Publications & Documents

Norway is performing unevenly across its four agricultural policy objectives. While Norway enjoys a high level of food security and is meeting its aim of maintaining agricultural production across the country, both environmental performance and the efficient creation of value added along the food chain are compromised by support policies linked to production levels. Support to producers relative to gross farm receipts is the highest among OECD countries, with 59% of farmers’ revenues coming from government support. Only 3% of total support to agriculture is dedicated to research and innovation. Moreover, while Norway has strong public research institutions and well-designed tax deductions, the private sector lacks the right policy incentives to innovate. This review proposes a new policy approach, centred around innovations that would enable Norway to achieve its objectives and improve the productivity, sustainability and resilience of its agro-food sector. Specific recommendations include increasing the responsiveness of the sector to markets, giving farmers greater flexibility in making production decisions, placing greater emphasis on agri-environmental outcomes, and increasing the role of the private sector in research and innovation.

This paper analyses the role of job mobility for job reallocation and aggregate wage growth in Norway and the United States using linked employer-employee data. It provides four main findings. First, despite lower overall job mobility in Norway, the speed of worker reallocation from low-wage to high-wage firms is similar to that in the United States. Second, job reallocation tends to be counter-cyclical in Norway, but pro-cyclical in the United States, due to the weaker tendency of high-wage firms in the United States to hoard workers during economic downturns. Third, the reallocation of workers from low to high wage firms through job-to-job mobility disproportionately benefits high-skilled workers in Norway and low-skilled workers in the United States. Fourth, the slowdown in aggregate wage growth primarily reflects a weakening of on-the-job wage growth in both countries rather than a reduced role of job reallocation between low and high-wage firms (although this does also play a role in the United States).

This country policy profile on education in Norway is part of the Education Policy Outlook series. Building on the first policy profile for Norway (2013), it offers a concise analysis of where the education system stands today in terms of strengths, challenges and ongoing policy efforts, and how this compares to other systems. The profile brings together over a decade’s worth of policy analysis by the Education Policy Outlook, as well as the latest OECD data, relevant thematic and country-specific work and other international and national evidence. It also offers analysis of the Norwegian education system’s initial responses to the COVID-19 crisis and provides insight into approaches to building greater responsiveness and resilience for the future.

The work of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals is the major driver of the quality of an ECEC system. As evidence accumulates on the strong benefits of investing in early education, countries need effective policies to attract, maintain and retain a highly skilled workforce in the sector. This report looks at the makeup of the early childhood education and care workforce across countries, assessing how initial preparation programmes compare across different systems, what types of in-service training and informal learning activities help staff to upgrade their skills, and what staff say about their working conditions, as well as identifying policies that can reduce staff stress levels and increase well-being at work. The report also looks at which leadership and managerial practices in ECEC centres contribute to improving the skills, working conditions and working methods of staff. The OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS Starting Strong) is the first international survey that focuses on the early childhood education and care workforce. It offers an opportunity to learn about the characteristics of ECEC staff and centre leaders, their practices at work, and their views on the profession and the sector. This second volume of findings, Building a High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce, examines factors that influence the skills development of ECEC professionals, their working conditions and well-being at work, and leadership in ECEC centres.

Viken, Norway, was officially formed as a new county on 1 January 2020, merging the previous counties of Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold. The newly elected county government has endorsed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a holistic framework for implementing the Regional Planning Strategy for a Sustainable Viken 2020‑2024, within a complex governance landscape and the concept of planetary boundaries. Viken’s sustainable development challenges and opportunities vary across its 51 municipalities, and between highly urbanised and largely rural areas. A Territorial Approach to the SDGs will help maximise the assets and strengths of all territories of the county and promote better access to economic development opportunities, labour market, skills and education across the county where disparities are witnessed between rural areas and urban centres.

In 2017, the Government of Norway introduced a new competence development model for schools, to provide municipalities and schools with greater freedom of action and empower them to carry out systematic school improvement. This model has the potential to promote collective teacher professionalism, but requires a carefully thought out implementation strategy to yield positive results. From 2018, the OECD partnered with Norway to support this implementation process, and undertook an initial assessment of the implementation strategy of the model (Improving School Quality in Norway: The New Competence Development Model, 2019). In the meantime, the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training has kept on co-shaping the model with universities and education stakeholders at the regional and local level. This new report assesses progress made, and makes further recommendations to move forward with the model development. The report will be valuable not only for Norway, but also to the many countries that are looking to promote school-based professional development and bridge the gap between policy design and effective implementation.

Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' Stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the Stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by Norway.

It is increasingly understood that entrepreneurship plays a critical role in economic growth and well-being. But which policies can governments develop to release its benefits? This publication offers guidance and inspiration. It identifies the range of entrepreneurship policies being pursued internationally, the problems the policies seek to solve and how they are designed and implemented. The focus is on how to create a broad base of start-ups with the potential for sustainability and growth by building a pipeline of new entrepreneurs, supporting start-ups to overcome barriers in areas such as skills, finance and innovation and stimulating vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. The publication examines the rationale for entrepreneurship policy, presents a typology of policy approaches and highlights principles for policy success. The points are illustrated by 16 case studies of inspiring practice policies from 12 OECD countries. These cases span policies for regulations and taxation, entrepreneurship education and training, advice and coaching, access to finance, internationalisation, innovation, and holistic packages for ecosystem building. Helpful summary tables guide readers to the information that will respond to their questions. The publication will give readers an overview of key entrepreneurship policy interventions and tips on entrepreneurship policy success.