Small firms are playing an ever-increasing role in innovation, driven by changes in technologies and markets. Some spin-offs and high growth firms are having remarkable success. However, the broad bulk of small firms are not capitalising on their advantages. This book explores how government policy can boost innovation by improving the environment for entrepreneurship and small firm development and increasing the innovative capacities of enterprises. Policy findings and recommendations are presented in three key areas: embedding firms in knowledge flows; developing entrepreneurship skills; and social entrepreneurship.  In addition, country notes present statistics and policy data on SMEs, entrepreneurship and innovation for 40 economies, including OECD countries, Brazil, China, Estonia, Indonesia, Israel, the Russian Federation, Slovenia and South Africa.

SMEs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation is part of the OECD Innovation Strategy, a comprehensive policy strategy to harness innovation for stronger and more sustainable growth and development, and to address the key global challenges of the 21st century.

This publication presents the findings of the OECD review of SME and entrepreneurship policy in Brazil. SMEs play an important role for economic growth and social inclusion in Brazil, accounting for 62% of total employment and 50% of national value added. However, productivity gaps between SMEs and large companies are wider in Brazil than in the OECD area, which is also the result of low innovation and export propensity among Brazilian SMEs. Business ownership and business creation are common, but growth-oriented entrepreneurship is much less widespread.

Brazil’s SME policy is enshrined in the 1988 Federal Constitution, which grants to micro and small enterprises a preferential treatment in different policy areas (e.g. tax and labour law). Brazilian SME policies are, therefore, mostly aimed at this constituency, whereas mid-sized firms are largely missing in the national policy debate. Simples Nacional, a preferential tax and regulatory regime, is the main federal SME policy, but Brazil also operates a large number of targeted programmes for SMEs. This report provides policy recommendations to enhance Brazil’s SME and entrepreneurship performance, covering, among others, innovation policy, export support, access to finance, and women’s entrepreneurship.

The SME Policy Index is a benchmarking tool for emerging economies to monitor and evaluate progress in policies that support small and medium-sized enterprises. The ASEAN SME Policy Index 2018 is a joint effort between the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East-Asia (ERIA), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ACCMSME). The report is the outcome of work conducted by the ten ASEAN Member States (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam).

Divided into eight policy dimensions, it builds on the previous edition of the ASEAN SME Policy Index 2014. The current edition presents an updated methodology which makes this document a powerful tool to assess the strengths and weaknesses that exist in policy design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation for SMEs, and allows for a benchmarking of the level to which the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development (SAP SMED) 2016-2025 has been implemented. Its objective is to enhance the capacity of policy makers to identify policy areas for future reform, as well as implement reforms in accordance with international good practices.

The report provides a regional perspective on recent developments in SME-related policies in Southeast Asia as well as in individual ASEAN Member States.  Based on this analysis the report provides a menu of concrete policy options for the region and for the individual countries.

In Colombia, the beginning of a new century has brought with it a palpable feeling of optimism. Colombians and visitors sense that the country’s considerable potential can be realised, and education is rightly seen as crucial to this process. As opportunities expand, Colombians will need new and better skills to respond to new challenges and prospects.

The government is therefore determined to address key challenges confronting tertiary education in the country: expanding enrolment and improving equity, increasing quality and relevance, and making governance and finance more responsive. Colombia has more than a decade of progress under its belt, and the energy to reach ambitious policy goals. Getting there in practice will involve dialogue and consensus-seeking among all stakeholders, as well as new resources and new rules.

Growth and diversity have characterised higher education in OECD countries for fifty years. Chile is no exception and has experienced dramatic increases in the number of students, the range of institutions and the programmes that they offer. But wider participation and diversification are only part of the story. Chilean society remains highly unequal in economic and social terms, and the quality of the academic, technical and professional programmes on offer is uneven. The establishment of a culture of quality in higher education which goes beyond accreditation, and the provision of accurate and reliable information, have become issues of concern not only to institutions, students and employers but to a wider public.

This report  analyses the performance of the relatively young higher education quality assurance system (SINAC-ES). It provides a set of key principles that the OECD review team believes both reflect international practice and are relevant for Chile. The report makes a set of recommendations about the place of the SINAC ES in Chilean higher education and society; the focus of its work; its structure and leadership; and the functions of licensing; accreditation and information that it carries out.

This report gives a broad description of the shift in governments' focus on e-government development –  from a government-centric to a user-centric approach. It gives a comprehensive overview of challenges to user take-up of e-government services in OECD countries and of the different types of approaches to improving it. The monitoring and evaluation of user take-up are also discussed, including the existence of formal measurement frameworks. Good practices are presented to illustrate the different concrete approaches used by OECD countries.

Public utility industries, once regarded as monolithic monopolies, in fact are made up of many separate activities, many of which can sustain effective competition. But owners of bottleneck facilities are often in a position to restrict or limit the growth of competition. There is a growing realisation that fundamental structural changes are often necessary if the full benefits of competition are to be achieved for users and consumers.

This publication explores the nature and impact of rules which affect the structure of public utility industries. It covers not only the theory behind different forms of separation but also practical experience in a wide variety of countries and sectors (railways, electricity, postal services, telecommunications, gas, air services, and maritime transport). It also contains the new OECD Recommendation on Structural Separation of Regulated Industries, which urges Member countries to consider separating the monopoly and the competitive parts of regulated industries, especially during the process of privatisation or liberalisation.