Reports

The Government of Australia has made improving gender equality one of its core priorities, recognising the potential social and economic benefits that it can bring. This OECD Review assists Australia in embedding gender considerations in policy and budget decisions. It draws upon best practices across OECD countries and sets out a series of actions to enable the federal government to strengthen gender impact assessments and gender budgeting. This will help target government policy and resources towards better and fairer social and economic outcomes.

Thailand has achieved remarkable economic progress over the past decades. A strong and timely policy response helped to cushion the economic and social impact of the pandemic, and of high energy and food prices. While bold fiscal support prevented the economy from falling into a recession, public debt has risen and fiscal consolidation should now continue at a gradual pace. Rising social demands, population ageing and the green transition will likely add to public spending pressures and call for raising additional tax revenues. Boosting productivity and mastering the transition towards more sustainable and inclusive growth will require stepping up delayed structural reforms. Competition remains limited across several sectors, likely related to market entry barriers and high regulatory burdens. More than half of workers lack formal employment and social security does not cover most of them. Social pensions provide a minimum income floor for elderly people, and raising them could allow significant inroads in the fight against poverty and inequality. Meeting climate pledges will require bold and well-organised reforms. Renewable power generation has advanced, but the overall share of renewable energy sources remains lower than in peer countries. SPECIAL FEATURES: BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY; INCLUSIVE RECOVERY; GREEN GROWTH

Sweden is among OECD best performers in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, much thanks to a comprehensive policy framework and relatively efficient policies. There is nonetheless room to further improve consistency of targets and policies, notably for transport, agriculture and carbon removals. Sweden’s long record as a climate frontrunner is also threatened by policy changes moving the 2030 reduction target out of reach unless compensated by new ambitious measures. A green industrial revolution is gaining momentum in Sweden’s north, fuelled by an abundant supply of clean electricity. Considerable investments in electricity generation, storage and transmission are needed, but long planning and permitting procedures slow many key projects down. The green revolution depends on people and skills to run industry and complementary public services. This is a challenge for northern regions and municipalities already facing labour shortages.

Banks and other financial institutions have a central role to play in supporting the net zero transition of the business sector and its millions of SMEs. They are working to integrate climate considerations in various aspects of their operations, including strategy, management and financial products. This calls for the development of new internal capacities and access to SME sustainability data and assessments which are currently difficult to obtain. This policy paper presents the findings of a 2023 survey of public development banks and private financial institutions, conducted by the by the OECD Platform on Financing SMEs for Sustainability. It provides insights on financial institutions' current approaches and plans for the integration of climate considerations in their SME operations. It also provides information on the offer of finance and non-financial support for SMEs’ net zero investments and on related SME climate-related data requirements.

Les taux d'emploi et les salaires des femmes restent inférieurs à ceux des hommes dans les pays de l'OCDE, avec des écarts moyens d'emploi et de salaire désormais autour de 15% et 12% respectivement. Les écarts se sont réduits à un rythme relativement modeste au cours de la dernière décennie, ce qui appelle de nouvelles mesures politiques. Le manque de services de garde d'enfants abordables et leur qualité insuffisante constituent souvent un obstacle à la participation des femmes au marché du travail et notamment au travail à temps plein. Un partage très inégal du congé parental entre les parents et les difficultés rencontrées lors du retour au travail entravent encore davantage les carrières des femmes. Les biais du système fiscal peuvent décourager les femmes de travailler dans certains pays. Les femmes sont désavantagées dans l’accès aux postes de direction et à l’entrepreneuriat. Différentes politiques peuvent contribuer à réduire les écarts entre les genres, notamment une meilleure offre de garde d'enfants, l'incitation des parents à mieux partager le congé parental, la reconversion et la formation au retour du congé parental, l'encouragement de l'égalité des genres au sein des entreprises, des programmes d'intégration pour les femmes nées à l'étranger, la promotion de l’entrepreneuriat féminin et l’inclusion financière, ainsi que l’égalisation de la fiscalité sur les deuxièmes apporteurs de revenu. En outre, les multiples dimensions et causes profondes des inégalités de genre soulignent l’importance d’intégrer la dimension de genre dans tous les domaines de l’action publique.

