This paper presents new information on activity-related eligibility criteria for unemployment and related benefits in OECD- and EU-countries in 2017, comparing the strictness of “demanding” elements built into unemployment benefits across countries...

Eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits, which require recipients to actively look for work, take up suitable job offers or take part in active labour market programmes (ALMPs), or risk benefit sanctions, can play an important role in...

Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland have been consistently the most favourable to immigration while eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic and Hungary have been the least favourable. Despite their relatively high...

Social protection systems use a range of entitlement criteria. First-tier support typically requires contributions or past employment in many countries, while safety net benefits are granted on the basis of need. In a context of volatile and...

This paper documents joblessness in OECD countries, provides a detailed diagnosis of structural employment barriers in Belgium, Korea and Norway by applying the OECD Faces of Joblessness methodology to the situation just before the COVID-19 crisis...

There is a wide consensus that workforce skills are an important determinant for economic growth. Alongside initial education, continuous education and training (hereafter referred to as CET) plays a key role in meeting these skill needs. This report...

The international landscape of vocational education and training (VET) is hugely diverse – and more diverse than most other sectors of education systems. There is wide variation across countries in how vocational programmes are organised and...

Looking at secondary schools, this paper analyses work-based learning (WBL) as an element of both general education and vocational programmes. The workplace is a powerful learning environment where technical skills can be learnt from expert...

This report provides evidence on income distribution and poverty in 27 OECD countries over the second half of the 1990s, using data that correct for many of the features that limit cross-country and intertemporal comparisons in this field. Patterns...

The paper is a survey of literature and statistical sources on poverty and inequality in Russia in the 1990s and the 2000s. It serves as a background to OECD (2011), the OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Review of the Russian Federation that was...

This survey summarises the insights that the new literature based on subjective data has shed on the issue of income inequality and income comparisons. It reviews the various channels that relate income distribution and subjective well-being. It...

This paper presents results from an on-going joint European Commission / OECD project, aimed at monitoring the direct influence of tax and benefit instruments on household incomes. The project uses and extends OECD tax-benefit models to compute a...

In most OECD countries, the structure of the pension system does not give much potential for individual choice. The Swiss pension system is a particularly interesting case in this respect. Switzerland relies heavily on privately-managed, fully-funded...

The creation of the Compte Personnel de Formation (CPF), an individualised financing scheme for professional training, marked an important step for the French professional training system. Implemented in 2015, it is the only example at the...

This report aims to outline the main trends in income distribution and poverty in Chile, as well as the role of social policy in these areas. The report includes five sections. First, it discusses recent trends in income inequality and poverty,...

There is little cross-country comparative evidence on the way labour market institutions shape gross job and worker flows, by and large because comparable data for many countries are scarce. By using a unique harmonised dataset on hirings and...

This study provides a framework to compare and classify the institutional set-up of active labour market policy (ALMP) provision across countries, which is a key determinant of how well ALMP systems can respond to changing labour market needs, e.g....

This report surveys the research in OECD countries on intergenerational mobility – i.e. the extent to which key characteristics and life experiences of individuals differ from those of their parents. A number of findings emerge: Intergenerational...

Increasing international mobility makes international comparable data even more important, to depict global migration patterns and its characteristics, not only in receiving countries but also in origin countries. This paper provides a detailed...

In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of international recruitment and movement of the highly skilled. Modern industries and services increasingly rely upon the acquisition, deployment and use of human expertise to...