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Costa Rica’s strong agricultural sector is underpinned by the country’s political stability, robust economic growth and high levels of human development. The sector has achieved significant export success, yet raising productivity and staying competitive in world markets will require efforts to address bottlenecks in infrastructure, innovation and access to financial services. Maximising Costa Rica’s comparative advantage in higher-value niche products will depend upon more efficient services to agriculture, including better implementation of programmes, improved co-ordination among institutions, and reduced bureaucracy. While overall protection for agriculture is relatively low compared to OECD countries, it is nonetheless highly distorting to production and trade. Managing the transition to scheduled liberalisation presents an opportunity to reform costly policies, and to implement an alternative policy package with new investments in innovation, productivity and diversification, supported by transition assistance where needed. Costa Rican agriculture’s vulnerability to extreme weather events is expected to worsen with climate change, and even while the country is among global leaders in environmental protection, sustainable development and climate change mitigation, further adaptation efforts will be necessary.
Worldwide consensus exists within the international community that geological repositories can provide the necessary long-term safety and security to isolate long-lived radioactive waste from the human environment over long timescales. Such repositories are also feasible to construct using current technologies. However, proving the technical merits and safety of repositories, while satisfying societal and political requirements, has been a challenge in many countries.
Building upon the success of previous conferences held in Denver (1999), Stockholm (2003), Berne (2007) and Toronto (2012), the ICGR 2016 brought together high-level decision makers from regulatory and local government bodies, waste management organisations and public stakeholder communities to review current perspectives of geological repository development. This publication provides a synthesis of the 2016 conference on continued engagement and safe implementation of repositories, which was designed to promote information and experience sharing, particularly in the development of polices and regulatory frameworks. Repository safety, and the planning and implementation of repository programmes with societal involvement, as well as ongoing work within different international organisations, were also addressed at the conference.
Les Principes de gouvernance d’entreprise du G20 et de l’OCDE aident les responsables de l’action publique à évaluer et améliorer le cadre juridique, réglementaire et institutionnel organisant la gouvernance d’entreprise. Ils contiennent des orientations à l’intention des autorités de place, des investisseurs, des sociétés et autres acteurs apportant une contribution au processus d’élaboration d’un système de gouvernance d’entreprise de qualité. Publiés pour la première fois en 1999, les Principes sont devenus la référence au niveau international dans le domaine de la gouvernance d’entreprise. Ils ont été adoptés comme l’une des normes fondamentales pour la solidité des systèmes financiers du Conseil de stabilité financière, et approuvés par le G20.
L’édition 2015 prend en compte les évolutions survenues tant dans le secteur financier que dans celui des entreprises qui peuvent avoir une influence sur l’efficacité et la pertinence des politiques et pratiques suivies dans le domaine de la gouvernance d’entreprise.
The purpose of a Tourism Satellite Account is to analyse in detail all the aspects of demand for goods and services associated with the activity of visitors; to observe the operational interface with the supply of such goods and services within the economy; and to describe how this supply interacts with other economic activities. The present volume, Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework 2008, provides an updated framework for constructing a Tourism Satellite Account. It should permit greater internal consistency of tourism statistics with the rest of the statistical system of a country, as well as increased international comparability of these data.
This document provides guidance to both industry and regulatory authorities on how procedures and data requirements can be applied to facilitate the submission of a complete data package/dossier for botanical active substances used in plant protection products, and the subsequent evaluation of this data package/dossier by the regulatory authorities. The document additionally provides a summary of the legal frameworks and registration procedures for botanical active substances as plant protection products in several OECD member countries.
Après des décennies de progrès économique et social modestes, le Sénégal renoue avec une dynamique de croissance depuis 2012. La volonté des autorités sénégalaises d'amener le pays à l'émergence à l'horizon 2035 se traduit par de nombreuses avancées, sur le plan des infrastructures par exemple ou en matière de production agricole. Toutefois, d’importants défis demeurent, notamment en matière de réduction de la pauvreté, de création d'emplois ou d'accès à des services sociaux de qualité.
