Switzerland’s innovation performance is among the best in the world.  But further raising the level of innovation is of key importance for boosting Switzerland’s economic growth and maintaining high living standards in an increasingly globalised world. This comprehensive review suggests some reforms in innovation policy which would help to cope with this challenge.

While women account for more than half of university graduates in several OECD countries, they receive only 30% of tertiary degrees granted in science and engineering fields. This publication presents the proceedings of a recent international workshop to assess the underlying causes behind the low participation of women in scientific careers, especially at senior levels, and to identify good practice policies to attract, recruit and retain women in scientific careers in public and private research.

Building on a recent groundbreaking OECD/World Bank seminar, this volume explores whether and how trade liberalisation can contribute to achieving universal service goals and the types of complementary policies required.  It focuses on experiences in four sectors - telecommunications,  water and sanitation, financial services, and electricity. The unique multi-sector perspective taken in this book, together with the national case studies, yield insights which can help countries promote their universal access goals. A horizontal assessment also helps determine how far the current services negotiations in the WTO, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, can aid the attainment of universal service goals.

Large-scale study of populations may contribute significantly to science’s understanding of the complex multi-factorial basis of disease and to improvements in prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and cure. This book summarises the proceedings of a conference on human genetic research databases.  It examines what they are and provides a number of examples. It looks at how they have been established, governed, and funded. And it looks at how they are managed and commercialised, exploring what the policy implications are for governments. 

The OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2004 provides a comprehensive review of important trends and developments in science and innovation in OECD countries. Touching on themes central to ongoing policy development, the book examines the role of public/private partnerships in stimulating innovation, efforts to promote innovation in the service sector, global challenges to the supply of human resources for science and technology, and the contributions of multinational enterprises to productivity growth and innovation. A statistical annex provides up-to-date figures on R&D funding, patents, researchers and other indicators of innovative performance.

Information technology (IT) and broadband are major drivers of economic change, restructuring businesses, affecting skills and employment, and contributing to growth and consumer benefits. This volume describes recent market dynamics and trends in industries supplying IT goods and services and offers an overview of the globalisation of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and the rise of ICT-enabled international sourcing. It analyses the development and impact of the changing global distribution of services activities and the rise of China and India as significant suppliers of ICT-related goods and services. It also looks at the increasing importance of digital content in selected industries and how it is transforming value chains and business models. The potential of technological developments such as ubiquitous networks, location-based services, natural disaster warning systems, the participative web and the convergence of information technology with nanotechnology and biotechnology is also examined. This book includes StatLinks, URL's linking statistical graphs and tables to spreadsheets containing the underlying data.

Les technologies de l’information (TI) et les réseaux à haut débit sont de puissants moteurs de changement économique. Ils poussent les entreprises à se restructurer, influent sur les compétences et l’emploi, et contribuent à la croissance. Cet ouvrage décrit la dynamique et les tendances récentes du marché dans les secteurs fournisseurs de biens et de services liés aux TI. Il dresse un panorama de la mondialisation du secteur des technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC) et du développement de la délocalisation qui est facilitée par ces technologies. Cette édition étudie le développement et l’impact de la nouvelle répartition mondiale des activités de services et l’émergence de la Chine et de l’Inde comme fournisseurs importants de biens et de services liés aux TIC. Une analyse des compétences en matière de TIC dans l’ensemble de l’économie permet en outre de mieux comprendre la dynamique de la création d’emplois et de l’externalisation. Cet ouvrage s’intéresse aussi à l’importance croissante du contenu numérique dans certains secteurs et à la manière dont il transforme la chaîne de valeur et les modèles économiques. Il considère le potentiel de quelques innovations : réseaux ubiquitaires, services géolocalisés, systèmes d’alerte face aux catastrophes naturelles, le web participatif et la convergence des technologies de l’information, des nanotechnologies et des biotechnologies. Il souligne l’émergence de nouvelles priorités pour faire face aux nouveaux défis. L'ouvrage inclut Statlink, un lien dynamique qui dirige le lecteur, pour chaque tableau, vers une page web où les données correspondantes sont disponibles en format Excel.

Les indices de prix peuvent être construits selon une méthode dite « hédonique ». Cette méthode prend en compte les changements intervenus dans la qualité du produit en s’appuyant sur un ensemble de caractéristiques clés du produit. L’objectif de ce manuel est d’aider le lecteur à mieux comprendre les avantages et les inconvénients des méthodes classiques et hédoniques, et de lui offrir un fondement analytique sur lequel appuyer son choix. Cet ouvrage dégage des « bonnes pratiques » à suivre pour construire des indices hédoniques et examine les critiques adressées à ces indices. Le manuel regroupe non seulement des éléments dispersés jusqu’alors dans un grand nombre de publications, mais dépasse la littérature économique existante à plusieurs égards. Il a été rédigé principalement à l’intention des organismes statistiques, qui ne disposaient pas jusque-là de manuel regroupant les principes à suivre pour mener des études hédoniques.

