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It was a financial crisis, or was it? Did a band of speculators and money-changers pull the rug out from under the Thai, Malaysian, Philippine, Indonesian and Korean economies, thereby trashing the Asian Miracle? Or were more profound, longer-term pressures building in these economies which finally boiled over in 1997? In this book, the OECD explodes the myth of conspiracy and evil design, showing that well-intentioned and previously successful economic policies put the Asian economies at risk. Generous support for heavy and high-tech industries created "turnkey" companies with an excessive reliance on imported technology and inputs. In many cases, the success of these industries came at the expense of small and medium-sized enterprises, and more generally of the ability to foresee and respond to the need for adjustment. There were also detrimental effects as traditionally strong parts of these economies lost their competitive edge due to limitations in technological linkages coupled with upward pressures on wage costs and appreciating exchange rates. The book shows that the Asian breakdown had far-reaching structural global implications extending beyond the financial sphere. In examining the policy implications, the OECD argues that far-reaching industrial reforms are needed to accompany the measures being taken to address the financial aspects of the crisis. Learning the lessons from these reforms will reduce the risk of similar crashes in the future.

As Asian markets are now increasingly integrated in the world economy their domestic insolvency systems need to meet the expectations of international investors and lenders. Many Asian jurisdictions are responding by reforming  insolvency laws, introducing new procedures and strengthening institutions, but others are much less active. This conference proceedings includes papers showing how far various Asian countries have come in building effective and predictable insolvency systems and shows to what extent their systems provide confidence to investors and lenders.

This brochure is published within the framework of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables established by OECD in 1962. It comprises explanatory notes and illustrations to facilitate the uniform interpretation of the current asparagus standard. This updated brochure illustrates the revised standard text on asparagus. It demonstrates the quality parameters on high-quality photographs. Thus it is a valuable tool for the inspection authorities, professional bodies and traders interested in international trade in asparagus.

This brochure is published within the framework of the activities of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables set up by the OECD in 1962. It comprises comments and illustrations to facilitate the common interpretation of the standard in force and is therefore a valuable tool for both the Inspection Authorities and professional bodies responsible for the application of standards or interested in the international trade in this product.

This report on Canada is the ninth country study published in a series of reports on policies to connect people with jobs. It provides an assessment of Employment and Social Development Canada’s system of impact evaluation of active labour market policies (ALMPs). It reviews the use of linked administrative data and quasi-experimental methods to conduct impact evaluations and cost-benefit analysis of ALMPs. The process of quality assurance and communication of the results of the evaluations are also assessed. The report highlights areas of good practice which could be useful for other countries and offers recommendations to build on the good work already carried out by Canada.

The successful governance of critical risks is a strategic investment in preserving economic competitiveness and sustainable growth and in ensuring safer and better lives for the future. Citizens and businesses expect governments to be prepared for a wide range of possible crises and global shocks. However, the increasing frequency of events previously believed impossible, and their significant economic impact, has often revealed significant governance gaps. This OECD report provides an overview of countries' progess in implementing the Recommendation of the Council on the Governance of Critical Risks, which were designed to better govern and manage complex national risks. Based on an OECD wide survey, the report evaluates the progress made by countries, seeking to evaluate the key challenges in institutional, policy, administrative and regulatory mechanisms, used to manage critical risks from a whole of government perspective. The ultimate goal is to guide governments in minimising the effects of critical risks on economies and on citizens' daily lives to preserve national security.

This report, jointly developed by the European Observatory, OECD, and WHO Europe, serves as a proof of concept for a Health Systems Performance Assessment (HSPA) dashboard. HSPA is pivotal for health system transformation, providing policymakers with key indicators to identify and address system performance issues. This brief represents a step towards more policy-friendly dashboards, emphasizing the need for a focused set of HSPA indicators aligned with policy goals. The brief highlights the alignment and complementarity of the WHO-Observatory global HSPA framework and OECD's renewed framework, which aid policymakers in navigating health systems with actionable, policy-relevant indicators. These frameworks establish connections between performance indicators, health system functions, and overarching goals, supporting a coherent policy dashboard. Tracer indicators, like workforce, digital health, and service delivery outcomes, are emphasized as crucial for assessing key policy areas. The report underscores the importance of investing in data collection and infrastructure at national and international levels to make HSPA effective. It advocates for continuous improvement and collaboration among major international organizations, including WHO, OECD, EU, and the Observatory, to align methodologies and support informed policy decision-making.

Contaminated drinking water contributes to disease in developing and developed countries worldwide.  This book, which is the outcome of a shared WHO-OECD initiative since 1998, provides a state-of-the-art review on approaches and methods used in assessing the microbial safety of drinking-water.  It supports a framework for water and offers guidance on the selection and use of available indicators alongside operational monitoring to meet specific information needs. It looks at potential applications of new technologies and emerging methods.