L'Examen multidimensionnel du Sénégal vise à soutenir l'élaboration du second volet de la stratégie de développement décennale, le Plan Sénégal émergent 2014-23. Ce premier volume passe en revue les performances du Sénégal et identifie les principales contraintes au développement. Il se base sur un diagnostic des évolutions macroéconomiques, des performances en matière de bien-être des citoyens, du degré de compétitivité du secteur privé, et du fonctionnement du système institutionnel. Ce volume identifie trois contraintes majeures au développement : les faiblesses du système éducatif ; les dysfonctionnements du régime et de l’administration fiscaux dans la mobilisation des ressources ; et la faible efficacité de l'État sénégalais.
Le deuxième volume proposera des recommandations pour lever les contraintes majeures identifiées et le troisième analysera les modalités de leur mise en oeuvre.
The G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance help policy makers evaluate and improve the legal, regulatory, and institutional framework for corporate governance. They also provide guidance for stock exchanges, investors, corporations, and others that have a role in the process of developing good corporate governance. First issued in 1999, the Principles have become the international benchmark in corporate governance. They have been adopted as one of the Financial Stability Board’s Key Standards for Sound Financial Systems and endorsed by the G20.
This 2015 edition takes into account developments in both the financial and corporate sectors that may influence the efficiency and relevance of corporate governance policies and practices.
Job displacement (involuntary job loss due to firm closure or downsizing) affects many workers over their lifetime. Displaced workers may face long periods of unemployment and, even when they find new jobs, tend to be paid less and have fewer benefits than in their prior jobs. Helping them get back into good jobs quickly should be a key goal of labour market policy. This report is part of a series of reports looking at how this challenge is being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It shows that in New Zealand most displaced workers find a new job again, largely due to a strong economy and a highly flexible labour market. But many of them face large losses in terms of job quality and especially wages. And displaced workers facing difficulties in New Zealand are largely left on their own to find a new job, as the means-tested public benefit system only provides for people in need and employment services concentrate on helping people off benefit with limited focus on those not receiving a benefit.
Nine countries are participating in the review: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan,
Korea, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States.
Contents
Chapter 1. Job displacement in New Zealand and its consequences
Chapter 2 Easing the impact of economic restructuring on displaced workers in New Zealand
Chapter 3 Re-employment support for displaced workers in New Zealand who struggle to find a new job
Un Compte satellite du tourisme a pour objectif d’analyser en détail tous les aspects de la demande de biens et de services associés à l’activité des visiteurs; de voir comment cette demande se confronte dans la pratique à l’offre de ces biens et services dans cette même économie; et de décrire les interactions entre cette offre et d’ autres activités économiques. Le présent volume, Compte satellite du tourisme : recommandations concernant le cadre conceptuel 2008, offre un cadre mis à jour pour la construction d’un Compte satellite du tourisme. Il devrait permettre une plus grande compatibilité interne des statistiques du tourisme avec le reste du système statistique d’un pays et une meilleure comparabilité internationale des données.
OECD and FAO have developed this guidance to help enterprises observe standards of responsible business conduct and undertake due diligence along agricultural supply chains in order to ensure that their operations do not lead to adverse impacts and do contribute to sustainable development. The Guidance comprises:
• A model enterprise policy outlining the standards that enterprises should observe to build responsible agricultural supply chains;
• A framework for risk-based due diligence describing the five steps that enterprises should follow to identify, assess, mitigate and account for how they address the adverse impacts of their activities;
• A description of the major risks faced by enterprises and the measures to mitigate these risks;
• Guidance for engaging with indigenous peoples.
This Tax Policy Study on Taxation and Skills examines how tax policy can encourage skills development in OECD countries. This study also assesses the returns to tertiary and adult education and examines how these returns are shared between governments and students. The study builds indicators that examine incentives for individuals and governments to invest in education. These indicators take into account the various financial costs of skills investments for individuals such as foregone after-tax earnings and tuition fees, as well as whether investments are financed with savings or with student loans. Costs borne by governments such as grants, scholarships, lost taxes, and skills tax expenditures are also accounted for. The indicators also incorporate the returns to skills investments for individuals and governments through higher after-tax wages and higher tax revenues respectively.
