Publications

Japan is embarked on a demographic transition without precedent in human history: the population is both declining and ageing rapidly. This raises important questions about the country's future economic geography, as public policies will need both to respond to these shifts and also to shape them. Demographic change will have particularly important implications for the settlement pattern of the country, and this, in turn, will affect Japan's ability to sustain economic growth and the well-being of its citizens. This Review therefore focuses on the spatial implications of demographic change and the response of spatial policies to it, particularly as these interact with other policies aimed at sustaining the productivity growth that a 'super-ageing' Japan will need in order to maintain its future prosperity. The Japanese authorities have recently put in place a complex package of long-term spatial and structural policies aimed at meeting this challenge. Their experience should be of first-order interest to other OECD countries, as most face the prospect of rapid population ageing and many are also projected to experience significant population decline over the coming decades.

À ce jour, l’une des principales difficultés rencontrées par les administrations fiscales à travers le monde est l’absence d’accès en temps voulu à des informations complètes et pertinentes sur les stratégies de planification fiscale agressive. Les régimes de communication obligatoire d’informations peuvent permettre aux pays de réagir rapidement face aux risques fiscaux en offrant un accès en temps opportun à de telles informations. Ce rapport passe en revue les régimes de communication obligatoire d’informations à partir de l’expérience de pays qui en sont dotés, et formule des recommandations en vue d’établir un cadre modulaire à l’intention des pays qui souhaitent mettre en œuvre un régime de communication obligatoire d’informations permettant d’obtenir très tôt des renseignements sur les stratégies de planification fiscale à caractère potentiellement agressif ou abusif et sur leurs utilisateurs. Les recommandations offrent la latitude nécessaire pour trouver un juste équilibre entre la nécessité pour l’administration fiscale d’obtenir, en temps utile, des renseignements de meilleure qualité et les contraintes de respect des règles pour les contribuables. Le rapport énonce en outre des recommandations spécifiques portant sur les règles qui ciblent les dispositifs fiscaux internationaux et visant à concevoir et mettre en place une coopération et des échanges de renseignements plus efficaces entre administrations fiscales.

This innovative book combines results from research conducted in Colombia about how communications services consumers make consumption choices with OECD expertise in regulatory policy, behavioural economics, and data analytics, in order to help improve the consumer protection regime in Colombia. It focuses on the types of incentives that should be provided to change both provider and user behaviour, and considers where appropriate regulatory interventions may be needed to ensure that these incentives are realised. This work supports the Communications Regulator of Colombia in redesigning its consumer protection regime. This effort has refocused the regulatory framework from 'protecting rights' towards making the market function best; this involves encouraging the providers to improve the quality of their services and rates offered in the market and to foster a better understanding of what is being offered and how. The book also makes specific recommendations on possible follow-up experiments to test some of the possible solutions to help communications services consumers better understand the information provided by service operators.

Regulators operate in a complex, high-risk environment at the interface between the public and the private sectors. They often share some responsibilities for the sectors and industries they regulate with other public institutions. And yet, if the lights go out, tap water stop running, trains break down or phones stop working, they are often held to account. In this challenging environment, the governance of regulators is critical. The role of the regulator and how it co-ordinates with other public institutions, the powers it is given and how it is held accountable for exercising these powers are key elements of a governance architecture that needs to be carefully crafted and appropriately implemented if the regulator is to succeed in combining effective regulation with a high level of trust. This report looks at the way in which four regulators – the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), Portugal’s Water and Waste Services Regulation Authority (ERSAR) and the UK Office of Rail and Road (ORR) – have addressed these governance challenges. The report identifies approaches to implement accountability, transparency and co-ordination and helps identify some lessons that can help guide how these principles can be translated into practice.

Digitalisation, globalisation, demographic shifts and other changes in work organisation are constantly reshaping skill needs. This can lead to persistent skill shortages and mismatch which are costly for individuals, firms and society in terms of lost wages and lower productivity and growth. These costs can be reduced through better assessment and anticipation of changing skill needs and by improving the responsiveness of skills development to these changes.
This report identifies effective strategies for improving labour market information on skill needs and ensuring that this information is used effectively to develop the right skills. It provides a comparative assessment of practices across 29 countries in the following areas: i) the collection of information on existing and future skill needs; ii) the use of this information to guide skill development policies in the areas of labour, education and migration; and iii) governance arrangements to ensure good co-ordination among the key stakeholders in the collection and use of skill needs information. 

