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The upsurge in children’s screen time has sparked concerns about its impact on children’s learning, development, and well-being. Three-quarters of students in OECD countries spend more than one hour per weekday browsing social networks and nearly one in three students gets distracted by using digital devices in class. How to protect and equip students to navigate digital environments? This PISA in Focus explores why students rely on devices and how their digital device use relates to their mathematics performance, sense of belonging at school, and how much they become distracted. It highlights the role of education policies that improve students’ digital skills and behaviours and prepare teachers to teach with technology in protecting students from digital distractions at school and beyond, and building their ability to navigate digital environments.

Competition authorities have already acquired significant knowledge about the concept of market power and dominance as well as practical experience when assessing anticompetitive practices. However, the introduction of potential new concepts, such as economic moats and entrenchment, may complicate this analysis and further blur the lines between lawful and unlawful practices. This paper discusses the relation between economic moats and entrenchment with market power and calls for further reflections among competition authorities and practitioners on the challenges these concepts may pose. It explores several possible options, including incentivising the use of investigative and analytical techniques, as well as strengthening regulatory tools.

This paper examines the interactions between the 2020-23 Sahelian coups and the trajectories of jihadism and insecurity, covering three countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. First, it examines pre-coup trends in violence. Second, the paper finds that coup-makers’ policy choices have accelerated the worsening of violence beyond the pre-coup baseline trend, especially when coup-makers authorise new actors to commit violence, although trends in violence remain somewhat erratic and are even more complex at the sub-national level. Third, it offers an ambivalent finding on the impact of the withdrawal of the French Operation Barkhane following Mali’s second coup in 2021. Finally, the paper discusses the apparent strategies of the region’s two main jihadist groups, which have largely continued their pre-coup strategies, but have also responded to new conflict actors and pursued certain opportunities for increased territorial influence.

Global trade in plastic waste and scrap declined further (2017-2022) in 2022. The combined trade surplus of OECD Member Countries (i.e. the difference between exports and imports) continued to decrease. Less plastic waste and scrap is being exported by OECD countries to non-OECD countries, however some countries still export substantial volumes to non-OECD countries. Particularly several non-OECD south-east Asian countries remain large export destinations. Trade between OECD countries has increased. The value and composition of plastic waste and scrap exports in 2021 suggests that more high value and easy to recycle plastic waste was traded. Some volume of plastics waste is likely transformed into a “fuel” via mechanical and chemical processing and subsequently shipped as Processed Engineered Fuel (PEF) or Refuse-Derived Fuels (RDF), broadly categorised under HS 3825. There was an increase in this trade mostly between OECD countries in 2021. The trade regime remains dynamic with new export destinations emerging, which deserve further monitoring.

This paper provides two innovative measures of well-being for French communes, namely a well-being aggregate index and an index of multi-dimensional poverty. These measures provide an unprecedented view of well-being at the local level by using 7 of the 11 key dimensions of the OECD Better Life Initiative (income, unemployment, housing, education, civic engagement, health and environmental quality). The results show that joint deprivation in at least five dimensions of well-being is starkly concentrated among 316 communes, representing as many as 5.2 million inhabitants (7.7% of the French population).

Existing well-being measurement initiatives in the region, such as the Quality of Life Indicators in Korea, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index and Quality of Life Index in the Philippines, shed some insight on dimensions that should be considered for measuring well-being beyond GDP in Asia. Dimensions of housing, health, education, environment and civic engagement recur across several Asian well-being measurement frameworks, as well as dimensions such as family and culture which are more characteristic of the region. Identifying vulnerable population groups and securing better evidence on social mobility are also necessary to better measure progress in the region. Going forward, it would be helpful for countries to exchange knowledge on how well-being data available can be used for policy making in a more concrete way, for example, by including it in national development plans or budgeting processes.

