The tax wedge for the average single worker in Italy increased by 0.2 percentage points from 47.8 in 2018 to 48.0 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Italy had the 3rd highest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

Switzerland tops for the first time the OECD fixed broadband ranking, with 39.9 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, followed closely by the Netherlands (39.1) and Denmark (37.9). The OECD average is 25.6, according to new OECD statistics.

An examination of payments issues is taking place in the context of the review of the OECD’s 1999 guidelines on e-commerce. This report looks at what might need to be amplified or revised to enhance consumer trust and adoption of new and emerging online and mobile payment mechanisms. It reflects contributions made by national delegations, business and civil society.

The OECD has adopted a new basket methodology for benchmarking wireless broadband prices. It adds to the existing baskets for voice, leased lines and fixed broadband services and reflects the increasing importance of wireless broadband for laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Internet firms continue to drive growth and job creation in the IT industry, with fast-rising demand for mobile services helping to boost revenue and investment in research and development, according to a new OECD report.

Mobile providers have garnered a very large share of traditional services, such as telephony, over the past decade. Nevertheless, mobile networks are dependent on fixed networks and could not efficiently meet the rapidly expanding demand of users without the contributions made by fixed broadband networks.

The OECD has launched an online portal to give consumers, businesses and governments quick and easy access to the latest information on products recalled from the market in Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States.

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

OECD events at the Internet Governance Forum 2012 (Baku, Azerbaijan)

While the nature of cyber attacks continues to include criminal activities motivated by financial gain, the main emerging threats are large-scale denial of service attacks, information leaks, targeted cyber espionage, and the disruption of critical infrastructures.

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.

In 2017 a household with two teenagers will have 25 Internet connected devices. In 2022 this will rise to 50, compared with only 10 today. In households in the OECD alone there will be 14 billion connected devices, up from 1.7 billion today and this doesn’t take into account everything outside the household and outside the OECD. All this leads to the smart world discussed in a new OECD paper.

Even though the term “open access” is widely used in policy discussions surrounding broadband networks, there is little universal agreement as to what it means. A new OECD report helps to shed some light on this important concept by examining how and why open access policies have been implemented in communication markets around the world.

This report takes an initial look at methodologies to measure and estimate the monetary value of personal data, which is creating economic and social value at an increasing pace. But measuring and estimating its value is difficult. This is because not only a huge amount of personal data is being generated, but also as it is used in many different situations and for numerous purposes.

This report explores the potential role of data and data analytics for the creation of significant competitive advantage and the formation of knowledge-based capital. Five sectors are discussed as areas in which the use of data can stimulate innovation and productivity growth: online advertisement, health care, utilities, logistics and transport, and public administration.

The aim of this consultation, held on 20-21 June 2013 in Oxford (UK), was to stimulate discussion at the highest possible level of expert engagement in setting out an agenda for OECD action to accelerate innovation for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

OECD countries must ensure mobile markets remain open and competitive in order to sustain innovation and meet rising demand for data services, according to a new OECD report.

The future sustainability of health systems will depend on how well governments are able to anticipate and respond to efficiency and quality of care challenges. Bold action is required, as well as willingness to test innovative care delivery approaches. This book examines the whole new world of possibilities in using mobiles and the Internet to address healthcare challenges.

The work of the expert group played an essential role in a process which concluded in July 2013 with the adoption by the OECD Council of the first revisions to the OECD Privacy Guidelines since their original release in 1980. This document identifies a number of issues that were raised but not fully addressed as part of the review process and which could be considered as candidates for possible future study.

This report considers the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 alongside the use of network technologies to prolong IPv4 use in the face of depletion of further IPv4 protocol addresses.

This guidance addresses a number of key issues in the emerging mobile and online payment area, including the need to establish minimum levels of consumer protection across payment mechanisms, enhanced privacy and child protection, and standards for transparent and accessible information disclosures.

Colombia has done much to strengthen the rules governing its telecommunication sector, but it must give its regulator more power to enforce them in order to increase competition, particularly in the highly concentrated mobile market, according to a new OECD report.

An OECD report looks at new approaches to enhance spectrum management to make more spectrum resources available for wireless communication services to meet current and future demand and, at the same time, increase the efficiency in its use.

The actual performance of Internet connections, particularly their speed, is critical to meeting various objectives set out by a range of stakeholders including consumers, policy makers and regulators. This page provides links to network speed tests in OECD countries.

Enhancements to fixed broadband networks remain critical despite the growth in the use of wireless services. This report examines the development of fixed networks, barriers to their upgrading and regulatory challenges.

The overarching theme of the 2014 Global Forum, held in Tokyo on 2 and 3 October, was data-driven innovation for a resilient society. The event focused on the collection and use of data throughout the economy and society for enhanced growth and well-being.

