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Faced with increased unemployment, declining productivity and weak public finances, most OECD countries have adopted policies of fiscal consolidation and structural reform in goods, labour and financial markets. Price stability is now at hand, but progress in improving fiscal positions has been slow. In Europe, unemployment remains high. To assess progress to date and the challenges ahead, an international conference on "Interactions between Structural Reform, Macroeconomic Policies and Economic Performance" took place as part of a follow-up programme of work on the OECD Jobs Study. This publication presents the conference papers and the discussions following them.

The papers in this conference proceedings address the various conceptual, measurement and statistical policy issues that arise when applying accounting frameworks to the concept of sustainable development.

This report analyses selected public expenditure programmes supporting environmental investments in water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure in four OECD countries: Austria, Belgium (the Region of Flanders), France and Germany. These programmes have been selected as they involve different approaches to managing public expenditure for water investments. The study focuses on mechanisms for managing government assistance at both national (Austria) and sub-national (Belgium, France, Germany) levels. In selecting the case studies, special attention has been given to the relevance of the expenditure programmes in their national environment and economic policy regimes as well as the potential for replication of good practices in transition economies.

These proceedings examine the nature and strength of jointness between agricultural commodity production and non-commodity outputs from the perspective of three areas important to the agricultural sector: rural development, environmental externalities and food security. This workshop also examined whether the relationships among these non-commodity outputs were complementary or competing. Finally, the policy implications that could be derived from the findings of this workshop were also a key element in the discussions and are summarised in the Rapporteur’s summary.

Water is a key prerequisite for human and economic development, and for maintaining ecosystems. However, billions of people lack access to water and sanitation services, mainly due to poor governance and inadequate investment and maintenance. This report, which emphasises the economic and financial aspects of water resources management and water service provision, the need for an integrated approach (including governance considerations) to address these complex policy challenges, and the importance of establishing a firm evidence base to support policy development and implementation, summarises the results of OECD work in this area. 

The book presents a major meta-analysis of 'value of a statistical life' (VSL) estimates derived from surveys where people around the world have been asked about their willingness to pay for small reduction in mortality risks. The analysis seeks to explain the differences in the estimates, for example across countries. Differences in incomes and the magintude of the risk reduction people have been asked to value were found to be the factors having the strongest impact on VSL, but a number of other policy-relevant factors are also important. Based on the meta-analysis, and a broad review of the literature, the book also presents clear advice on how VSL values best can be used in assessments of environmental, health and transport policies, such as in cost-benefit analyses. Using explicit VSL estimates to quantify the benefits to society of fatality risk reductions can play an important role in the development of more cost-effective public policies.

This OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) provides information on the sources, use patterns and release pathways of chemicals used in the finishing of metals, to assist in
the estimation of releases of chemicals into the environment.
 

This OECD Emission Scenario Document provides information on the sources, use patterns and potential release pathways of chemicals used in metalworking fluids. The document presents standard approaches for estimating the environmental releases of and occupational exposure to  chemicals ussed in metalworking fluids.


 

This document incorporates two parts, an MRL Calculator User Guide and an MRL Calculator White Paper which discusses the methodology used in the User Guide.

Improving resource productivity and ensuring a sustainable resource and materials management building on the principle of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) is a central element of green growth policies. It helps to improve the environment, by reducing the amount of resources that the economy requires and diminishing the associated environmental impacts, and sustain economic growth by securing adequate supplies of materials and improving competitiveness. To be successful such policies need to be founded on a good understanding of how minerals, metals, timber or other materials flow through the economy throughout their life cycle, and of how this affects the productivity of the economy and the quality of the environment. This report contributes to this understanding. It describes the material basis of OECD economies and provides a factual analysis of material flows and resource productivity in OECD countries in a global context. It considers the production and consumption of materials, as well as their international flows and available stocks, and the environmental implications associated with their use. It also describes some of the challenges and opportunities associated with selected materials and products that are internationally-significant, both in economic and environmental terms (aluminium, copper, iron and steel, paper, phosphate rock and rare earth elements).

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, notably of droughts and floods to which the agriculture sector is particularly exposed. While agricultural productivity growth and policy development have allowed to better cope with these risks and reduce overall impacts on the sector and commodity markets, there is substantial room to improve policy responses and co-ordinate across policy domains, including with respect to water rights and allocation, weather and hydrological information, innovation and education, and insurance and compensation schemes. Indeed, drought and flood risks are likely to become a major policy concern as increasing population will increase the demand for food, feed, fibre, and energy, not to mention the competition for water resources, and urbanisation will increase the demand for flood protection and mitigation, raising the issue of the allocation of flood risks across sectors and areas.

This report describes the development of the green bond market as an innovative instrument for green finance, and provides a review of policy actions and options to promote further market development and growth. Since 2007-08, so-called “green bonds” have emerged and the market has risen from USD 3 billion in 2011 to USD 95 billion in issuance in 2016. For policy makers, the report proposes a framework for understanding potential directions of bond market evolution, increased convergence of rules and definitions, and quantitative analysis of the potential contribution that bond markets can make to a low-carbon transition.