Browse by: "2024"

The Caribbean Development Dynamics is a new joint flagship report by the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). It advocates for a shift in perspective on the Caribbean’s development prospects: beyond the assessment of challenges, it casts light on the region’s opportunities, based on fresh, comparable data, and provides policy recommendations. Its regional perspective highlights policy options and areas of common interest, while acknowledging regional diversity as a unique asset. This inaugural edition adopts a multi-dimensional approach to analysing key development trends.

The assessment report explores capacity for innovative and participatory policymaking at the national government level in Armenia to understand how innovation and participation can be better supported and harnessed to improve the public sector's effectiveness and impact. It looks at current innovative and participatory efforts, identifies gaps, and proposes steps Armenia can take to accelerate innovative and participatory policymaking.

This OECD report highlights recent developments and disruptions in international trade using detailed and high-frequency data to offer in-depth monitoring of the evolving trade landscape and the factors underlying recent changes – including the recent recovery of travel-related services, China's shifting trade dynamics, and the impacts of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine. It also examines transportation disruptions in critical maritime chokepoints and the increasing concentration of global trade in electric vehicles and batteries, raising dependency concerns.

Capital markets can be powerful levers to mobilise funds for economic growth. This report assesses the Philippine capital market and provides recommendations to improve it by strengthening corporate governance, facilitating access to public equity markets, increasing liquidity in the secondary stock market, improving market-based debt financing via corporate bonds and deepening the investor base. The recommendations are intended to guide policy makers in their reform agenda to strengthen the Philippine capital market and boost economic growth.

In a global economy transformed by rapid technological advances, ageing populations, shifting global supply chains, changing consumer preferences and efforts to achieve net-zero emissions, firms' skill needs are changing. Skill gaps – the mismatch between workers' skills and those required – pose a significant challenge for firms to meet business needs in this changing environment. This report, based on results from the PIAAC Employer Survey Module, examines the prevalence and impact of skill gaps in five European countries: Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the Slovak Republic, and analyses how firms are responding through strategies such as skills anticipation, training and targeted recruitment. The report finds that skill gaps are widespread, especially in technical skills, teamworking and problem solving. These gaps lead to challenges, including increased workloads for existing staff, higher operating costs and difficulties in implementing new work practices. To address these issues, most enterprises focus on training and development, while fewer choose to recruit new staff or change the way work is organised.

This annual publication compiles comparable tax revenue and non-tax revenue statistics for 36 countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia. The report extends the well-established methodology on the classification of public revenues set out in the OECD Interpretative Guide to African countries, thereby enabling comparison of tax levels and tax structures across the continent and with other regions. This edition includes a special feature on facilitation and trust as drivers of voluntary tax compliance. The publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the African Union Commission and the African Tax Administration Forum, with financial support from the governments of Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and from the European Union.

In order to fund their ambitious sustainable development agendas, Latin American and Caribbean countries need to expand their financing sources. This 17th edition of the Latin American Economic Outlook proposes a series of policy options to mobilise the necessary resources, based on co-ordinated actions between policy makers, the private sector and their international partners. It argues that public resources should be invested more efficiently, tax better collected and debt better managed. Even with those improvements, private resources will be equally crucial, as public revenues will not be enough to fund the deep transformations the region needs. The depth, access, inclusiveness and efficiency of financial systems must improve further, especially for the benefit of citizens and smaller firms. Businesses need stronger capital markets to finance their long-term investment projects. The report’s recommendations include the use of innovative financial instruments; renewing the role of development finance institutions; reinvigorated international partnerships to mobilise external resources; and the adoption of a shared regional agenda to address the challenging international financing context.

Countries provide financial incentives to encourage individuals to save for retirement in asset-backed pension plans. Financial incentives for retirement savings can take the form of tax incentives, which are indirect subsidies through the tax code, or non-tax incentives, which are direct government payments into pension accounts. This annual survey provides an overview of the tax treatment of retirement savings and covers non-tax incentives to promote retirement savings in OECD countries and four accession countries as of July 2024.

The Philippines stands as the world's ninth-largest chip exporter, and the semiconductor sector is the country's largest export industry. However, there are untapped opportunities to boost labour productivity and address infrastructural and regulatory bottlenecks for the semiconductor industry. This report examines opportunities and challenges for the Philippines’ semiconductor ecosystem, particularly in assembly, testing, and packaging, and provides recommendations to unlock its growth. The report combines quantitative and policy analysis of the Philippine semiconductor ecosystem – including infrastructure, human capital, and integration into global value chains. Its recommendations target critical areas: improving the business and operational environment for the Philippine semiconductor industry, boosting investments in R&D and technology, and achieving ambitious workforce development plans through industry-academia partnerships and international collaboration. This report provides strategic guidance to strengthen the Philippines' position in global semiconductor value chains and address current productivity trends. By implementing the policy recommendations, the Philippines can capitalise on emerging opportunities and unlock growth in the semiconductor ecosystem, particularly in assembly, testing and packaging.

