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This report provides an assessment of both the strengths and potential areas for improvement of the education system of the People’s Republic of China. It articulates the inputs and outputs of China’s education system, brings in up-to-date policies and practices implemented in China, and provides an in-depth analysis on how China’s education system is performing in four overarching dimensions: learning environment, curriculum and teaching practices, student outcomes and education governance. Additionally, this report compares China with other high performing education systems to show the common or divergent patterns between them, offering insights for education systems around the world.
This publication presents a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of isotope production capabilities and uses in the world and an analysis of issues related to isotope production and use including transportation, sealed source accountability, maintaining the government role, and third party liability concerns.
Isotopes, radioactive and stable, are used worldwide in various applications related to medical diagnosis or care, industry and scientific research. More than fifty countries have isotope production or separation facilities operated for domestic supply, and sometimes for international markets.
This publication provides up-to-date information on the current status of, and trends in, isotope uses and production. It also presents key issues, conclusions and recommendations, which will be of interest to policy makers in governmental bodies, scientists and industrial actors in the field.
Radioactive and stable isotopes are used throughout the world and in many sectors, including medicine, industry, agriculture and research. In many applications isotopes have no substitute, and in most others they are more effective and cheaper than alternative techniques or processes.
This publication is the first international survey on the beneficial uses and production of isotopes. It provides an overview of their main uses, and detailed information on the facilities that produce them world-wide. Trends in isotope supply and demand are analysed, and the conclusions and recommendations presented point to key issues to be considered by governments.
Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and raise productivity by facilitating a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time.
This report is the first of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries.
This report on Korea focuses on avenues for strengthening benefit coverage, income security and re-employment in the context of a “dual” labour market with large parts of the workforce in short-duration, non-standard or informal employment. It welcomes Korea’s recent reforms towards more accessible jobseeker support, and points to priorities for additional policy action to make income and employment support more effective and inclusive.
Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and facilitate a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time. This report on the United States is the second of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries.
The report examines the reach and generosity of unemployment insurance and other income support for working age households, with a special focus on disadvantaged labour market groups. What are key gaps in benefit receipt between wage- and salaried employees and non-standard workers (part-time workers, those on temporary contracts, and self-employed workers including own-account workers)? What factors, including race/ethnicity and gender, drive non-entitlement to unemployment compensation? The report examines these questions, considers the impact of recent extensions to the unemployment insurance programme in response to the COVID pandemic, and outlines policy directions for strengthening out-of-work support.
Unemployment and related welfare benefits help prevent those without work from falling into poverty but at the same time reduce the incentive to work; this is one of the main dilemmas of social policy. For the first time, this publication analyses the complicated interactions of tax and benefit systems for many different family types and labour market situations. This volume enables the reader to discover exactly what features of the tax and benefit system cause disincentives to work; it compares all the different benefits made available to those without work and the taxes they pay with potential in-work incomes. In-work incomes in some countries are little higher than benefits made available to those without work. Furthermore, some benefits are withdrawn as earnings rise, reducing the attraction of moving up the job ladder. Unemployed families who face these disincentives may become locked in unemployment and are at risk of exclusion from the labour market.
Unemployment and related benefits help prevent those without work from falling into poverty but at the same time reduce the incentive to work; this is one of the main dilemmas of social policy. The Benefit Systems and Work Incentives series, started in 1998, addresses all the complicated interactions of tax and benefit systems for many different family types and labour market situations. This year's edition includes a section that describes the changes that occurred over the two-year period 1995-1997 affecting benefit systems and work incentives in OECD countries. We have also included some detailed calculations which illustrate the uses of net income calculations and the resulting marginal effective tax rates. Furthermore, Greece has now been included amongst the countries in our study. The series is a valuable tool used to compare the different benefits made available to those without work (net of taxes) with potential in-work incomes. This differential, in some countries, is very small. Furthermore, the reduction of certain benefits, as earnings rise, sometimes reduces the attraction of moving up the job ladder. Consequently unemployed families, who face these disincentives, may become locked in unemployment and are at risk of exclusion from the labour market.
Unemployment and related welfare benefits help prevent those without work from falling into poverty but at the same time, reduce the incentive to work; this is one of the main dilemmas of social policy. This annual report presents a description of all the benefits available to those without work, and of the taxes they pay, and presents a set of tables facilitating cross-country comparisons of tax-benefit systems. It compares the incomes of a range of families in and out of work in 1999 and describes the incentives to work, either part-time or full-time, across OECD countries.
Launched in 1998, this series (formerly entitled Benefit Systems and Work Incentives) addresses the complicated interactions of tax and benefit systems for different family types and labour market situations and their impact on household incomes and financial work incentives for an average production worker.
This new edition provides detailed descriptions of all cash benefits available to those in and out of work as well as the taxes they were liable to pay across OECD countries during both 2001 and 2002. Total household incomes and their components are calculated for a range of family types and employment situations. The results are used to examine financial incentives to work, either part-time or full-time, as well as the extent to which social benefits prevent income poverty for those without a job. This book also provides a detailed description of the personal tax systems of each OECD country.Launched in 1998, the latest edition of this series (formerly entitled Benefit Systems and Work Incentives) provides detailed descriptions of all cash benefits available to those in and out of work as well as the taxes they are liable to pay across OECD countries. A special chapter also compares childcare costs across countries and the financial work incentives faced by parents of young children. Using the OECD tax-benefit models, total household incomes and their components are calculated for a range of family types and employment situations. The results are used to examine financial incentives to work, either part-time or full-time, as well as the extent to which social benefits prevent income poverty for those without a job. This volume presents results for 2005 and earlier years.
framework, this Round Table stands out from other overly conventional approaches.
