Browse by: "2024"

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.

High energy prices and major geopolitical shifts, paired with an accelerated global digitalisation of industries of economies worldwide and rising pressure to achieve sustainability goals, have created new uncertainties for German SMEs. Successfully navigating these changes, and in turn, seizing new growth opportunities, will require sustained and significant investments. Access to an appropriate and diverse set of financing sources will be critical. This paper examines current policy practices to help German SMEs access finance, with a particular focus on efforts to link growth to sustainability goals in the national policy mix. It provides a brief overview of the German SME landscape, including key strengths and challenges in the context of the twin transition, and discusses the financing instruments available to small businesses in the country, including those with growth ambitions. It then analyses federal government efforts to unleash finance for innovation, investment, and network expansion as drivers of SME growth, and how these efforts compare to other OECD countries.

The policy brief highlights the important role of career guidance systems in connecting students' interest in the environment with the needs of the green job market. It emphasises the importance of authentic interactions with green industry professionals, work placements, and hands-on learning experiences, especially in secondary education. Drawing from key OECD findings and 87 green guidance programmes from 20 countries, the brief defines green jobs, showcases PISA 2018 insights on student interest in climate issues, and presents a framework for green career guidance.

This paper takes stock of Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS) practices in OECD countries based on the results of the 2022 OECD Survey on Financial Management and Reporting.

Slovenia's current housing challenges are characterised by strong demand and inadequate supply, exacerbated by rising construction and financing costs. High ownership rates mask the affordability challenge for younger cohorts or those who want to move amid limited rental markets and insufficient residential construction activity. This paper proposes a range of policy options to make housing more efficient, inclusive and sustainable. Streamlining spatial planning and permitting systems would foster housing supply responsiveness. Levelling the playing field in rental markets and overhauling real estate taxation can boost market efficiency. Enhancing access to mortgage financing and improving framework conditions for the provision of social housing would expand housing options for households. Finally, housing policies should aim at accelerating the transition to a net-zero economy by aligning energy taxation more closely with the carbon content of the source, strengthening the support programmes for renovation works and improving framework conditions for the deployment of district heating and electrification.

The Danish labour market is strong, but tensions have increased since the pandemic. The post-pandemic recovery boosted labour demand, but structural factors, such as late labour market entry by the young, changing skills requirements and obstacles to the recruitment of migrants, contribute to persistent shortages and impact the wider economy. Lowering the effective tax rate on labour income could reduce disincentives to higher working hours and to moving from part-time to full-time employment. Adapting the workplace to an ageing population and adjusting early retirement schemes could help to extend working lives. Targeting the tenth grade to students with greater learning needs, reducing student allowances and introducing an income-contingent loan system for master’s students could also encourage faster entry into the labour market. There is room to increase the recruitment of foreign-born workers, as well as improving their integration. The demographic, digital and green transitions will transform jobs and skills requirements, demanding an agile education and training system throughout the working life. Encouraging vocational education and training, notably by facilitating mobility between vocational and academic tracks, would ensure strong skills in areas where workers are lacking.

Weak investment has weighed on the convergence process of Latvia towards higher living standards. Limited access to finance coupled with high informality, costly insolvency procedures, skilled labour shortages and weak competition have hampered business dynamism and innovation, weighing on productivity growth. To reduce high credit costs, it is key to foster competition in financial markets by reducing information asymmetries and switching costs for bank customers and strengthening competition enforcement. As capital markets are shallow compared to other euro area countries, listing of large state-owned enterprises and facilitating greater exposure of pension funds to domestic securities could help attract investors and raise access to finance. Improving contract enforcement and fostering the reallocation of resources to more productive firms will require reducing the cost of filing insolvency, expanding the remit of the Economic Court and continuing to fight corruption. This will also help raise the low level of trust in institutions, which is key to reducing high informality. As training provided by firms is among the lowest across EU countries, better cooperation among firms and with training providers in the design and delivery of training is needed. Further strengthening the resources and investigative powers of the Competition Council would help improve the enforcement of competitive neutrality, reduce the high barriers to entry and competition, and foster business dynamism and innovation.

