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Being able to swim empowers individuals to make choices, have agency, and be free to choose core aspects of their life, such as working safely on or near water. It is also associated with lifelong health benefits and reduces the risk of drowning. Using data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2019, this paper provides the first global estimates of adults’ ability to swim without assistance. Individuals in high-income countries are considerably more likely to report being able to swim without assistance than individuals in low-income countries. Disparities also exist within countries. In particular, women are less likely to be able to swim without assistance than men in virtually all countries, birth cohorts, and levels of education. Investing in reducing inequalities in life skills, such as swimming, can foster economic development and empowerment, especially in light of threats, such as climate change.

This paper focuses on Swiss GDP revisions and the uncertainty they generate from the point of view of monetary policy. After a description of the revisions features, we use GDP vintages to compute real-time output gaps using a production function approach. Then, with a nominal feedback rule, we assess the impact of GDP – and hence output gap – on revisions monetary policy. The main results are threefold. First, Swiss GDP revisions – similarly to those of other small economies – are large, and estimates converge slowly to their final value. Second, GDP mismeasurements clearly exacerbate the difficulty in estimating output gaps. Third, the impact of revisions on monetary policy varies over time. Via its effect on output gaps, ceteris paribus, the inaccuracy of GDP estimates risks introducing a procyclical bias in monetary policy decisions.

This report develops quantitative and qualitative frameworks to test the possibility of systematically assessing a range of policies and their intended and unintended effects. The analysis spans the three policy objectives of enhanced productivity, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation. The preliminary findings and lessons learned are drawn from two applications of a qualitative framework (France and the Netherlands), where information was gathered through a wide-ranging questionnaire, and from two applications of a quantitative modelling framework which was tested using data from Finland and from selected sites in one region of the United States.

Improved integration of cycling and transit has the potential to overcome the fundamental limitations of each mode by combining their opposite strengths of flexibility and action radius. The benefits of such integration potentially extend beyond user benefits and the trip level. We present seven conceptual mechanisms that lead to synergies, understood as benefits not attributable to cycling or transit in isolation, but to their integration only. As an illustration, we analyse and allocate such synergies by a case study of the Dutch cycling-transit system. Where the practical absence of cycling has limited such potential in many locations elsewhere, the recent resurgence in cycling practice and culture, especially in urban agglomerations, enables new opportunities for improved cycling-transit integration. Urban agglomerations are also the locations where land-use and mobility related issues seem particularly pressing and where we claim cycling-transit synergies are strongest. The article concludes with a discussion of implication and application.

The design of intergovernmental fiscal relations can help to ensure that tax and spending powers are assigned in a way to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Decentralisation can enable sub-central governments to provide better public services for households and firms, while it can also make intergovernmental frameworks more complex, harming equity. The challenges of fiscal federalism are multi-faceted and involve difficult trade-offs. This synthesis paper consolidates much of the OECD’s work on fiscal federalism over the past 15 years, with a particular focus on OECD Economic Surveys. The paper identifies a range of good practices on the design of country policies and institutions related strengthening fiscal capacity delineating responsibilities across evels of government and improving intergovernmental co-ordination.

“System accreditation” is a new approach developed for German universities to conduct the mandatory accreditation of all their study programmes. A pilot project at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz is playing an important role in paving the way for this alternative to prevailing programme accreditation. This article describes how system accreditation, an innovative approach towards organisational adaption to national regulations, was conceived and how it functions. Based on the experience of Johannes Gutenberg University, the article explores the potential of system accreditation to improve quality assurance and the development of study programmes. System accreditation faces three global challenges: that of creating an integrated approach, establishing a solid evidence base and fostering the effectiveness of evaluation efforts.

Safety governance refers to the approaches taken to minimise the risk for patient harm across an entity or system. It typically comprises steering and rule-making functions such as policies, regulations and standards. To date, governance has focused on the clinical level and the hospital setting, with limited oversight and control over safety in other parts of the health system. All 25 countries that responded to a 2019 OECD Survey of Patient Safety Governance have enacted legislation that aims to promote patient safety. These practices include external accreditation and inspections of safety processes and outcomes. Safety governance models are also moving away from punishment and shaming towards increased trust and openness. Learning from success as well as failures represents a paradigm shift in safety governance, an approach that has been increasingly adopted in OECD countries.

Systemic financial crises are a recurrent phenomenon, and despite regulatory efforts they are likely to occur again. This report compares the ex ante funding of deposit insurance schemes in a selection of countries, highlighting the “funding gap” left by these arrangements in the recent systemic financial crisis. To fill that gap, different approaches have been adopted across countries in the recent crisis. Where support for the financial sector was provided as part of policy response to the crisis, new taxes have been adopted to generate revenues ex post, although the specific approaches have differed. While there is no single solution in this regard, this report finds that ex ante funded systemic crisis resolution funds, together with strengthened failure resolution powers, are in principle adequate to help fill the gap. JEL Classification: E44, G01, G21, G28, E61, H21. Keywords: systemic financial crisis, systemic crisis resolution fund, deposit insurance, financial activities taxes, ex ante versus ex post funding.

