This review underlines some important points of strength with respect to Italian SMEs and entrepreneurship, notably for medium-sized firms that very often excel in their market niches, have a strong propensity to business collaboration, as well as favourable access to finance.

In addition to inspiring policy practices, the 2014 edition contains special thematic chapters on entrepreneurship by ethnic minorities, pro-entrepreneurship welfare support systems and support for entrepreneurship from unemployment.

The Korean shipbuilding industry is one of the top global players, leading by value and second only to China by volume. However, the global economic crisis has dented its finances and it now faces serious challenges to set itself back on a solid footing.

We are looking for national and sub-national policies and initiatives for social enterprise creation and development. The focus will be placed on initiatives funded by the European Social Fund, by other EU funds and programmes, by Member States and sub-national authorities and NOT on examples of successful social enterprises.

The tourism industry in OECD countries continues to grow strongly despite economic weakness in advanced economies, and outperformed tourism globally in 2014. However, active, innovative and integrated policies are needed to ensure that tourism remains a competitive and sustainable sector, says OECD.

Paris, 2-3 October 2017: The meeting will bring together Ministers, high level policy makers and industry leaders to discuss ways to deliver more sustainable and inclusive tourism growth. Held to mark the occasion of the 100th meeting of the OECD Tourism Committee, the high-level meeting will facilitate an open discussion between countries on the long-term strategic objectives for tourism development.

Inconsistent penalties, insufficient checks on small parcels, and a lack of information on shipments in free trade zones allow criminal networks to traffic billions of dollars worth of fake and prohibited goods each year. Today, the OECD introduced a new phase in its efforts to help governments counter these enforcement gaps and better protect consumers and businesses.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will travel to Reykjavik to meet with Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland, Mr. Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister, Mr. Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, and other members of the government.

The family-friendly policies introduced by Nordic countries over the past 50 years and associated increases in female employment have boosted growth in GDP per capita by between 10% and 20%, according to a new OECD report.

This report discusses the main areas in which national strategies to expand broadband networks affect universal service objectives, proposes criteria to rethink the terms of universal service policies, and shares the latest developments across a selected group of OECD countries.

The 2012 Technology Foresight Forum will focus on the potential of big data analytics as a new source of growth, which could help generate significant economic and social benefits

This report provides an overview of existing data and statistics in the fields of information security, privacy and the protection of children online. It highlights the potential for the development of better indicators in these respective fields showing in particular that there is an underexploited wealth of empirical data that, if mined and made comparable, will enrich the current evidence base for policy making.

This working paper describes the potential of the proliferation of new sources of large volumes of data, sometimes also referred to as "big data", for informing policy making in several areas. It also outlines the challenges that the proliferation of data raises for the production of official statistics and for statistical policies.

Although OECD countries have made tremendous progress in recent years fostering the deployment of high-speed broadband networks, many challenges remain in terms of how to enhance and expand these networks in order to meet the growing demands of the digital economy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly permeating our economies and societies, and already underpins over 50% of global financial transactions. This event aimed to help policy makers identify and understand AI-related opportunities and challenges.

The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017 looks at the potential and risks associated with the rapid development of AI and robots. Their use will bring new opportunities to raise incomes, create new types of jobs and businesses and improve economic and social well-being, but there will be costs and bumps along the way.

As autonomous and self-taught machines become part of our everyday lives, what sort of policy and institutional frameworks should guide AI design and use? This event brought together policymakers, civil society representatives and AI experts from industry and academia to discuss the role of policy and international co-operation in ensuring that AI benefits society as a whole.

This High-Level Conference is organised by both the Government of Slovenia and the OECD in Brdo Congress Centre (Slovenia) on 25 and 26 January 2018.

The OECD Development Centre is carrying out a project, co-funded by the EU Thematic Programme on Migration and Asylum, on the Interrelations between public policies, migration and development of partner countries.

The heads of the OECD and UNHCR, at a joint high-level Conference on the integration of beneficiaries of international protection in Paris today, have called on governments to scale up their efforts to help refugees integrate and contribute to the societies and economies of Europe.

The Netherlands should improve its policies to attract and retain highly skilled migrants in order to address labour shortages and strengthen its position as a knowledge-based economy, according to a new OECD report.

This edition of Migration Policy Debates brings key lessons learnt from the joint EASO-OECD conference “From panic to planning: unpacking the policy toolbox to anticipate migration trends” (Paris, June 2016) and presents lessons for improving information systems to reinforce the preparedness of reception and management systems.

Migration should be better integrated in labour market information and analysis. This could amplify the impact of Ghana’s efforts to enhance the economic contribution of migration, which culminated in 2016 with the adoption of a National Migration Policy aiming to mainstream migration into Ghana’s other development policies.

Migration flows to OECD countries have dropped slightly for the first time since 2011, with around 5 million new permanent migrants in 2017, down from 5.3 million in 2016. This trend is mainly due to a significant decrease in new asylum applications, with 1.2 million applications in 2017 compared to 1.6 million in 2016, according to a new OECD report.

Luxembourg must step up its efforts to detect and prosecute cases of bribery of foreign public officials, particularly now that its legal framework has been strengthened, in compliance with the Anti-Bribery Convention

Improved governance and more targeted policies to stimulate business R&D could help Luxembourg strengthen innovation

This publication presents a major meta-analysis of 'value of a statistical life' (VSL) estimates derived from surveys where people around the world have been asked about their willingness to pay for small reduction in mortality risks.

