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Canadians enjoy a high level of well-being. On all eleven components of the OECD’s Better Life Index, Canada performs better than the OECD average. The economy and labour markets stood up better than those of most OECD countries to the ravages of the global financial crisis. Still, there are some areas where the country can do even better. Canada needs to improve its productivity performance, building on the recent increased growth in labour productivity to narrow the gap with top-performing OECD countries in terms of the level of productivity. The productivity gap with the United States is particularly large for small and medium-sized enterprises. Productivity growth could also be more inclusive. People from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and Indigenous communities currently do not participate to the extent that they should in the country’s strong economic performance. Finally, Canada needs to make growth greener, in order to contribute its fair share to the global fight against climate change.

After a period of relatively robust growth that has allowed tens of millions of poorer households to join the global middle class, growth in Latin America has slowed recently, partly as a result of external factors. To close the still large gaps in living standards in relation to advanced economies, the region needs to significantly raise productivity growth while making sure that everybody has the opportunity to benefit from it. This will require comprehensive structural reforms, supported by a pro-productivity policy framework that incorporates social inclusion considerations from the outset.

Since the start of the economic reform process in the 70s China has been able to generate a large volume of investment, both from domestic and foreign sources. This high volume of investment was instrumental in sustaining strong economic growth and related improvements in living standards. However, this growth model is not longer sustainable. Returns on investment have fallen, excessive capacity is plaguing several sectors and the negative externalities have been very onerous, notably in terms of environmental degradation and rising income inequality. A key objective of the Chinese government is therefore to move the economy towards a more balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth path as envisaged by the 13th Five-Year Plan. In this adjustment process, the country is seeking new approaches for smarter, greener and more productive investment. This will require mutually reinforcing reforms to improve investment planning, rebalance the role of government and market forces, mainstream responsible business conduct and encourage greater private investment, especially in green infrastructure. China’s growing role as an outward investor may act as catalyser for the required reforms at home, as Chinese private and state-owned enterprises have to adopt internationally recognised practices and standards .

This report includes changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention to prevent treaty abuse. It first addresses treaty shopping through alternative provisions that form part of a minimum standard that all countries participating in the BEPS Project have agreed to implement.  It also includes specific treaty rules to address other forms of treaty abuse and ensures that tax treaties do not inadvertently prevent the application of domestic anti-abuse rules. The report finally includes changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention that clarify that tax treaties are not intended to create opportunities for non-taxation or reduced taxation through tax evasion or avoidance (including through treaty-shopping) and that identify the tax policy considerations that countries should consider before deciding to enter into a tax treaty with another country.

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.

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.

This volume discusses several policy challenges facing countries to achieve and sustain inclusive growth. The volume is based on the proceedings of a conference co-organised by the OECD Economics Department and the World Bank on 24-25 March 2011, which brought together academics and practitioners from advanced, emerging-market and developing economies. While discussions on strong growth typically focus on the pace of economic expansion, those on inclusiveness also delve into the patterns of growth and on how its benefits are shared among the various social groups. An important message that came out of the conference is that strong growth is not necessarily inclusive and that policy action is needed to make sure that pro-growth initiatives also foster inclusiveness.

Productivity measurement and analysis are the main topics addressed in this book, which brings together contributions presented and discussed in two international workshops organized by the Statistics Directorate and the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (DSTI) of the OECD. The first workshop was organised jointly by the OECD with Fundaccion BBVA and the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas and held in Madrid in October 2005, and the second one was organized jointly by the OECD and the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the State Secretary for Economic Affairs of Switzerland and held in Bern in October 2006. The two workshops brought together representatives of statistical offices, central banks and other branches of government in OECD countries that are engaged in the analysis and the measurement of productivity developments at aggregate and industry levels.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys collected data on students’ performances in reading, mathematics and science, as well as contextual information on students’ background, home characteristics and school factors which could influence performance. This publication includes detailed information on how to analyse the PISA data, enabling researchers to both reproduce the initial results and to undertake further analyses. In addition to the inclusion of the necessary techniques, the manual also includes a detailed account of the PISA 2006 database and worked examples providing full syntax in SPSS®.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys collected data on students’ performance in reading, mathematics and science, as well as contextual information on students’ background, home characteristics and school factors which could influence performance. This publication includes detailed information on how to analyse the PISA data, enabling researchers to both reproduce the initial results and to undertake further analyses. In addition to the inclusion of the necessary techniques, the manual also includes a detailed account of the PISA 2006 database. It also includes worked examples providing full syntax in SAS®.

The purchasing power parities and real expenditures contained in this joint Eurostat - OECD publication cover 55 countries including the 30 OECD Member countries, the 27 EU countries, ten CIS countries, six Western Balkan countries and Israel. They are based on price and expenditure data for 2005 and have been calculated using the EKS aggregation method.  International comparisons of price levels and real GDP can be made using the price and volume measures presented in this publication.  This publication includes StatLinks, URLs under each graph and table providing links to Excel® spreadsheet files containing the underlying statistical data.