Romania’s clean energy transition needs to accelerate for the country to decarbonise its economy by mid-century. Following an impressive decline from the early 1990s, emissions of greenhouse gases have stopped falling in recent years. Fossil fuel dependence, an increasing and ageing vehicle fleet and poorly insulated buildings increase energy use and carbon intensity. Moving away from fossil fuels in Romania calls primarily for more renewables; shifting to electricity in transport and buildings; substantial energy savings; and improved transport systems. This paper identifies policies that would help bring about these changes cost effectively, while minimising the socio-economic impact of the transition and contributing to improving people’s quality of life. The policy package should include institutional reforms and public investment, regulatory changes, financial support and consistent price signals to encourage private abatement actions. Measures to alleviate the impact of the net-zero transition on vulnerable communities and to adapt to climate change are also required.

What is the effect of recent carbon price developments on domestic emissions and carbon leakage? This paper first develops a comprehensive plant-level carbon pricing dataset for key heavy industries at risk of carbon leakage, i.e. aluminium, cement and steel plants in 140 countries, drawing on satellite observations. The new dataset reveals that the average plant-level carbon price for these sectors increased by a factor of seven from USD 1.4 per tonne of CO2-equivalent (tCO2e) in January 2015 to USD 11/tCO2e in December 2021. Over the same time period, carbon price asymmetries i.e. the average difference in carbon prices among trading partners, increased by more than 350%. The paper then tests whether higher carbon prices have reduced plant-level emissions and whether rising carbon price asymmetries have affected international trade and led to carbon leakage. Results suggest that, on average, a USD 1/tCO2e increase in carbon prices reduces cement and steel plants’ emissions by 1.3%. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that carbon leakage through international trade offset around 13% of these domestic emission reductions.

This Education Spotlight, the last in a series of three, presents key lessons and inspiring examples of policy and practice to inform how higher education systems can support and promote upskilling and reskilling of adult learners to contribute to green and digital innovation. The Spotlight was prepared by the OECD Higher Education Policy Team as part of the Education and Innovation Practice Community (EIPC), an action of the European Union’s New European Innovation Agenda, flagship 4 on “Fostering, attracting and retaining deep tech talent”. The EIPC seeks to bring together peers from policy and practice to advance understanding of the competencies that can support and shape innovation for the digital and green transitions, as well as the mechanisms through which higher education can contribute to their development in secondary education, higher education, and adult upskilling and reskilling.

The paper provides an overview of the fiscal situation in Chinese Taipei and outlines its system for budget formulation and budget approval in detail. It highlights the organisation and functions of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. The paper analyses key milestones in the budgeting process and compares current practices in Chinese Taipei with the best practices of the OECD Spending Better Framework.

This paper provides a regional analysis of how governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) leverage trade and investment policies and agreements to promote responsible business conduct (RBC). It builds on a mapping of over 450 trade and investment agreements, takes stock of relevant policies and practices in nine LAC countries, and examines the role National Contact Points for Responsible Business Conduct (NCPs) play in this regard. The paper identifies key trends, challenges and opportunities and sets out policy considerations to enhance the uptake of RBC through trade and investment with the support of LAC NCPs.

El informe proporciona un análisis regional sobre cómo los gobiernos de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) usan sus políticas públicas y acuerdos en materia de comercio e inversión para promover la conducta empresarial responsable (CER). Se basa en un mapeo de más de 450 acuerdos comerciales y de inversión, analiza políticas públicas y prácticas relevantes en nueve países de ALC, y examina el papel que desempeñan los Puntos Nacionales de Contacto para la Conducta Empresarial Responsable (PNC) en este sentido. El informe identifica tendencias clave, así como desafíos y oportunidades, e incluye consideraciones para incentivar la adopción de prácticas empresariales responsables por medio del comercio y la inversión, con el apoyo de los PNC de ALC.

Intergovernmental fiscal transfers (IFTs) play a crucial role in addressing vertical and horizontal imbalances, promoting equitable service delivery, and aligning local spending with national priorities across OECD countries. However, their design involves navigating complex trade-offs between equity, efficiency, transparency, and autonomy. This paper reviews the theoretical framework of IFTs, aiming to dissect their objectives, incentives, and outcomes, and to clarify their classification. A significant contribution of this study involves new data that tracks IFTs across the OECD, revealing that transfers from central to subnational governments increased across all countries studied during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there have been no radical changes in IFTs in recent years, emerging trends such as performance-based grants, Ecological Fiscal Transfers, links with regional policy, and new budgeting techniques suggest potential avenues for reform. By understanding the present dynamics and trends, this study aspires to pave the way for more informed, strategic, and beneficial fiscal transfer policies in the years to come, ensuring that these transfers continue to serve their intended purposes effectively while adapting to changing economic and social conditions across OECD countries.