Browse by: "2017"

This report examines the current system of water abstraction and pollution charges in operation in Brazil. It assesses the current system’s implementation challenges and provides possible solutions. The report explores how water charges can be both an effective means for dealing with water security issues, and a tool for enhancing economic growth and social welfare. Specific analysis is put forward for three case studies in the State of Rio de Janiero, the Paraiba do Sul River Basin and the Piancó-Piranhas-Açu River Basin. The report highlights that water charges need to operate in conjunction with an effective water regulatory regime and concludes with an Action Plan based on practical steps and recommendations for its implementation in the short, medium and long-term.
 

Demographic pressure and the youth bulge in the developing world pose a major employment challenge. This situation is exacerbated by insufficient job creation, scarce formal wage employment opportunities and vulnerability in the workplace. For these reasons, fostering youth entrepreneurship has gained importance in the global and national development policy agenda. This report aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of youth entrepreneurship in generating employment in developing countries. It is based on the analysis of mixed labour force and enterprise surveys conducted in Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Peru and Viet Nam, as well as evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship programmes. This report’s findings add to the global debate on youth entrepreneurship in three important ways. First, it constitutes an unprecedented effort to capture the real situations and multiple faces of young entrepreneurs in selected developing countries. Second, it provides new empirical evidence on the determinants of youth entrepreneurial performance. Third, it proposes a policy roadmap based on lessons learned from recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship programmes.

The Mexico Tourism Policy Review provides an assessment of tourism-related policies, programmes and plans to support sustainable tourism development in Mexico. Policy recommendations focus on priority areas to help strengthen Mexico's tourism sector and take advantage of opportunities with strong potential for economic growth, investment and development, notably in the following areas: policy-making environment and governance arrangements; transport, mobility and connectivity for visitor travel; inclusive tourism growth, destination development and product and regional diversification; and investment and SME financing.

This report provides insights on the political economy of biodiversity related policy reforms. It draws on existing literature and four new case studies covering the French tax on pesticides, agricultural subsidy reform in Switzerland, EU payments to Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau to finance marine protected areas via conservation trust funds, and individually transferable quotas for fisheries in Iceland. Each case study focusses on the drivers of reform, the types of obstacles encountered, key features of the policy reform, and the lessons learned from the reform experience.

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 Missing Entrepreneurs 2017 is the fourth edition in a series of publications that examine how public policies at national, regional and local levels can support job creation, economic growth and social inclusion by overcoming obstacles to business start-ups and self-employment by people from disadvantaged or under-represented groups in entrepreneurship. It shows that there is substantial potential to combat unemployment and increase labour market participation by facilitating business creation in populations such as women, youth, the unemployed, and migrants. However, the specific problems they face need to be recognised and addressed with effective and efficient policy measures.
This edition contains in-depth policy discussion chapters on the quality of self-employment, including new forms of self-employment such as dependent and false self-employment, and the potential of self-employment as an adjustment mechanism in major firm restructuring and job shedding. Each thematic chapter discusses current policy issues and challenges, and makes recommendations for policy makers. A data section provides a range of information on self-employment and business creation rates, barriers and key characteristics of businesses operated by social group. Finally, country profiles highlight recent trends in inclusive entrepreneurship, key policy challenges and recent policy actions in each of the 28 EU Member States.

The Geography of Firm Dynamics provides methods and data to measure and analyse business demography across OECD regions. It first discusses the methodological challenges of measuring consistently the creation and destruction of businesses at the subnational scale and from an international perspective. Second, it presents a novel database that not only makes such comparison possible but also provides the basis for an analysis of the major trends in business dynamics across regions. The report identifies regional factors that are associated with entrepreneurship and also examines the impact of business creation on regional employment. The Geography of Firm Dynamics provides a tool for national and local policy makers to design strategies for healthier business environments that are tailored to the specific characteristics of each region, thereby boosting prosperity.

This report presents evidence-based analysis of current strategies and practices in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Hungary towards a value-creating use of knowledge resources for innovation and entrepreneurship. The analysis and recommendations are highly relevant for policy makers and HEI leaders in other countries. Increased attention to innovation and entrepreneurship both from public policy actors and HEI leadership has triggered an incremental change process in the organisational culture of HEIs and a new approach to education and research for students and staff. HEInnovate is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the OECD to promote the innovative and entrepreneurial higher education institution across Europe and beyond (www.heinnovate.eu).

