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Businesses’ Views on Red Tape provides the first opportunity to systematically compare data across 11 OECD countries. The data show how small and medium-sized enterprises perceive national administrative and regulatory costs. Regulations and government formalities, so-called "red tape", are important tools used by governments to carry out public policies in many policy areas, including safety, health, and environmental protection. However, if they are poorly designed or applied, inefficient, or outdated, they can impede innovation, entry, investment, and create unnecessary barriers to trade, investment, and economic efficiency. The result of poor regulation and formalities is that national economies become less able to grow, compete, adjust, and create jobs. Based on a survey of almost 8 000 businesses, this report assesses the quality, application and burdens of employment, environment and tax regulations and formalities. The results are dramatic: for example, red tape accounts for 4% of the annual turnover of companies, while the hardest hit are the smallest companies, and these costs are growing in most countries.
The days when it was thought that the development process could and should be managed by governments alone are long past. The challenge today is how to involve other parts of society such as the private sector and NGOs. This book details the activities of the private sector in developing and emerging economies and demonstrates how these activities are inter-related with government policies. Understanding these activities and public-private interactions is indispensable for the private sector to play its full role in a nation's development process. To this end, several case studies provide concrete examples from Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
This study is concerned with trends in and key features of policies and programmes used by governments to support innovation in the business sector. In addition to identifying good practices across a range of programme types, it compares business innovation policies across several countries, with a particular focus on Canada.
This report aims to identify new developments in the administration of central government that lead to better value for money: better services at lower costs for the taxpayers.
Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) is a fundamental tool to help governments to assess the impacts of regulation. RIA is used to examine and measure the likely benefits, costs and effects of new or existing regulation. The implementation of RIA supports the process of policy-making by contributing valuable empirical data to policy decisions, and through the construction of a rational decision framework to examine the implications of potential regulatory policy options. This is an important factor in responding to the impact on modern economies of open international markets and budgetary constraints, and the consequences of competing policy demands. A key feature of RIA is its consideration of the potential economic impacts of regulatory proposals...
Mexico is slowly advancing on the path to gender equality. Many public policies aimed at empowering women are now in place: over the past two decades, Mexico has increased investments in girls' education, greatly expanded childcare and preschool, improved gender mainstreaming in government, and ensured that female politicians are well-represented at the ballot box. Yet, despite these efforts, many Mexican women still do not feel the effects of these policies at home, at work, or in public spaces. Large gender gaps remain in educational outcomes, participation in the labour market, pay, informality status, and hours of unpaid childcare and housework. “Unlocking Mexico’s full potential,” as Mexico's National Development Plan prescribes, will depend crucially on how well Mexico closes existing gender gaps in political, social and economic life and promotes real social change. Mexico must continue to invest in social and labour market policies that empower women, and reinvigorate efforts to reduce inequalities in education, labour force participation, job quality, unpaid work, and leadership. This will require embedding gender equality objectives in all public policies and budgets, across all levels of government, and ensuring the effective implementation, enforcement, and evaluation of policies and laws to achieve inclusive outcomes.
What drives trust in government? This report presents the main findings of the first OECD cross-national survey on trust in government and public institutions, representing over 50 000 responses across 22 OECD countries. The survey measures government performance across five drivers of trust – reliability, responsiveness, integrity, openness, and fairness – and provides insights for future policy reforms. This investigation marks an important initiative by OECD countries to measure and better understand what drives people’s trust in public institutions – a crucial part of reinforcing democracy.
Democracies are at a critical juncture, under growing internal and external pressures. This publication sheds light on the important public governance challenges countries face today in preserving and strengthening their democracies, including fighting mis- and disinformation; improving government openness, citizen participation and inclusiveness; and embracing global responsibilities and building resilience to foreign influence. It also looks at two cross-cutting themes that will be crucial for robust, effective democracies: transforming public governance for digital democracy and gearing up government to deliver on climate and other environmental challenges. These areas lay out the foundations of the new OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative, which has also involved the development of action plans to support governments in responding to these challenges.