The transition towards a green economy, rapid development of digital technologies and demographic change are some of the forces disrupting traditional career paths, resulting in more fluid diversified career trajectories. To benefit from increased longevity, workers will increasingly have to consider job mobility at middle and older ages, changing jobs or careers more frequently than in the past. As in other countries, career mobility declines with age in the United Kingdom, yet voluntary mobility can provide opportunities to find better jobs, potentially improving job satisfaction, skills use and productivity. This report identifies key public and employer policies in the United Kingdom that can support career mobility at older ages. While the UK labour market remains dynamic providing ample job opportunities, not all workers benefit equally. Sustained public commitment to better-integrated career guidance, employment support and skills training is needed to support workers at all stages of their career. With workforce ageing, all stakeholders including employers must prioritise enhancing job quality along with health and well-being to prevent premature workforce exits. Key factors include fair pay, access to occupational health, supportive working conditions and workplace accommodation, flexible work options, and opportunities for ongoing learning and development.

The Policy Inventory for Mitigation Actions in Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use Sectors (PIMA-AFOLU) contains over 1 300 AFOLU policies which directly or indirectly support climate change mitigation efforts in 44 countries. Diverse direct and indirect policy instruments include economic (e.g. subsidies), regulatory (e.g. performance standards), and other types of policies (e.g. training programmes). About two-thirds of these policies have been created or implemented in the last decade. The policies cover a wide scope of sectors, subsectors, and domains (e.g. biodiversity, water, and climate change). PIMA-AFOLU showcases the strategies and measures countries use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, serving as both a record of public policy efforts and a knowledge-sharing platform. Additionally, this inventory may support efforts to assess the impact of public mitigation policies in the AFOLU sectors.

The 2024 edition of Regions and Cities at a Glance aims to understand the size, scale, and evolution of the spatial impacts of megatrends, including demographic shifts, climate change, and technological advancements. By offering internationally comparable data, it aims to identify countries where economic or social outcomes—or both—have been stronger, providing guidance for policy development in regions with weaker performance. The analysis on this edition draws from conventional and unconventional sources of data to provide timely and detailed metrics on, among others, the impacts of climate change, skill shortages during transitions, and access to opportunities for various socio-economic groups in regions and cities. This edition also presents for the first time internationally comparable estimates of real GDP and household income growth, adjusted for regional price changes.

Many of Asia’s retirement‑income systems are ill-prepared for the rapid population ageing that is underway. Asia’s pension systems urgently need to be reformed to ensure that they are both financially sustainable and provide adequate retirement incomes. This report examines the retirement‑income systems of 11 non‑OECD economies in the region, comparing the results with a selection of OECD countries. The report provides new data for comparing pension systems of different economies. It combines the OECD’s expertise in modelling pension entitlements with a network of national pension experts who provided detailed information at the country level, verified key results and provided feedback and input to improve the analysis.

La phase la plus récente de la transformation numérique se caractérise par des progrès technologiques rapides qui créent des possibilités et des risques pour l’économie et la société. Le volume 2 des Perspectives de l’économie numérique de l’OCDE 2024 porte sur les nouvelles orientations des priorités, des politiques et de la gouvernance du numérique dans les différents pays. On y analyse également l’évolution des conditions favorisant la transformation numérique, l’innovation et la confiance à l’ère numérique. À cette fin, ce volume est consacré à l’étude des tendances en matière d’accès et de connectivité, ainsi qu’à celle des compétences nécessaires pour prospérer à l’ère numérique. Il y est question en outre des moyens permettant de repousser la frontière technologique grâce au potentiel inexploité des femmes et de mettre à profit les technologies numériques au service des objectifs de neutralité carbone et de la protection de l’environnement. Enfin, on y traite des tendances en matière de cybersécurité et présente de nouveaux éléments sur la consommation médiatique ainsi que sur les comportements à l’égard de la protection de la vie privée et du contrôle des données à caractère personnel et l’on cherche à comprendre en quoi l’accès à des informations contextuelles supplémentaires influence la capacité des individus à déterminer la véracité des informations diffusées en ligne. Une annexe statistique complète ce volume.e personnel, et il examine en quoi l’accès à des informations contextuelles supplémentaires influence la capacité des individus à déterminer la véracité des informations diffusées en ligne. Une annexe statistique complète ce volume.

Establishing a national register of chemicals is often the start of the long journey that leads to risk management of chemicals; it is therefore a foundational step for a sound chemicals management system. Establishing a register is resource-intensive and often takes up to four or five years, sometimes even more. Therefore, it is essential to clearly define its purpose, scope, and operational features for both establishing and updating it. This guidance has been designed to support governments considering establishing a national chemicals register.