Reports

This report reviews the effectiveness of carbon pricing, how it might be applied to the shipping sector and with what effects. It also evaluates recent proposals by countries to introduce a price on shipping’s carbon emissions and examines related policy issues.

This report assesses the linkages between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Slovak Republic. It provides policy recommendations to national and subnational governments on how to foster productivity and innovation spillovers from FDI to the local economy. The report looks at the quality of investment the country attracts, the absorptive capacity of Slovak SMEs, and a broad range of economic, business and policy conditions that can strengthen knowledge and technology diffusion from FDI to domestic SMEs. It also provides a diagnostic assessment of the core FDI-SME spillover diffusion channels, namely value chain linkages, strategic partnerships, labour mobility, and competition and imitation effects. The report provides an overview of the Slovak policy arrangements for promoting international investment, SME performance and innovation, and regional development. It does so by taking a close look at multi-level coordination, stakeholder consultation and impact evaluation. It then reviews the policy mix in support FDI-SME linkages and spillovers and proposes concrete areas for further policy reforms. The last chapter introduces a regional lens, focusing on the regions of Banská Bystrica and Košice. This report is part of a multi-year European Commission-OECD project on strengthening FDI-SME ecosystems and is the second pilot review for future country assessments.

Industrial policy is sparking renewed interest across OECD member countries and partner economies. However, amidst an increasing number of objectives for industrial policy, and despite the availability of information on countries’ strategies and plans, it remains difficult to properly measure and compare resources spent on industrial policies and identify countries’ strategic priorities. The lack of a cross-country comparable source of information on resources dedicated to industrial policy partly results from the absence of a common methodology to account for industrial policy expenditures. This paper provides a new methodology for reporting industrial policy expenditure in a comparable way across countries. It is the first deliverable of the 'Quantifying Industrial Strategies' project, which aims at measuring industrial policy expenditures across OECD countries and will gather harmonised data on industrial policy expenditures, their composition, and their mode of delivery.

Addressing the climate crisis requires the net zero transition of millions of SMEs globally. SMEs have a significant aggregate environmental footprint and need to adopt cleaner business models. As eco-entrepreneurs and eco-innovators, they also have a key role to play in devising innovative climate solutions. Access to finance is essential for SME investments in net zero, but small businesses face considerable challenges in tapping into the growing pool of sustainable finance. This challenge is likely to grow as financial institutions seek to comply with mandatory environmental reporting requirements. This policy paper examines the sustainable finance landscape for SMEs, the various actors in the ecosystem and the key drivers and barriers affecting the supply of and demand for sustainable finance. It provides an overview of the key policies and instruments in place to support SME access to sustainable finance and identifies considerations for future public support and policy making.

This report explores ways of making deliveries in cities less disruptive and more sustainable. How goods are distributed in urban environments profoundly affects metropolitan life. Urban freight flows impact cities’ economic vitality, their environmental footprint, the safety and efficiency of traffic and the ways public space is used. The report examines how new partnerships, innovative methods, the use of data and intelligent space allocation can ease the pressure on cities and their inhabitants by rapidly growing freight movements in urban areas. It also addresses whether solutions require new forms of data management, what new types of delivery vehicles might be required and how actors can co-ordinate more effectively.

Young people increasingly prioritise pursuing careers with positive social and environmental impacts. Social enterprises can help them fulfil this ambition. Youth-led social enterprises can address pressing social and environmental issues while providing young people with opportunities in the labour market. Despite these benefits, these entities often struggle due to the age of their founders and the specificities of their businesses. This paper analyses the drivers and potential benefits of youth-led social enterprises (section 1), assesses the challenges they face (section 2) and provides policy guidance to address them through tailored support programmes based on best practice examples and experiences from OECD countries and beyond (section 3).

For decades, governments have relied on space systems for intelligence gathering and satellite connectivity in remote areas, but today’s situation marks a distinct break with the past. Extended coverage, advances in digital technologies and, importantly, free and/or commercial availability of space products allow many new uses by both government and non-government actors. This brings important benefits for users and citizens, but also leads to new challenges in terms of data management, infrastructure and supply chain resilience, and international co-operation. This paper uses illustrations from the war in Ukraine to highlight recent developments in the sector, placing them in a broader context of digitalisation and government space investments. It discusses the growing importance of space technologies for society and provides policy options and resources from other strains of OECD work.