STAN: OECD Structural Analysis Statistics 2016 provides analysts and researchers with a comprehensive tool for analysing industrial performance across countries. The publication includes the following annual measures: production, value added (at current and constant prices), gross fixed capital formation, number engaged and labour compensation.
Data are presented in national currency for current price data, in terms of the current price value in the reference year (2010) for volume data and in number of persons for employment data. Coverage is provided for 18 OECD countries and for multiple sectors, with extended coverage of service sectors according to SNA08/ISIC Revision 4 classification.

SMEs and entrepreneurs make an important contribution to the Canadian economy. SMEs account for 60% of total employment, and Canada performs very well across many measures of small business generation, growth and innovation. However, further increases in productivity in medium-sized firms, an increase in SME exports, a greater business start-up rate and an increased number of high-growth firms could bring substantial benefits for the national economy.
This report identifies several areas where new policy approaches could help achieve these objectives. Framework conditions for small business could be improved in business taxation, public procurement, access to financing and the commercialisation of research. New and extended programmes could be introduced in domains including entrepreneurship education, management advice and consultancy, and workforce skills development. A major effort is recommended to prioritise women's entrepreneurship, including by supporting social enterprises, and federal support could be offered to support the exchange of information on best practice SME regulations and programmes among provinces and territories. All this could be brought together and co-ordinated through the umbrella of a national strategy and a lead agency for SME and entrepreneurship policy.
 

This report assesses the state of Armenia’s sanitation services, which are in poor shape, and proposes ways forward for reforming the sector by: ensuring equitable access by all and identifying solutions that work for the poorest and most remote communities; generating economies of scale and scope, and reducing both investment and operational costs for the efficient delivery of sanitation services; and moving towards sustainable cost recovery for the sanitation sector, by identifying how much funding can be mobilised from within the sector and how much external transfers are required. The state of Armenia’s sanitation services are inadequate, with 51% of the population in rural areas using unimproved facilities, causing direct damage to the environment and exposing inhabitants to health risks, and better access but degraded sewerage-system infrastructure in urban areas, posing health hazards due to potential cross-contamination between sewage and drinking water. According to preliminary estimates, EUR 2.6 billion of investments will be required to meet Armenia’s sanitation needs, with approximately EUR 1 billion needing to be spent in the next 7 to 10 years. Given the country’s current economic situation, this investment will have to be spread over time and targeted to avoid further deterioration of infrastructure and increase of the financing gap.

After two decades of solid growth of household disposable income and living standards more generally, Canadians generally enjoy a high level of well-being. However, disparities persist – not all population groups have benefitted equally strongly from past improvements in living standards. Income inequality is close to the OECD average, but the tax and benefit system is less redistributive than those in most OECD countries. Despite high social mobility over a number of different dimensions such as health, earnings, social class or education, middle class self-identification has fallen in recent years. At the same time, productivity growth has slowed own, limiting the potential for further improvements in living standards. The slowdown in productivity growth is linked to a growing divide between high-productivity frontier firms and low-productivity laggards, as well as a weakening of business dynamism. The cross-cutting challenge presented by the persistence of multidimensional inequalities and weak productivity growth underlines the need for a reappraisal of Canada’s policy making process with the aim of fostering stronger and more inclusive growth.

There are more than 200 shipbuilding and repair companies in Portugal, most of them small- to medium-sized firms engaging mainly in ship repair and maintenance. Some are very small facilities, with minimal activity, focused on local clients, predominantly in repair work. The Portuguese government considered that the shipbuilding industry in Portugal is limited to around five yards with the infrastructure and conditions to compete on the global market in commercial construction.

Norway is a very open country where labour costs are higher than in most other maritime economies and where labour costs in the maritime sector are higher than the average of manufacturing sectors in Norway’s competitive advantage is based on high investment in research and development. The Norwegian shipbuilding industry is part of a maritime cluster which also includes international shipping companies (6th largest fleet in the world), equipment manufacturers, classification societies, ship designers, brokers, and providers of insurance and financial services. In the context of the lower demand for offshore vessels, the Norwegian shipbuilding industry focuses on the production of other vessel types including fishing vessels and fish carrying vessels and the upgrading of other segments, such as specialized vessels and workboats.