Over the last several years the author conducted 126 interviews and held four focus groups with academic staff, administrators and others associated with Australian universities, about the problems and challenges they believed faced the system of tertiary education. Widespread concern and pessimism pervaded the interviews about the future of tertiary education in Australia. Approximately three quarters of the interviewees said that the system was worse, or certainly no better, today than a decade ago; a similar number held out little hope that the system would improve, if not deteriorate further, in a decade. In this article the author outlines what he sees as systemic barriers to change and then offers suggestions for ...

I settori culturali e creativi sono importanti per il loro impatto su economia e occupazione. Esse stimolano inoltre l'innovazione in tutta la sfera economica e contribuiscono a numerosi altri canali per un impatto sociale positivo (benessere e salute, istruzione, inclusione, rigenerazione urbana, ecc.). Rappresentano settori tra i più colpiti dalla pandemia, con la maggior parte dei posti di lavoro a rischio concentrati nelle grandi città. Le dinamiche variano da un sotto-settore all'altro, con le attività legate ad eventi e luoghi fisici (venue-based) e le relative catene di approvvigionamento che risultano tra le più colpite. Le politiche di sostegno alle imprese e ai lavoratori adottate durante la pandemia possono non essere adeguate ai modelli imprenditoriali e occupazionali non tradizionali che caratterizzano il settore. Oltre al sostegno a breve termine per artisti e imprese, che proviene sia dal settore pubblico sia da quello privato, le politiche possono anche valorizzare la cultura all’interno degli interventi per la ripresa e degli sforzi per trasformare le economie locali.

Las consecuencias de la pandemia de coronavirus (COVID-19) para el mercado laboral serán probablemente graves. Muchas empresas están luchando por mantenerse a flote durante las medidas de confinamiento, a menudo estrictas, y un gran número de trabajadores ya han estado involucrados en diversos programas de empleo de corta duración o han sido despedidos. Los servicios de empleo públicos y privados (PES, por sus siglas en inglés) desempeñarán un papel crucial para impedir que el mercado laboral colapse durante la crisis y promover una rápida recuperación una vez que comiencen a levantarse las medidas de confinamiento. Estos servicios tendrán que prestar un apoyo cada vez más virtual (es decir, no presencial) a una afluencia sin precedentes de solicitantes de empleo. Esto incluirá garantizar que las prestaciones se paguen sin demora, proporcionar información y alentar a los solicitantes de empleo a mantenerse activos incluso si hay menos vacantes. A corto plazo, el impacto económico de la pandemia está desplazando la demanda de mano de obra entre sectores y regiones y queda por ver si esto conducirá a una reasignación más permanente de la mano de obra. Por lo tanto, los PES en cada país no sólo se enfrentarán a un aumento en el número de solicitantes de empleo, sino también a la necesidad de reasignar potencialmente muchos de ellos entre ocupaciones, sectores y regiones. Esto requiere proporcionarles buena información sobre el mercado de trabajo y apoyo para el desarrollo de competencias. Para cumplir con estas tareas particularmente difíciles, los PES deben ser ágiles y adaptarse rápidamente a la nueva situación. Esta nota proporciona orientación sobre cómo se puede hacer esto.

Esta nota examina como os governos da OCDE estão gerenciando os servidores públicos em resposta à pandemia de coronavírus (COVID-19). O documento resume os princípios subjacentes às medidas mais comuns adotadas na OCDE como um todo e identifica oportunidades nascentes para gerir e promover mudanças. O conteúdo deste informe foi desenvolvido por meio de uma Sessão Especial do Grupo de Trabalho sobre Emprego e Gestão Pública, realizada em 15 de abril de 2020.

La pandemia de coronavirus (COVID-19) pone de relieve la necesidad de desarrollar una estrategia global e integrada para proteger la salud humana. El mejoramiento de la salud ambiental a través de una buena calidad del aire, del agua, de los servicios de saneamiento y de la gestión de los residuos, junto con la protección de la biodiversidad, reducirá el grado de vulnerabilidad de las comunidades en caso de pandemia y, en consecuencia, aumentará el bienestar general de la sociedad, al tiempo que reforzará nuestra resiliencia frente a futuras pandemias.

A pandemia do coronavírus (COVID-19) destaca a necessidade por uma abordagem mais compreensiva e integrada para a saúde humana. Fortalecer a saúde ambiental por meio de melhor qualidade do ar, disponibilidade de água, saneamento e gestão de resíduos, unido aesforços de resguardar a biodiversidade, irá reduzir a vulnerabilidade das comunidades a pandemias e, portanto, melhorar o bem estar geral e a resiliência das sociedades. A exposição a poluição aumenta o risco de doenças cardiovasculares, respiratórias e relacionadas ao desenvolvimento, assim como o risco de morte prematura, tornando os indivíduos mais vulneráveis à COVID-19. Acesso à água de qualidade e a proteção da biodiversidade são chaves para combater a propagação de pandemias, enquanto uma gestão deresíduos eficaz é essencial para minimizar os impactos secundários na saúde e no meio ambiente.