Browse by: "2020"

The Dominican Republic, though the fastest-growing economy in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2010, cannot afford complacency. The COVID-19 crisis may accelerate existing global trends that created the need for reforms addressing structural weaknesses that lurked beneath the surface well before the pandemic. The current situation demands an unpreceded policy effort to ensure a prompt and effective health response, and to guarantee short-term support for workers and firms. The enduring challenge will be updating the country’s development model through targeted reforms. The Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR) of the Dominican Republic identifies priority reforms to update the national strategy, with perspectives on agro-food and nearshoring. It benefitted from peer review from the United States Reshoring Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil.

Building on a comparative review of frameworks from nine other countries – France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the US and the UK – this OECD report recommends a range of actions to address weaknesses in the frameworks for derivative suits and arbitration in Brazil. Policy alternatives offered for Brazil seek to address procedural barriers that minority shareholders must surpass before filing derivative claims. Likewise, the cost allocation between the winning and losing parties serves as another important disincentive for effective private enforcement through derivative lawsuits. Finally, an arbitration framework designed mainly for commercial disputes with two parties might not work adequately for collective or multiparty corporate arbitrations, where, for example, confidentiality creates a number of challenges.

The BEPS Action 6 minimum standard on preventing the granting of treaty benefits in inappropriate circumstances, is one of the four BEPS minimum standards that all members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (Inclusive Framework) have committed to implement. This report reflects the outcome of the second peer review of the implementation of the Action 6 minimum standard on treaty shopping as approved by the Inclusive Framework. It includes the aggregate results of the review and data on tax treaties concluded by each of the 129 members of the Inclusive Framework on 30 June 2019 and it contains the jurisdictional section for each member (see Annex 2). The data compiled for this peer review demonstrate that the MLI has been the tool used by the vast majority of jurisdictions that have begun to implement the minimum standard and that the MLI’s impact is expected to increase quickly as jurisdictions ratify it.

COVID-19 is testing the Basque Country’s (Spain) resilience. Before COVID-19, employment indicators were recovering from the 2008 crisis, while automation of production was underway. Job quality remained low despite rising educational attainment in the region. COVID-19 is likely to accelerate structural changes in the labour market, including automation and digitalisation. Firms may increasingly look to technology as a way to pandemic proof their operations, while individuals may develop preferences for automated services as opposed to face to face contact. This OECD report sheds light on the potential impacts of automation on the Basque labour market, including which types of jobs and groups of workers are most likely to be impacted, in light of COVID-19 and other labour market changes. The report also highlights the critical role to be played by employment services, training policies and social dialogue to help people and firms make labour market transitions while upholding social cohesion. The report delves into how the Basque Country’s employment and skills system can continue to be at the front line as the crisis evolves.

COVID-19 has led to a labour market shock in Canada and is likely to generate a profound reflection on production and consumption habits. COVID‑19 is also likely to accelerate automation as firms look to new technologies to pandemic proof their operations. While automation offers the opportunity to boost productivity, it can also create losers as vulnerable workers who lose jobs may not have the skills needed in a changing labour market. This OECD report examines the potential impacts of automation on people and places across Canada with a special focus on the Province of Ontario. It also sheds light on policies and programmes that can help regions and cities to prepare for the future of work.

The interconnected challenges of our times call for a coherent and multidimensional approach to public governance. The OECD Policy Framework on Sound Public Governance provides governments at all levels with an integrated diagnostic, guidance and benchmarking tool that aims to improve the quality of public governance – an objective that takes on immediate strategic importance for governments as they strive to manage the COVID-19 crisis and plan for a sustainable and inclusive recovery. The Framework builds on OECD legal instruments in the area, on lessons learned over the past decade through the OECD’s Public Governance Reviews (PGRs) and other country and sector-specific assessments. The first part shows the importance of key governance values and provides an overview of enablers of sound public governance that governments can adopt to pursue successful reforms. The second part presents an overview of management tools and policy instruments that can enhance the quality and impact of policy-making at the different stages of the policy cycle. Each chapter poses a number of strategic questions that policy-makers can use to self-assess the institutional and decision-making capacity of their governments in key public governance areas.

This report provides a brief overview of the remaining gender imbalances at the senior management levels, identifies the challenges hindering progress, and makes the case for undertaking action to address them. It outlines the range of policy instruments and recommendations the OECD has developed to address these challenges, and presents key observations on the state of their implementation across OECD and G20 countries.

The REGOFI initiative offers an in-depth exploration of global regionalisation trends across Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. This analysis uncovers the intricate dynamics of multi-level governance, focusing on the customization of place-based policies and the optimization of public service delivery. Through the Regional Authority Index (RAI) and various decentralisation models, the nuanced facets of regionalisation are revealed. The influence of the European Union and its cohesion policy on regional reforms is profound, especially in response to fiscal shifts and global crises. With data covering 24 OECD and EU member states, REGOFI provides valuable insights into the fiscal dimensions of regional governance. By addressing critical data gaps, REGOFI facilitates informed policy formulation and strategic interventions in regional development agendas.

