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This document serves  as the basis for the first step in the consideration and development of OECD Test Guidelines for the testing of chemicals for endocrine-disrupting effects. OECD Test Guidelines play a critical role in ensuring that efficient and effective procedures are available to identify chemical hazards. The focus of this paper is on test methods for sex hormone-disrupting chemicals capable of affecting the  reproductive process. Other hormone systems which are also important in the control of reproduction, such as the thyroid and adrenal systems, are not considered. In addition, test methods for the effects of sex hormones on non-reproductive processes such as brain development and behaviour are considered to be beyond the scope of this document. Accordingly, the DRP makes an inventory of existing OECD test methods relevant to the assessment of the effects of sex hormone-disrupters on the reproductive systems of humans and wildlife; describes relevant non-regulatory test methodologies used by the research community; makes a critical assessment of existing test methodologies to detect sex hormone-disrupting chemicals; identifies possible enhancements to existing test methodologies; and identifies both those non-regulatory test methodologies suitable for further development and outstanding research requirements.

This Detailed Review Paper (DRP) is intended to provide the current state-of-the-knowledge in the area of amphibian metamorphosis with the view to use amphibian metamorphosis as a model for the detection of chemicals affecting the thyroid axis in vertebrates.

This review paper is based on the compilation of more than 600 pelagic and benthic testing methods. It has been created to assist the OECD National Co-ordinators in their discussions regarding the identification of aquatic toxicity text methods to be included in the OECD Test Guidelines programme.

This document reviews the area of biodegradability testing in order to identify whether, in the light of scientific developments, there was a need to revise existing OECD Test Guidelines or to develop new Guidelines.

This Detailed Review Paper (DRP) is intended to provide the current state-of-the-knowledge in the area of fish screening assays for chemicals active at the endocrine level on the reproductive system of test animals.

This document describes some endocrine pathways that have been shown to be susceptible to environmental endocrine disruption and whose disruption could contribute to increasing incidents of some disorders in humans and wildlife populations, such as obesity/diabetes/metabolic syndrome, reproductive dysfunction, and neuro-developmental abnormalities. Assays and endpoints are described that could be used in new or existing OECD Test Guidelines for evaluating chemicals for endocrine-disrupting activity. Endocrine pathways evaluated are the hypothalamus:pituitary:adrenocortical (HPA) axis, the hypothalamus:pituitary:gonad (HPG) axis, the somatotropic axis, the retinoid signaling pathway, the hypothalamus:pituitary:thyroid (HPT) axis, the vitamin D signaling pathway, and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway.

Increasing incidents of disorders such as obesity/diabetes/metabolic syndrome, reproductive dysfunction, and neuro-developmental abnormalities in some human populations have raised concern that disruption of key endocrine-signaling pathways by exposure to environmental chemicals may be involved. This Detailed Review Paper describes some endocrine pathways that have been shown to be susceptible to environmental endocrine disruption and whose disruption could contribute to increasing incidents of some disorders in humans and wildlife populations.

This Round Table examines methodologies and case studies on demand elasticities for various means of urban passenger transport.

In the mining sector, government revenue is typically generated by levying royalties and income taxes on the value of the mineral extracted. However, due to the frequency and scale of related party transactions, the potential risk to tax revenues posed by transfer pricing non-compliance can be high, particularly around the value of the extracted minerals. This toolkit provides practical and meaningful guidance for developing countries to determine the price of minerals sold to related parties using the arm’s length principle. It offers a framework on how to use transfer pricing principles to apply the Comparable Uncontrolled Price method, including identifying the primary economic factors that influence the price of minerals (“mineral pricing framework”) to ensure that developing countries are able to tax mineral exports appropriately. It also includes simplified administrative approaches to pricing mineral sales that could reduce the administrative burden for developing countries.

In the mining sector, government revenue depends on mineral products being priced and measured accurately. This can be especially complex for semi-processed minerals such as bauxite, which is ultimately used in the aluminum value chain. The schedule presented in this report applies the mineral pricing framework – as documented in the joint OECD/IGF work Determining the Price of Minerals: A Transfer Pricing Framework – to identify the primary economic factors that influence the price of bauxite in applying the Comparable Uncontrolled Price method and ensure that developing countries are able to tax mineral exports appropriately. It also provides worked examples on how to accurately apply the mineral pricing framework to bauxite.

These proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Transport Economics, held on 10-11 October 1967 covered choice of transport investments, elements of transport demand, urban transport and imputation of transport intrastructure charges.

