These proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Theory and Practice in Transport Economics sketch a broad overview of transport economics research since the inception of the ECMT in 1953 and map out the directions for future work. The 22 papers presented cover such topics as transport infrastructure's contribution to economic growth, modal split, competition in the transport sector, the need for a supra-national regulatory authority, charging systems, and environmental sustainability.
In a first-ever joint report by the UN, the OECD, the World Bank and the IMF, the world’s four principal development institutions assess progress towards poverty reduction goals and agree on a common vision for the way forward. The goals for international development address that most compelling of human desires-a world free of poverty and free of the misery that poverty breeds. This report focuses on seven goals, which, if achieved in the next 15 years, will improve the lives of millions of people. In words and pictures, with numbers and charts, it describes progress towards the goals, what has been achieved and the effort required to reach them.
This report provides new evidence on social mobility in the context of increased inequalities of income and opportunities in OECD and selected emerging economies. It covers the aspects of both social mobility between parents and children and of personal income mobility over the life course, and their drivers. The report shows that social mobility from parents to offspring is low across the different dimensions of earnings, education, occupation and health, and that the same prevails for personal income mobility over the life course. There is in particular a lack of mobility at the bottom and at the top of the social ladder – with “sticky floors” preventing upward mobility for many and “sticky ceilings” associated with opportunity hoarding at the top. The lack of social mobility has economic, societal and political consequences. This report shows that there is space for policies to make societies more mobile and protect households from adverse income shocks. It discusses the options and measures that policy makers can consider how to improve social mobility across and within generations.
A new vision of the purpose of social policy is needed. Scaremongers present decision-makers as facing an overwhelming number of complex problems with more and more limited budgets. Society is indeed undergoing profound upheaval. Ageing populations are increasing pressure on the workforce. Changes in the labour market have hit low-skilled workers hard; the term "social exclusion" has entered the political lexicon, and policies can no longer be based on "traditional" family life. But social policy should not be presented as "papering over the cracks" in society caused by economic and demographic change. As knowledge plays an increasing role in generating wealth, empowering individuals to develop their potential is a central and essential part of economic policy. Indeed, economic and social policies are more intertwined than ever.
This book paints a complete and accessible picture of the current situation and pinpoints how policies can be reformed. Social policy should aim to promote employment and healthy living, rather than just coping with joblessness and ill-health. Investing in children and families helps ensure that all can contribute fully to society. Innovations and experiments in new social policies to better equip individuals and families with the support they need in responding to change abound in OECD countries. Ministers from OECD countries have committed themselves to the ambitious task of creating just such a caring world.
The development of plastic products does not systematically take sustainability, particularly from a chemicals perspective, into account. This report seeks to enable the creation of inherently sustainable plastic products by integrating sustainable chemistry thinking in the design process. By applying a chemicals lens during the plastic material selection process, designers and engineers can make informed decisions to incorporate sustainable plastic during the conceptualisation phase of their products.
The report provides an integrated approach to sustainable plastic selection from a chemicals perspective, and identifies a set of generalisable sustainable design goals, life cycle considerations and trade-offs. At a more granular level, considerations are identified for each life-cycle phase, which are brought together as a whole-product assessment and optimisation taking the full life cycle into account. The report also considers trade-offs that will need to be carefully balanced in the design phase and reflection on implications of design choices. Ultimately, the report helps to equip designers and engineers with knowledge of relevant chemical considerations when selecting sustainable plastic, supporting better outcomes and a more transparent process.
The report provides an overview of development finance with biodiversity-related objectives from a wide range of sources: bilateral Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, non-DAC and South-South and triangular co-operation providers, multilateral institutions, private finance mobilised by development finance, and private philanthropy. The estimates are based on OECD statistical data. The report identifies the main gaps between biodiversity-related priorities and investments, and provides detailed estimates on financial allocations to the fight against illegal wildlife trade; nature-based solutions; indigenous peoples and local communities; the mainstreaming of biodiversity; gender equality; and climate change. These elements can help DAC members and other stakeholders to step up and target their biodiversity-related investments, notably to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Over the past ten years economic growth in Asia has contributed to a reduction of poverty as well as fertility rates, and greater prosperity has contributed to gains in life expectancy. However, at present many workers still work in informal employment, frequently for long hours at little pay and without social protection coverage. A growing demand for social support, extending the coverage of social protection benefits and improving the job quality of workers will be among Asia’s major challenges in future. This report considers these challenges, providing policy examples from countries to illustrate good practice, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Viet Nam.
