Browse by: "2024"

This paper examines intergovernmental fiscal disputes and co-operation mechanisms across federal and decentralised countries. Employing a case study approach and AI tools, the research analyses constitutional court rulings and their influence on the development of fiscal federalism in seven countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India and the United States, with additional insights from Spain, the Netherlands and the European Union. The findings reveal significant variations in the nature and frequency of disputes and judicial interventions, highlighting the crucial role of court decisions in shaping fiscal federalism, most notably in the area of taxation. While conflicts are inherent to decentralised systems, their nature and frequency vary based on each country’s unique constitutional, political, and economic context. The paper recommends strategies for managing disputes and fostering co-operation, including clearly defining powers and responsibilities, enhancing the role of courts in providing fiscal guidance, strengthening intergovernmental institutions and ensuring adaptability to changing conditions. The study concludes that a proactive, collaborative approach involving all tiers of government is crucial to navigate the complexities of fiscal federalism and promote effective governance.

This policy paper aims to promote accountability, control and oversight in response and recovery funds in the Asia Pacific region. It details and builds upon the response and recovery funds that were disbursed during the COVID-19 pandemic, to improve control and oversight, both in the short term in the aftermath of a crisis and in the medium to long term. The paper brings together experience and insights from risk management, audit and anti-corruption functions within government. Its specific focus covers: 1) the response and recovery funds disbursed during the COVID-19 crisis; 2) controls and accountability challenges in emergency situations; and 3) lessons learned and recommendations going forward.

The rapid and deep emissions reductions needed to keep global warming to 1.5°C rely critically on an immense scaling-up of investment in clean energy technologies. The cost of capital plays a key role in determining investment decisions and, when elevated, can pose a significant barrier to accelerated climate action. The high capital expenditure needs of clean energy technologies make them more vulnerable to changes in the cost of capital than fossil fuel alternatives. This paper provides an overview of the cost of capital as a barrier to clean energy investment and depicts the key risk factors that determine the cost of capital for specific investments. It shows how, particularly in developing countries and for new and emerging technologies, a high cost of capital can significantly stifle investment, and calls on governments to implement better risk sharing mechanisms to overcome this barrier.

This paper investigates the interplay between voluntary and compliance carbon markets, with a focus on the environmental integrity implications, in particular mitigation of greenhouse gases. It explores different types of carbon credit markets and the different ways that these markets can, and could, interact. Furthermore, the paper examines how developments in voluntary and compliance carbon markets can impact the mitigation effectiveness of carbon credit markets, including on both the supply and demand sides. The analysis finds that while carbon credit markets could unlock mitigation ambition and action, they also have significant environmental integrity risks that merit government attention. The paper suggests some guiding principles for governments in identifying how to engage with different carbon markets, and recommends that they take strategic, focused and collaborative action. The paper also highlights potential policies that could enhance environmental integrity across carbon markets. In addition to domestic carbon markets, governments could monitor how international and self-regulatory carbon market frameworks evolve. Governments can also assess the role that carbon credit markets play in achieving their climate objectives, and identify opportunities to enhance their mitigation effectiveness.

Weak productivity in Egypt is rooted in deep-seated structural causes that impede market competition and prevent a more efficient resource allocation. This implies a number of challenges for economic policy to meet the objectives for long-term sustainable growth as set out in the National Structural Reform Programme, but the government is determined to tackle the issues, and is committed to increase the role of the private sector. Market mechanisms such as business entry and exit, and growth of the most efficient firms, appear to be weaker than in many similar emerging markets. Recent reforms have started to tackle heavy regulatory burdens and barriers that hinder market entry and encourage informality and should be pursued, while the judiciary system still requires improvement. Competition from abroad, and the attraction of foreign direct investment are hampered by trade barriers, implying that Egypt does not fully benefit from global value-chains and spillovers of technology and knowledge that would help lift productivity. The way state-owned companies are operating across a several sectors prevents private businesses from competing on a level playing field, although the government has recently started to take steps to level the playing field for all firms. Moreover, many businesses still face difficulties in accessing finance, as banks overwhelmingly prefer to lend to the government. Enhancing access to finance and improving digitalisation would contribute to a more competitive environment, lifting business sector growth.

Safety is a core dimension of health care quality. Measurement of patient safety culture in OECD countries has been increasingly conducted as part of efforts to monitor patient safety and to contribute to health system performance assessment. Building on four years of work, a second OECD data collection on patient safety culture was conducted in 2022-2023, with the support of the members of OECD Expert Group on Patient Safety Culture. Data from almost 650,000 health care workers, from over 3,000 different sites/hospitals, across 14 countries was added in this round of data collection. This report documents the state-of-the-art of patient safety measurement using the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) and is the first report to document international comparisions using the HSPSC v2, which has been recently adopted by ten countries who submitted data. Despite many commonalities between countries in the implementation of PSC measurements, there remains differences in the scope of implementation and survey response rates. Moreover, survey findings show general deficits in staff perceptions of safe staffing and workpace levels and response to errors among hospital workers, areas that could be targeted for policy action to improve patient safety.

