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This paper provides detailed farm level data evidence on the dynamics of farm performance from case studies covering crop farms in Australia, France, Italy and the United Kingdom (England and Wales), and dairy farms in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Norway, with different recent sample periods of five to thirty years. An increase in productivity over time is common to all countries and most crop farm classes, but productivity dynamics vary significantly. In Australia, strong productivity growth among the most productive crop farms has led to an increase in the gap between the highest and lowest performing farms; whereas in France, Italy and the United Kingdom, productivity growth was weak among the most productive crop farms and the lowest performing farms closed the productivity gap. Productivity also increased among dairy farms, with an increasing gap between the most and the least productive farm classes in the three sample countries. The impact of policy changes on performance dynamics is analysed for decoupled payments in France and England, and dairy payments in the Czech Republic. The main findings across countries and policy implications are discussed in OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Paper N°164.

The COVID-19 crisis demonstrated that local authorities are on the front line when it comes to dealing with the various effects of globalisation. In France, as in OECD countries in general, responsibility for producing and implementing strategies that combine economic development, innovation and internationalisation falls to the regional level. This summary document covers the main lessons learned from OECD policy analysis and statistical work carried out on French regions’ internationalisation. It proposes an original methodology for assessing the position of regions in globalisation and applies this to France, comparing statistical observations with the internationalisation strategies adopted by French the regions. Also presented are multi-level governance measures in which the actors of regional internationalisation are involved.

This policy brief discusses recent international policy experiences in developing e-learning and digital business diagnostic tools for entrepreneurs. E-learning tools can develop entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competences among users and increase their confidence and success in business creation. Business diagnostic tools offer entrepreneurs ways to assess their business management practices against peer companies or good practices, building competence and diffusing good practice. This brief sets out considerations for the successful development and implementation of these tools. It presents eight international cases of tools and discusses the public policy lessons from these international experiences.

This report, commissioned by France’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and written jointly by the International Energy Agency and RTE, the French Transmission System Operator, examines the conditions and requirements needed to assess the technical feasibility of scenarios with very high shares of variable renewable energy in France’s power system. The report looks into trends for energy demand and renewable resource availability in the 2020 National Low-Carbon Strategy (Stratégie nationale bas-carbone, or SNBC). Several scenarios of high shares of renewables are examined: mainly based on onshore wind, mainly based on offshore wind expansion and mainly based on distributed PV. Building on these scenarios, the report looks at changes in the system’s flexibility needs and how the range from short-term to long-term flexibility can be satisfied by new technologies such as flexible charging of electrified transport, battery storage, demand-side flexibility and sector coupling. The report then looks to essential questions on electricity security, i.e. addressing the issue of keeping system stability in the context of decreasing system inertia, ensuring adequacy of the system and the sizing available reserves under a scenario of large shares of variable renewables. Finally, the report evaluates the VRE integration capacity of the existing French transmission network, as well as necessary modifications and expansion beyond 2035. The recommendations and findings of this report form the basis for further detailed technical and economic assessments that are to be carried out by RTE in 2021.

Social protection systems use a range of entitlement criteria. First-tier support typically requires contributions or past employment in many countries, while safety net benefits are granted on the basis of need. In a context of volatile and uncertain labour markets, careful and continuous monitoring of the effectiveness of income support is a key input into an evidence-based policy process. This paper proposes a novel empirical method for monitoring the accessibility and levels of safety net benefits. It focusses on minimum-income benefits (MIB) and other non-contributory transfers and relies on data on the amounts of cash support that individuals in need receive in practice. Results show that accessibility and benefit levels differ enormously across countries – for instance, in 2015/16, more than four out of five low-income workless one-person households received MIB in Australia, France and the United Kingdom, compared to only one in five in Greece, Italy and Korea, three countries that have since sought to strengthen aspects of safety-net provisions.

This country policy profile on education in France is part of the Education Policy Outlook series. Building on the first policy profile for France (2014), 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 French 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 COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on SME access to finance. In particular, the sudden drop in revenues created acute liquidity shortages, threatening the survival of many viable businesses. The report documents an increase in demand for bank lending in the first half of 2020, and a steady supply of credit thanks to government interventions. On the other hand, other sources of finance declined, in particular early-stage equity. This paper, a special edition of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs, focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on SME access to finance, along with government policy responses. It reveals that the pre-crisis financing environment was broadly favourable for SMEs and entrepreneurs, who benefited from low interest rates, loose credit standards and an increasingly diverse offer of financing instruments. It documents the unprecedented scope and scale of the policy responses undertaken by governments world-wide, and details their key characteristics, and outlines the principal issues and policy challenges for the next phases of the pandemic, such as the over-indebtedness of SMEs and the need to continue to foster a diverse range of financing instruments for SMEs.