This report is part of the OECD work programme on eco-innovation policies. The objective of this work is to complement the knowledge base on eco-innovation policies in OECD countries and to provide empirical material for additional research on policy issues related to eco-innovation.

This paper analyses the determinants of invention in efficiency-enhancing electricity generation technologies that have the potential to facilitate climate change mitigation efforts, including fossil fuel based technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, renewables and nuclear technologies.

Cities can generate growth and jobs while becoming greener – this is the message of the OECD’s new Green Growth in Cities report. Drawing on case studies of Paris, Chicago, Kitakyushu and Stockholm, the report identifies green policies that can respond to urban growth priorities and suggests how to implement and finance them.

The OECD participated in this annual event held in Stockholm (1-5 September 2013) where two major reports "Water Security for Better Lives" and "Water and Climate Change Adaptation: Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters" were launched by the OECD's Secretary-General, Angel Gurría.

Credible and consistent carbon pricing must be the cornerstone of government actions to tackle climate change, according to a new OECD report.

In its 2012 edition of the World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) produced an Efficient World Scenario to assess how implementing only economically viable energy efficiency measures would affect energy markets, investment and greenhouse emissions (GHG). Using the OECD ENV-Linkages macro-economic model, this report simulates the economic and environmental impacts which the IEA Efficient World Scenario implies.

The UN Climate Summit took place on 23 September 2014 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The OECD's Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, chaired the session on "The Economic Case for Climate Action," where global leaders discussed The New Climate Economy Report: Better Growth, Better Climate, by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

As environmental pressures continue to rise, governments throughout the OECD area have not been sitting back. If anything, the stringency of their policy measures has been increasing on the whole, not least to combat pollution and climate change. And as the evidence shows, stringent environmental policies can be introduced without hurting overall productivity.

In today’s hard times, policy-makers can find it difficult to sell their environmental policies. To many, these policies represent a burden on the economy.

Climate policy and competitiveness issues have created a new need for international co-ordination, beyond the scope of our current frameworks. There is no need to trade economic growth for environmental stringency. Environmentally stringent policies are an incentive for greater efficiencies which leading edge companies can easily achieve.

In January of this year I visited the Mexican state of Tabasco– a state crossed by rivers and facing the Gulf of Mexico. The state’s population has doubled over the past 30 years and its economy relies heavily on oil and natural gas resources. It has its challenges as well: unemployment, poverty and a lack of resources.

Today, more than 22% of global emissions are covered by a carbon price. Almost 40 countries and over 20 cities, states and provinces use carbon pricing mechanisms or are planning to implement them. The OECD recommends that countries make carbon pricing the cornerstone of climate policy. Price signals sent to consumers, producers and investors alike need to be consistent and facilitate the gradual phase-out of fossil fuel emissions.

Taxes are potentially among the most effective ways of cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but they are currently – with very few exceptions – underused; and even where used, they are frequently designed in a sub-optimal way.

This joint OECD/France conference to be held in Paris on 16 September 2015 will aim to lay the foundation for the international effort which is needed on public policy options and economic incentives to support food security, the fight against climate change and adaptation to climate change while integrating soil issues in that effort.

Advanced and emerging economies have made progress in addressing climate change, yet most are on a trajectory that would see them fall short of their mitigation goals. Governments need to significantly accelerate their efforts and strengthen their climate change policies.

To increase transparency and improve understanding of different countries’ situations, the OECD has developed an interactive map that brings to life key climate change mitigation statistics and policy settings. The webinar on Monday 16 November 2015, 15h00-16h30 (Paris time) consisted of a summary of the main messages of the report "Climate Change Mitigation: Policies and Progress" and a demonstration of the interactive tool.

Participants to the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits have agreed new rules on official support for coal-fired power plants, including restrictions on official export credits for the least efficient coal-fired power plants, the OECD announced today.

The consequences of degradation of environmental quality as well as the consequences of environmental policies are typically unevenly distributed. In general, poorer countries and lower income households are more severely affected by environmental degradation and at the same time have less capacity to adapt.

A dirty, rundown environment has quantifiable costs for the economy and the well-being of societies. For example, the welfare costs of air pollution from road transport alone are estimated to amount to around 1.7 trillion USD in OECD countries, 1.4 trillion USD in China and 0.5 trillion in India.

This report provides a review of recent firm-level and plant-level surveys containing questions on environmental policies, innovation practices or performance which are relevant for environmental policy analysis and assessment. We specifically focus on the core element that relates environmental policies to environmental and economic performance, namely the adoption of innovative practices and environmental innovations by firms.

This report provides a brief review of how national government policies and guidelines apply to or regulate the use of environmental labelling and information schemes (ELIS) in selected OECD countries. The report reviews definitions relevant to environmental claims and identifies four types of potentially false or misleading environmental claims.

Current carbon prices are falling short of the levels needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, but even moderate price increases could have a significant impact, according to new OECD research.

Infrastructure resilience requires a coordinated policy response to ensure that infrastructure owners and developers have the incentive and capacity to integrate resilience. The framework is aimed at policy makers in OECD countries, but the underlying messages can be applied to other country contexts.