This report explores how data and digital technology can help achieve policy objectives and drive positive transformation in the health sector while managing new risks such as privacy, equity and implementation costs. It examines the following topics: improving service delivery models; empowering people to take an active role in their health and their care; improving public health; managing biomedical technologies; enabling better collaboration across borders; and improving health system governance and stewardship. It also examines how health workforces should be equipped to make the most of digital technology. The report contains findings from surveys of OECD countries and shares a range of examples that illustrate the potential benefits as well as challenges of the digital transformation in the health sector. Findings and recommendations are relevant for policymakers, health care providers, payers, industry as well as patients, citizens and civil society.

This report documents how the ongoing digital transformation is affecting people’s lives across the 11 key dimensions that make up the How’s Life? Well-being Framework (Income and wealth, Jobs and earnings, Housing, Health status, Education and skills, Work-life balance, Civic engagement and governance, Social connections, Environmental quality, Personal security, and Subjective well-being). A summary of existing studies highlights 39 key impacts of the digital transformation on people’s well-being. The review shows that these impacts can be positive as digital technologies expand the boundaries of information availability and enhance human productivity, but can also imply risks for people’s well-being, ranging from cyber-bullying to the emergence of disinformation or cyber-hacking. In sum, making digitalisation work for people’s well-being would require building equal digital opportunities, widespread digital literacy and strong digital security. Continued research and efforts in improving statistical frameworks will be needed to expand our knowledge on the many topics covered in this report.

This report assesses well-being in the four largest urban agglomerations of the province of Córdoba and provides policy recommendations to strengthen regional development practices, and ultimately improve people’s well-being. Using around 30 statistical indicators, the report analyses the performance of Córdoba’s agglomerations in 12 well-being dimensions in comparison with 391 regions of 36 OECD countries and 98 regions of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica. The report also documents the well-being inequalities between Córdoba’s four agglomerations and suggests three priorities areas which the province should focus on to tackle well-being challenges: i) Ensure that well-being indicators guide future decision-making; ii) Continue strengthening and modernising the provincial statistical system to expand the evidence-base; and, iii) Strengthen governance arrangements for more effective, efficient and inclusive regional development policy outcomes.

This publication reveals a number of interesting examples of innovative programmes using ICT that can increase access to learning out-of-school youths and adults. The papers show that ICT can be one way -- but by no means the only way -- to improve pathways to learning. It can do this by tailoring learning to the needs and preferred learning styles of the disadvantaged, and it can make learning more interesting by providing immediate feedback. A third message is that just as adult learning itself has been the under-funded and under-appreciated Cinderella of the formal learning spectrum, so the application of ICT within adult learning has tended to lag behind much of the rest of the education system. The present volume provides some cautionary remarks on the recent past and opens up some significant opportunities for the future.  

This report represents the second outcome of the collaboration between the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to improve the measurement and analysis of productivity developments across APO and OECD member economies. The report discusses the potential impact of COVID-19 on productivity and examines the role of Multifactor Productivity (MFP) as a major driver of economic growth and changes in living standards. It then identifies the most important factors influencing MFP growth and describes the most important challenges affecting the measurement of each of these factors as well as the estimation of their impact on MFP. The report provides key recommendations to improve the reliability and interpretation of the empirical evidence for economic analysis.

This conference proceedings from the OECD Conference on Agricultural Knowledge Systems (AKS), held in Paris, on 15-17 June 2011, discusses a large range of experiences and approaches to AKS  explores how to foster development and adoption of innovation to meet global food security and climate change challenges. The conference considered developments in institutional frameworks, public and private roles and partnerships, regulatory frameworks conducive to innovation, the adoption of innovations and technology transfers, and the responsiveness of AKS to broader policy objectives.

In recent years Korea has stepped up efforts to reduce inequalities in recognition that a fairer economic model is also the most sustainable one. In order to support this new policy direction, the OECD has carried out novel analysis of inclusive growth building on its Framework for Policy Action, developed by the OECD to improve the prospects of the groups left behind. The Inclusive Growth Review of Korea applies, for the first time, the Framework at the national level. Using a dashboard of indicators, the Framework presents policy recommendations to sustain and more equitably share the gains of economic growth by investing in people left behind, supporting business dynamism and inclusive labour markets, and building efficient and responsive governments. In addition, the Inclusive Growth Review of Korea finds that digitalisation risks to compound the disparities of Korean labour markets, and calls for renewed efforts to reduce the lack of opportunities for up- and re-skilling of the working-age population (Chapter 2). To improve the business environment, Korea should address the unbalanced growth across sectors and firm size and unequal distribution of productivity gains across population groups (Chapter 3).

The Korean innovation system is in many ways highly developed and has helped to underpin Korea’s rapid industrialisation. However, long-standing policy emphases on manufacturing and large firms are today in question. Structural problems - such as the relatively weak innovation performance of SMEs, a lagging services sector and limited domestic job creation among the industrial conglomerates - have led to a shift in policy priorities. This shift is crystallised in the current government’s Creative Economy Strategy, which entails a far-reaching set of measures aimed at fostering cutting-edge innovation and consolidating a knowledge-based economy increasingly driven by high-value services. This review addresses Korea’s industry and technology policies and institutions, and provides policy recommendations.

Information technology (IT) is significantly affecting the economy, the growth and structure of output, occupations and employment and how people use their time. The OECD Information Technology Outlook 2000 describes the rapid growth in the supply and demand for information technology goods and services and their role in the expanding Internet economy and looks at emerging uses of information technology. It reflects the spread and diversity of a technology that is underpinning economic and social transformation. It makes use of the new official national sources of data which are becoming available as statistical mapping of the information economy improves.

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 looks at a variety of inclusive innovation initiatives and innovative products aimed at improving the welfare of lower-income and excluded groups, notably in terms of essential public services (education, infrastructure and health). It discusses the policy trade-offs between traditional innovation policies and a more inclusive innovation approach, and provides recommendations for aligning current policies. It also deals with the impacts of innovation and innovation policies on industrial and territorial inclusiveness, describing how information and communication technology (ICT) and technology diffusion may influence smaller firms’ chances of succeeding with their innovations.