Browse by: "2012"

The OECD Green Growth Strategy aims to provide concrete recommendations and measurement tools, including indicators, to support countries’ efforts to achieve economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which well-being relies. The strategy proposes a flexible policy framework that can be tailored to different country circumstances and stages of development. This report was coordinated with the International Energy Agency (IEA).

This report looks at the role of the energy sector in moving towards a green growth model and the policies to facilitate the transition.  Together with innovation,  going green can be a long-term driver for economic growth, through, for example, investing in renewable energy and improved efficiency in the use of energy and materials. 

Now more than ever, OECD countries are investing significant resources in regulatory policies and reforms. At the same time, governments are under increasing pressure to explain such reforms and their benefits to the public. Perception surveys are an important part of this process and they are being used by OECD members to measure how citizens and businesses view regulation in their countries.

This guide helps officials use perception surveys to evaluate and communicate the results of reform processes. While the guide draws on examples from the regulatory field, it is also useful for other policy areas. In non-technical language, the guide clearly explains the challenges involved in the design and use of business and citizen perception surveys – and ways to overcome them. It also helps officials get the most out of survey results, whether conducted internally or by external experts.

Even in the midst of a global financial crisis, Latin American and Caribbean economies find themselves in better condition than in years past. Latin America must seize this opportunity to design and implement good public policies. The greatest of the long-term objectives of Latin American states remains development: economic growth and structural change that is rapid, sustainable and inclusive. In particular, governments must reduce inequalities in income, public-service delivery and opportunities, as well as promote the diversification of economies, often concentrated on a few primary-product exports.

Improved efficiency of public administration is crucial to address both the short-term and long-term dimensions of these challenges. The real change, however, will come if Latin American and Caribbean states carry out meaningful fiscal reforms, making them not only more efficient but also more effective. The increased effectiveness of fiscal policy holds the promise to provide resources needed to address the key challenges of economic development. Three key priority areas for investing additional resources have been highlighted by many governments in the region for their potential to raise competitiveness and social inclusion: education, infrastructure and innovation. In each of these areas, more efficient administration and more effective strategic action is needed from states.

Southern Arizona is a major gateway for trade with Mexico. Its economic engine, the Tucson metropolitan area has developed into a hub of light-based industries, but ranks near the bottom third of US cities in per capita income. State funding for education is in decline, accentuated by the economic crisis, and the public good of tertiary education is under threat.

In a time of financial stringency, how can the University of Arizona and community colleges preserve their existing strengths and address the needs of the diverse population? How can the region and its tertiary education institutions fuel local growth and create high quality jobs and new businesses? How can the institutions prepare for the post-crisis economy and help diversify the economy?

This publication provides preliminary, quantitative estimates of direct budgetary support and tax expenditures supporting the production or consumption of fossil fuels in selected OECD member countries. The information has been compiled as part of the OECD’s programme of work to develop a better understanding of environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS). It has been undertaken as an exercise in transparency, and to inform the international dialogue on fossil-fuel subsidy reform. It is also intended to inform the ongoing efforts of G20 nations to reform fossil-fuel subsidies.

For each of the 24 OECD countries covered, the Inventory provides a succinct summary of its energy economy, and of the budgetary and tax-related measures provided at the central-government level (and, in the case of federal countries, for selected sub-national units of government) relating to fossil-fuel production or consumption.

Many measures listed in this inventory are relative preferences within a particular country’s tax system rather than absolute support that can be readily compared across countries, and for that reason no national totals are provided.

This report enhances the transparency, accountability and public visibility of the Guidelines for MNEs, one of the OECD's most successful instruments, and more particularly the major improvements brought about by the 2011 Update, and highlights the outcome of the 2011 Corporate Responsibility Roundtable, a multi-stakholder brainstorming on the launch of the work of the updated Guidelines.

The report provides a first assessment of  the outcome of the 2011 Update of the Guidelines adopted at the OECD Ministerial Meeting and a compilation of ideas for future implementation. It also reports the actions taken by the 42  adhering governments from June 2010 to June 2011.