Browse by: "2024"

Digital government is essential to transform government processes and services in ways that improve the responsiveness and reliability of the public sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic it also proved crucial to governments' ability to continue operating in times of crisis and provide timely services to citizens and businesses. Yet, for the digital transformation to be sustainable in the long term, it needs solid foundations, including adaptable governance arrangements, reliable and resilient digital public infrastructure, and a prospective approach to governing with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. This paper presents the main findings of the 2023 edition of the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI), which benchmarks the efforts made by governments to establish the foundations necessary for a coherent, human-centred digital transformation of the public sector. It comprises 155 data points from 33 member countries, 4 accession countries and 1 partner country collected in 2022, covering the period between 01 January 2020 and 31 October 2022.

On the road to the 10th anniversary of the OECD Principles on Water Governance, the Handbook of What Works aims to further drive their implementation at sub-national level (e.g. municipal, regional and basin) through a compilation and analysis of evolving water governance practices. Building on a compendium of 52 water governance practices, the Handbook illustrates how cities, regions and basins in both OECD member and non-member countries have designed and implemented effective, efficient and inclusive water governance systems. It identifies common pitfalls to be avoided when designing and implementing water policies across levels of government, draws lessons from both successful and challenging implementations of each Principle and highlights the potential for replication of these practices to other contexts.

This paper discusses Thailand’s green growth policy framework with a focus on finding the right policy mix and institutional setup. Given that the economy is in a process of catching up with advanced economies, particular emphasis will need to be placed on making the green transition conducive to economic growth and further improvements in living standards. Implementing Thailand’s current pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and net zero emissions by 2065 will require substantial policy changes. While the expansion of natural gas use over the past years has helped Thailand to contain increases of carbon emissions, reversing the still rising emissions calls for a strong shift towards renewable energy sources. Thailand has already started these efforts. The use of biofuels has increased in road transport, and other renewable energy sources have also expanded. Investments into greener production technologies and a more responsible use of resources have received strong attention. However, most current initiatives are voluntary, which will not be sufficient to achieve the country’s climate goals. As Thailand is highly vulnerable to climate change risks, policies that promote adaptation to climate change will also play an important role.

This paper develops a novel classification of high-polluting occupations for a large sample of European countries. Unlike previous efforts in the literature, the classification exploits country-level data on air polluting emission intensity by industry. The country-level data allows to capture important cross-country differences, due to differences in technology and in production focus. Applying the new classification to European Labour Force Survey data shows that, on average across the countries covered, about 4% of workers are employed in high-polluting jobs, ranging from 9% in Czechia and the Slovak Republic to around 2% in Austria. These shares do not exhibit any clear decreasing trend over the past decade. High-polluting jobs are unequally distributed, being over-represented among men, workers with lower and medium educational attainment and those living in rural areas.

This paper presents a profile of the agency responsible for education evaluation and assessment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC). It draws on research conducted by the OECD as part of a three-year project to develop the technical capacity of ETEC and benchmark its policies and practices with those of similar agencies in OECD countries. The paper describes ETEC’s mission and structure; its remit, activities and instruments; and the resources it has to fulfil its mandate. In doing so, the paper traces the Commission’s trajectory from its establishment to the present day. It aims to be of interest to education policymakers and researchers in OECD and partner countries, providing information on both the Saudi education system and evaluation and assessment agencies internationally – topics that have received relatively little attention in education literature.

Mexico is well integrated into global value chains (GVCs). Its exports as a share of GDP have tripled since 1988. Mexico’s participation in GVCs is mainly driven by backward linkages, i.e. the share of foreign value added in Mexico’s total exports is large, which reflects Mexico’s importance in assembling processes in some manufacturing sectors. Conversely, forward participation, i.e. to what extent trading partners exports incorporate Mexico’s value added, remains low. Ongoing nearshoring trends provide opportunities to strengthen and improve Mexico’s participation in GVCs, and to move up in the value chain and develop stronger forward linkages, which are associated to higher productivity growth. This paper zooms into the most recent developments to assess whether Mexico is already benefiting from these trends. The empirical analysis suggests that Mexico’s wide trade agreements and low tariffs, will help, but improving the business environment and the rule of law, a better educated workforce, or increasing female labour participation would also facilitate deepening forward GVCs linkages.

