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There is increasing recognition that teachers will play a key role in preparing students for the challenges of the future. We expect teachers to equip students with the skill set and knowledge required for success in an increasingly global, digital, complex, uncertain and volatile world. This will involve teachers and schools forging stronger links with parents and local communities, building a sense of social responsibility and problem solving skills among their students. It also means that teachers need to adopt effective and individualised pedagogies that foster student learning and nurture their social and emotional skills. How can education systems help them engage in continuous innovation and professional development to enhance their own practice?
This report shows how education systems can support teachers to meet these new demands and encourage a paradigm shift on what teaching and learning are about and how they should happen. Education systems need to create the conditions that encourage and enable innovation. They need to promote best practice through policies focused on professionalism, efficacy and effectiveness in order to help build teachers’ capacity for adopting new pedagogies. Due attention should also be paid to teachers’ sense of well-being so that classroom learning environments remain conducive to students’ own well-being and development.
The erosion of public trust challenges government’s capacity to implement policies and carry out reforms. While Korea has achieved and maintained rapid economic growth and development, and performs comparatively well in several existing measures of the quality of public administration, trust in government institutions is relatively low. This pioneering case study presents a measurement and policy framework of the drivers of institutional trust and explores some policy avenues Korea could take to restore trust in public institutions.
The Italian economy is innovative and rich in intellectual property (IP), with nearly every industry either producing or using IP. Italian IP-intensive industries are very well integrated in the global economy, through active participation in global value chains. At the same time, the threats of counterfeiting and piracy are growing – and Italy is vulnerable. This report measures the direct, economic effects of counterfeiting on Italian consumers, the Italian retail and manufacturing industry, and the Italian governments. It examines both the impact that the imports of fake products to Italy has on these three groups and the impact on the Italian intellectual property rights holders of the global trade in fake products that infringe their IP rights.
This study examines the potential for the misuse of Free Trade Zones (FTZs) for trade in counterfeit and pirated goods. It presents the evolution of the FTZs and the international legal framework in which they operate, the reasons for establishing such zones and the benefits they offer businesses, and, finally, the role these zones play in fuelling trade in counterfeit and pirated goods. It also analyses the links between the FTZs and trade in counterfeit products, and provides data on these links.
In a globalised world, where goods cross borders many times as intermediate and as final products, trade facilitation is essential to lowering overall trade costs and increasing economic welfare, in particular for developing and emerging economies. Facilitation efforts undertaken by various countries around the world also show that the benefits of such measures clearly compensate the costs and challenges posed by their implementation.
The field of emergency management is broad, complex and dynamic. In the post-Fukushima context, emergency preparedness and response (EPR) in the nuclear sector is more than ever being seen as part of a broader framework. The OECD has recommended that its members “establish and promote a comprehensive, allhazards and transboundary approach to country risk governance to serve as the foundation for enhancing national resilience and responsiveness”. In order to achieve such an all-hazards approach to emergency management, a major step in the process will be to consider experiences from the emergency management of hazards emanating from a variety of sectors.
The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) joined forces with the OECD Working Group on Chemical Accidents (WGCA), the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate’s High-Level Risk Forum (HLRF) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to collaborate on this report, which demonstrates similarities between emergency planning and preparedness across sectors, and identifies lessons learnt and good practices in diverse areas for the benefit of the international community. A set of expert contributions, enriched with a broad range of national experiences, are presented in the report to take into account expertise gathered from the emergency management of hazards other than those emanating from the nuclear sector in an effort to support and foster an all-hazards approach to EPR.
This report on Korea is the fourth country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs, following reports on Australia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. It has a special focus on low-income groups, jobseekers and workers, and policies geared towards closing the considerable gaps these groups are facing around income and employment support. In the past forty years, Korea has gone through a remarkable economic transformation and in the past two decades, the country has also put in place a comprehensive social protection system and a strong activation framework. Nevertheless, features of Korea’s labour market, which include very low job tenure, a high degree of duality and a high level of informality, make it difficult for some measures to reach workers and jobseekers. This report concludes that significant additional action will be needed to make income and employment supports more effective and inclusive.
Petrochemical products are everywhere and are integral to modern societies. They include plastics, fertilisers, packaging, clothing, digital devices, medical equipment, detergents, tires and many others. They are also found in many parts of the modern energy system, including solar panels, wind turbine blades, batteries, thermal insulation for buildings, and electric vehicle parts.
