Browse by: "L"

Greening the economy entails jobs contracting in “high-polluting” economic activities and expanding in environment-friendly activities. Minimizing the corresponding transition costs is crucial to accelerate decarbonisation and reduce displacement costs for affected workers. Using individual-level labour force data for a large sample of European countries, this paper finds that the shares of green and high-polluting jobs remained approximately stable between 2009 and 2019, hinting at a slow or yet-to-come green transition in labour markets. Green and high-polluting jobs are unequally distributed across socioeconomic groups: women are under-represented in both green and high-polluting jobs, while green jobs are associated with higher educational attainment, and high-polluting jobs with lower educational attainment. Equally important from a policy perspective, the results show that high-polluting jobs are concentrated in rural areas. These results are confirmed by analyzing labour market transitions: for instance, while women are more likely to transition from study to job, they are significantly less likely to get a green job. Overall, the results suggest that well designed and targeted policies are needed to support efficient and inclusive labour market transitions in the greening economy: to minimize scarring effects for displaced workers, help individuals’ upskilling and reskilling, and support the matching between workers and jobs in higher demand.

This policy paper presents the results of a survey jointly conducted by the OECD, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the European Committee of the Regions on how to localise the SDGs in a changing international landscape marked by disasters and shocks. Findings show declining standards of living in many cities and regions, an increasing relevance of affordable and clean energy due to high energy prices and a growing importance of food security following disruptions in global food supply chains. Moving forward, the paper presents possible strategies to further leverage the SDGs to design sustainable urban and regional development policies. It outlines pathways to counter high price levels and promote decarbonisation in production and consumption. Furthermore, it offers ways to promote sustainable food systems and reduce food waste through a circular economy approach and the integration of food policy into urban development strategies.

This paper describes the latest update of the OECD’s long-term scenarios, which are done every 2-3 years to quantify some of the most important long-term macroeconomic trends and policy challenges facing the global economy. For the first time, this update incorporates the effect of the low-carbon energy transition. The study first presents a baseline projection that acts as a business-as-usual scenario against which the economic effects of the transition can be gauged. Next, it outlines extensions to the OECD global long-term model (LTM) to consider energy use and associated CO2 emissions and describes an alternative stylised scenario in which OECD and non-OECD G20 countries successfully transition to low-carbon energy in a way broadly consistent with a net-zero target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. These extensions rely on a variety of sources, but most crucially on simulations of CO2 mitigation costs with the OECD’s ENV-Linkages model. Finally, the model’s extensions are used to explore some fiscal implications of the energy transition, in particular how the negative economic effects of carbon mitigation could be alleviated by fiscal or other structural reforms.

The Turkish economy grew strongly over the past two decades and created many jobs. However, given its young and growing workforce, Türkiye needs to ramp up efforts to achieve high-quality formal job creation. A sizeable share of the workforce, mostly female workers, does not actively participate in the labour market. While informality has decreased significantly, it is still widespread and entrenches productivity differences across firms. Rigid labour market rules, particularly the high severance pay but also minimum wages, impede formal job creation. More flexible labour markets should be part of a comprehensive reform programme that shifts job loss protection to a broader-based unemployment insurance scheme, supported by well-designed activation policies. While educational attainment has risen impressively, a growing number of vacancies, significant skill mismatches and a low level of adult skills highlight the need to address the quality of education and to improve on the matching of talent to jobs.

This report assesses the current state and future potential of cultural and creative sectors (CCS) in the nine outermost regions of the European Union (EU): Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, and Saint Martin (France); the Azores and Madeira (Portugal); and the Canary Islands (Spain). Global trends, such as increases in cultural tourism, trade in creative goods and services, and FDI in CCS offer significant opportunities for EU outermost regions to expand their cultural and creative sectors, promote synergies with tourism and help drive job creation. In addition, CCS policies can also boost well-being outcomes and social cohesion through preserving and promoting local cultural heritage and encouraging cultural participation. CCS policy which capitalises on these global trends, whilst recognising the specific context of EU outermost regions, could help promote these areas and contribute to local development.

