital markets, where New Zealand faces some of the same challenges that other OECD economies have to tackle.

New Zealand, like other countries, needs to address climate change on two fronts simultaneously. Adapting to a hotter world while meeting its emissions reduction targets. New Zealand will need to become better prepared for more extreme weather that climate change will bring about. Councils will need new sources of revenue to fund the infrastructure that adaptation requires. Maintaining a comprehensive package of private insurance for climate-related losses with sharper premium price signals will also be essential. Developing a long-term energy strategy that weighs up all the main options for reducing emissions, while ensuring security of supply in a hotter world, is also crucial. New Zealand has made important strides to strengthen the policy framework for reducing GHG emissions. An important part of the framework is the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). However, the ETS should be reviewed with a focus on the treatment of carbon removals through afforestation. New Zealand’s next overall emissions reduction plan should be underpinned by a rigorous and comprehensive cost-benefit comparison of the different emissions reduction options.

Egypt’s working age population is set to expand substantially, with a rising education level, making for growth opportunities. However, employment ratios have trended down, while informality has become increasingly prevalent, particularly penalising the youth. Such trends should be reversed by creating more and better-quality jobs, thereby better integrating people into the labour market, in particular the youth. Easing rigid market regulations would boost productivity and promote formal job creation. High labour costs should be reduced, which would also bring a larger share of the working age population into formal employment. At the same time, social protection and worker support should be expanded to address labour market insecurity and obstacles to labour force participation. Education is also key to foster productivity growth and formal jobs. Ongoing reforms, notably the National Structural Reform Programme, aim at developing skills, promoting female labour force participation and expanding social benefit programmes. These important initiatives should be complemented by additional policy measures to ensure sufficient job creation and improve job quality, thereby durably raising living standards for all and improving employment prospects especially for younger generations.

The education policy framework and New Zealand’s autonomous school system have many strengths and centres of excellence. New Zealand has a deep pool of highly talented and motivated teaching professionals, but the system is performing below potential. Student achievement is declining and equity is not improving, and outcomes are too variable even in the same school. Many of the support elements are lacking, including a sufficiently detailed curriculum, efficient assessment tools, specialist subject teaching practice and curriculum implementation advice, and initial teacher education tailored to the unique demands the system imposes. The Ministry of Education’s operational capacity was pared back too far. Many improvements can be made without increasing total spending. The Ministry should continue to develop its operational support capacities. The government should better spread best practices, and continue efforts to provide a detailed curriculum, an assessment system and education of teachers and training for boards and principals better informed by data, evaluations, education research and the expertise of the system’s experienced actors.

The paper presents novel indicators to measure financial sector digitalisation that cover 21 OECD countries over the 1995-2018 period, showing a significant increase in digital penetration though at different speeds and intensities across countries. The indicators are used to study the impact of financial sector digitalisation on economic activity, highlighting significant positive effects on the productivity of downstream industries. A 10% increase in financial sector digitalisation is associated with a 0.1 percentage point increase in productivity growth for the average industry, with a stronger impact in intangible-intensive industries. Digitalisation in finance is also associated with an easing of credit constraints, particularly benefiting intangible-intensive industries and SMEs, via an improvement in credit allocation and market conditions. Results suggest that policy actions aimed at supporting digital infrastructure, promoting competition in communications, fostering finance innovation, and encouraging high-level skill formation (especially in STEM fields) could sustain and enhance productivity growth through financial sector digitalisation.

Composition Adjusted-Labour Input (CALI) measures account for workers’ differences in skills and productive capacity. This study reviews the most relevant literature to have produced CALI estimates to date and presents a generic approach to produce CALI measures for 21 countries. It finds that education and age (proxy for work experience) are two key workers’ characteristics to be included in CALI measures, with additional workers characteristics having a more limited impact. Replacing a traditional measure of labour input, such as hours worked, with a measure of CALI in the growth accounts leads to a significant downward revision in multifactor productivity (MFP) growth in countries that experience large changes in the composition of labour.

This paper examines gender-related philanthropic giving in developing countries amid rising funding needs for gender equality, persistent inequalities, and a global gender backlash. It analyses support from 44 domestic and 40 cross-border foundations reporting to the OECD Centre on Philanthropy and the Creditor Reporting System, respectively. It finds that gender-related domestic disbursements have slightly risen from USD 27 million in 2016 to USD 30 million in 2019. Cross-border philanthropic commitments towards gender equality have tripled in five years, reaching an average of USD 3.4 billion per year in 2021-2022. However, 68% of cross-border giving towards developing countries remains gender-blind, potentially reinforcing existing gender gaps. Funding remains limited to few actors, with ten international foundations providing 97% of total cross-border giving for gender equality in developing countries. Finally, intersectoral approaches remain underfunded, with cross-border philanthropic giving addressing simultaneously climate change and gender equality in developing countries amounting on average to USD 557 million per year in 2021-2022.

Since the Great Financial Crisis (2007–08) many countries have explored how education systems can better prepare students for their working lives in order to reduce youth unemployment and enhance educational engagement and achievement. This paper focuses on Career Pathways, learning programmes delivered in general secondary education that allow students to undertake a deep exploration of a vocational field of interest while keeping their options for the future open. In a first-of-its-kind analysis and building on understanding of historic provision, the study considers innovation in programme development in five predominantly Anglophone countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States) since 2010. While historically participation in Career Pathways has been strongly associated with better employment outcomes for learners, evaluations have highlighted important challenges to their delivery at scale for the full range of learners. This paper reviews a range of responses to historic challenges based on study visits to five countries and closes with policy recommendations for future enhancement of provision.

This paper offers insights on the factors that determine household choices related to energy use, based on data from the third OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC). The analysis profiles households according to patterns in reported energy use and investment in energy-related technologies, assesses the factors driving such decisions and estimates households’ willingness to pay to reduce the emissions of the electricity they use. Results suggest that the feasibility of installing low-emissions energy technologies appears to remain a key obstacle to their uptake, and that households are willing to pay a small but positive premium for electricity produced with fewer emissions. The presence of cross-country differences in behaviours and preferences signals the importance of considering local factors in approaches to energy policies. Environmental concern and environmental motivation increase engagement in sustainable choices, pointing to the cross-cutting relevance of policy efforts to improve environmental knowledge and awareness.

On average, primary school students in OECD countries receive 805 hours of instruction per year, and lower secondary students 916 hours, spread over 38 school weeks. However, these averages mask wide variations across countries. The total length of school vacations averages around 14 weeks per year, ranging from less than 11 weeks in Costa Rica and Denmark to 17 weeks in Greece, Latvia and Lithuania. The organisation of the school year, in particular the length of the summer holidays, is frequently debated but is rarely the subject of educational reforms because of its sensitive nature. Contrary to common assumptions, the length of instruction time is not closely related to students’ academic performance. The quality of instruction and other factors such as students’ participation to private tutoring and extracurricular educational activities, play critical roles in determining learning outcomes, too.

This paper offers new insights on household choices related to transport, based on data from the third OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC). The analysis explores the role of key factors determining the choice of fuel type in vehicles and the choice of transport mode in trips. The study uses choice experiment data to estimate the importance of key drivers of electric vehicle purchase decisions and to project future adoption rates of electric vehicles. Results show that income, location and environmental awareness play important roles in the choice of whether to own a vehicle, and its fuel type. Convenient access to charging, such as at home or workplace, can significantly increase the likelihood of choosing an electric vehicle.