This paper studies the differences between the organisation of budget management in selected government administrations in the Western Balkans and the Republic of Moldova and good practice across the European Union (EU). It observes that the ministry of finance (MoF) in these administrations typically engages in direct budget negotiations with a large number of budget organisations. This practice is in stark contrast with the budgeting approach observed in the EU, where the MoF only deals directly with government ministries and a limited number of constitutional bodies. The paper highlights the adverse consequences for the strategic role of the MoF for fiscal policy, the accountability of line ministries for budgeting and service delivery in their sector and the introduction of modern public financial management instruments such as medium-term budgeting and performance-based budgeting. This paper recommends that governments reduce the number of first-level budget organisations and give line ministries more responsibility for budget management in their sector. At the same time, the paper recommends strengthening line ministries’ accountability for budget management towards the parliament.

This policy paper aims to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement authorities in Asia and the Pacific to combat corruption and fraud during emergencies. It builds on lessons learnt from recent emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to improve the preparedness of law enforcement authorities for future health, environmental or economic crises. The paper takes stock of the challenges law enforcement practitioners face in detecting, investigating and prosecuting corruption and fraud during emergencies, and highlights good practices and provides practical guidance for law enforcement.

Les technologies émergentes peuvent être source d’avantages sans précédent dans les domaines de la santé, de l’énergie, du climat, des systèmes alimentaires et de la biodiversité. Cela dit, ces technologies et leur convergence présentent parfois des risques pour la vie privée, la sécurité, l’équité et les droits humains. Cette dualité impose aux pouvoirs publics de mieux anticiper les bouleversements et de créer les conditions requises pour que le développement technologique favorise la prospérité économique, la résilience, la sécurité et la recherche de solutions aux problèmes sociétaux. Fondé sur les travaux antérieurs et les instruments juridiques de l’OCDE, le présent cadre fournit aux pouvoirs publics, aux autres acteurs de l’innovation et à la société dans son ensemble les moyens d’anticiper les problèmes de gouvernance, de les traiter en amont et de renforcer les capacités dans ce domaine à plus long terme afin d’orienter plus efficacement l’innovation. Le principe de « gouvernance anticipative des technologies » sur lequel il repose est composé de cinq éléments interdépendants et outils de gouvernance connexes : (1) des valeurs directrices, (2) le renseignement stratégique, (3) la mobilisation des parties prenantes, (4) une réglementation agile et (5) la coopération internationale. La manière dont chacun de ces éléments s’applique dépend du contexte dans lequel s’inscrivent les technologies émergentes.

De multiples crises provoquent des turbulences, de l'instabilité et de l'insécurité dans les sociétés contemporaines, avec des répercussions sur les économies, l'environnement, la politique et les affaires mondiales. Pour apporter une réponse efficace, les gouvernements devront être plus ambitieux et agir avec plus d'urgence dans leurs politiques en matière de science, de technologie et d'innovation (STI) afin de relever les défis mondiaux. Des investissements soutenus et une plus grande directivité des activités de recherche et d'innovation sont nécessaires, et ils devraient coïncider avec une réévaluation des systèmes et des politiques STI pour s'assurer qu'ils sont à même de contribuer aux changements visés. Ce document d'orientation fournit un cadre pour aider les gouvernements à procéder à ces évaluations. Il identifie six orientations politiques STI pour les changements transformateurs qui devraient guider ces évaluations. Il applique ces orientations à de multiples domaines de la politique STI, notamment le financement de la R&D, le personnel de recherche et d'innovation et la coopération internationale en matière de R&D, et propose aux responsables publics et aux autres acteurs concernés un cadre pour la formulation et la mise en oeuvre de réformes STI qui accéléreront les changements transformateurs.

This analytical report, the last in a series of four, 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”. EIPC seeks to bring together peers from policy and practice to advance understanding of the competencies that can trigger and shape innovation for the digital and green transitions, and the mechanisms through which higher education can contribute to their development across three stages of education: secondary education; higher education; and adult upskilling and reskilling. Drawing on module B of the Higher Education Policy Survey 2022 and case studies, this report examines how public authorities can promote upskilling and reskilling in higher education to contribute to the green and digital transitions. It first offers a typology of the higher education-based upskilling and reskilling offer observed in OECD countries before describing four key action areas: setting system-wide strategies; supporting provision; attracting and supporting learners; and securing industry and employer engagement.

Over the past two decades, the use of research in educational practice has emerged as a policy imperative in many OECD countries. However, concerns about the significant gap between research evidence and practice are persistent. This working paper delves into the role of research-practice partnerships in bridging this divide. It critically evaluates common assumptions associated with such partnerships through an overview of research, insights from recent OECD data, and importantly, through in-depth case studies. These illustrate partnerships between education researchers and school practitioners in three countries: Norway, the United States, and Germany. They examine the conditions under which these can achieve an impact on both research and practice, and illuminate challenges and open questions associated with these collaborations. The paper aims to inform policy makers and researchers alike on the potential and limitations of research-practice partnerships.

