Browse by: "2018"

Automated vehicles could make roads safer as well as reduce congestion. Whether society will be able to capture these benefits while minimising negative impacts depends on effective regulation of self-driving vehicles. The technology is still largely experimental and mass use is likely to take decades. Today’s regulatory frameworks can stretch to accommodate early deployment, but they will not be sufficient in the long term. This report reviews the range of existing service concepts for automated driving systems and technologies, the operational environments they require and assesses the need for regulatory action.

This review of Corporate Governance in Lithuania was prepared in the context of Lithuania’s accession process to the OECD. It assesses Lithuania’s corporate governance arrangements – the laws, regulations and institutions that shape company oversight – for listed companies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) against the standards of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. The report reaches a positive overall assessment of Lithuania’s willingness and ability to implement these corporate governance standards and makes a number of recommendations to address remaining weaknesses. With respect to listed companies, the report notably recommends that Lithuania give priority to monitoring implementation of recent legislative reforms to strengthen corporate boards of directors and, in the medium term, consider further strengthening and clarifying their legal responsibilities. With respect to SOEs, this report recommends that Lithuania give priority to further strengthening the effectiveness of the state’s ownership coordination function, ensuring that the state’s requirements on board composition and disclosure practices are fully implemented by the SOEs for which they are mandatory and moving forward with plans to convert commercially-oriented statutory SOEs to limited liability companies.

This book explores recent developments in environmental cost-benefit analysis (CBA). This is defined as the application of CBA to projects or policies that have the deliberate aim of environmental improvement or are actions that affect, in some way, the natural environment as an indirect consequence. It builds on the previous OECD book by David Pearce et al. (2006), which took as its starting point that a number of developments in CBA, taken together, altered the way in which many economists would argue CBA should be carried out and that this was particularly so in the context of policies and projects with significant environmental impacts.
It is a primary objective of the current book not only to assess more recent advances in CBA theory but also to identify how specific developments illustrate key thematic narratives with implications for practical use of environmental CBA in policy formulation and appraisal of investment projects.
Perhaps the most significant development is the contribution of climate economics in its response to the challenge of appraising policy actions to mitigate (or adapt to) climate change. Work in this area has increased the focus on how to value costs and benefits that occur far into the future, particularly by showing how conventional procedures for establishing the social discount rate become highly problematic in this intergenerational context and what new approaches might be needed. The contribution of climate economics has also entailed thinking further about uncertainty in CBA, especially where uncertain outcomes might be associated with large (and adverse) impacts.

Under the Action 13 Minimum Standard, jurisdictions have committed to foster tax transparency by requesting the largest multinational enterprise groups (MNE Groups) to provide the global allocation of their income, taxes and other indicators of the location of economic activity. This unprecedented information on MNE Groups’ operations across the world will boost tax authorities’ risk-assessment capabilities. The Action 13 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review process. The peer review of the Action 13 Minimum Standard is proceeding in stages with three annual reviews in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The phased review process follows the phased implementation of Country-by-Country (CbC) Reporting. Each annual peer review process will therefore focus on different aspects of the three key areas under review: the domestic legal and administrative framework, the exchange of information framework, and the confidentiality and appropriate use of CbC reports. This first annual peer review report reflects the outcome of the first review which focused on the domestic legal and administrative framework. It contains the review of 95 jurisdictions which provided legislation or information pertaining to the implementation of CbC Reporting.

As part of Education 2030 project the report provides policy insights and advice to Portuguese authorities at all levels of government, as well as practitioners and other stakeholders. The aim is to help them to ensure high-quality curriculum design and implementation. The report is also intended to help other OECD member countries and non-member economies understand the Portuguese process of redesigning learning models.

This report summarises the findings of an ITF Roundtable on Cycling Safety held in April 2018 with 33 researchers and practitioners from 16 countries. Cycling has a net positive effect on public health, despite the risk of injury it is often associated with. Policy makers are nonetheless concerned that increasing numbers of cyclists carries a risk of more traffic injuries and fatalities. Uncertainties also exist regarding the safety record of e-bikes and bike share systems.

Universal health coverage (UHC) aims to provide health security and universal access to essential care services without financial hardship to individuals, families and communities. UHC enables a transition to more productive and equitable societies and economies and is enshrined in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But UHC should not be implemented without considering the quality of the care provided. Quality means care that is effective, safe, people-centered, timely, equitable, integrated and efficient. High-quality care improves health outcomes and reduces waste. It is integral to a high-value, sustainable health system. Universal access to high-quality health care is not a luxury only rich countries can afford. It can be achieved in all settings with strong leadership, planning and implementation. The returns are worth the investment. While significant progress has been made to improve care quality has been made, more effort is needed in both developing and developed countries. This report describes the current situation with regard to UHC and global quality of care, and outlines the steps governments, health services and their workers, together with citizens and patients need to urgently take.

