Browse by: "2023"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
This paper provides novel evidence on the regional impact of international migration on native employment and wages in Australia, using unique administrative individual-level panel data covering all residents from 2011 to 2018. Employing a differences-in-differences estimation strategy and a well-established shift-share instrumental variable (IV) approach based on census data from 1981, the study addresses potential endogeneity concerns related to migrant settlement patterns. The analysis reveals a positive impact of migration on native employment across all skill levels, ages, and genders, while wages remain unaffected. Examining the drivers of the employment effect shows that the arrival of migrants leads to a substantial increase of newly employed natives in the region and a decrease in the number of previously employed natives, with the former outweighing the latter. Most of the dynamic results from geographic mobility rather than labour market transition.
New OECD surveys of employers and workers in the manufacturing and finance sectors of seven countries shed new light on the impact that Artificial Intelligence has on the workplace —an under-researched area to date due to lack of data. The findings suggest that both workers and their employers are generally very positive about the impact of AI on performance and working conditions. However, there are also concerns, including about job loss—an issue that should be closely monitored. The surveys also indicate that, while many workers trust their employers when it comes to the implementation of AI in the workplace, more can be done to improve trust. In particular, the surveys show that both training and worker consultation are associated with better outcomes for workers.
How artificial intelligence (AI) will impact workplaces is a central question for the future of work, with potentially significant implications for jobs, productivity, and worker well-being. Yet, knowledge gaps remain in terms of how firms, workers, and worker representatives are adapting. This study addresses these gaps through a qualitative approach. It is based on nearly 100 case studies of the impacts of AI technologies on workplaces in the manufacturing and finance sectors of eight OECD countries. The study shows that, to date, job reorganisation appears more prevalent than job displacement, with automation prompting the reorientation of jobs towards tasks in which humans have a comparative advantage. Job quality improvements associated with AI – reductions in tedium, greater worker engagement, and improved physical safety – may be its strongest endorsement from a worker perspective. The study also highlights challenges – skill requirements and reports of increased work intensity – underscoring the need for policies to ensure that AI technologies benefit everyone.
This paper describes the methodology used for crosswalking occupation-based measures of Green (“environmentally friendly”) and Brown (“polluting”) jobs from the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system to the International Standard Occupation Classification (ISCO) 08 at the most detailed (4-digit) level. The original, task-based Greenness scores by Vona et al. (2018) are provided at the 8-digit SOC level, and the industry-based Brownness measures are provided in 6-digit SOC. Crosswalking these measures requires several choices in terms of weighting and aggregating, which this paper describes in detail. The robustness of the resulting measures to the different weighting options and underlying assumption is tested using Linked Employer-Employee data from Portugal. An empirical application to the Productivity-Greenness link at the firm level shows the robustness of this link to different weighting choices, and confirms that all of the different measures derived are consistent in measuring the Greenness of jobs.
This paper analyses Memorial University’s contribution to the economic development of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, specifically focusing on the university’s contributions to the provincial ocean economy. It analyses the university’s public engagement, entrepreneurship, and collaboration strategies, programs, and relationships to understand Memorial’s regional impact.
The use of telemedicine, or remote clinical consultations, was limited in most OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, held back by regulatory barriers and hesitancy from patients and providers. In early 2020, as COVID-19 massively disrupted in-person care, governments moved quickly to promote the use of telemedicine. The number of teleconsultations skyrocketed, playing a vital role in maintaining access to care, but only partly offsetting reductions in in-person care. This brief describes how governments scaled up remote care during the pandemic and explores the impact that this massive shift to remote care has had on health care system performance.
… more and more governments, as well as regional and international organisations, are focusing greater attention on nuclear energy’s potential role in combating global climate change. At the same time, the nuclear energy sector is facing many complex issues, with legal systems playing an increasingly vital role in adjudicating public policy and regulatory questions, particularly in countries with long-established nuclear power programmes
This policy brief was prepared as part of the OECD's Resourcing Higher Education Project. This wider project aims to provide a shared knowledge base for OECD member and partner countries on policy for higher education resourcing, drawing on system-specific and comparative policy analysis. The policy brief for Finland was developed at the request of the Finnish authorities to support reflection on possible adjustments to the public funding model for Finnish higher education for the funding period (2025-28). The brief reviews the key challenges facing higher education in Finland and national policy priorities, compares Finland’s model of funding higher education institutions (HEIs) with models in OECD systems sharing similar characteristics to Finland’s and reviews policy options – both within and outside of the funding model – to support achievement of key policy objectives.