Governments are facing significant climate-related risks from the expected increase in frequency and intensity of cyclones, floods, fires, and other climate-related extreme events. The report Building Financial Resilience to Climate Impacts: A Framework for Governments to Manage the Risks of Losses and Damages provides a strategic framework to help governments, particularly those in emerging market and developing economies, strengthen their capacity to manage the financial implications of climate-related risks. The goal of the framework is to support sound public financial management strategies that take into account budgetary and financing constraints, and to foster broader actions at the national and international levels.
The report examines the role of governments in identifying and assessing climate-related physical risks and their impacts on public finances, and reporting climate-related fiscal risks to promote transparency in public financial management. It discusses how to mitigate those risks through protecting households and businesses, and developing integrated multipronged financial strategies to fund government expenditure needs. Finally, it calls for promoting integrated strategies to strengthen financial resilience at the country and regional levels, and for mobilising development co-operation to strengthen global climate financial resilience.
In recent years, the main focus of territorial policy has been on sustaining growth, not only to address relative decline, but also to make regions more competitive. Putting this in practice is complicated because different regions have different characteristics (urban, intermediate, industrial, rural, etc.), which imply specific policy and investment needs. This report assesses the strategies pursued by OECD member governments to address the competitiveness of regional economies and the accompanying governance mechanisms on which the implementation of these strategies rests. The report is principally based on findings from the series of reviews undertaken by the OECD Territorial Development Policy Committee at national and regional levels.
This report analyses the skills and capacities governments need to strengthen evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) and identifies a range of possible interventions that are available to foster greater uptake of evidence. Increasing governments’ capacity for evidence-informed is a critical part of good public governance. However, an effective connection between the supply and the demand for evidence in the policy-making process remains elusive.
This report offers concrete tools and a set of good practices for how the public sector can support senior officials, experts and advisors working at the political/administrative interface. This support entails investing in capability, opportunity and motivation and through behavioral changes. The report identifies a core skillset for EIPM at the individual level, including the capacity for understanding, obtaining, assessing, using, engaging with stakeholders, and applying evidence, which wasdeveloped in collaboration with the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
It also identifies a set of capacities at the organisational level that can be put in place across the machinery of government, throughout the role of interventions, strategies and tools to strengthen these capacities. The report concludes with a set of recommendations to assist governments in building their capacities.
Effective systems for allocating, managing and controlling public sector resources are fundamental elements of good governance. The need for continuing fiscal restraint and demands for more and better public services are changing budgetary practices in OECD countries. Budgets are being used increasingly as instruments for promoting managerial improvement and programme effectiveness, in addition to their control and allocation functions. This report analyses budget practices and innovations in twenty-two OECD countries. It describes how the practice of budgeting is contributing to a greater performance orientation in the public sector. It also provides standard summaries of the institutional framework and procedures governing budgeting in each of these countries.
This report provides a comprehensive view of practices and developments in the governance, implementation and performance of budgeting across OECD countries. It looks at recent practices such as the application of medium-term frameworks and the use of data and analytics to highlight the impacts of policies on concerns such as gender equality and the environment. Reflecting countries’ efforts to strengthen the insitutions supporting ficsal policy, the report also discusses trends in Parliamentary oversight, citizen participation, transparency, infrastructure governance and the management of fiscal risks.
The OECD Budget Practices and Procedures Database provides detailed data on how budgets are made in OECD countries from formulation, to approval, execution and reporting based on surveys conducted every four to five years. This publication presents the results of the latest survey, conducted in 2012, and compares this with the previous survey, conducted in 2007. It finds that fiscal sustainability is a key issue for countries today. It also highlights the growing use of medium-term expenditure frameworks, capital budgeting and top-down budgeting, and it examines transparency of budgeting as well as budgeting flexibility.