The Future of Petrochemicals takes a close look at the consequences of growing demand for these products, and what we can do to accelerate a clean energy transition for the petrochemical industry.
This report assesses how road pricing impacts are distributed amongst citizens. It specifically examines how the reallocation of road space can improve the wellbeing of the community at large, looks at the relationship between road tolling and public transport pricing, and explores how simulation models can help develop measures to minimise negative impacts of road pricing. It also reviews current road pricing schemes in Sweden and Singapore. The report summarises the findings of an ITF Roundtable held in Auckland, New Zealand, in December 2017 that brought together 18 experts from eight countries.
The media and investigative journalism play a crucial role in bringing allegations of corruption to light and fighting against impunity. International consortiums of investigative journalists are an example of an international cooperation that leads to tangible results in bringing financial and economic crime to the attention of the public and law enforcement authorities. Media reporting is an essential—albeit untapped—source of detection in corruption cases.
This report documents and analyses material collected through country reviews undertaken by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions and through responses to the OECD Survey on Investigative Journalism. It explores good practices and challenges in the detection of international corruption cases via media reporting and investigative journalism.
This report examines and assesses the current and historical use of net wealth taxes, defined as recurrent taxes on individual net assets, in OECD countries. It provides background on the use of wealth taxes over time in OECD countries as well as on trends in income and wealth inequality. It then assesses the case for and against the use of a net wealth tax to raise revenues and reduce inequality, based on efficiency, equity and tax administration considerations. The effects of personal capital income taxes and taxes on wealth transfers are also discussed to understand how these taxes interact with net wealth taxes. Finally, the report looks at practical tax design issues and shows that the way a net wealth tax is designed can have a significant impact on the effectiveness and fairness of the tax. The report concludes with a number of practical tax policy recommendations regarding net wealth taxes.
Migration flows are profoundly changing the composition of classrooms. Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reveal that in 2015, almost one in four 15-year-old students in OECD countries reported that they were either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent. Between 2003 and 2015, the share of students who had either migrated or who had a parent who had migrated across international borders grew by six percentage points, on average across OECD countries.
The Resilience of Students with an Immigrant Background: Factors that Shape Well-being reveals some of the difficulties students with an immigrant background encounter and where they receive the support they need. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the risk and protective factors that can undermine or promote the resilience of immigrant students. It explores the role that education systems, schools and teachers can play in helping these students integrate into their communities, overcome adversity, and build their academic, social, emotional and motivational resilience.
Historically low productivity gains and record high inequality are major challenges for policy makers around the world. Both concerns have been exacerbated by the global financial crisis but took roots well before and reflect fundamental challenges with the way our economies function.
This report proposes a new comprehensive approach to promote better productivity performance and reduce inequalities. It not only gathers the most recent empirical evidence on the main factors behind slowing productivity gains and rising or persisting inequalities but also suggests possible common foundations and linkages between these two trends. It stresses the risk of a vicious cycle setting in, where individuals with fewer skills and poorer access to opportunities are confined to unproductive and often precarious jobs. This reduces aggregate productivity and widens inequality. The report focuses on how to expand the productive assets of an economy by investing in the skills of its people and providing an environment where all firms have a fair chance to succeed, including in lagging regions. It draws preliminary conclusions on the type of policy packages that are needed and on their implications for policy making. It also sets an agenda for future research to deepen empirical evidence and make concrete country-specific policy recommendations.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of major reforms undertaken between 2014 and 2018 to promote micro, small and medium-sized enterprise development in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia. The report focuses on five strategic areas for SME policy making: SME definitions, statistics and institutions; improving business environments for SMEs and entrepreneurs; fostering access to finance; nurturing start-ups and SME growth; and the development of entrepreneurial human capital.
The report aims to showcase good practices and to point to areas where more efforts are needed. It provides valuable guidance for governments, private sector organisations, multilateral bodies and other stakeholders to intensify their efforts to support SMEs as essential vehicles for jobs and competitiveness. This is particularly relevant in a region striving to boost economic diversification, employment creation and the inclusion of youth and women in the economy.
The report is the result of a process of close collaboration among governments, the OECD, the European Training Foundation and the European Commission.
