Browse by: "2023"
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This report analyses the trends in Finnish productivity growth over the 2000s and 2010s. It describes its key features, makes comparisons to a benchmark of 16 OECD countries, and studies the causes of its sudden and prolonged slowdown which began at the end of the 2000s. The analysis focuses on the role of two contemporaneous demand shocks that hit the Finnish economy: the Nokia crisis and the Great Trade Collapse of 2009.
Matching detailed firm-based information on structural characteristics of productivity growth with global input-output tables and National Accounts data, the report highlights how the prolonged drop in demand from the domestic computer and electronics sector may have induced a persistent drag on Finnish productivity growth.
The report concludes with policy implications to strengthen Finnish resilience to idiosyncratic shocks to key sectors or large firms, while supporting long-term productivity growth and competitiveness.
Accurate measurement of shipbuilding capacity is critical to inform market stakeholders of excess capacity issues. This report presents several approaches to improve the estimates of shipbuilding capacity. It shows how the use of average production would allow for smoothening the proxy of capacity in the yard-by-yard production approach. It discusses how firm level indicators, such as productivity, can also be considered. An analysis of productivity developments for a sample of shipbuilding firms shows that their productivity evolves in function of the market situation which, therefore, should be taken into account in the proxies of capacity based on yard production. Finally, the report studies how mergers and acquisitions of shipbuilding firms may impact capacity.
Government support for industrial firms can come in many different forms and through a range of channels, varying in complexity. A particularly challenging form of support is energy inputs offered to industrial producers at below-market prices. To improve understanding about the scope and scale of such support, this report examines an illustrative sample of 33 companies and their subsidiaries operating in energy-intensive industries, namely aluminium smelting, steelmaking, chemicals (including fertilisers), and cement. Most of the energy subsidies identified appear to concern the provision of natural gas and electricity at below-market rates, resulting in an average subsidy of USD 0.4-1.3 per million British thermal units and USD 0.02-0.03 per kWh, respectively, over the period 2010-20. In some cases, estimates indicate that subsidies are a multiple of firms’ energy costs, suggesting a sizable impact on firms’ profits and operating margins. The results have important policy implications for efforts to better discipline industrial subsidies in the WTO and elsewhere, notably in relation to how to ensure policy transparency in a context where large energy providers tend to be majority owned by governments.
Government support to producers of rolling stock is raising concerns about possible market distortions and unfair competition. This report aims to quantify both the scale of government support and to identify the various ways in which governments have been supporting local rolling-stock producers at the expense of foreign competitors. Over the period 2016-20, governments provided about USD 5 billion to the sector, much of it in the form of government grants and income tax concessions. While not quantified, discriminatory practices in government procurement and competition enforcement, forced technology transfers, as well as non-market export credits may have also distorted global competition in the rail-supply industry. Similar to earlier OECD studies of government support in the aluminium and semiconductor value chains, this report helps shed light on the magnitude and ways in which governments subsidise the producers of materials and equipment they view as strategic, with a view to informing efforts to revisit global trade rules.
This paper takes stock of existing data and research on the gendered dimension of teleworking, to foster efficient data collection and evidence-based monitoring of the phenomenon in the future. Analysing existing data on work from home, teleworking, teleworkability and preferences for work from home highlights the need for a consistently defined teleworking concept to be used across sources. A literature review of existing results finds mixed effects of teleworking on work-life balance inequalities, on the gender wage gap, and on gender disparities in career progression. Prevailing gender norms are likely to mediate the effect of teleworking on all three outcomes and should be a focus of future research.
Les régimes d’imposition forfaitaire, aussi appelés régimes simplifiés d’imposition, simplifient le processus de mise en conformité fiscale pour les micro et petites entreprises. En réduisant les coûts de mise en conformité fiscale et en offrant des taux d’imposition inférieurs à ceux du régime réel d’imposition, ces régimes visent à encourager la formalisation et la conformité fiscale des entreprises. Ils sont particulièrement utiles dans les situations où le revenu imposable réel est difficile à quantifier et déterminent l'assiette fiscale à l'aide d'indicateurs alternatifs. Bien que ces régimes existent dans de nombreux systèmes fiscaux, leur conception varie considérablement. Ce document de travail de l'OCDE présente un cadre d’analyse qui permet de caractériser et comparer ces régimes. Il met également en lumière les principaux aspects de la conception qui méritent un examen plus approfondi et énumère une série de bonnes pratiques pour la conception et l’administration de ces régimes.