This DAC Reference Document draws on donor responses to international terrorism. It is intended to guide the international community and governments in their efforts to address linkages between terrorism and development, and suggests how donor programmes might be designed or adjusted.
<img src="https://assets.oecdcode.org/ilibraryres/img/DG-Reform_banner-Kappa_en.png" class="img-responsive" style="adding-bottom:5px;" alt="EU Funded Note"/> The Digital Financial Literacy Strategy for Portugal sets out a long-term vision and objectives, supported by short- and medium-term actions, for Banco de Portugal and other Portuguese stakeholders with an interest in improving digital financial education. The Strategy aims to empower the Portuguese population to safely use digital financial services and to contribute to reducing digital financial exclusion. Overall, the Strategy is intended to support people living in Portugal to improve their financial well-being and resilience. It was developed through a consultative and evidence-based approach, in line with the OECD Recommendation on Financial Literacy.
What approach to treating certain ageing-related diseases works best and at what cost? That is, what combination of health care system characteristics, prevention, detection, technology and treatment, is the most cost-effective? The OECD Ageing-Related Diseases study investigated how health systems treat three diseases: ischemic heart disease, stroke and breast cancer. This book includes papers discussing the results of the OECD study with essays by leading experts, and uses a disease-based approach to comparing health-systems.
Addressing teacher education in all its complexity is fundamental to ensuring that all students reach their potential in today’s increasingly diverse classrooms and rapidly changing environment. This report provides insight into key features of selected teacher preparation systems by analysing the information collected in the OECD Initial Teacher Preparation (ITP) study. The ITP study investigated the policy environments of the first phase of continuous teacher learning in seven countries to identify challenges, strengths and innovations: Australia, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, the United States and Wales (United Kingdom).
A Flying Start: Improving Initial Teacher Preparation Systems describes the challenges of designing and sustaining initial teacher preparation systems and proposes strategies for different levels of the system (policy, teacher education institutions and schools), based on both international evidence and practices identified in the study. The report can therefore act as a resource for policy makers, teacher educators, educational leaders, teachers and the research community.
A lack of finance for water resources management is a primary concern for most OECD countries. This is exacerbated in the current fiscal environment of tight budgets and strong fiscal consolidation, as public funding provides the lion’s share of financial resources for water management.
The report provides a framework for policy discussions around financing water resources management that are taking place at local, basin, national, or transboundary levels. The report goes beyond the traditional focus on financing water supply and sanitation to examine the full range of water management tasks that governments have to fulfill; when appropriate, a distinction is made on distinctive water issues.
The report identifies four principles (Polluter Pays, Beneficiary Pays, Equity, Policy Coherence), which have to be combined. In addition, it identifies five empirical issues, which have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. Finally, it sketches a staged approach that governments might wish to consider, to assess the financial status of their water policies and to design robust financial strategies for water management. Case studies provide illustrations of selected instruments and how they can be used to finance water resources management.
Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, the Better Policies series tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of member and partner countries, focusing on how governments can make reform happen.
As ageing societies are pushing a growing number of frail old people into needing care, delivering quality long-term care services – care that is safe, effective, and responsive to needs – has become a priority for governments. Yet much still remains to be done to enhance evidence-based measurement and improvement of quality of long-term care services across EU and OECD countries. This book offers evidence and examples of useful experiences to help policy makers, providers and experts measure and improve the quality of long-term care services.
La Muette, home of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has a long and rich history. This book tells its story from its inception as a royal hunting lodge to its present-day use as the headquarters of the OECD. The reader may find it amusing, and sometimes instructive, to meet some of the colourful characters who once roamed its galleries. The place itself has played a significant role in French history; the Château and its extensive park were once the theatre of many a strong sentiment and the locale is impregnated with memories, comic, tragic, venal, lofty, solemn and ludic. These traces of the past are the real substance of La Muette’s charm; they are also the voices that echo through this text and linger in the halls of the Château.
