Reports

At a moment when many countries of the MENA region are looking to accelerate economic growth and build more stable, open societies, this report argues that greater women’s economic empowerment holds one of the keys. It asserts that despite challenges some countries are facing in guaranteeing women equal access to economic opportunity, progress is underway and can be further nurtured through targeted, inclusive and coordinated policy actions. Building on the conclusions of a first monitoring report released in 2017, the report analyses recent legislative, policy and institutional reforms in support of women’s economic empowerment in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia and seeks to identify success factors that have helped anchor reform. Moreover, it delivers actionable examples and practical tools for policy makers to help them transform policies into effective actions for women’s economic empowerment.

Going Digital in Brazil analyses recent developments in Brazil’s digital economy, reviews policies related to digitalisation and makes recommendations to increase policy coherence in this area. The report examines the availability and quality of communication networks and services in Brazil, as well as related policies and regulations. It also reviews trends in digital technology usage among individuals, businesses and the government, and examines policies to foster diffusion. It discusses efforts to enhance trust in the digital economy, focusing on digital security, privacy and consumer protection. It also reviews policies to promote digital innovation and examines the policy implications of emerging business models in key sectors. The report reconsiders these policies in relation to their coherence across different domains and provides recommendations to foster synergies across government ministries, levels and institutions, based on the OECD Going Digital Integrated Policy Framework.

Connectivity is the backbone of the digital transformation, and as such, policies and regulatory measures that foster access to high-quality communication services at competitive prices are key. This review provides a comprehensive examination of Brazil’s communication and broadcasting sectors, highlighting areas for regulatory and policy reform that can help ensure a successful and inclusive digital transformation. It analyses market performance of the communication and broadcasting sectors, as well as underlying policies and regulations. Based on its findings, the report recommends actions in five key areas: improving the policy and regulatory framework; overhauling the taxation, fees and tariff framework; improving market conditions; fostering competition in communication and broadcasting markets; and strengthening national policies and evidence-based policy making. These areas should be addressed simultaneously, in order to ensure a holistic approach to reform.

This brief discusses the different approaches by governments during the pandemic to using regulatory management tools, including regulatory impact assessments, stakeholder engagement and ex post evaluation, and how they have ensured robust regulatory oversight when regulating through emergency procedures in response to the COVID-19 crisis. It also examines the long-term challenges for regulatory policy as we emerge from the crisis, with a clear need to improve resilience.

The New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) initiative was established to distil lessons from the Global Financial Crisis and now the systemic crises sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This book publishes short summaries of a diverse range of thinking and proposals from a prestigious series of experts. NAEC invited them to share their expertise with those who wish to learn more about the financial system from those at its heart. They debate the theory and models of the financial system as well as the role of its different component parts, such as currency, insurance or asset management and how they interact. And they offer advice on how financial policy can contribute to making the financial system more resilient.

This brief analyses how countries can achieve more effective, timely and sustainable responses to the COVID-19 crisis by taking into account regulatory barriers and compliance issues. Drawing upon previous work on administrative barriers and procedures as well as regulatory enforcement and inspections, the brief identifies several key regulatory aspects of the COVID-19 crisis response. These include: 1) facilitating the supply and availability of essential goods for crisis response, 2) reconciling privacy concerns with effectiveness for tracing and/or 'track-and-trace' approaches, and 3) fostering and maintaining compliance with mitigation measures through targeted, proportionate enforcement and transparent communication. This brief discusses simplification and removal of disproportionate or non-risk-based barriers, as well as the importance of ensuring effective regulation of major risks, and achieving sustained compliance with key safety measures.

This paper assesses whether current policy environments are appropriate for the emergence of cloud computing technology. In particular, this research uses firm level data for Germany and the United Kingdom to examine the impact of capital incentive programmes (a common policy present in most OECD countries) on cloud adoption. The design for many of these policies target investments in physical capital while excluding digital services like the cloud. Firms view digital investments and digital services as substitutes, therefore narrowly defined incentive programmes may actually discourage the use of emerging tools like cloud computing, which are found to enable the growth and performance of young entrants. Overall, the results find that while capital incentive policies encourage firm investments in ICT and other forms of capital, they actually reduce the probability of cloud adoption. Policy makers may therefore need to reconsider the design of capital incentive programmes within their jurisdictions.