This paper quantifies changes in employment and the demand for skills in the European Union following the implementation of Fit for 55 policies. Between 2019 and 2030, the economy is projected to grow by 1.3% in the Fit for 55 scenario (3% in a Baseline scenario without the Fit for 55 policies). Employment growth is projected to be lower in the Fit for 55 than the Baseline scenario. Employment in the Fit for 55 scenario is projected to decrease by 3% for blue collar and farm workers (2% in the Baseline) and increase by 4 5% for other occupations (5-6% in the Baseline). The most demanded skills following the implementation of Fit for 55 will be those related to inter personal communication and the use of digital technologies, whereas the demand for skills related to the use of traditional tools and technologies is projected to decline. Anticipating changes in employment and the demand for skills as well as the socio-demographic profile of those most affected can facilitate the design of upskilling and reskilling efforts and promote the reallocation of workers across sectors and occupations.
This report quantifies the environmental, health and economic consequences of policy action on air pollution in Arctic Council countries, with a focus on sectoral differences. The report takes a modelling approach and compares a baseline scenario that reflects current legislation, with a policy scenario in which the best available techniques to reduce emissions are deployed in all emitting sectors. The report highlights that benefits from air quality improvements can be obtained when considering emission reductions throughout the economy, and not just in the sectors that are targeted more often, such as industry and transport. The results presented in the report also highlight the need for country-specific policy strategies that take into account the current levels of policy stringency, the sectoral contributions to air pollution, and the need for sectoral investment in new technologies, which also vary by country.
The economic consequences for firms investing in green innovation, and therefore their incentives to innovate, are not well understood. This paper empirically assesses the economic returns on innovation in cleaner vehicles. The analysis uses data on passenger car market shares and patents for car manufacturers operating in eight countries for the period 2005-2021. The results show that, when vehicle fuel prices increase, firms having previously successfully filed patents related to both electric and hybrid vehicles and fuel efficiency experience an increase in their market share. This increase takes place between 7 and 8 years after the patent stock is accumulated for patents related to electric and hybrid vehicles and between 8 and 15 years for patents related to fuel efficiency. The analysis also finds that in contexts where fuel price salience is high, price increases generate larger and earlier competitiveness returns for firms having previously invested in cleaner technologies.
How is upper secondary education organised across OECD countries? This level of education, which most frequently serves students aged between 15 to 18, is generally the first time when learners have significant capacity to shape the content of their learning, for example by opting for general or vocational education, choosing their subjects and developing a specialisation. Across the OECD, education systems have developed different ways to be responsive to different student needs and interests while trying to ensure that learners develop coherent foundational skills. This paper captures the diversity of countries’ upper secondary systems by: 1) developing a common language that sets the foundation for internationally comparative analysis; 2) categorising how countries organise their programmes in upper secondary education to manage choice, coherence and specialisation; and 3) identifying benefits and strategies to mitigate the risks associated with different approaches to upper secondary programmes for students, education systems and society.
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.
This paper investigates the demand for language skills using data on online job vacancies in 27 European Union member countries and the United Kingdom in 2021. Evidence indicates that although Europe remains a linguistically diverse labour market, knowing English confers unique advantages in certain occupations. Across countries included in the analyses, a knowledge of English was explicitly required in 22% of all vacancies and English was the sixth most required skill overall. A knowledge of German, Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese was explicitly demanded in between 1% and 2% of all vacancies. One in two positions advertised on line for managers or professionals required some knowledge of English, on average across European Union member countries and across OECD countries in the sample. This compares with only one in ten positions for skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers and among elementary occupations.