Approval procedures are critical to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) systems as they uphold countries’ commitments to facilitate safe trade. However, they can create significant costs and act as non-tariff barriers if not properly administered. This report examines the costs and opportunities that are associated with seven of the most pressing issues related to the administration of approval procedures. The analysis reveals that countries have increasingly raised specific trade concerns (STCs) to the WTO about issues related to approval procedures. Furthermore, gravity analysis demonstrates that trading partners dealing with STCs related to approval procedures trade 26% less on average than those not dealing with any STC. An OECD survey specifically designed to evaluate how issues related to approval procedures can be addressed indicates that multiple solutions exist to enhance efficiencies in agro-food trade, such as digitalizing SPS systems, relying on international standards or simplifying SPS measures.
Ensuring affordable access to novel medicines has been identified as a policy priority among OECD and EU countries, yet systematic monitoring of the various dimensions of access is lacking. Previous efforts to measure access have focused primarily on one or at most two of these dimensions, such as availability and affordability, but a more holistic picture is needed. The OECD undertook a pilot study in EU Member States that aimed to determine the utility and feasibility of routine, cross-national monitoring of access to medicines across multiple dimensions. The work included a desk review to define the dimensions of access and associated indicators, followed by an OECD survey to explore the feasibility of collecting and analysing the relevant data for a convenience sample of 15 recently authorised product/indication pairs. This working paper presents key learnings from the desk review and country survey to which 21 EU Member States responded, with a focus on exploring the utility and feasibility of the processes of monitoring and measurement.
Presumptive tax regimes, also known as simplified tax regimes, simplify the tax compliance process for micro and small businesses. By reducing tax compliance costs and levying lower tax rates compared to the standard tax system, these regimes aim at encouraging business formalisation and compliance. They are particularly useful in situations where actual taxable income is difficult to quantify as a taxpayer’s tax base is determined using alternative indicators. Although these regimes exist in many tax systems, they vary greatly in their design. This OECD working paper provides an analytical framework for characterising and comparing these regimes. It also highlights key design aspects that deserve further consideration and lists a series of best practices on the design and administration of these regimes.
A rapidly changing world requires development co-operation providers to continuously adjust their institutional arrangements, policies, systems and processes. Yet, until today, existing tools for public policy reform had not been adapted for the sector. To fulfil this ambition, this paper draws from existing literature and interviews with stakeholders from countries that underwent a reform process during the last decade. It considers what a reform mindset entails for development co-operation providers, explores drivers for change and suggests questions decision makers might ask themselves as they work through the particular challenges at each stage of reform in their own context.
The paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and limitations of the intellectual property (IP) system in Poland. It offers policy recommendations to fully exploit the potential of IP to support an innovation-based economy. It finds that the key components of an effective IP strategy in Poland should include the promotion of IP use among economic actors and other stakeholders as well as information campaigns and training programmes to raise awareness and knowledge about the advantages of IP. Recommendations also include reducing barriers to IP use by lowering the costs of and simplifying IP-related procedures, and promoting the valorisation of IP held by universities to enhance technology transfer to the business sector.
This paper uses information collected and provided by GlassAI to analyse the characteristics and activities of companies and universities in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States that mention keywords related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) on their websites. The analysis finds that those companies tend to be young and small, mainly operate in the information and communication sector, have AI at the core of their business, and aim to provide customer solutions. It is noteworthy that the types of AI-related activities reported by them vary across sectors. Additionally, although universities are concentrated in and around large cities, this is not necessarily reflected in the intensity of AI-related activities. Taken together, this novel and timely evidence informs the debate on the most recent stages of digital transformation of the economy.
In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the safety of health care services remains a serious, ongoing challenge. This once-in-a-century global health crisis exposed the vulnerability of healthcare delivery systems and the subsequent risks of patient harm. Given the scale of the occurrence and costs of preventable patient safety events, intervention and investment are still relatively modest. Good patient safety governance focuses on what leaders and policy makers can do to improve system performance and reduce the financial burden of avoidable care. Moreover, it is essential in driving progress in improving safety outcomes. This report examines how patient safety governance mechanisms in OECD countries have withstood the test of COVID-19 and provides recommendations for countries in further improving patient safety governance and strengthening health system resilience.