Governments today are confronted with a complex array of interconnected problems, increased citizen expectations, and fiscal constraints. Furthermore, they must operate in a context of fast-paced technological, geopolitical, economic, social, and environmental change. Existing policies and programmes may not be suitable for tackling the challenges of today, let alone those of tomorrow. Governments therefore require a systemic approach to public sector innovation to develop and deliver novel solutions that meet the existing and emergent needs of citizens. This report looks at the experience and context of the Public Service of Canada, where significant emphasis has been placed on innovation, and proposes a new public sector innovation system model to assist Canada and other countries.
Social protection systems are often still designed for the archetypical full-time dependent employee. Work patterns deviating from this model – be it self-employment or online "gig work" – can lead to gaps in social protection coverage. Globalisation and digitalisation are likely to exacerbate this discrepancy as new technologies make it easier and cheaper to offer and find work online, and online work platforms have experienced spectacular growth in recent years. While new technologies and the new forms of work they create bring the incomplete social protection of non-standard workers to the forefront of the international policy debate, non-standard work and policies to address such workers’ situation are not new: across the OECD on average, one in six workers is self-employed, and a further one in eight employees is on a temporary contract. Thus, there are lessons to be learned from country experiences of providing social protection to non-standard workers. This report presents seven policy examples from OECD countries, including the "artists’ insurance system" in Germany or voluntary unemployment insurance for self-employed workers in Sweden. It draws on these studies to suggest policy options for providing social protection for non-standard workers, and for increasing the income security of on-call workers and those on flexible hours contracts.
Rural youth constitute over half of the youth population in developing countries and will continue to increase in the next 35 years. Without rural transformation and green industrialisation happening fast enough to create more wage employment in a sustainable manner, the vast majority of rural youth in developing countries have little choice but to work in poorly paid and unstable jobs or to migrate.
As household dietary pattern is changing, new demands by a rising middle class for diversified and processed foods are creating new job opportunities in food-related manufacturing and services. Agro-food industries are labour-intensive and can create jobs in rural areas as well as ensure food security. Yet the employment landscape along the agro-food value chains is largely underexploited. This study looks at local actions and national policies that can promote agro-food value chains and other rural non-farm activities using a youth employment lens.
Using air conditioners and electric fans to stay cool accounts for nearly 20% of the total electricity used in buildings around the world today. Rising demand for space cooling is also putting enormous strain on electricity systems in many countries, as well as driving up emissions. Absent firm policy interventions, there is no doubt that global demand for space cooling and the energy needed to provide it will continue to grow for decades to come. However, there is an enormous opportunity to quickly influence the growth of cooling-related energy demand through policies to improve equipment efficiency. This special IEA report aims to raise awareness globally about one of the most critical energy issues of our time, outlining a sustainable path to the future of cooling that will allow people to reap the benefits of cooling without straining the energy system or the environment.
Electricity provision touches upon every facet of life in OECD and non-OECD countries alike, and choosing how this electricity is generated – whether from fossil fuels, nuclear energy or renewables – affects not only economic outcomes but individual and social well-being in the broader sense. Research on the overall costs of electricity is an ongoing effort, as only certain costs of electricity provision are perceived directly by producers and consumers. Other costs, such as the health impacts of air pollution, damage from climate change or the effects on the electricity system of small-scale variable production are not reflected in market prices and thus diminish well-being in unaccounted for ways.
Accounting for these social costs in order to establish the full costs of electricity provision is difficult, yet such costs are too important to be disregarded in the context of the energy transitions currently under way in OECD and NEA countries. This report draws on evidence from a large number of studies concerning the social costs of electricity and identifies proven instruments for internalising them so as to improve overall welfare.
The results outlined in the report should lead to new and more comprehensive research on the full costs of electricity, which in turn would allow policy makers and the public to make better informed decisions along the path towards fully sustainable electricity systems.
This report examines how public stockholding policies related to rice in Asia can influence domestic and international markets. Following a review of the working of rice public stockholding programmes in eight Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Thailand), the report examines the impacts of these programmes over the medium term (2018-2030) and analyses how these impacts would change should the selected countries collectively set their public stocks to either a low or high level. Results show that the strongest impacts would occur during the three-year transition period when countries adjust their public stocks to the new levels, but that there would also be structural impacts over the medium term, although at a lower intensity, on procurement, domestic and international prices, availability, private stock levels, and public expenditure. In the event of a global production shock, the model projects that the immediate impact on prices and availability would be less severe under the high public stock scenario, but that recovery would be faster and public expenditure lower when countries hold smaller public stocks.