This report analyses Philippine agricultural policy. Agriculture provides 30% of total employment in the Philippines and represents 11% of its Gross Domestic Product. The Philippines has had notable recent overall economic success, yet improving agricultural performance remains challenging. Productivity growth lags behind other Southeast Asian countries, and a number of policy distortions hinder progress. With agricultural land resources also under pressure from frequent natural disasters, rising population and urbanisation, the report offers a series of recommendations to improve the sector’s performance and its ability to adapt to climate change.
This joint OECD and World Bank Group report, presented to G20 Trade Ministers in October 2015, focuses on the challenge of making GVCs more “inclusive” by overcoming participation constraints for SMEs and facilitating access for LIDCs. Results suggest that SME participation in GVCs is mostly taking place through indirect contribution to exports (rather than through direct exports), and that a holistic approach to trade, investment and national and multilateral policy action is needed to create more inclusive GVCs.
The report highlights the importance of ensuring access to ICT networks – in particular broadband – and stimulating innovation – in particular by enhancing the ability of SMEs to manage and protect their intellectual assets. At the same, the report underscores the importance of helping small firms scale up quickly, and to better integrate in GVCs by lowering barriers to the entry, growth and exit of firms. Countries should also avoid favouring incumbents over new firms.
The present report examines how governments use financial incentives to promote a better alignment between labour market needs, on the one hand, and the supply of skills, on the other. In doing so, it identifies: i) innovative models that countries may be interested in learning from; ii) best practice in the design and use of financial incentives; iii) framework conditions for their effective use; and iv) limitations and risks in the use of financial incentives.
Solving non-routine problems is a key competence in a world full of changes, uncertainty and surprise where we strive to achieve so many ambitious goals. But the world is also full of solutions because of the extraordinary competences of humans who search for and find them. We must explore the world around us in a thoughtful way, acquire knowledge about unknown situations efficiently, and apply new and existing knowledge creatively.
The Nature of Problem Solving presents the background and the main ideas behind the development of the PISA 2012 assessment of problem solving, as well as results from research collaborations that originated within the group of experts who guided the development of this assessment. It illustrates the past, present and future of problem-solving research and how this research is helping educators prepare students to navigate an increasingly uncertain, volatile and ambiguous world.
This annual flagship publication provides details of taxes paid on wages in OECD countries. It covers personal income taxes and social security contributions paid by employees, social security contributions and payroll taxes paid by employers, and cash benefits received by in-work families. It illustrates how these taxes and benefits are calculated in each member country and examines how they impact household incomes. The results also enable quantitative cross-country comparisons of labour cost levels and the overall tax and benefit position of single persons and families on different levels of earnings. The publication shows average and marginal effective tax rates on labour costs for eight different household types, which vary by income level and household composition (single persons, single parents, one or two earner couples with or without children). The average tax rates measure the part of gross wage earnings or labour costs taken in tax and social security contributions, both before and after cash benefits, and the marginal tax rates the part of a small increase of gross earnings or labour costs that is paid in these levies.
Value Added Tax (VAT; also known as Goods and Services Tax, under the acronym GST in a number of OECD countries) has become a major source of revenue for governments around the world. Some 165 countries operated a VAT at the time of the completion of the International VAT/GST Guidelines in 2016, more than twice as many as 25 years before. As VAT continued to spread across the world, international trade in goods and services has also expanded rapidly in an increasingly globalised economy. One consequence of these developments has been the greater interaction between VAT systems, along with growing risks of double taxation and unintended non-taxation in the absence of international VAT co-ordination.
The International VAT/GST Guidelines now present a set of internationally agreed standards and recommended approaches to address the issues that arise from the uncoordinated application of national VAT systems in the context of international trade. They focus in particular on trade in services and intangibles, which poses increasingly important challenges for the design and operation of VAT systems worldwide. They notably include the recommended principles and mechanisms to address the challenges for the collection of VAT on cross-border sales of digital products that had been identified in the context of the OECD/G20 Project on Base and Erosion and Profit Shifting (the BEPS Project).
These Guidelines were adopted as a Recommendation by the Council of the OECD in September 2016.