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The Ninth OECD/World Bank/IMF Annual Global Bond Market Forum held on 22-23 May 2007 in Paris, France, highlighted that there has been very sharp growth in the use of derivative instruments in both mature and emerging market countries. The use of derivative instruments is helping public debt managers in their portfolio management operations and in supporting market development. Several institutional and structural impediments, however, remain toward the more active use of derivative products. Most developed market debt managers use derivative instruments for debt management purposes, while this is the case for only a handful of emerging markets. Several emerging markets, though, are taking steps towards developing the legal environment necessary to support derivative markets, and are addressing the challenges posed by illiquidity of the underlying cash market, deficiencies in prudential regulation, and restrictions on market participation.

This manual is a guide to using the ITF transport life-cycle assessment tool. The tool aims to provide a holistic assessment of different modes of transport, accounting for energy use and greenhouse gas emissions that occur in different phases of the life of the vehicles.

This report presents numerous examples of the variety of tools for presenting and illustrating PRTR data and the types of uses of PRTR data in OECD member countries. It presents examples of uses for the purposes of the public, community groups, industry, the government, and academic and independent research institutions. The intent of this report is not to describe all of the many programmes, activities, and tools that use PRTR data, but to present examples in each category to illustrate the wide variety of current and evolving uses of such data.

AI can bring significant benefits to the workplace. In the OECD AI surveys of employers and workers, four in five workers say that AI improved their performance at work and three in five say that it increased their enjoyment of work. But the benefits of AI depend on addressing the associated risks. Taking the effect of AI into account, occupations at highest risk of automation account for about 27% of employment in OECD countries. Workers also express concerns around increased work intensity, the collection and use of data, and increasing inequality. To support the adoption of trustworthy AI in the workplace, this policy paper identifies the main risks that need to be addressed when using AI in the workplace. It identifies the main policy gaps and offers possible policy avenues specific to labour markets.

While means-tested benefits such as minimum income benefits (MIB) and unemployment assistance (UA) are an essential safety net for low-income people and the unemployed, incomplete take-up is the rule rather than the exception. Building on desk research, open-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews, this paper investigates the opportunities and risks of using artificial intelligence (AI) for managing these means-tested benefits. This ranges from providing information to individuals, through determining eligibility based on pre-determined statutory criteria and identifying undue payments, to notifying individuals about their eligibility status. One of the key opportunities of using AI for these purposes is that this may improve the timeliness and take-up of MIB and UA. However, it may also lead to systematically biased eligibility assessments or increase inequalities, amongst others. Finally, the paper explores potential policy directions to help countries seize AI’s opportunities while addressing its risks, when using it for MIB or UA management.

People with disability face persisting difficulties in the labour market. There are concerns that AI, if managed poorly, could further exacerbate these challenges. Yet, AI also has the potential to create more inclusive and accommodating environments and might help remove some of the barriers faced by people with disability in the labour market. Building on interviews with more than 70 stakeholders, this report explores the potential of AI to foster employment for people with disability, accounting for both the transformative possibilities of AI-powered solutions and the risks attached to the increased use of AI for people with disability. It also identifies obstacles hindering the use of AI and discusses what governments could do to avoid the risks and seize the opportunities of using AI to support people with disability in the labour market.

This note describes a new database on innovative start-ups and companies, called Crunchbase, with a focus on its potential for economic and managerial research. Crunchbase is rapidly being discovered by scholars from different fields. It has notably already informed studies on specific sectors as well as studies of networks in the start-up ecosystem. This note first describes the contents of Crunchbase and then reviews academic research that has used it. We further suggest that many more valuable avenues for economic and managerial research can be opened through the combination of Crunchbase with selected supplementary data sources and provide two such examples.

This paper studies the potential drivers of governments’ approval rates in 18 Latin American countries using Internet search query data from Google Trends and traditional data sources. It employs monthly panel data between January 2006 and December 2015. The analysis tests several specifications including traditional explanatory variables of governments’ approval rates – i.e. inflation, unemployment rate, GDP growth, output gap – and subjective explanatory variables – e.g. perception of corruption and insecurity. For the latter, it uses Internet search query data to proxy citizens’ main social concerns, which are expected to drive governments’ approval rates. The results show that the perception of corruption and insecurity, and complaints about public services have a statistically significant association with governments’ approval rates. This paper also discusses the potential of Internet search query data as a tool for policy makers to understand better citizens’ perceptions, since it provides highly anonymous and high-frequency series in real-time.

This paper explores the use of market studies with the specific objective of addressing emerging competition issues. It was prepared as background for the discussion "Using Market Studies to Tackle Emerging Competition Issues" held at the 2020 OECD Global Forum on Competition.

This report provides guidance to members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) on using ODA more effectively to mobilise private investment for development (investment-enhancing ODA). It focuses on how development agencies can help influence the conditions that lead to increased levels of private investment and on how investment can better contribute to the achievement of broader societal goals, including poverty reduction. A fundamental objective is to help staff in development agencies, both in headquarters and the field, to pursue a more strategic and co-ordinated approach when they design and deliver investment-enhancing ODA.

Audits entities have limited resources and should ensure that their multi-year performance audit plan is effective, will address the key risks that could hinder the government’s ability to achieve its objectives and will lead to improved public administration. Audit entities can take a number of factors into account when they select audit topics for inclusion in their audit plans. This paper discusses and provides a brief overview of some examples and better practices for using risk assessment in multi-year performance audit planning—aligned with the following steps: Establishing a clear purpose and objectives; Defining the audit universe; Identifying and assessing risk in the audit universe; Creating a multi-year performance audit plan.