The State continues to remain an important shareholder in listed companies worldwide, especially among emerging economies, which rely increasingly on mixed-ownership models. With the benefit of hindsight and more recent examples, this book provides fresh perspectives on the motivation to list state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the process it entails. Drawing from the experiences of five economies (People's Republic of China, India, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey), the book concludes that broadened ownership generally has a positive impact on the governance and performance of these companies. However, country practices show that the act of listing cannot guarantee that these companies are completely averse to State interests; and deviations from sound corporate governance practices, as enshrined in the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs, can in some cases, raise concerns with regards to non-State shareholder rights, commercial orientation, board independence, conflicting State objectives, transparency, disclosure and more.
This report addresses housing inequities through a series of analytical chapters and case studies. The cross-country chapters examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing demand, develop a proposal for a green land value tax, evaluate the dynamics between fiscal autonomy and housing supply responsiveness, as well as explore the drivers of inter-regional migration. The case studies unravel the changes of Korea's progressive national property tax and a programme to address regional imbalances, assess the impact of the US property tax system on housing, dive into Norway's property taxation in relation to inequality, as well as survey Belgium's approaches to housing policy. With a blend of empirical data and critical analysis, the report underscores the pressing need for comprehensive strategies in addressing housing inequities. It also offers insights for policymakers and scholars, highlighting the complex balance between national and local housing policies.
The report brings together evidence, international experience and policy insights for the design of housing policies. Emphasis is placed on three broad aspects: inclusiveness, efficiency and sustainability. Inclusive access to housing has become increasingly challenging in many OECD countries due to a large extent to rising housing costs, which reflects the failure of housing supply to meet demand, particularly in jobs-rich urban areas. Geographical constraints play a role, but in many cities regulations, including on land-use and zoning provisions, also constrain supply. At the same time, some regulations on tenant-landlord relations can discourage the development of rental markets, pushing up rents. Moreover, the transition to a low-carbon economy poses challenges for a sector that accounts for 17% of CO2 emissions and 37% of fine particulate matter emissions globally. Almost two-thirds of countries worldwide still lack mandatory building energy codes. Frontloading efforts is critical as dwellings have a very long lifespan. The report lays out evidence-based options for concerted policy action to address these challenges, while recognising complementarities and trade-offs amond the different objectives of housing policies. The report is part of the OECD Housing Tookit, which includes an interactive online dashboard of housing indicators and country snapshots.
Public works contracts mean big business. From road-building to high-tech communication infrastructure, public procurement averages 15% of GDP in OECD countries--substantially more in non-OECD economies--and it is a major factor in the world trade of goods and services. Given the growing complexity of bribe schemes in today’s globalised markets, the problem is how to identify corruption in public procurement so governments can work toward effective prevention and apply sanctions if necessary. This report provides insights on all three fronts. Based on contributions from law enforcement and procurement specialists, the report describes how bribery is committed through the various stages of government purchasing; how bribery in public procurement is related to other crimes, such as fraud and money laundering; and how to prevent and sanction such crimes. The typical motivations and conduct of the various actors engaging in corruption are also highlighted, as well as ten case studies.
This Handbook is designed to raise the awareness of tax examiners and auditors of issues concerning bribery and other forms of corruption. It provides guidance on how to recognise indicators of possible bribery or corruption in the course of regular tax examinations and audits.
An alarming number of women and girls become victims/survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) at least once during their lifetime. While GBV has garnered more attention from policymakers in recent years, and has become a top gender-equality priority for OECD countries, significant challenges remain in all countries. This report promotes a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of GBV by combining insights from recent OECD work with robust evidence from surveys and questionnaires conducted in OECD Member countries. It offers recommendations for a comprehensive OECD GBV Governance Framework encompassing laws and access to justice, transforming restrictive gender norms, and integrating service delivery to prevent, address and - ultimately - end this violation of human rights.