This paper conducts an in-depth mapping of global value chain (GVC) vulnerabilities, using granular product-level trade data to identify vulnerable products with limited suppliers and substitutability. The study reveals that, in OECD countries, approximately 8% of foreign-sourced intermediate products are vulnerable, with about 50 products identified as highly vulnerable, particularly in the pharmaceutical, mining, and manufacturing sectors. The paper also introduces a quantitative framework for simulating supply shock transmission from upstream suppliers to downstream industries over the short and medium term. This framework leverages unique data that combine Inter-Country Input-Output with detailed product-level trade data from Comtrade. Through simulation exercises, the paper highlights the role of supplier concentration and geography in shock transmissions, as well as the effectiveness of policies in mitigating these impacts. This novel cross-country assessment of GVC disruptions provides new insights on how to manage supply chains in a global economy subject to multiple risks.

Due to various technical and methodological challenges, PISA has to date offered only limited accommodations for students with special education needs (SEN). As a result, some students are currently excluded from the PISA target population at the sampling stage, and in some countries, exclusion rates are growing as more and more students are recognized as having disabilities that require testing accommodations. This practice in PISA contrasts with testing standards in many countries which call for the inclusion of students with SEN in order to give every student the right to demonstrate their skills and to generate information that represents all students. In order to take stock of the situation in terms of exclusions from PISA and accommodations already offered in national evaluations, we conducted a survey of PISA-participating countries and economies. This paper presents results from this survey and reviews the literature on effective accommodations in order to identify the priority needs to address in PISA, as well as promising accommodations that PISA could integrate to support these needs.

Thanks to the large investment of official data producers in OECD countries, measures of subjective well-being have become increasingly robust and meaningful from a policy perspective. In the ten years since the OECD published its Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being, the inclusion of subjective well-being indicators in national measurement frameworks and household surveys has grown. Country practice has converged around a standard measure of life satisfaction, however affective and eudaimonic measures of subjective well-being remain less harmonised. This policy insights, along with its accompanying working paper, identify priority areas for future OECD work by marrying the practical concerns of data collectors with good practice as identified by the academic literature.

With a far greater share of the student cohort progressing into upper secondary education than previous generations, modern upper secondary systems need to accommodate a wider variety of student interests, aspirations and learning levels. To respond to these needs, countries need to balance choice and specialisation to promote coherence. Systems that provide too much choice or specialisation risk hindering coherence, while those with too little choice or specialisation risk that upper secondary does not enable students to identify their interests and deepen their skills in those areas, which is essential for smooth transitions into post-secondary pathways and the labour market. This Education Spotlight provides a framework for countries to consider how far their current system supports the goals of choice, specialisation and coherence and provides examples from across OECD countries as inspiration for future reforms.

Despite the ambitious carbon reduction targets set by policy makers worldwide, current investments fall well short of the net-zero emissions scenario. This paper analyses the factors holding back corporate green investment, with a particular focus on the role of firm capacity – specifically financing constraints and weak green management practices – and its interaction with environmental policy. Combining a variety of econometric techniques, including panel data models, difference-in-differences settings and instrumental variable approaches, our cross-country analysis on large listed companies shows that: i) both financing constraints and a lack of green managerial capacity reduce firms’ probability of investing in green technologies, leading to higher emission intensity; ii) well-designed environmental policies can mitigate these impacts. A case study using more granular data on Portuguese firms further shows that: iii) green investment is more elastic to financing conditions than other types of investment; iv) investment in integrated technologies is more sensitive to financing conditions and to managerial capacity compared to end-of-pipe solutions. Lastly, the paper discusses a wide range of policy options that may be considered to foster the green transition through upgrading firms’ capacity.

This paper provides evidence on the impact of international migrants on regional innovation. The study combines administrative individual-level data covering all Australian residents with data on intellectual property rights applications such as patents, trademarks, and design rights. The analysis uses a standard shift-share instrument based on past migrant settlements to identify the causal effects of migration on innovation. Its four main findings are the following: First, on average, a one percentage point increase in the regional employment share of higher-educated migrants relative to total employment leads to a 4.8% rise in regional patent applications in the medium run (five years). Second, while migrants of all skill and education levels have a positive impact on patenting, those in scientific occupations have the largest effect. Third, regions with lower levels of patenting benefit relatively more from increases in migration compared to those with higher patenting levels. Fourth, there is no effect of migration on trademarks or design rights applications.