The provision of high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is widely seen as a strategy to promote a more equitable and inclusive society due to its potential to give all children, and especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, a strong basis for early development and well-being. This requires approaches that address the needs of the increasingly diverse populations of children participating in ECEC. A first step in this direction is to assess the prevalence of different dimensions of diversity (e.g., socio-economic disadvantage, special education needs, different first language, and refugee status) across ECEC centres, and the extent to which the quality of ECEC varies between more and less diverse centres. This working paper uses data from the TALIS Starting Strong 2018 survey to examine these questions in the nine participating countries, and to derive policy pointers to ensure that ECEC systems promote equity and inclusion in response to the diversity of children’s needs.

The Dutch labour market is strong but very tight. The unprecedently fast recovery from the pandemic, fast-changing skill demand, low hours worked, and the segmentation of the labour market contribute to labour shortages, weighing on growth potential and jeopardising the green and digital transitions. To tackle shortages, lifting labour supply is a necessary complement to raising productivity, as labour-saving innovation alone is unlikely to significantly reduce overall labour demand. Lowering the effective tax rate on moving from part-time to full-time employment and streamlining income-dependent benefits while improving access to childcare would both increase labour input and reduce gender inequalities in career prospects, incomes, and social protection. Narrowing regulatory gaps between regular and non-standard forms of employment further would alleviate shortages by facilitating transitions between occupations. Better integrating people with a migrant background and easing medium-skill labour migration in specific occupations would help to fill vacancies, especially those related to the lowcarbon transition. Scaling up the individualised training scheme while ensuring quality and providing stronger incentives for co-financing by employers would boost the supply of skills and promote growth in expanding industries. Rewarding teachers in schools where shortages are significant and facilitating mobility between vocational and academic tracks would improve equality in education and better prepare the future workforce.

The report is the first comprehensive, India-specific analysis of urban passenger transport emissions using a life-cycle perspective. The life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach offers insights into how policy choices affect greenhouse gas emissions throughout vehicle and infrastructure development and use. The analysis shows that Indian cities must prioritise measures that shift private vehicle users to public transport. In addition, a transition to electric buses – preferably powered by 100% renewable energy – is needed. The report highlights the critical importance of analysing and understanding emissions levels through all life-cycle stages of transport services when taking public policy and investment decisions.

At a time of rising cost of living, wide wage inequalities and widespread in-work poverty, the demand for a living wage has heightened. The concept of a “living wage” has some limitations, including that it is operationalised in a variety of ways. This variety may serve the purpose of making it a more relevant instrument, typically by providing information on the cost of living that firms and social partners may embed in their wage-setting processes; however, the variety can also increase a lack of transparency. The paper reviews some of the most common methodologies, by identifying points of convergence and divergence. Living wage estimates produced by the Fair Wage Network are then put into context by benchmarking them against internationally comparable wage metrics and poverty lines. Finally, the paper presents a number of critical steps to strengthen the concept of a living wage. This paper does not assess the economic cost or feasibility of living wages, not at the firm level or at the broader industry and economy level. This paper advises using the living wage as one of the pieces of information that – when properly contextualised – could inform wage negotiations and wage policies set in consultation with social partners.

Labour and skills shortages are a major concern in the agro-food sector across OECD countries. This challenge is compounded by the relatively small, and declining, contribution of agriculture to GDP, and the negative public perception of the sector with relatively low wages and limited career prospects. This paper reviews policies that have the potential to address labour and skills shortages in the agro-food sector including labour market, education and training, social protection policies, immigration, as well as agricultural specific policies. Many of the policy levers used to address the agro-food labour challenge lie outside the sector and involve finding the right policy mix that tends to be country specific. Furthermore, some issues can be addressed by closer public and private collaboration such as improving working conditions, increasing investment in agricultural education and training of young entrants to the sector. Greater attention also needs to be given to improving the image of agriculture as a career choice, promoting a more diverse workforce, improving the alignment of skills to the needs of the sector, promoting continuous learning, and strengthening national advisory services.