The global challenge of the green transition, aimed at achieving net-zero emissions, is expected to reshape the labour market significantly. This shift presents both economic and redistributive challenges, with a particular concern for young people entering the job market. Education plays a crucial role in preparing students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values needed for green careers. However, there is a gap in how well schools are preparing students for these opportunities. Effective career guidance systems are essential to serve as bridges between students' interests and labour market demands. This study examined 87 programmes within primary and secondary education across 20 OECD countries, aimed at enhancing students' understanding of and progression towards green careers. These programmes, though not exhaustive, provide valuable insights into the conceptualisation and implementation of green guidance programmes, which are expected to become increasingly important in the future.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) could play a pivotal role in the pursuit of climate objectives. SMEs have a significant carbon footprint on aggregate, but they can also contribute to reaching net zero through their innovations and commitment to the use of environmentally friendly practices. This study develops a novel metric to identify environmental engagement, also referred to as “greening”. The study harnesses the power of machine-learning and analyses the content of over one million websites of firms from 15 OECD countries encompassing about 10 billion words. Greening is identified based on firms’ self-declared information about products or processes on their websites. The resulting indicator is then evaluated considering firms’ characteristics. The results show that: (1) About one-third of SMEs are environmentally engaged, albeit with considerable variations across countries; (2) Greening SMEs are more productive, pay higher wages and their sales grow faster than non-greening SMEs; (3) Solar energy is the most cited action among greening SMEs, followed by recycling and energy efficiency, (4) Sectors with higher greenhouse gas emission reduction over the past decade also display higher levels of environmental engagement.

This paper presents a technical assessment of nature-related risks within the Hungarian economy and financial system. The study draws upon the OECD Supervisory Framework to (i) prioritise various nature-related risks by conducting an impact and dependency assessment, identifying key economic sectors, and pinpointing the critical natural capital assets that are most crucial to the financial system; (ii) assess the direct and indirect economic impact of three exploratory scenarios on possible acute nature-related shocks using input-output analysis; (iii) explore the different financial risk channels through which economic risks stemming from nature-related losses may be transmitted within the Hungarian financial system; and (iv) provide supervisory recommendations based on the results.

Data portability enhances access to and sharing of data across digital services and platforms. It can empower users to play a more active role in the re-use of their data and can help stimulate competition and innovation by fostering interoperability while reducing switching costs and lock-in effects. However, the effectiveness of data portability in enhancing competition depends on the terms and conditions of data transfer and the extent to which competitors can make use of the data effectively. Additionally, there are potential downsides: data portability measures may unintentionally stifle competition in fast-evolving markets where interoperability requirements may disproportionately burden SMEs and start-ups. Data portability can also increase digital security and privacy risks by enabling data transfers to multiple destinations. This note presents the following five dimensions essential for designing and implementing data portability frameworks: sectoral scope; beneficiaries; type of data; legal obligations; and operational modality.

When and how did budgeting as we know it come to be? This inquiry yields some surprising answers. The budget system evolved as an integral part of the development of the modern democratic state, and hence replicates within itself the core principle of separation of powers. This process first took place in England over some five centuries. Once established, however, the budget system spread quite rapidly: most Western countries adopted it in the nineteenth century; the rest of the world, in the latter half of the twentieth. The propagation was so successful that virtually all countries currently subscribe to one same model of budgeting. Underneath the minor cosmetic differences, the basic framework of allocating budgetary authorities between the government and the legislature, and the principles that govern the interactions between them, are identical among virtually all countries, including even those that subscribe to different notions of government than Western democracy.

This report examines public financial management in Moldova, with a particular focus on budget preparation, execution and reporting. Moldova has already implemented the foundations of modern budget arrangements, and has made good progress in aligning with the OECD Recommendation on Budgetary Governance. The most significant reforms have been the introduction of new budget legislation, greater transparency of budget arrangements, a medium-term budget framework, performance budgeting, reforms to capital expenditure management, and piloting spending reviews. This report focuses on ways to strengthen existing arrangements to improve the quality of the country’s system of budgetary governance.

This paper applies Machine learning techniques to Google Trends data to provide real-time estimates of national average subjective well-being among 38 OECD countries since 2010. We make extensive usage of large custom micro databases to enhance the training of models on carefully pre-processed Google Trends data. We find that the best one-year-ahead prediction is obtained from a meta-learner that combines the predictions drawn from an Elastic Net with and without interactions, from a Gradient-Boosted Tree and from a Multi-layer Perceptron. As a result, across 38 countries over the 2010-2020 period, the out-of-sample prediction of average subjective well-being reaches an R2 of 0.830.