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This third edition covers the latest tax policy reforms in all OECD countries, as well as in Argentina, Indonesia and South Africa. Monitoring tax policy reforms and understanding the context in which they were undertaken is crucial to informing tax policy discussions and to supporting governments in the assessment and design of tax reforms.

This is the fifth edition of Tax Policy Reforms: OECD and Selected Partner Economies, an annual publication that provides comparative information on tax reforms across countries and tracks tax policy developments over time. The report covers the latest tax policy reforms in all OECD countries, as well as in Argentina, China, Indonesia and South Africa. In addition to providing an overview of the tax reforms adopted before the COVID-19 crisis, the report includes a Special Feature that takes stock of the tax and broader fiscal measures introduced by countries in response to the crisis from the beginning of the virus outbreak up to mid-June 2020.

The report provides an overview of the tax measures introduced during the COVID-19 crisis across almost 70 jurisdictions, including all OECD and G20 countries and 21 additional members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. It examines how tax policy responses have varied across countries and evolved over the last year. It also offers some guidance as to how tax policy responses could be adapted to address the short-term challenges countries face and outlines future work that the OECD will be undertaking to help countries reassess their tax and spending policies in the longer run.

This is the seventh edition of Tax Policy Reforms: OECD and Selected Partner Economies, an annual publication that provides comparative information on tax reforms across countries and tracks tax policy developments over time. The report covers the tax policy reforms introduced or announced in 71 member jurisdictions of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, including all OECD countries, for the 2021 calendar year. In addition to providing an overview of tax policy reforms, and the macroeconomic and tax revenue context in which measures were introduced, the report also contains a Special Feature that examines government responses to rising energy prices and offers some policy recommendations in the event that prices remain high.

This is the eighth edition of Tax Policy Reforms: OECD and Selected Partner Economies, an annual publication that provides comparative information on tax reforms across countries and tracks tax policy developments over time. The report covers the tax policy reforms introduced or announced in 2022 in 75 member jurisdictions of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, including all OECD countries. The publication provides an overview of the macroeconomic environment and tax revenue context in which these tax reforms were made, highlighting how governments used tax policy to respond to elevated inflation levels, as well as to address long-run structural challenges.

Well-designed systems of energy taxation encourage citizens and investors to favour clean over polluting energy sources. In particular, fuel excise and carbon taxes are simple and cost-effective tools to curb dangerous climate change. Energy and carbon taxes also contribute to limiting health damage from local pollution. Taxing Energy Use (TEU) 2019 presents a snapshot of where countries stand in deploying energy and carbon taxes, tracks progress made, and makes actionable recommendations on how governments could do better. The report contains new and original data on energy and carbon taxes in OECD and G20 countries, and in international aviation and maritime transport.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders at the United Nations on 25 September 2015, sets out an ambitious action plan to improve the lives of people everywhere. On 14 February 2017, the Polish government adopted its Strategy for Responsible Development, which sets out over 700 actions to increase the income of Polish citizens and strengthen social, economic, environmental and territorial cohesion within the country. With its Strategy for Responsible Development, Poland has taken an important first step towards tackling all these issues. But achieving the SDGs will be a long journey with many hurdles, during which Poland will regularly have to adapt its strategies, actions plans and policy measures and refresh the commitment of all stakeholders. Exchanging experiences with other countries throughout the process on what works and what doesn’t can help the country successfully navigate this journey.

China’s food processing sector has arrived at a decisive stage. While primary agriculture has continued to expand at an astounding pace and final consumers have experienced an extended period of rapid income growth, progress at the intermediary stage, the agro-processing sector, has remained limited. Today, a growing need to catch up with these developments has become manifest, but a number of challenges have emerged simultaneously. They include the need to adjust to increasingly diversified consumer demands, to improve the quality and nutritional content of foods, to introduce new food products, to shift to more sophisticated processing methods, to adopt innovative packaging methods, and to comply with new labelling requirements. These developments give rise to a number of questions. What do these changes mean for China’s food processors? Is China’s agriculture adequately prepared for these changes? How can farmers take advantage of these changes? What structural adjustments are needed to meet the challenges arising from the changes in domestic and international food markets? The papers in this Proceedings document try to answer these and many other important questions revolving around changes in, and challenges for, China’s agro-processing sector.