Driven by an increasing recognition of the many advantages of natural gas and by the need to diversify its coal-dominated energy supply, China’s natural gas industry is poised for rapid expansion. This study describes China’s gas market situation and examines the key issues facing its industry and policy makers. Drawing on the experiences and lessons from developed gas markets around the world and taking into account the specific circumstances of the Chinese gas market, it also offers a number of policy suggestions for the Chinese government to consider in its effort to boost the country’s natural gas industry.

This book highlights new scientific research about how people learn, including interdisciplinary perspectives from neuroscience, the social, cognitive and behavioural sciences, education, computer and information sciences, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and engineering. These new developments offer fascinating new perspectives, based on technological advances, which enable a re-examination of longstanding problems in learning, raise new questions, and offer new approaches to the study of learning. This report seeks to catalyse discussions on the implications of these research findings for education practice and policy, and in turn, on how knowledge and experience from real-world education practice and policy could challenge and inform research agendas and theory building.

This report aims to provide policy makers with a comprehensive examination of “project pipelines”, a common concept in infrastructure planning and investment discussions, and one which has become a focal point in countries’ efforts to implement their climate commitments. The analysis is structured around some basic but important guiding questions, including: What is meant by project pipelines? How can we characterise them? What concrete approaches and actions can governments and other public institutions take to develop project pipelines and mobilise private finance into these projects? This close look at pipelines suggests that they can only be as robust as the investment-ready and bankable projects that constitute them, as effective as institutions that deliver them, and as ambitious as the objectives to which they are linked. Through a series of case studies, the report highlights that while governments and public institutions are already taking actions to develop robust pipelines in a range of country settings, these pipelines nevertheless need to be strengthened significantly to meet long-term climate mitigation objectives. Good practices pioneered by the countries and actors in the case studies can provide models for governments to adapt and bolster their own efforts.

Wales (United Kingdom) considers the development of schools as learning organisations as vital for supporting schools to put its new, 21st century curriculum into practice. A growing body of research evidence shows that schools that operate as learning organisations can react more quickly to changing external environments and embrace changes and innovations.
This report aims to support Wales in this effort, gauging the extent to which schools have put into practice the characteristics of learning organisations and identifying areas for further development. It also examines the system-level conditions that can enable or hinder schools in Wales in developing as learning organisations. It offers a number of concrete recommendations for consideration by the Welsh Government and other stakeholders at various levels of the system.
The report will be valuable not only for Wales, but also to the many countries that are looking to establish collaborative learning cultures across their school systems.

This report documents trends in the use of strategic planning in a range of countries and the associated establishment of independent infrastructure advisory bodies. It documents practices in the areas of project identification, appraisal and selection. It considers the appropriate scope of impact assessments, including the use of wider economic impacts and the role of ex post evaluation in contributing to better appraisals of future investments. Finally, it looks at how the effective stewardship of existing infrastructure assets can maximise their ongoing productivity.

A number of countries have created official definitions of sustainable finance as well as more comprehensive classification systems, referred to as sustainable finance taxonomies. This report maps sustainable finance definitions and taxonomies in five jurisdictions: the European Union, People’s Republic of China, Japan, France and the Netherlands. Taxonomies answer a need for greater certainty on the environmental sustainability of different types of investments. When appropriately designed, they can improve market clarity, bring confidence and assurance to investors, and facilitate the measurement and tracking of sustainable finance flows. The report lays out preliminary considerations for good design of taxonomies, which can support policy makers to develop and grow sustainable finance markets to help achieve environmental and sustainable development goals. It also identifies differences among the taxonomies in scope as well as commonalities. These commonalities could provide a basis for creating comparable frameworks that facilitate international investment while also reflecting differing national circumstances.

This report identifies the issues arising from the development of a multilateral instrument that modifies bilateral tax treaties. Without a mechanism for swift implementation, changes to model tax conventions only widen the gap between the content of these models and the content of actual tax treaties. Developing such a mechanism is necessary not only to tackle base erosion and profit shifting, but also to ensure the sustainability of the consensual framework to eliminate double taxation. This is an innovative approach with no exact precedent in the tax world, but precedents for modifying bilateral treaties with a multilateral instrument exist in various other areas of public international law. Drawing on the knowledge of experts in public international law and taxation, the Report concludes that a multilateral instrument is desirable and feasible, and that negotiations for such an instrument should be convened quickly.

Drawing on the expertise of public international law and tax experts, this report explores the technical feasibility to develop a multilateral instrument to modify tax treaties so as to efficiently implement the tax treaty-related BEPS measures. The report concludes that such an instrument is desirable and feasible and that negotiations for the multilateral instrument should be convened quickly. Based on this analysis, a mandate has been developed for an ad-hoc group, open to the participation of all countries on an equal footing, to develop the multilateral instrument and open it for signature in 2016.