This paper, based on preliminary results of the 2023 OECD SBO Survey on Budget Frameworks, takes stock of OECD countries’ practices in top-down and medium-term budgeting. It shows that OECD countries’ fiscal frameworks can be characterised by strong reliance on multiple fiscal rules or objectives for enforcing fiscal discipline, with medium-term and top-down budgeting not used yet to their full potential in some countries. Drawing on the OECD Spending Better Framework, this paper advises that countries that wish to strengthen their fiscal frameworks reinforce the processes and institutions that underpin effective medium-term and top-down budgeting systems. Central to this is producing and publishing more regularly baseline projections of government expenditures and setting credible multi-year expenditure ceilings that serve as stringent guidelines for budget planning, while also allowing for some degree of flexibility under clearly defined conditions.

Este relatório resume os resultados do trabalho de colaboração entre a OCDE e o PlanAPP, o Centro de Competências em Planeamento, Políticas e Prospetiva da Administração Pública em Portugal. Apresenta as principais conclusões e recomendações do projeto em quatro áreas estratégicas para o país: i) políticas públicas informadas por evidências e confiança nas instituições públicas, ii) avaliação das políticas públicas, iii) prospetiva e iv) planeamento estratégico.

This case study assesses the strategies of the Museum of Lisbon as well as the related policies of Lisbon City Council to support local development. Through its five branches located across the city and its diverse partnerships with local stakeholders, the Museum of Lisbon has cemented its role as a community anchor institution. This case study focuses on the five dimensions featured in the OECD-ICOM Guide for Local Governments, Communities and Museums, namely the role of museums in: i) economic development, ii) urban regeneration, iii) education and creativity, iv) inclusion, health and well-being, and on iv) ways to mainstream the role of museums in local development.

This paper examines the contribution of international migrants to regional differences in labour productivity in Australia. The study relies on individual-level administrative wage data from 2011 to 2018. It finds that a region with a 10% larger migrant share has, on average, a 1.3% larger regional wage difference, which indicates a positive link between migration and labour productivity. The presence of migrants benefits native workers with different skill levels residing in all types of regions. The positive effects of migrants are even more pronounced for higher-skilled migrants. Concretely, a region with a 10% larger share of higher-skilled migrants has, on average, a 1% higher regional productivity difference. However, these additional benefits mainly accrue to more productive regions and those with higher migrant shares than the median region.

Die Ems-Achse, eine ländliche Region im Nordwesten Deutschlands, kann auf ein Jahrzehnt des Wirtschaftswachstums zurückblicken. Mit dem Wachstum hat sich jedoch der Arbeitskräftemangel in der Region verschärft, insbesondere aufgrund einer alternden Bevölkerung und der Abwanderung junger Menschen. Viele regionale Akteur*innen haben das Potenzial von Telearbeit erkannt und wollen nun ausloten, inwieweit sich dem Arbeitskräftemangel mit Telearbeit begegnen lässt, und ein breiteres Spektrum qualifizierter Personen angelockt werden kann. Dieses Policy Paper untersucht drei Kernaspekte: Das Potenzial von Telearbeit, 1.) Menschen zu aktivieren, die derzeit nicht auf Stellensuche sind; 2.) den Talentpool auf umliegende Gebiete auszuweiten; und 3.) Arbeitskräfte aus Ballungsgebieten oder aus dem Ausland anzuwerben. Um Telearbeit erfolgreich zu machen, sollte die Region das Hochgeschwindigkeitsinternet ausbauen, für eine Kultur der Flexibilität in der Teamführung sorgen und digitale Kompetenzen fördern. Um die Ems-Achse als attraktiven Standort für Telearbeiter zu etablieren, ist es zudem wichtig, die Möglichkeiten für höhere Bildung zu verbessern, öffentliche Verkehrsangebote auszubauen und den Zugang für internationale Arbeitskräfte zum regionalen Arbeitsmarkt zu verbessern.

This paper provides a snapshot of the development of renewable energies in the European Union Outermost Regions (EU ORs), focusing on their potential to contribute to the green transition while creating sustainable economic development opportunities. It reviews the policy frameworks and tools in place in EU ORs with respect to renewable energies, and provides specific policy recommendations. The paper is developed within the framework of the EU-OECD project on Global Outermost Regions.