The green transformation of the economy is expected to lead to a sharp reduction in employment in carbon-intensive industries. For designing policies to support displaced workers, it is crucial to better understand the cost of job loss, whether there are specific effects of being displaced from a carbon-intensive sector and which workers are most at risk. By using German administrative labour market data and focusing on mass layoff events, we estimate the cost of involuntary job displacement for workers in high carbon-intensity sectors and compare it with the displacement costs for workers in low carbon-intensity sectors. We find that displaced workers from high carbon-intensity sectors have, on average, higher earnings losses and face stronger difficulties in finding a new job and recovering their earnings. Our results indicate that this is mainly due to human capital specificity, the regional clustering of carbon-intensive activities and higher wage premia in carbon-intensive firms. Workers displaced in high carbon-intensity sectors are older, face higher local labour market concentration and have fewer outside options for finding jobs with similar skill requirements. They have a higher probability to switch occupations and sectors, move to occupations that are more different in terms of skill requirements compared to the pre-displacement job, and are more likely to change workplace districts after displacement. Women, older workers and those with vocational degrees as well as workers in East Germany, experience particularly high costs in case they are displaced from high carbon-intensity sectors.
Long-standing policy interest in the role of organisations specialised in research and experimental development (R&D) raises questions about how these organisations are classified under different institutional sectors and contribute to R&D statistics This paper reports on the findings of the pilot data collection conducted in 2022. The results show a diverse range of R&D specialist ecosystems as well as major reporting gaps. The ultimate aim of this exercise and its recommendations is to demonstrate how several OECD countries are able to provide meaningful statistical results using OECD guidance and promote the mainstreaming of reporting into future national and OECD R&D statistics.
This report combines multiple novel datasets to provide evidence that government support has contributed to increased carbon emissions from aluminium and steelmaking activities through an increase in production output and by shifting production to more emission intensive plants. While improvements in technology have driven overall emissions downward, there is no evidence that government support in this sector has been targeted at, or has contributed to, developing techniques that improve environmental performance. Removing such support could therefore contribute to a cost-effective decarbonisation strategy. For example, removing government support to aluminium smelting and steel making worldwide would reduce carbon emissions by 75% more than the reduction observed in 2020 resulting from COVID-related restrictions. In addition, the removal of such support would free up scarce public resources for alternative uses.
Developed as one of the resources within the context of the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) project entitled “Fostering and assessing creativity and critical thinking skills in higher education”, this paper reviews existing policies and practices relating to the assessment of students’ creativity and critical thinking skills in higher education across OECD countries. Creativity and critical thinking are largely emphasised in policy orientations and qualification standards governing higher education in many countries. In contrast, these skills are sparsely integrated into the dimensions of centralised assessments administered at the level of systems. At the local level, because of the large degrees of institutional autonomy and academic freedom, there is little indication that policy orientations translate into actual transformation of assessment practices developed and implemented by faculty members. Based on this analysis, the paper provides recommendations for policy and decision makers in systems and institutions to further support the development and implementation of assessment strategies to measure and foster students’ creativity and critical thinking in higher education.
Addressing 21st century development challenges requires investments in innovation, including the use of new approaches and technologies. Currently, many development organisations prioritise investments in isolated innovation pilots that leverage a specific approach or technology rather than pursuing a strategic approach to expand the organisation’s toolbox with innovations that have proven their comparative advantage over what is currently used.
This Working Paper addresses this challenge of adopting innovations. How can development organisations institutionalise a new way of working, bringing what was once novel to the core of how business is done?
Analysing successful adoption efforts across five DAC agencies, the paper lays out a proposed process for the adoption of innovations. The paper features five case-studies and concludes with a set of lessons and recommendations for policy makers on innovation management generally, and adoption of innovation in particular.
On 6 February 2023, two large earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.6 and 7.7 hit central and southern Türkiye and northern Syria resulting in widespread damage and fatalities in the region and leaving 3.3 million displaced. This note – prepared for a workshop to support the affected city of Gaziantep in March 2023 - provides an overview of the affected regions, and key issues and recommendations to support the recovery, based on international experience. It highlights that a plan should be made to support displaced residents for an extended period, identify high-risk families, train the workforce needed for the reconstruction effort, strengthen governance processes to protect recovery funds, coordinate reconstruction efforts across levels of government and with international donors, and engage communities in ambitious plans to improve infrastructure going forward.