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In addition to private pension fund and life insurance assets, several countries have accumulated large amounts of pension assets in their national pension reserve funds. Pension reserve fund refers to assets set aside by otherwise pay-as-you-go systems in preparation for the rising fiscal costs resulting from the predicted ageing of the population over the next few decades.

This paper is based on seven national reports on national policies concerned with entrepreneurialism in universities as the context for a more detailed study of entrepreneurial behaviour in universities in the seven countries. It claims that the entrepreneurial university is a useful generic epithet to describe the manifold changes in mission, management and funding that many universities in Europe have experienced in the past two decades. The concept of university entrepreneurialism in most countries is linked to the “third mission” that is supplementing the long established teaching and academic research functions of universities and other higher education institutions. However, some governments are also concerned to encourage universities to embody the teaching of entrepreneurialism in at least some of their conventional courses. Five main drivers of entrepreneurial activities in the countries taking part in the “European Universities for Entrepreneurship: their role in the Europe of Knowledge”, (EUEREK) study are identified: ideology; expansion in the number of institutions; the knowledge society; globalisation; financial stringency. In some countries, especially in Eastern Europe there has been rapid growth in numbers of private higher education institutions. There are questions about whether this is an indication of entrepreneurialism, or of lack of entrepreneurial dynamism in the established public universities .The paper concludes with a preliminary review of managerial and governance changes in universities and colleges accompanying the growth of entrepreneurial and third mission activities.

Modern risk management has become an important tool for achieving strategic debt targets in the OECD area. In essence, risk management policies, based on the use of formal methods, are now an integral part of debt management in most OECD jurisdictions. In general, risk management tolerances and policies are approved (and often set) by the Ministry of Finance (or other appropriate Ministry). This strategy about risks entails an explicit political decision about the trade-off between costs and risks. The actual risk management operation is often run at a separate agency responsible for management of the sovereign debt or at the central bank if it manages the debt, and is typically segregated from other treasury...

There is a growing awareness of the need to transform food systems. Yet successful actions require sound evidence: on the extent, characteristics, and drivers of issues; on the effectiveness of different policy instruments, and their synergies and trade-offs; on how policy proposals would affect stakeholders; and on citizens’ values and preferences. There are considerable evidence gaps on many of these aspects. This paper presents the main findings from the OECD project “Overcoming Evidence Gaps on Food Systems,” which aimed to identify different types of evidence gaps, as well as pragmatic approaches to overcome these. The project explored this question through three “deep dives” on food insecurity and food assistance programmes across OECD countries, gender and food systems, and environmental impacts along food supply chains. Overall, there is a strong case for greater investment in overcoming evidence gaps for food systems.

Food systems are expected to provide food security and nutrition, to contribute to the livelihoods of millions, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable way. The broad outlines of these challenges are clear, and in many cases evidence exists on how better policies can improve the performance of food systems. But there are considerable gaps in data and evidence. This paper provides a panoramic overview of different types of evidence gaps on food systems and their causes, and makes the case that better evidence is needed to enable better policies. At the same time, evidence will never be complete. Policy makers and the research community thus need to adopt a pragmatic approach, focusing on where better evidence can make the biggest difference.

Considerable efforts have been devoted to understanding and developing technologies and practices that can help the agricultural sector reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The uptake of these "climate-friendly" technologies and practices, however, remains low. This report, based on a comprehensive review of the literature, analyses barriers that may prevent farmers from adopting climate-friendly practices. A multitude of potential barriers exist, some associated with farm-level constraints, others operating at the sector level, or created by existing policies. A series of recommendations are made to properly identify these types of barriers and to select the right instruments that would work to implement effective policy solutions.

This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.