Le secteur des minerais offre de belles perspectives économiques. Il génère des revenus, crée de l’emploi et nourrit le développement local. Malheureusement, une bonne part des exploitations minières se situent dans des zones de conflit ou à haut risque, et sont souvent impliquées, directement ou indirectement, dans des conflits armés ou des violations de droits humains, entravant le progrès social et la croissance économique. Le Guide OCDE sur le devoir de diligence pour des chaînes d’approvisionnement responsables en minerais provenant de zones de conflit adresse aux entreprises du secteur des minerais des recommandations pratiques, visées par les pouvoirs publics, pour les aider à adopter des pratiques responsables, à respecter les droits humains et à rompre tout lien avec d’éventuels conflits. Le Guide OCDE sur les minerais concerne toute entreprise susceptible d’exploiter tout type de minerais ou de métaux dans des zones de conflit ou à haut risque, et a pour objectif d’améliorer la transparence des chaînes d’approvisionnement et d’assurer un engagement durable des entreprises dans le secteur des minerais.

Job displacement (involuntary job loss due to firm closure or downsizing) affects many workers over their lifetime. Displaced workers may face long periods of unemployment and, even when they find new jobs, tend to be paid less and have fewer benefits than in their prior jobs. Helping them get back into good jobs quickly should be a key goal of labour market policy. This report is the fourth in a series of reports looking at how this challenge is being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It shows that many displaced workers get new jobs relatively quickly in Australia, mostly thanks to a flexible and dynamic labour market. A small minority of displaced workers receive special support via the labour adjustment programmes, but some displaced workers who would need specific assistance, in particular in the older worker and/or low-educated groups, do not get sufficient support or only too late. There is room to improve policies by moving away from the current sectoral approach to special assistance programmes for workers collectively dismissed, towards an approach covering all sectors of the economy, with the intensity of intervention tailored to the circumstances and needs of the displaced workers. Expanding the training component for displaced workers and making use of skills assessment and training to better target the training and enhance its effectiveness would also help displaced workers transition to sustainable jobs of a certain quality.

The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time.
This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.

Le changement climatique devrait augmenter la probabilité et l’ampleur des risques climatiques extrêmes, notamment les sécheresses et les inondations, auxquels le secteur agricole est tout particulièrement exposé. Même si les gains de productivité dans l’agriculture et l’évolution des politiques ont permis d’améliorer la gestion de ces risques en réduisant leurs impacts sur le secteur et les marchés agricoles, il n’en reste pas moins des marges de manœuvre significatives pour améliorer et coordonner les politiques en matière d’allocation et de droits d’usage de l’eau, de systèmes d’informations météorologiques et hydrologiques, d’innovation et de formation, d’assurance et d’indemnisation. Les risques de sécheresses et d’inondations constitueront sans aucun doute un enjeu majeur de politique publique, dès lors que l’augmentation de la demande de produits agricoles (aliments, fibres et énergie), la compétition croissante pour l’usage de l’eau et l’urbanisation accentueront les besoins de prévention et d’atténuation des risques, soulevant la question de leurs répartitions sectorielle et géographique.  

Ce rapport examine les pratiques de gestion des exploitations propices à la croissance verte, aussi bien les innovations menées par les agriculteurs (comme celles qui sont liées aux sols et à l’eau, la lutte intégrée contre les ennemis des cultures, l’agriculture biologique) que les technologies axées sur la science (comme les biotechnologies et l’agriculture de précision). La demande alimentaire mondiale pourra être satisfaite de façon durable uniquement si de nouvelles formes de production agricole et des technologies innovatrices peuvent être découvertes pour augmenter la productivité, la stabilité et la résilience des systèmes de production en ayant non seulement pour objectif d’augmenter les rendements mais aussi d’économiser l’eau et l’énergie, réduire les risques, améliorer la qualité des produits, protéger l’environnement et atténuer le changement climatique.