Australia has committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and more recently outlined a more ambitious intermediate target for emission reductions by 2030. However, achieving these targets will be challenging given a historical reliance on coal generation and the presence of significant mining and agriculture sectors. It will require a rapid transformation of the electricity grid, significant emissions reductions in highly-polluting sectors such as industry and agriculture, and sufficient offsets generated by “negative emissions” technologies and practices to counterbalance any emissions that cannot be fully eliminated. At the same time, Australia is particularly vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate change, as the driest inhabited continent on the planet with the majority of the population living on the coasts. Further significant reforms are required to meet the emission reduction goals, support the reallocation of workers and adapt to climate change.

Japan faces serious demographic headwinds. Under current fertility, employment and immigration rates, the population would fall by 45% by 2100 and employment by 52%. Given the challenges of a shrinking and ageing population, the government has pledged to “create a children-first economic society and reverse the birth rate decline”. One priority is to strengthen the weak financial position of youth, which leads many to delay or forgo marriage and children. Making it easier to combine paid work and family is also critical so that women are not forced to choose between a career and children. Policies should also cut the cost of raising children, the key obstacle to couples achieving their desired number of children. Given the challenge of reversing fertility trends, Japan needs to prepare for a low-fertility future by raising productivity and employment, particularly among women and older people. Breaking down labour market dualism, which disproportionately affects youth, women and older people, is a priority. Abolishing the right of firms to set a mandatory retirement age (usually at 60) and raising the pension eligibility age would also promote employment. Foreign workers are helping ease labour shortages, but more needs to be done to attract foreign talent. A comprehensive approach is needed to raise fertility, the employment rates of women and older persons and inflows of foreign workers.

The pandemic has stimulated growing interest in using advanced practice nurses such as Nurse Practitioners (NPs) to address growing primary care needs linked to population ageing and more people living with chronic conditions, although not all countries are moving at the same speed. This OECD Health Working paper reviews recent developments in advance practice nursing (APN) in primary care in OECD countries. It focusses on NPs in those countries that are recognising this category of nurses, but also describes the emergence of other categories of nurses taking on new roles such as family and community nurses in some European countries. In those countries that have achieved decisive breakthroughs in new forms of task sharing between primary care doctors (GPs) and nurses, increasing the number of APNs in primary care is seen as a real opportunity to respond to primary care needs and reduce pressures on GPs and hospitals.

This working paper provides an overview of a standardised Employee Well-being Survey implemented in four companies in Japan. This survey aligns with international measurement guidelines and practices, including the 2017 OECD Guidelines on Measuring the Quality of the Working Environment, it has been developed under the guidance of the Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy, and it allows for the calculation at firm level of an equivalent of the Job Strain index, namely the third pillar of the OECD Job Quality framework. The objectives of the study were: i) to pilot the new Employee Well-being Survey at the firm level; ii) to demonstrate the potential of harmonised employee survey data as a source of information on business social performance, with associated benefits for companies, stakeholders, investors, governments and national statistical offices; and iii) to operationalise one element of a proposed framework on measuring non-financial performance of businesses.

Rising uncertainties and geo-political tensions, together with increasingly complex trade relations have increased the demand for monitoring global trade in a timely manner. Although it was primarily designed to ensure vessel safety, information from the Automatic Information System, which allows for the tracking of vessels across the globe, is particularly well suited for providing insights on port activity and maritime trade developments, which accounts for a large share of global trade. Data are available in quasi real time but need to be pre-processed and validated. This paper contributes to existing research in this field in two major ways. First, it proposes a new methodology to identify ports, at a higher level of granularity than in past research. Second, it builds indicators to monitor port congestion and trends in maritime trade flows and provides more granular information to better understand those flows. Those indicators will still need to be refined, by complementing the AIS database with additional data sources, but already provide a useful source of information to monitor trade, at the country and global levels.