The EU’s ambitious Green Deal aims at achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The EU is starting from a relatively good position. It has successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions over the past decade. But further efforts are needed to reach the net zero target. These include an extension of emission trading to agriculture and the phase-out of generous subsidies for fossil fuels. Such efforts should be complemented by additional measures to shift to clean energy, notably more integrated electricity markets and deeper capital markets that provide the necessary investment in new technologies. Accelerating the green transition will also involve costs for displaced workers. Bolstering workers’ mobility and training will help improve labour reallocation and reduce transition costs.

This study analyses the economic effects of the EU's ‘Fit for 55’ climate mitigation policies using the OECD ENV-Linkage model, a dynamic, global Computable General Equilibrium model. The model projects macroeconomic, sectoral, energy and emission trends for the EU, and for the five largest EU economies separately, up to 2035. Policy scenarios combine carbon pricing with regulations to reach the ‘Fit For 55’ emission reduction target in 2030. Additional scenarios analyse i) harmonised carbon pricing across countries and sectors, ii) different forms of revenue recycling from carbon pricing, iii) the effect of the EU’s proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on competitiveness, and iv) the effect of Russia’s war against Ukraine on mitigation costs. Given the short time horizon of the analysis (until 2035), the model does not assess the positive economic benefits associated with fewer climate impacts and extreme climate events. ‘Fit for 55’ policies are projected to lead to a loss of GDP per capita of 2.1% in 2035 compared to the reference scenario (pre-‘Fit for 55’ policies), reflecting increasing production costs on the back of higher carbon pricing. Higher carbon pricing is also projected to lead to a loss of competitiveness in energy-intensive industries. The EU’s proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism may only partly mitigate the loss of competitiveness of energy-intensive industries. Harmonising carbon pricing across sectors would help limit the loss to GDP per capita, as a uniform carbon price is lower and allows for directing emission reduction efforts to sectors and countries with the lowest abatement costs. Finally, Russia’s war against Ukraine has not substantially increased the GDP costs of mitigation. Without the war, lower fossil fuel import prices would have led to higher fossil fuel demand, ultimately requiring more stringent mitigation action.

This paper examines the experiences of self-employed online freelancers working on digital labour platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on interviews with freelancers and platform managers and experts in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. Their experiences during COVID-19 reveal issues of asymmetric power vis-à-vis platforms. Notably, they reported lack of transparency and certainty in their contracts with platforms, lack of power in negotiating with clients, and limited ability to engage with clients on other platforms. In addition, they often experienced difficulties in accessing government temporary supports for businesses during the pandemic. The paper puts forward policy recommendations to address these issues.

The green transformation of the economy is expected to lead to a sharp reduction in employment in carbon-intensive industries. For designing policies to support displaced workers, it is crucial to better understand the cost of job loss, whether there are specific effects of being displaced from a carbon-intensive sector and which workers are most at risk. By using German administrative labour market data and focusing on mass layoff events, we estimate the cost of involuntary job displacement for workers in high carbon-intensity sectors and compare it with the displacement costs for workers in low carbon-intensity sectors. We find that displaced workers from high carbon-intensity sectors have, on average, higher earnings losses and face stronger difficulties in finding a new job and recovering their earnings. Our results indicate that this is mainly due to human capital specificity, the regional clustering of carbon-intensive activities and higher wage premia in carbon-intensive firms. Workers displaced in high carbon-intensity sectors are older, face higher local labour market concentration and have fewer outside options for finding jobs with similar skill requirements. They have a higher probability to switch occupations and sectors, move to occupations that are more different in terms of skill requirements compared to the pre-displacement job, and are more likely to change workplace districts after displacement. Women, older workers and those with vocational degrees as well as workers in East Germany, experience particularly high costs in case they are displaced from high carbon-intensity sectors.

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has had profound effects on the maritime sector. It directly disrupted maritime activities in the Black and Azov seas, causing the suspension of Ukrainian port operations and agricultural exports. Although an export corridor temporarily resumed activities, the termination of the agreement in July 2023 continues to affect Ukrainian shipping. International sanctions against Russia and Belarus have notably targeted shipowners and shipbuilders, restricting Russian ships' access to OECD ports. These sanctions have also halted orders for Russian ship owners in OECD countries, reducing new orders and vessel completions in Russian shipyards. While global seaborne trade and ship demand remain relatively unaffected, the war has prompted longer-term impacts such as altered trading routes, changes in energy demand and costs, potential implications for maritime decarbonisation, and an increase in 'dark fleet' vessels.