Publications

Having been hit hard by the global crisis, the Portuguese government has taken action to put its economy back on track, and to correct external and budgetary imbalances. Public finances have strengthened, and the current account deficit has closed on the back of gains in competitiveness and improvements in export performance. Portugal has also been able to reduce income inequality and relative poverty, a major accomplishment during a severe crisis with record levels of unemployment. As Portugal successfully exits the EU-IMF-ECB-supported programme and emerges from recession, it is more important than ever to build on these achievements.At the request of the Portuguese authorities, the OECD has carried out an assessment of the impact of the reforms implemented to date on the economy’s longer-term growth outlook. The analysis is based on OECD indicators of the restrictiveness of Product Market Regulation (PMR) and the strictness of Employment Protection Legislation (EPL). It updates the OECD report Portugal: Reforming the State to Promote Growth, published in 2013.According to the OECD’s Going for Growth exercise, Portugal is among the OECD countries with the best recent track record of responsiveness to structural reform recommendations. The reforms undertaken since 2009 to promote competition in product markets and enhance the dynamism of the labour market are expected to raise productivity and potential GDP by at least 3.5% by 2020.

Despite the enormous burden that mental ill-health imposes on individuals, their families, society, health systems and the economy, mental health care remains a neglected area of health policy in too many countries. Mental disorders represent a considerable disease burden, and have a significant impact on the lives of the OECD population, and account for considerable direct and indirect costs. This report argues that even in those OECD countries with a long history of deinstitutionalisation, there is still a long way to go to make community-based mental health care that achieves good outcomes for people with severe mental illness a reality. The disproportionate focus on severe mental illness has meant that mild-to-moderate mental illnesses, which makes up the largest burden of disease, have remained overwhelmingly neglected. This book addresses the high cost of mental illness, weaknesses and innovative developments in the organisation of care, changes and future directions for the mental health workforce, the need to develop better indicators for mental health care and quality, and tools for better governance of the mental health system. The high burden of mental ill health and the accompanying costs in terms of reduced quality of life, loss of productivity, and premature mortality, mean that making mental health count for all OECD countries is a priority.

Until the mid-1990s, the share of migrants in Italy was relatively low in international comparison. With a persistent demand for foreign workers in low-skilled and low-paid jobs, the proximity of conflict areas and the enlargement of the European Union to Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, migration to Italy increased rapidly over the last 15 years. This report presents an overview of the skills and qualifications of immigrants in Italy, their key labour market outcomes in international comparison, and their evolution over time, given the highly segmented Italian labour market and its high share of informal jobs.It analyses the framework for integration and the main integration policy instruments. Special attention is paid to funding issues and to the distribution of competences between national and sub-national actors. Finally, this report reviews the integration at school and the school-to-work transition of the children of immigrants

This brochure is published within the framework of the Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and Vegetables established by OECD in 1962. It comprises explanatory notes and illustrations to facilitate the uniform interpretation of the current melons standard. This new brochure illustrates the standard text and demonstrates the quality parameters on high quality photographs. Thus, it is a valuable tool for the inspection authorities, professional bodies and traders interested in international trade in melons. The electronic version of this brochure is available on the OECD website.

This review offers a comprehensive assessment of the innovation system of Colombia, focusing on the role of government. It provides concrete recommendations on how to improve policies that affect innovation performance, including R&D policies and identifies good practices from which other countries can learn.The Overall assessment and recommendations is also available in French and Spanish.

L’eau est le principal vecteur par lequel les effets du changement climatique se feront sentir, et la clé de la réussite des stratégies d’adaptation. Ce rapport propose des orientations aux responsables de l’action gouvernementale pour les aider à élaborer des mesures davantage en phase avec les priorités, répondant mieux aux besoins du moment, plus efficientes et plus équitables. Il décrit une approche de l’adaptation au changement climatique fondée sur les risques et promouvant la sécurité de l’eau. Il détaille également les principales tendances et présente les pratiques optimales mises en lumière par l’enquête sur les politiques relatives à l’eau et à l’adaptation au changement climatique, que l’OCDE a menée auprès de ses 34 pays membres et de la Commission européenne. Cette enquête est la première de ce type à analyser de façon systématique les enjeux du changement climatique pour les ressources en eau douce et les nouvelles réponses qu’y apportent les pouvoirs publics dans les pays de l’OCDE. Pour finir, le rapport évalue comment améliorer les incitations à gérer les risques liés à l’eau et comment rendre plus flexibles les politiques de l’eau et les stratégies de financement. 

This book presents a comprehensive review of health care quality in the Czech Republic. It finds that over the past 20 years, the Czech Republic witnessed the unprecedented gains in quality of health care and life expectancy and successfully transferred its Semaschko system into the modern accessible health care system with private-public mix of providers. Nevertheless the health care system in the Czech Republic still has some way to go to achieve the outcomes of the best performing OECD members. While some of the gap might be caused by the one of the lowest levels of health care expenditures among OECD countries (7.2% GDP in 2011) there are possibilities to improve the outcomes without incurring much of the additional costs.The Czech authorities should reach a consensus on the development of quality of care and data infrastructure and aim for sustainable long-term initiatives undisturbed by the political cycles in both of these areas. While the adverse events reporting and voluntary accreditation are the good steps towards the accountability of the providers, the government should do more in this area, undertake the effort to broaden the accreditation process and include outpatient care and link public health authorities to the quality agenda of inpatient care. In the area of data infrastructure more data should be gathered, the process of data gathering should be streamlined and administrative burden for the providers lowered primarily via the merging the data-collecting agencies. Finally, without the active participation of health insurance funds and proper reimbursement mechanisms in place the quality agenda will not be perceived as the priority.

L’Enquête internationale sur l’enseignement et l’apprentissage (TALIS) de l’OCDE est une enquête internationale à grande échelle portant sur les conditions de travail des enseignants et l’environnement d’apprentissage dans leurs établissements. Le Guide TALIS à l’intention des enseignants aide les enseignants et les chefs d’établissements à comprendre les résultats de l’enquête, tout en leur suggérant des possibilités de mesures pour améliorer l’enseignement et l’apprentissage au sein de leurs établissements.

Ce manuel s’appuie sur les travaux que l’OCDE conduit depuis dix ans pour mettre en évidence les problèmes auxquels la pêche est confrontée, ainsi que des solutions concrètes. Il montre qu’il est possible d’accroître les profits des pêcheurs et la durabilité des ressources océaniques que nous avons en partage en faisant confiance aux mécanismes du marché, en définissant des objectifs clairs et en recourant à des processus rigoureux pour élaborer les politiques. Il sera utile aux spécialistes de l’action publique, aux organisations de la société civile et à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à la pêche et à la santé de nos océans.

The OECD Green Growth Strategy supports countries in fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which well-being relies. Policies that promote green growth need to be founded on a good understanding of the determinants of green growth and need to be supported with appropriate indicators to monitor progress and gauge results.This book updates the 2011 Towards Green Growth: Monitoring progress. It presents the OECD framework for monitoring progress towards green growth and a selection of updated indicators that illustrate the progress that OECD countries have made since the 1990s.