The provision of water supply, sanitation and wastewater services generates substantial benefits for public health, the economy and the environment. Benefit-to-cost ratios can be as high as 7 to 1 for basic water and sanitation services in developing countries.
Wastewater treatment interventions, for example, generate significant benefits for public health, the environment and for certain economic sectors such as fisheries, tourism and property markets.
The full magnitude of the benefits of water services is seldom considered for a number of reasons, including the difficulty in quantifying important non-economic benefits such as non-use values, dignity, social status, cleanliness and overall well-being. Also, information about the benefits of water services is usually hidden in the technical literature, where it remains invisible to key decision-makers in ministries.
This report draws together and summarises existing information on the benefits of water and sanitation.
Best Available techniques (BAT) have emerged as a key policy tool for setting emission limit values and other permit conditions to prevent and control industrial emissions, and thus ensure a high level of human health and environmental protection. This report provides an overview of policies and practices embodying BAT or similar concepts to prevent and control industrial emissions to air, water and soil in OECD members (the United States, the European Union, Japan and New Zealand) and partners (India, the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation). For each country, the overview includes information on the BAT-based policy instruments in place, how they are embedded into national legislation, the pollutants, sectors and activities to which they apply, their date of entry into force, timing for implementation and requirements linked to the use of BAT or similar concepts. This is the first in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
Industrial pollution prevention and control policies can achieve significant environmental, financial and human health gains. A growing number of countries use Best Available Techniques (BAT) to set industrial emission levels that are rooted in evidence and based on multi-stakeholder dialogue. Evaluating the effectiveness of BAT-based policies is essential to enhance their impact and strengthen future policy design. However, many countries lack the most appropriate datasets for an adequate effectiveness analysis of their BAT-based policies. This report provides an assessment of how governments can measure the effectiveness of their BAT-based policies to mitigate industrial pollution while generating benefits to society, such as improved air quality, and fostering efficient industrial operations. It presents the first comprehensive cross-country analysis of existing approaches to evaluating the impact of industrial emissions policies, and demonstrates the diverse approaches to such evaluations in the European Union, the United States, Chile, Israel, Korea, the Russian Federation, India, the People’s Republic of China, Kazakhstan and New Zealand. This is the third in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
A growing number of governments seek to adopt an approach based on Best Available Techniques (BAT) as part of the regulatory framework to prevent and control industrial emissions. Providing guidance on BAT-based permitting is, in the short term, a means to strengthen policy in individual countries. In the long term, it might facilitate greater international harmonisation of procedures to establish BAT and BAT-AE(P)Ls. This would assist efforts to protect human health and the environment across countries, and expand the level playing field for industry. This document presents a high-level overview of each step of the process to determine BAT, BAT-AE(P)Ls and permit conditions, including information on the principles and factors that should be considered in this process, based on best practices from OECD member and partner countries. It provides references to more detailed information from countries where such approaches are employed, and includes a range of elaborate examples from national and supra-national jurisdictions as well as international conventions. The document promotes an integrated approach to BAT-based environmental permitting. This is the fourth in a series of documents developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
In the transition towards a non-polluting, resource efficient industry, greater consideration of value chains shows potential to deliver greater overall environmental benefit than less integrated approaches that focus on individual stages, such as installation or sectoral emissions. Actions taken at the design and manufacturing, or other product life phases, can influence environmental impacts at other stages such as material processing, and waste recycling. The overall life-cycle impacts need to be accounted for at the outset. This report assesses how value chain approaches are/should be incorporated in BAT determinations and related environmental regulatory and policy concepts to accelerate progress toward identifying practices that more effectively consider an industry’s entire value chain to reduce overall environmental impacts as well as individual manufacturing sites within a given sector. This is the fifth in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
Industrial facilities play a major role in environmental consequences as their processes may use large amounts of raw materials and energy, and in return, may release significant amounts of pollutants into the air, water and soil. As part of their operational obligations, industrial facilities are required to meet various regulatory requirements in the form of emission limitations and/or standards of performance and environmental quality objectives at the local level. This report is a cross-country analysis of BREFs for three selected industrial sectors; thermal power plants (TPP), cement production and textile manufacturing. It examines seven BREFs for TPP, five BREFs for cement production, and six BREFs for textile manufacturing from countries/organisations, including China, India, Japan, South Korea, the US, the EU, Belgium (Flanders), and the World Bank. The information received from various jurisdictions may encourage and assist countries in their progress towards developing sector-specific BREFs. Beyond that, this comparative analysis may indicate the areas of possible harmonisation between countries, and also highlight the structures or parts of the BREFs that may need expanding or updating for better environmental impact considerations. This is the sixth in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
Best Available Techniques (BAT) have emerged as a key policy tool to prevent and control the emission of industrial pollutants, and thus to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. This report presents the first comprehensive analysis of approaches to establishing BAT and similar concepts around the world, including in OECD members (Korea, the United States, the European Union and New Zealand) and partners (the Russian Federation, India and the People’s Republic of China and) as well as under international conventions. The report demonstrates the key characteristics of more than nine methodologies to establish BAT and similar concepts, providing governments with good practice insights on how to effectively design or review their approach to determining BAT. It also presents a unique, international compilation of existing BAT documents, allowing interested stakeholders to seek guidance from already identified BAT. This is the second in a series of reports developed as part of the OECD’s BAT project.
On 20 February 2019, OECD Council adopted the Recommendation on Countering the Illegal Trade of Pesticides to strengthen cooperation between countries and inspectors. A Best Practice Guidance was developed to provide guidance for inspectors and regulatory authorities on best practices for identifying and tackling illegal pesticides throughout the complete lifecycle of a pesticide, from manufacture, through formulation, trade and use to destruction.