Most workers who will be exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) will not require specialised AI skills (e.g. machine learning, natural language processing, etc.). Even so, AI will change the tasks these workers do, and the skills they require. This report provides first estimates for the effect of artificial intelligence on the demand for skills in jobs that do not require specialised AI skills. The results show that the skills most demanded in occupations highly exposed to AI are management and business skills. These include skills in general project management, finance, administration and clerical tasks. The results also show that there have been increases over time in the demand for these skills in occupations highly exposed to AI. For example, the share of vacancies in these occupations that demand at least one emotional, cognitive or digital skill has increased by 8 percentage points. However, using a panel of establishments (which induces plausibly exogenous variation in AI exposure), the report finds evidence that the demand for these skills is beginning to fall.

This paper discusses recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, which could positively impact many markets. While it is important that markets remain competitive to ensure their benefits are widely felt, the lifecycle for generative AI is still developing. This paper focuses on three stages: training foundation models, fine-tuning and deployment. It is too early to say how competition will develop in generative AI, but there appear to be some risks to competition that warrant attention, such as linkages across the generative AI value chain, including from existing markets, and potential barriers to accessing key inputs such as quality data and computing power. Several competition authorities and policy makers are taking actions to monitor market developments and may need to use the various advocacy and enforcement tools at their disposal. Furthermore, co-operation could play an important role in allowing authorities to efficiently maintain their knowledge and expertise.

This paper is part of a subset of working papers within the Environment Working Paper series, presenting research on the enabling environment for investment in water security. The subset includes country and regional projects aimed at pilot testing the Scorecard, designed to assess the enabling environment for investment in water security. The paper “Assessing the Enabling Conditions for Investment in Water Security: Scorecard Pilot Test in Asian Countries” delineates the findings from the initial phase. This paper marks the commencement of the second round of pilot tests in the EU’s Eastern Partnership Countries. It presents the results obtained from assessing the enabling environment for investment in water security in Armenia, using the Scorecard. It also presents policy recommendations based on the priority investment barriers identified during stakeholder consultations in the country, involving representatives from various Ministries engaged in water security and international donors. The assessment and recommendations cover the public investment framework and its impact on water-related sectors, the water investment framework, project bankability and sustainability, as well as the contribution of other economic sectors to water security.

This report outlines results from the initial pilot-testing of a Scorecard to assess the enabling environment for investment in water security, referred to as "the Scorecard”. Developed in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and partners, the Scorecard aims to identify conditions for attracting and maintaining investment in water security. The report outlines the Scorecard's rationale, scoring methodology, and presents its main components. It also provides results from seven Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka. Armenia's findings from a subsequent Eastern European pilot test are also incorporated. This is the first in a sub-set of working papers within the Environment Working Paper series presenting research on the enabling environment for investment in water security. It marks the beginning of a process to apply the tool and support policy reforms. The report refrains from offering policy recommendations, focusing on testing the scorecard's ability to assess conditions to attract and sustain investing in water security. For an illustration of country-specific policy recommendations, please refer to the forthcoming Environment Working Paper “Enabling environment for investment in water security: Pilot test in the EU’s Eastern Partner Countries - Armenia case study”.

Rural regions across the OECD depend on a wide range of economic engines for growth, as well as the quality of place to attract and retain people. Social innovation seeks new answers to social and environmental problems, using new solutions that improve the quality of life for individuals and communities. Social innovation can be a tool to create vibrancy in rural areas by filling public service gaps, experimenting with new business models, and creating a stronger sense of community. However, not all rural areas are equally equipped to engage in social innovation. This paper provides guidance for policy makers and proposes an approach alongside a dashboard of indicators for measuring readiness and capacity to engage with social innovation in rural areas.

This paper reviews a number of previous studies that have investigated how measure of non-cognitive skills predict important life outcomes such as educational attainment, employment, earnings, and self-reported health and life satisfaction. All reviewed studies analyse data from large-scale surveys from multiple countries and rely on the Big-Five framework to assess non-cognitive skills. The paper finds that measures of non-cognitive skills are robustly and consistently associated to indicators of life success in youth and adulthood, and have incremental predictive power over traditional measures of cognitive ability.