There are an estimated 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the world today. Around 90% of these adolescents and youth live in developing countries, where they make up a large proportion of the overall population. Policy makers in many developing and emerging economies acknowledge the pressing nature of the “youth bulge” challenge and are trying to identify ways to successfully integrate young people into their countries’ societies and labour markets. With regard to these endeavours, many other development actors have shifted their focus to youth. Among these actors, foundations have allocated increasing resources and support for exploring innovative ways to empower youth in developing countries. Youth inclusion is also one of the major topics in the OECD Development Centre’s work, which aims to help governments better design and implement policies. Foundations belonging to the OECD Development Centre’s Global Network of Foundations Working for Development – “netFWD” – have identified youth empowerment as a priority. They aim to share and codify knowledge in order to build on emerging good practices and scale up emerging successes.

Technological innovations have greatly increased the capacity of financial services providers to capture, store, combine and analyse a wide variety of customer data, such as their financial situation, preferences, habits and physical location. This report reviews the risks and benefits of these technological developments and suggests policy options to protect consumers, combining robust financial and personal data protection and greater consumer awareness and financial education. It was developed as part of the programme of work of the OECD International Network on Financial Education’s (INFE) Working Group on Digital Financial Literacy.

Pension Markets in Focus provides detailed and comparable statistics on retirement savings around the world. This annual statistical report contributes to the effort of making data on retirement savings available, as the OECD Core Principles of Private Pension Regulation advocates for, to enable regulators and stakeholders to evaluate the design and operation of pension systems relative to their goals. These statistics can support policy discussions through international comparisons and peer learning, and are the basis of policy recommendations in the OECD series of Pension Reviews. These statistics can also be helpful to private sector representatives, journalists, academics and anyone interested in funded pension systems.

The Dutch shipbuilding and marine equipment industries are part of a maritime cluster of about 17 200 Dutch maritime companies that also includes ports, the offshore industry, shipping, dredging, maritime services, fishing, inland shipping, naval activities and the watersports industry. In 2017, the maritime cluster accounted for 3.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) of the Netherlands. In the 1980s, the Dutch shipbuilding industry started to focus on high-tech, specialised vessels. Dutch shipyards produce a variety of vessel types, including dry cargos, dredgers, offshore service vessels, tugs, work/repair vessels, tankers, gas carriers, superyachts, cruise ships, passenger ferries, fully cellular containers, bulk carriers and roll-on/roll-off vessels. The Dutch Maritime Strategy 2015-2025 lists policy priorities and actions to promote the maritime and logistics sectors. The strategy takes into account global economic, demographic, geopolitical, ecological and security policy trends affecting the Dutch maritime sector.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This is one of six volumes that present the results of the PISA 2018 survey, the seventh round of the triennial assessment. Volume VI: Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World? explores students’ ability to examine issues of local, global and cultural significance; understand and appreciate the perspectives and worldviews of others; engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures; and take action for collective well-being and sustainable development. The volume explores students’ outcomes on the cognitive test and corresponding questionnaire in addition to their experiences of global and intercultural learning at school and beyond.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This is one of six volumes that present the results of the PISA 2018 survey, the seventh round of the triennial assessment. Volume V, Effective Policies, Successful Schools, analyses schools and school systems and their relationship with education outcomes more generally. The volume covers school governance, selecting and grouping students, and the human, financial, educational and time resources allocated to teaching and learning. Trends in these indicators are examined when comparable data are available.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This is one of six volumes that present the results of the PISA 2018 survey, the seventh round of the triennial assessment. Volume IV, Are Students Smart about Money?, examines 15-year-old students’ understanding about money matters in the 20 countries and economies that participated in this optional assessment.

This report addresses the commercial availability and current uses of alternatives (chemical and non-chemical) to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in food packaging (paper and paperboard). PFASs are synthetic substances that are widely used in numerous technologies, industrial processes and everyday applications. Since the discovery of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in 1938, PFASs, both polymeric and non-polymeric, have been used extensively in various industries worldwide, due to their dielectrical properties, resistance to heat and chemical agents, low surface energy and low friction properties, etc. Due to the large variety of PFAS substances captured in the OECD definition, the individual PFAS will have different properties, however, in general, the highly stable carbon-fluorine bond and the unique physicochemical properties of PFASs make these substances valuable ingredients for products with high versatility, strength, resilience and durability. Based upon this review, a number of policy recommendations are suggested in this report as well as areas that may be considered for further work. These have been divided into those aimed at international organisations and those aimed at industry.

The report shows some unique Indian characteristics with respect to the ownership landscape and the presence of institutional investors in Indian capital markets.