This report aims to provide policy makers with a comprehensive examination of “project pipelines”, a common concept in infrastructure planning and investment discussions, and one which has become a focal point in countries’ efforts to implement their climate commitments. The analysis is structured around some basic but important guiding questions, including: What is meant by project pipelines? How can we characterise them? What concrete approaches and actions can governments and other public institutions take to develop project pipelines and mobilise private finance into these projects? This close look at pipelines suggests that they can only be as robust as the investment-ready and bankable projects that constitute them, as effective as institutions that deliver them, and as ambitious as the objectives to which they are linked. Through a series of case studies, the report highlights that while governments and public institutions are already taking actions to develop robust pipelines in a range of country settings, these pipelines nevertheless need to be strengthened significantly to meet long-term climate mitigation objectives. Good practices pioneered by the countries and actors in the case studies can provide models for governments to adapt and bolster their own efforts.

Wales (United Kingdom) considers the development of schools as learning organisations as vital for supporting schools to put its new, 21st century curriculum into practice. A growing body of research evidence shows that schools that operate as learning organisations can react more quickly to changing external environments and embrace changes and innovations.
This report aims to support Wales in this effort, gauging the extent to which schools have put into practice the characteristics of learning organisations and identifying areas for further development. It also examines the system-level conditions that can enable or hinder schools in Wales in developing as learning organisations. It offers a number of concrete recommendations for consideration by the Welsh Government and other stakeholders at various levels of the system.
The report will be valuable not only for Wales, but also to the many countries that are looking to establish collaborative learning cultures across their school systems.

Like most OECD countries, Brazil has been taking steps towards digital government to ensure that public policies and services are more inclusive, convenient and designed to meet citizens’ needs. This report takes stock of the progress made by the Brazilian government, based on good practices and principles in OECD countries, and provides recommendations to help Brazil drive its digital transformation of the public sector.

This review analyses the shift from e-government to digital government in Colombia. It looks at the governance framework for digital government, the use of digital platforms and open data to engage and collaborate with citizens, conditions for a data-driven public sector, and policy coherence in a context of significant regional disparities. It provides concrete policy recommendations on how digital technologies and data can be harnessed for citizen-driven policy making and public service delivery.

Morocco aims to become a major industrial hub in Africa. To do so, it is taking steps to transform its administration and ensure the sustainable growth of its emerging digital economy and society. This review analyses the efforts under way to integrate digital technologies  in the public sector, and provides policy advice to support the Kingdom of Morocco in implementing a strategic digital government policy.

Technological advances, together with increased internet penetration, have created the perfect environment for the development of digital platforms in Mexico and these platforms raise new regulatory and competitive challenges. This report provides a general description of the main economic features of digital platforms in Mexico, focusing e-commerce, FinTech and ride-sourcing applications. It also addresses the main challenges competition authorities may face when handling cases concerning digital platforms.

This report provides an assessment of spatial inequalities and segregation in cities and metropolitan areas from multiple perspectives. The chapters in the report focus on a subset of OECD countries and non-member economies, and provide new insights on cross-cutting issues for city neighbourhooods, such as the patterns of segregation across income groups, migrant concentration and diversity across cities of different sizes, the role of public transport accessibility in widening intra-city inequalities, and the expected path dependency on outcomes related to segregation. The report also discusses methodological alternatives for measuring different dimensions of inequality and segregation across cities, and highlights the role of public policies in bridging urban divides and the relevance of the scale of analysis in order to make sound international comparisons.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how regulators, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. The report uses PAFER to assess elements linked to both the internal and external governance of Ireland's Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU). The review acknowledges the achievements and good practices put in place by the regulator since its creation. It also analyses the key drivers of CRU’s performance and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.

This report provides an overview for a series of assessments on Colombian gold supply chains. It develops an initial approach and analysis for how risks outlined in Annex II of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas are relevant in the Colombian context.

The Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India is a bi-annual publication on regional economic growth, development and regional integration in Emerging Asia. It focuses on the economic conditions of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. It also addresses relevant economic issues in China and India to fully reflect economic developments in the region. Each edition of the Outlook comprises four main parts, each highlighting a particular dimension of recent economic developments in the region. The first part presents the regional economic monitor, depicting the economic outlook and macroeconomic challenges in the region. The second part takes stock of recent progress made in key aspects of regional integration. The third part consists of a special thematic chapter addressing a major issue facing the region. The 2018 edition focuses on fostering growth through digitalisation. And the fourth part includes structural policy country notes offering country-specific reviews and recommendations.