Building on the OECD Guidance on Key Considerations for the Identification and Selection of Safer Chemical Alternatives, this report describes the results of a landscape study of sustainability attributes used by companies to guide chemical and material selection decisions. Results outline the range of sustainability attributes being considered, factors guiding the choice of standards and metrics used, as well as lessons learned in terms of challenges, needs and opportunities in the use and interpretation of a range of sustainability impacts to support chemical/material selection decisions. Companies are at various stages, given their value chain position and individual circumstances, in considering sustainability attributes in their chemical and material selection decisions, whether for the design of new chemistries, industrial processes or industrial/consumer products. Companies noted that sustainability attributes were not often considered in chemical substitution efforts given that regulatory and market-based chemical restrictions are primary risk-driven. Future guidance development to establish a minimum and recommended set of sustainable attributes should be flexible to the company/sector/product context as well as specific standards or metrics that could be used to evaluate them. Guidance should also be supportive of chemical-level innovation and selection decisions and aligned with forthcoming mandatory sustainability reporting requirements.
Paraguay has faced multiple shocks in the past five years as the COVID-19 pandemic was bookended by severe droughts that affected two key sectors, electricity production and agricultural production. The economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience during this period, supported by policy measures commensurate with the magnitude of the challenge, like the USD 2 billion fiscal response to the pandemic. These shocks have also exposed key underlying vulnerabilities in the country’s economy and development model, including reliance on agricultural exports, informality, limited revenue-raising capacity, and exposure to the consequences of climate change. The response and stimulus recognised these issues and found new ways to address or circumvent them, albeit in many cases not efficiently or permanently. This report draws lessons from policy measures implemented during the pandemic and recovery phase and applies them to current strategic challenges. In doing so, it highlights policy priorities to make Paraguay’s development path more inclusive, stronger and more resilient.
<img src="https://assets.oecdcode.org/ilibraryres/img/DG-Reform_banner-Kappa_en.png" class="img-responsive" style="adding-bottom:5px;" alt="EU Funded Note"/> The national financial literacy strategy for Austria will guide the actions of Austrian stakeholders for the next five years. It creates a Financial Literacy Stakeholder Council and it identifies policy priorities based on evidence. It presents over forty action tools to support the strategy's implementation, and defines an impact evaluation framework. Its ultimate objective is to increase the financial well-being of people living in Austria over the long-term. The design of the strategy is in line with the OECD Council Recommendation on Financial Literacy.
Approaches to radiological protection have been evolving, particularly over the past several years. This has been driven by the emergence of modern concepts of and approaches to risk governance, and by calls from within the radiological protection community for the simplification and clarification of the existing system of protection, as based on the Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).
The NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has been very active in developing its own suggestions as to how the system of radiological protection should evolve to better meet the needs of policy makers, regulators and practitioners. One of those suggestions is that a generic concept of “regulatory authorisation” of certain levels and types of exposure to radiation should replace the current and somewhat complicated concepts of exclusion, exemption and clearance. It has also been suggested that by characterising emerging sources and exposures in a screening process leading into the authorisation process, regulatory authorities could develop a better feeling for the type and scale of stakeholder involvement that would be necessary to reach a widely accepted approach to radiological protection.
In order to verify that these suggestions would make the system of radiological protection more understandable, easy to apply, and acceptable, independent consultants have “road tested” the CRPPH concepts of authorisation and characterisation. Their findings, which show that applying these concepts would represent significant improvement, are reproduced herein. Specific approaches for the application of the new CRPPH ideas are also illustrated in this report.
Mental ill-health affects millions of people, and drives economic costs of more than 4% of GDP. A good mental health system helps people stay in good mental health, and connects those in need to appropriate support to manage their mental health condition or even fully recover from it. However, mental health care has long been neglected and under-funded, and unmet need for care is still high. The long-lasting COVID-19 crisis and the toll it is taking on mental health has made mental health systems more important than ever. This timely report provides an in-depth analysis of how well countries are delivering the policies and services that matter for mental health system performance. The report highlights recent reforms countries have taken to strengthen mental health performance, including by increasing access to mental health care, ensuring that service users take the lead in planning and even delivering services, and prioritising integration and mental health promotion. The report also identifies promising approaches countries should pursue to better meet their populations’ mental health needs. This report sets up a framework for understanding mental health performance through internationally comparable indicators, an approach set to grow stronger still in the coming years as more data become available.