Price indexes can be constructed using a “hedonic method” that adjusts for changes in the quality of a product by focusing on a set of key product characteristics. This handbook contributes to a better understanding of the merits and shortcomings of conventional and hedonic price indexes and methods, and provides an analytic basis for choosing among them. It sets out “best practice” principles for constructing hedonic indexes and examines criticisms of hedonic indexes. The handbook brings together material that is now scattered in a wide number of places, but goes beyond the economic literature in significant respects. It has been written because there is a widespread view that the principles for conducting hedonic investigations are not readily assembled for statistical agency work, which is the primary audience of this volume.

This annual publication presents R&D expenditure data from the Analytical Business Enterprise Research and Development database (ANBERD) in ISIC Revision 3 for 19 OECD countries,* as well as a zone total for the European Union.  The coverage of ANBERD includes 58 sectors, with an extended coverage of service sectors.

Cette « Boîte à outils anti-spam » élaborée par des décideus et des professionnels forme un cadre pour lutter contre le spam en s'appuyant sur un large éventail de solutions pluridisciplinaires telles que la réglementation et la répression, les initiatives anti-spam du secteur privé, les partenariats de coopération, la métrologie du spam et la coopération internationale.

This toolkit, developed by policy makers and industry experts, provides a framework aimed at tackling spam using a broad, multi-disciplinary range of instruments including  regulation and enforcement, industry initiatives, technical measures, education and awareness initiatives, co-operative partnerships, spam metrics, and global cooperation. 

These OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents identify elements of scientific information used in the environmental safety and risk assessment of transgenic organisms which are common to OECD member countries.  This is intended to encourage information sharing and prevent duplication of effort among countries. This book offers ready access to those consensus documents which have been published thus far. As such, it should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of transgenic crops, regulators in national authorities as well as the wider scientific community. More information on the OECD's work related to the biosafety of transgenic organisms is found at BioTrack Online (http://www.oecd.org/biotrack).

These OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents identify elements of scientific information used in the environmental safety and risk assessment of transgenic organisms which are common to OECD member countries.  This is intended to encourage information sharing and prevent duplication of effort among countries. This book offers ready access to those consensus documents which have been published thus far. As such, it should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of transgenic crops, regulators in national authorities as well as the wider scientific community. More information on the OECD's work related to the biosafety of transgenic organisms is found at BioTrack Online (http://www.oecd.org/biotrack).

Energy, transport, water and telecommunications all are essential to future development and growth. However, infrastructure investment requirements over the coming decades will be massive, running into trillions of dollars. How will the needed investments be financed, given that OECD populations are ageing fast and public finances tightening? How will such factors as urbanisation, climate change and globalisation affect the development of infrastructures in OECD countries? And how will the role of the public sector and private actors evolve over time? These are just some of the questions this OECD report addresses in this long-term assessment of the future of infrastructures in both OECD and non-OECD countries.

This report deals with public sector research. It provides a comprehensive review of the challenges that call for changes in the governance of OECD countries’ science systems. It highlights emerging policy responses developed in these countries indicating better practices to deal with the challenges, and draws policy lessons that can inspire the reform process. Supporting chapters provide detailed descriptions and analyses of the structures of science systems, the procedures for priority setting, the changes to funding, and the management of human resources in R&D.

The OECD Biotechnology Statistics – 2006 edition brings together the latest available economic and activity data on biotechnology and innovation, collected by OECD member and a number of nonmember countries. The report builds on the extensive work of the OECD and national experts to improve the comparability of biotechnology statistics. The results should provide a valuable source of information on biotechnology for policy makers, academics and business managers.

How does government funding of corporate R&D affect the behaviour of firms?  Ongoing efforts to boost business investment in R&D demand better methods of evaluating the effectiveness of government policy instruments. Efforts to explicitly measure changes in the ways firms conduct R&D as a result of government policy – so-called “behavioural additionality” effects – have remained relatively underdeveloped. This publication explores the emerging concept of behavioural additionality and summarises results of a multinational effort to develop better ways of measuring it. Evaluations should investigate not only how much additional business R&D spending is stimulated by government support or how much additional output is generated as a result, but also how government funding influences the conduct and direction of business R&D.