Publications

This report presents a comprehensive overview of recent and longer-term trends in productivity levels and growth in OECD countries, accession countries, key partners and some G20 countries. It includes measures of labour productivity, capital productivity and multifactor productivity, as well as indicators of international competitiveness. A special chapter analyses how productivity and wages have evolved in the post-crisis period, while describing the major challenges in measuring the wage-productivity gap and the labour income share.

Ce rapport explore les perspectives de croissance de l'économie de la mer, sa capacité à créer de l'emploi dans le futur et son rôle dans la gestion des défis mondiaux. Une attention particulière est accordée aux industries émergentes liées à la mer compte tenu de leur potentiel de croissance et d'innovation, et de leur contribution à résoudre les questions de sécurité énergétique, d'environnement, du changement climatique et de la sécurité alimentaire.Le rapport examine les risques et les incertitudes concernant le développement futur des industries liées à la mer, les innovations requises en science et technologie pour soutenir leur progression, leur contribution potentielle à la croissance verte et certaines implications pour la gestion des océans. Enfin, en examinant l'économie de la mer dans son ensemble, la publication explore les possibilités d'action susceptibles de stimuler les perspectives de développement à long terme, tout en gérant l'utilisation de la mer de manière responsable et durable.

Amsterdam is a dynamic and growing metropolitan area that faces significant land-use pressures. Renowned for its tradition of collaborative planning, the city and its metropolitan partners must adapt to new conditions. Ongoing population growth is creating demand for housing and commercial space, and the new National Environment and Planning Act is challenging planners to adopt more flexible, responsive and integrated land-use management practices. This study examines the social, economic and environmental conditions affecting the area’s spatial development as well as the plans, policies and institutions that govern how land is used. The study offers recommendations on how the city and its metropolitan partners can best respond to emerging challenges and meet their ambitious goals for sustainable and inclusive spatial development.

SMEs and entrepreneurs play a key role in national economies around the world, generating employment and income, contributing to innovation and knowledge diffusion, responding to new or niched demands and social needs, and enhancing social inclusion. However, SMEs are often more affected by business environment conditions and structural policies than larger firms.This report presents comparative evidence on SME performance and trends, and on a broad range of policy areas and business environment conditions that are important for small businesses. The analysis takes into account the multi-dimensionality of SME policy objectives and the significant heterogeneity of the SME population, within and across countries. Data and indicators on framework conditions are complemented with information on recent policy trends in OECD countries. This publication addresses a growing demand by governments for tools to monitor the business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, and benchmark the effectiveness of policies in creating appropriate conditions for them to flourish and grow.

Cities are crucial for national economic, social and environmental performance. A national urban policy (NUP) has been recognised by the international community as an important instrument for harnessing urbanisation to achieve national and global goals. This report, prepared for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), provides an assessment of the state and scope of NUPs across 35 OECD countries. It also describes how urban policy, and its place in national political agendas, is evolving.This publication has been prepared for the Habitat III conference and builds on existing United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) methodology. It is inspired by the joint work of UN-Habitat and the OECD following their co-leadership of Policy Unit 3 on National Urban Policies during the preparations for the New Urban Agenda. The findings of this report will contribute to the global monitoring process of National Urban Policy, as will the Global Report on National Urban Policy, jointly produced by UN Habitat and the OECD.

This report provides an overview of 'multi-level governance' reforms in OECD countries. It looks at institutional reforms, which reorganise powers, responsibilities and resources across levels of government, as well as territorial reforms, which address territorial structures, often modifying regional and local government administrative areas. The report describes the rationale for different reforms, their characteristics and outcomes, as well as the obstacles faced by governments in designing and implementing them. The success - and failure - of past reforms provide useful lessons that can be applied to future reform efforts. The report includes five case studies that take an in-depth look at countries that have undertaken considerable multi-level governance reforms: Finland, France, Italy, Japan and New Zealand.

Skills represent a key driver of development and growth in the Philippines. Educational attainment of the Filipino population has steadily increased in recent decades, but while the country is regionally successful within Southeast Asia, it has yet to reach the standards of more developed countries. This OECD report looks at the implementation of employment and skills development programmes in a sample of cities in the Philippines: Taguig City, Cebu City, and Davao City. Local governments in the Philippines have an active role in the management of employment and skills programmes through Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs). These offices are responsible for the implementation of a number of nationally regulated policies and programmes. All three cities are making a number of investments to better link people to jobs, develop a skilled workforce and attract new investment.

Public procurement is a critical element of sound governance and countries implement diverse tools and strategies to increase its efficiency and cost effectiveness. Framework agreements, in particular, aggregating public demand and streamlining procurement processes are increasingly used by central purchasing bodies in OECD countries. This report examines the use of framework agreements and their developments in Chile, benchmarked against the practices in other OECD countries. Implementation of framework agreements in Chile have provided business opportunities to a growing number of suppliers and a wide variety of goods and services to public entities. Yet, the steady increase of the number of suppliers and contract management activities now question the sustainability and the effeciency of the system. This report analyses different policy options that ChileCompra could consider and suggests ways to streamline processes, improve the effectiveness of the system and increase efficiencies while promoting inclusiveness.

Dans son effort d’asseoir les bases d’une meilleure gouvernance publique, d’optimiser la dépense publique et d’accroître l’efficacité de l’action publique, la Tunisie s’est lancée dans la réforme de sa gouvernance budgétaire et du management de ses finances publiques depuis 2004. Cet examen évalue l’état d’avancement de cette réforme. Il examine le droit budgétaire à la lumière des dispositions de la nouvelle constitution et des recommandations de l’OCDE sur la gouvernance budgétaire. Il analyse la préparation, l’examen et le vote de la loi de finances en mettant l’accent sur le rôle de l’Assemblée des représentants du peuple. Cet examen présente aussi une évaluation de la procédure actuelle d’exécution de la dépense publique, des outils de suivi et d’évaluation, de la performance du système d’information budgétaire et comptable ainsi que des contrôles administratifs externes et du contrôle juridictionnel de la Cour des comptes.

Over the past ten years economic growth in Asia has contributed to a reduction of poverty as well as fertility rates, and greater prosperity has contributed to gains in life expectancy. However, at present many workers still work in informal employment, frequently for long hours at little pay and without social protection coverage. A growing demand for social support, extending the coverage of social protection benefits and improving the job quality of workers will be among Asia’s major challenges in future. This report considers these challenges, providing policy examples from countries to illustrate good practice, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Viet Nam.