This report outlines good practice for regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in transport. It describes the rationale and the benefits of RIA frameworks and offers guidance for the practical implemention of RIA in the transport sector. The report also contains recommendations for governments seeking to implement RIA within their jurisdictions.

Assessing Scientific, Reading and Mathematical Literacy: A Framework for PISA 2006 presents the conceptual framework underlying the PISA 2006 survey. It includes a re-developed and expanded framework for scientific literacy, an innovative component on the assessment of students’ attitudes to science and the frameworks for the assessment of reading and mathematics. Within each domain, the framework defines the content that students need to acquire, the processes that need to be performed, and the contexts in which knowledge and skills are applied. The domains and their aspects are also illustrated with sample tasks.

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) such as tax evasion are a major policy challenge for developing and emerging economies, in particular as the COVID-19 pandemic has drained domestic resources. This report presents results from a joint project between the OECD and the National Treasury of South Africa, which assesses tax compliance and IFFs in South Africa. The report provides an overview of macroeconomic, tax and fiscal developments in South Africa since the global financial crisis. It discusses the concepts of IFFs, how they relate to the South African context and provides an overview of South Africa’s participation in multilateral initiatives to combat tax evasion. It also provides a quantitative analysis of tax compliance and IFFs over time amid a variety of tax transparency initiatives implemented in South Africa. Finally, the report examines the effectiveness of tax transparency initiatives such as voluntary disclosure programmes, and looks into income and wealth characteristics of applicants to these programmes.

Policies aimed at reducing the environmental impact of human activities have important consequences for labour markets, jobs, and skills. As employment is shifting towards more sustainable activities, workers are increasingly expected to have skills that support the transition to a greener economy. Assessing and anticipating emerging skill needs is crucial to avoid bottlenecks and sustain the green transition. This report sheds light on existing methods to measure changes in skill demand and supply related to the green transition through an in-depth review of practices in five OECD countries (Australia, Austria, France, Norway and Sweden). It also identifies best practice on how to feed information on changing skill needs into policies, notably in the areas of employment, career guidance, education and adult learning.

Over the past decades, governments have gradually adopted more rigorous environmental policies to tackle challenges associated with pressing environmental issues, such as climate change. The ambition of these policies is, however, often tempered by their perceived negative effects on the economy. The empirical evidence in this volume – covering a decade of OECD analysis – shows that environmental policies have had relatively small effects on economic outcomes such as employment, investment, trade and productivity. At the same time, they have been effective at reducing emissions from industry. The policies can however generate winners and losers across firms, industries and regions: while the least productive firms from high-polluting sectors are adversely affected, more productive firms and low-pollution sectors benefit. Environmental policies can be designed and combined with other policies to compensate workers and industries that may lose and to emphasise their positive impacts.

Despite the fact that education systems have been heavily investing in technology since the early 1980s, international indicators on technology uptake and use in education are missing. This book aims to provide a basis for the design of frameworks, the identification of indicators and existing data sources, as well as gaps in areas needing further research. The contributions stem from an international expert meeting in April 2009 organised by the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning, in co-operation with OECD (CERI), on benchmarking technology use and effects in education. The contributions clearly demonstrate the need to develop a consensus around approaches, indicators and methodologies. The book is organised around four blocks: contexts of ICT impact assessment in education, state-of-the-art ICT impact assessment, conceptual frameworks and case studies.

How can the environmental effects of trade liberalisation agreements be assessed ? Are available methodologies sufficiently tuned to current concerns? In order to take stock of the state of the art in assessment methodologies, the OECD organised a two-day technical workshop to focus on past practice and new tools for assessing the environmental effects of trade agreements. Some two dozen experts from governments, international organisations, universities international organisations, universities and NGOs active in this area presented lessons from past practice and results of the considerable advances made in recent years. This volume brings together the papers presented during the two-day workshop by the invited experts and the comments from a range of governmental and international organisation practitioners and representatives of civil society who participated in the workshop. In addition to the presentations on methodologies, this book includes the workshop rapporteur's summary of the gaps in the existing research in this field.

This review analyses the monitoring and evaluation system of Colombia's Online Government Strategy and provides recommendations for developing an impact assessment methodology for digital government. It looks at the background, evolution and current status of the Strategy, and draws insights from the first implementation of a transitional methodology. The findings will help Colombia build the tools and capacities needed to effectively and sustainably implement its digital government strategy.

Disasters disrupt socio-economic activities and cause substantial damage. Yet, their full economic impact remains largely unknown, especially the cost of smaller disasters and indirect impacts such as those due to business disruptions. Similarly, little information exists on the total amount of public resources that countries devote to disaster risk management. Reliable, comprehensive and comparable data on the economic impact of disasters as well as on public spending on disaster management and risk prevention are essential for developing effective disaster risk management policies. This report provides an overview of countries' efforts to improve the quality and quantity of information on the costs of disasters.