The Climate Action Monitor, part of the International Programme for Action of Climate (IPAC), provides a diagnostic policy framework for assessing country progress towards climate objectives. Its goal is to provide a digest of progress towards, and alignment with, Paris Agreement goals to support countries in making better-informed decisions and allow stakeholders to measure improvements more accurately. Alongside the IPAC Dashboard, it complements and supports the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement monitoring frameworks by: 1) reviewing key trends and developments and highlighting areas for further analysis and policy action; 2) promoting greater harmonisation of key indicators; 3) showcasing examples of good climate mitigation and adaptation practices and results; and 4) strengthening transparency over climate policies.

The biological sciences are adding value to a host of products and services, producing what some have labelled the “bioeconomy” and offering the potential to make major socio-economic contributions in OECD countries.  Using quantitative analyses of data on development pipelines and R&D expenditures from private and public databases, this book estimates biotechnological developments to 2015. Moving to a broader institutional view, it also looks at the roles of R&D funding, human resources, intellectual property, and regulation in the bioeconomy, as well as at possible developments that could influence emerging business models to create scenarios to 2030. These scenarios are included to stimulate reflection on the interplay between policy choices and technological advances in shaping the bioeconomy. Finally, the book explores policy options to support the social, environmental and economic benefits of a bioeconomy.

The Arctic is a vital region that helps preserve the balance of the global climate. The Arctic environment is particularly sensitive to short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, due to their strong warming effect. With ambitious policy action to reduce air pollutants, Arctic Council countries would obtain a positive effect on health and the environment throughout their territory, while also helping to slow down climate change by reducing emissions of black carbon. This report calls for ambitious policy action to reduce air pollution in Arctic Council countries, highlighting the environmental, health, and economic benefits from policy action.

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.

Though only three years old, electronic commerce over the Internet has the potential to transform the marketplace. E-commerce will change the way business is conducted. Traditional intermediary functions will be replaced, new products and markets will be developed, and new relationships will be created between business and consumers. It will alter the way work is organised and open new channels of knowledge diffusion and human interactivity in the workplace. Workers will need to be more flexible as their functions and skills are redefined. The changes e-commerce will bring are far-reaching. They require new frameworks for doing business and a re-examination of government policies relating to commerce and skills. What is electronic commerce? What is the current state and likely future direction of e-commerce? What are the drivers and what are the inhibitors? What is its impact on costs, prices, and ultimately on economic efficiency? How is it affecting intermediaries? How do firms compete in the electronic environment? What market structure is likely to emerge? What is the impact on jobs? What types of skills will be needed? What major societal transformations will it entail? The full impact of e-commerce remains to be seen. This book begins to address these questions and provides a ground-breaking assessment of the economic and social impacts of electronic commerce and its effects on jobs by drawing on existing qualitative and quantitative evidence. This early analysis of an extremely dynamic activity identifies a number of areas where research is urgently needed and serves as the basis for an informed policy debate.

The New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) initiative was established to distil lessons from the Global Financial Crisis and now the systemic crises sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This book publishes short summaries of a diverse range of thinking and proposals from a prestigious series of experts. NAEC invited them to share their expertise with those who wish to learn more about the financial system from those at its heart. They debate the theory and models of the financial system as well as the role of its different component parts, such as currency, insurance or asset management and how they interact. And they offer advice on how financial policy can contribute to making the financial system more resilient.

The agro-food sector in OECD countries is heading towards an era of turbulance and transition. With food demand in developing countries growing, barriers to trade and investment falling, and consumer tastes and preferences rapidly diversifying, the landscape of OECD food markets will be radically different 20 years from now. Are food shortages likely and what will happen to food prices? What changes will we see in food retailing and food processing? Will there be more co-operation between the various players in the agro-food industry, more concentration or more competition? To grasp these challenges, this report looks into the prospects for the agro-food sector to 2010-20 and examines the new generation of key issues that lie ahead for governments, business, farmers and consumers.