This policy brief on "Improving the effectiveness of inclusive and social entrepreneurship training schemes" was produced by the OECD and the European Commission. It discusses the importance of training schemes and presents an overview of the types of training schemes available. It also analyses the opportunities for governments to strengthen these training schemes and provides guidance on how to design more effective inclusive and social entrepreneurship training schemes.
Electronic exchange of sanitary and phytosanitary certificates can facilitate trade in animal and plant products. The electronic exchange of certificates can benefit both exporting and importing countries through enhanced efficiency gains, improved transparency, and traceability, as well as improved risk management along the food chain. However, the policy levers associated with e-sanitary certification systems are complex and include trade policies, as well as regulatory policies, investment policies, and public health and animal health policies. Countries face substantial challenges in the adoption of electronic sanitary certification systems including the costs associated with building the infrastructure, providing training, and updating existing regulatory systems. This paper reviews the uptake of e-sanitary certification systems and discusses the potential benefits and costs of adoption of these systems. Effective co-operation and collaboration between the public and private sectors are critical to the adoption and maintenance of sustainable e-sanitary certification systems.
Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have become the major route for countries to reduce trade barriers and open new markets. To fully assess the current state of market opening for agricultural products and examine the potential impacts of RTAs, access to up-to-date and consistent information on preferential tariffs is crucial. There are multiple databases that collect information on preferential tariffs; however, it is not always easy to identify how these databases differ in terms of their data collection, treatment and representation, nor which database is the most appropriate for a specific type of analysis. This practical guide aims to help trade negotiators, policy makers, researchers, and private sector actors to identify which international or national database to use for their analysis of preferential tariffs on agricultural products.
This paper explores potential influences on the ability and willingness to save for retirement, in order to uncover how asset-backed pension systems could be more inclusive of diverse populations. This paper illustrates the type of analysis that countries could conduct to better understand what factors may explain lower participation from certain individuals beyond labour market drivers, by looking at the views, attitudes and expectations of individuals across socio-economic characteristics on a sample of adults from the United Kingdom.
While still in its infancy, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in labour market matching, whether by private recruiters, public and private employment services, or online jobs boards and platforms. Applications range from writing job descriptions, applicant sourcing, analysing CVs, chat bots, interview schedulers, shortlisting tools, all the way to facial and voice analysis during interviews. While many tools promise to bring efficiencies and cost savings, they could also improve the quality of matching and jobseeker experience, and even identify and mitigate human bias. There are nonetheless some barriers to a greater adoption of these tools. Some barriers relate to organisation and people readiness, while others reflect concerns about the technology and how it is used, including: robustness, bias, privacy, transparency and explainability. The present paper reviews the literature and some recent policy developments in this field, while bringing new evidence from interviews held with key stakeholders.
This policy paper describes the current state of play of the measures taken by countries to promote the professionalisation of the public procurement workforce. The paper focuses on the main elements of professionalising the public procurement workforce: i) assessing the current state of professionalisation, (ii) developing a professionalisation strategy, (iii) developing a competency
model and a certification framework, (iv) developing capacity-building systems, (v) setting up incentive mechanisms, and (vi) promoting collaborative approaches with knowledge centres. The analysis is based on desk research and builds on data collected through the 2020 OECD Survey on Professionalisation and the 2018 OECD Survey on the Implementation of the 2015 OECD Recommendation on Public Procurement.
Affordable and sustainable lithium-ion batteries are key to the development of electric vehicles markets and to the green energy transition. Circular economy solutions for end-of-life batteries can help address primary inputs disruptions, while reducing environmental costs associated with the mining of these inputs or with battery production. Circular value chains would also help address waste and disposal problems as Li-ion batteries reach end of life. These chains are in their infancy, as complex battery designs, material chemistries and insufficient waste stocks hamper their viability, but the projected growth should support profitability. International trade in Li-ion batteries waste will remain essential in markets where domestic waste streams are insufficient to achieve the scale necessary for economically viable recycling, or where inadequate infrastructure imposes reliance on recycling capacities abroad. Promoting circular value chains for Li-ion batteries would require greater clarity on the status of these batteries as waste, consistency of transport and storage safety regulations, trade facilitation and harmonisation of standards for battery design, and regulatory targets for waste collection and recycling rates, coupled with stewardship and take-back schemes.