In countries with four or more mobile operators benefits to consumers are visible through more competitive, more inclusive, and more understandable offers. International mobile roaming is another area where challenger brands are changing markets.

A key issue for policy makers and regulators is market structures that will best deliver efficient and inclusive mobile communication services. This report addresses recent experience in selected countries that have changed or held constant the number of facilities-based operators; and initial experience and key questions that have arisen with wireless network sharing.

Like its better known cousin ‘Black Friday’, ‘Cyber Monday’ is a marketing term to mark the kick-off of the holiday shopping season, right after Thanksgiving, in the US. Unlike Black Friday though, Cyber Monday is all about e-commerce.

The Internet of things, also known as the Internet of everything or the industrial internet, is a term applied to the next 50 billion machines and devices that will go online in the coming two decades. All stakeholders will have to evaluate whether their policies and practices enable or inhibit the ability of economies and societies to seize the benefits.

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.

The report notes that industry self-regulation (ISR) can play an important role in addressing consumer issues, particularly when business codes of conduct and standards are involved. It draws on 23 case studies covering notably advertising, financial services, telecommunications, video games and software applications (apps), toys, and direct selling.

On the occasion of the Global Conference on Cyberspace meeting today in The Hague, the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) issued a statement calling on ‘the global community to build a new social compact between citizens and their elected representatives, the judiciary, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, business, civil society and the Internet technical community..

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.

Code is the next universal language. In the 1970s punk rock drove a whole generation. In the 1980s it was probably money. For my generation, the interface to our imagination and to our world is software. This is why we need to get a more diverse set of people to see computers not as boring, mechanical and lonely things, but as something they can poke, tinker with and turn around.

Do you remember the “not-so-good old days”? When you were delayed while travelling abroad and it was too expensive to use your smartphone to check for alternatives online and inform the people you had to meet?

The world has seen more than one industrial revolution and another one is already upon us. We should face it as optimists.

We are so used to all things digital that we can sometimes lose sight of just how enormous the phenomenon has become, and how disruptive it can be.

Digital innovation is an opportunity—for governments, for business, for the public, and for the way in which they relate to each other.

Governments must act faster help people and firms to make greater use of the Internet and remove regulatory barriers to digital innovation or else risk missing out on the potentially huge economic and social benefits of the digital economy, the OECD told ministers and high-level officials from almost 40 countries today.

OECD expert consultation co-sponsored by Harvard Global Health Institute, Swedish Vinnova, Canada Health Infoway and Global Coalition on Aging, held in Boston on 5-6 October 2016.

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.

This report provides an assessment of G20 economies’ performance with respect to digitalisation and examines some of the most pressing policy challenges in areas spanning from access to digital infrastructures to digital security to legal frameworks. It includes a set of 11 core policy recommendations that could underpin a comprehensive G20 digital agenda.

At the OECD, ee have started an ambitious 2-year project to examine how the digital transformation affects policy making across the broadest possible range of fields and topics. The objective is to work with governments, business, labour and civil society to develop policies to harness the power of the digital revolution for OECD members and developing countries and unlock the benefits for everyone.

In 1964 the writer Isaac Asimov predicted life 50 years on: “Even so, mankind will suffer badly from the disease of boredom....and I dare say that psychiatry will be far and away the most important medical specialty in 2014. The lucky few who can be involved in creative work of any sort will be the true elite of mankind, for they alone will do more than serve a machine”.

13/05/2017 - With the frequency and scope of cyber incidents growing significantly, this report provides an overview of the market for cyber insurance as well as the current challenges in terms of data availability, quantification of cyber risks, awareness and misunderstanding about coverage. It identifies potential policy measures to address some of the main challenges to the development of an effective cyber insurance market.

The truth is that human rights are not sustainable, or in some places even possible, in today’s networked society unless public and private actors take responsibility. Governments and corporations alike must commit to design, manage, and govern technologies in a manner that is consistent with international human rights standards.

The 2017 OECD Forum takes place after a series of political upheavals few would have predicted scarcely twelve months ago. Divides have become more apparent between metropolises and capital cities on the one hand, and towns and villages on the other, between Millennials and pensioners, between the haves and the have-nots, between the best and the rest.

This compendium of good practices was prepared by the OECD at the request of the G20 Anti-corruption Working Group (ACWG), to raise awareness of the benefits of the digital transformation in the public sector, including governance, productivity, economic development and social innovation.

As one of the most dynamic regions in the world with an increasingly diversified economy, an expanding middle class, and a young and literate population, Southeast Asia is well positioned to embrace the ongoing global digital transformation. Digitalisation can spur the much needed innovation and productivity growth across many activities, transform public services, and improve well-being for all citizens.