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In 2015, UN Member States and the international community more broadly endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Agenda’s commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for everyone to leave no one behind. This working paper presents and analyses the findings of a survey circulated to members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) between April and May 2018. The survey investigated the level and extent of commitment to leave no one behind in development co-operation policies, strategies and programming. It also gathered views and evidence from DAC members about the comparative advantage, opportunities, challenges and strategies for answering this pledge of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The findings presented in this paper inform the analysis of the 2018 Development Co-operation Report: Joining Forces to Leave No One Behind.

Nuclear power plants are typically designed to operate for 30 to 40 years. Between 2010 and 2020 a large number of nuclear power plants in the world and in OECD member countries, in particular, will reach their 30th or 40th anniversary. 1 As of June 2011, out of 440 nuclear power plants operating in the world, approximately 81% had been in operation for more than 20 years and about 35% for more than 30 years.2 In OECD member countries there are at present 339 nuclear reactors in operation, of which 135 reactors (39.8% of the total number) are over 30 years old and 15 reactors (4.4% of the total number) are over 40 years old. All nuclear reactors in Finland have reached their 30th anniversary while in the United States 56% of all reactors are beyond 30. In the United Kingdom and Germany about 42% of nuclear reactors are older than 30 years while in Canada, France and Japan, the respective percentages in this age bracket amount to 22%, 34% and 30%.

It is generally recognised that illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials is a serious problem, and one that must be tackled with a comprehensive response involving national governments as well as a number of intergovernmental organisations including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA notes that 1 773 incidents were reported to its Illicit Trafficking Database, or ITDB, between January 1993 and December 2009, and that 351 of these involved “… unauthorized possession and related criminal activities” such as “… illegal possession, movement or attempts to illegally trade in or use nuclear material or radioactive sources”.

This paper examines the role of businesses in the tax system. In addition to being taxed directly, businesses act as withholding agents and remitters of tax on behalf of others. Yet the share of tax revenue that businesses remit to governments outside of direct tax liabilities is under-studied. This paper develops two measures of the contribution of businesses to the tax system and applies both these measures for 24 OECD countries. The results show that businesses play an important role in the tax system, both as taxpayers and as remitters of tax. However, care should be taken in interpreting any measure of the business tax burden, which must be understood against the backdrop of economic incidence. This paper highlights that the economic incidence, or burden, of a tax is not necessarily borne by the person on whom the tax is imposed under legal statute, but may be passed on to others in the economy, whether it be owners of capital, workers or consumers.

This document provides an unofficial translation of legislation on lobbying in Poland, Hungary and Lithuania.

As the pandemic hit, governments asked legislatures to set aside or modify established budget practices and adopt solutions to expedite emergency responses. At the same time COVID-19 presented serious operational challenges for legislatures. They responded with creative solutions for swift action while maintaining effective oversight and accountability. Legislatures in most OECD countries were also supported with information and analysis from independent parliamentary budget offices and fiscal councils

Reforming budgetary institutions for effective government is a critical task for emerging economies. Strengthening the role of parliament in the budget process is an integral part of the restoration of democracy throughout Latin America, which requires a re-equilibration of executive and legislative prerogatives in public policy. The role of legislatures in public budgeting and public finance management has nevertheless been largely overlooked in the first stage of economic reform. This is starting to change, as the contribution of legislatures to the budgetary process is currently being re-evaluated, both in developed and, more recently, in developing countries.1 It is increasingly being recognised that parliaments have a critical role to play to strengthen economic governance, improve transparency in public finances and ensure government accountability. Enhancing legislative scrutiny of the budget and oversight of its execution is increasingly considered as a means to strengthen government accountability and curb corruption (OECD, 2002; G8, 2003).2 The international financial institutions are particularly keen to promote greater transparency in public finance management and to improve governmental financial information systems in emerging economies...

The OECD Competition Committee debated “Leniency for Subsequent Applicants” in October 2012. This document includes an executive summary of that debate and the documents from the meeting: an issues paper by the OECD Secretariat and written submissions from: Australia, Estonia, the European Union, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and BIAC, as well as a summary of the discussion.

This paper presents the key features of leniency programmes in Latin American and Caribbean jurisdictions, and explore the reasons why some of these programmes have been amended recently. It was prepared as background material for the session "Leniency programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean" held at the 2016 Latin American and Caribbean Competition Forum in Mexico on 12-13 April 2016.