The ubiquitous collection, use, and sharing of data that power today’s economies challenge existing governance frameworks and policy approaches. Drawing on the extensive research and analysis conducted at the OECD on data governance, on countries’ policies and practices, and the OECD legal instruments in this area, the Going Digital Guide to Data Governance Policy Making supports policy makers in navigating three fundamental policy tensions that characterise efforts to develop, revise, and implement policies for data governance across policy domains in the digital age: balancing data openness and control while maximising trust; managing overlapping and potentially conflicting interests and regulations related to data; incentivising investments in data and their effective re-use. The operative part of the guide consists of a checklist of questions to orient policy makers as they develop and revise effective policies for data governance, based on possible policy approaches and real-life examples.

Data are generated wherever digital technologies are deployed namely, in almost every part of modern life. Using these data can empower individuals, drive innovation, enable new digital products and improve policy making and public service delivery. But as data become more widely used across sectors and applications, the potential for misuse and harm also grows. To advance data governance for growth and well-being, this report advocates a holistic and coherent approach to data governance, domestically and across borders. It examines how data have emerged as a strategic asset, with the ability to transform lives and confer economic advantage. It explains how the unique characteristics of data can pose complex trade-offs and challenge policies that pre-date the data-driven era. This report provides new insights, evidence and analysis and outlines considerations for better data governance policies in the digital age.

Digital technologies and data are transformational. People, firms and governments live, interact, work and produce differently than in the past, and these changes are accelerating rapidly. How can we realise the immense promises of digital technologies and data for growth and well-being in a fast evolving world? This report charts the road ahead. It identifies seven policy dimensions that allow governments – together with citizens, firms and stakeholders – to shape digital transformation to improve lives. It also highlights key opportunities, challenges and policies related to each dimension, offers new insights, evidence and analysis, and provides recommendations for better policies in the digital age.

Critical infrastructures are the backbone of modern, interconnected economies. The disruption of key systems and essential services - such as telecommunications, energy or water supply, transportation or finance - can cause substantial economic damage. This report looks at how to boost critical infrastructure resilience in a dynamic risk landscape, and discusses policy options and governance models to promote up-front resilience investments. Based on an international survey, the report analyses the progressive shift of critical infrastructure policies from asset protection to system resilience. The findings are reflected in a proposed Policy Toolkit for the Governance of Critical Infrastructure Resilience, which can guide governments in taking a more coherent, preventive approach to protecting and sustaining essential services.

Stimulating innovation is key for achieving sustainable economic growth. Recently, however, prevailing practices and institutions of innovation governance have come under pressure. This publication examines the sources of these pressures, and provides lessons on how governments can adapt their governance practices to achieve better coherence and co-ordination of policies to promote innovation. The changes under way point to the emergence of a "third generation" of innovation policy: a broadly based, strategic policy area, crossing traditional ministerial boundaries.

This book presents case studies of governance of innovation policy in selected OECD countries. It reviews the ongoing changes in these countries with a focus on providing an analysis of governance challenges, institutional changes and policy learning practices. The book provides fresh insight into the emerging third-generation of innovation policy and how governments strive for making innovation policy more coherent.

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.

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.

Green skills, that is, skills needed in a low-carbon economy, will be required in all sectors and at all levels in the workforce as emerging economic activities create new (or renewed) occupations. Structural changes will realign sectors that are likely to decline as a result of the greening of the economy and workers will need to be retrained accordingly. The successful transition to a low-carbon economy will only be possible if workers can flexibly adapt and transfer from areas of decreasing employment to new industries. This report suggests that the role of skills and education and training policies should be an important component of the ecological transformation process.

The Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce are designed to help ensure that consumers are no less protected when shopping on line than they are when they buy from their local store or order from a catalogue. By setting out the core characteristics of effective consumer protection for online business-to-consumer transactions, the Guidelines are intended to help eliminate some of the uncertainties that both consumers and businesses encounter when buying and selling on line. The Guidelines reflect existing legal protections available to consumers in more traditional forms of commerce. Their aim is to encourage: - fair business, advertising and marketing practices; - clear information about an online business’s identity, the goods or services it offers and the terms and conditions of any transaction; - a transparent process for the confirmation of transactions; - secure payment mechanisms; - fair, timely and affordable dispute resolution and redress; - privacy protection; and - consumer and business education.

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.

The Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade sets out a conceptual and measurement framework for digital trade which aligns with the broader standards for macro-economic statistics. It aims to help statistical compilers to address policymakers’ needs for statistical evidence on digital trade. It includes extensive compilation guidance, drawing upon substantive inputs and case studies from both developed and developing economies and covering a variety of survey and non-survey sources. A reporting template is also proposed to support compilers in the production and dissemination of digital trade statistics.

“New space”, characterised by new commercial players bringing cutting-edge business techniques and funding methods to space activities, has brought disruptive innovation and democratised access to space. But there also reasons for concern, as this has led to an intensified use of the orbital environment, creating more congestion and debris. Furthermore, the vitality of the “new space” ecosystem is under threat from economic shocks and market entrenchment. This G20 background paper examines the emergence of the “new space” ecosystem over the last 15 years, its impact on the space sector and society at large and the role of governments in ensuring sustained and sustainable growth of the sector. The paper provides a definition of “new space” activities to better target policy responses and suggests policy options to address these challenges.

All countries are investing in health data. There are however significant cross-country differences in data availability and use. Some countries stand out for their innovative practices enabling privacy-protective data use while others are falling behind with insufficient data and restrictions that limit access to and use of data, even by government itself. Countries that develop a data governance framework that enables privacy-protective data use will not only have the information needed to promote quality, efficiency and performance in their health systems, they will become a more attractive centre for medical research. After examining the current situation in OECD countries, a multi-disciplinary advisory panel of experts identified eight key data governance mechanisms to maximise benefits to patients and to societies from the collection, linkage and analysis of health data and to, at the same time, minimise risks to the privacy of patients and to the security of health data. These mechanisms include coordinated development of high-value, privacy-protective health information systems, legislation that permits privacy-protective data use, open and transparent public communication, accreditation or certification of health data processors, transparent and fair project approval processes, data de-identification and data security practices that meet legal requirements and public expectations without compromising data utility and a process to continually assess and renew the data governance framework as new data and new risks emerge.

Health data are essential to modern health care delivery, health system management and research and innovation, and must be well governed to foster their use while protecting privacy and data security. The 2016 OECD Recommendation on Health Data Governance provides a roadmap towards more harmonised approaches to health data governance across countries. It recommends implementing national health data governance frameworks and sets out the key principles to follow when doing so, while promoting trans-border co-operation in data governance and interoperability. This report provides an overview of the implementation of the Recommendation from 2016-2021 and finds that while there are examples of good progress, overall many Adherents are still working towards implementation in areas including data sharing, accessibility, quality, interoperability and security and privacy protections. Efforts to support the implementation and dissemination of the Recommendation will continue for the next reporting cycle (2022-27) with a focus on cybersecurity, harmonising health data governance to allow for multi-country projects and improving global health data interoperability.

Health technology has the tremendous potential to change our understanding of disease, transform the delivery of health-care services, and improve health outcomes. But using such technology comes at a price. Health Technologies and Decision Making analyses the barriers to, and facilitators of, evidence-based decision making in OECD health-care systems. It examines how countries can successfully manage the opportunities and challenges arising from health-related technology by optimising decision-making processes, recognising the value of innovation, dealing with uncertainty, and producing and co-ordinating health technology assessment. The book also considers the capacity of health systems to respond to the particular challenges of fast-developing health-related biotechnologies.