The proliferation of high-cost medicines and rising drug prices are increasing pressures on public health spending and calling into question the pharmaceutical industry’s pricing strategies.

8/2/2017 - The OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector will help enterprises to identify and prevent potential negative impacts related to human rights, labour, the environment and corruption in garment and footwear supply chains worldwide.

Between 2000 and 2010, US manufacturing experienced a nightmare. The number of manufacturing jobs in the United States, which had been relatively stable at 17 million since 1965, declined by one third in that decade, falling by 5.8 million to below 12 million in 2010 (returning to just 12.3 million in 2016). Certainly, the 2007–08 recession accelerated the disruption, but the causes were also structural, not simply financial.

Businesses need to step up the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, materials and processes if countries are to reap their full potential in terms of productivity gains, according to a new OECD report.

The slowdown in productivity growth - already underway before the crisis – combined with sluggish investment, continued to undermine rises in economic output and material living standards in recent years in many of the world’s economies, according to a new report released today by the OECD.

Globalisation has failed to create a level playing field in trade, investment and corporate behaviour, being one of the factors contributing to a backlash against openness in many countries and a decline in confidence in government institutions.

Successfully attracting investment and innovation in renewable energy requires not only core climate policies, such as pricing carbon, but also a focus on the broader investment environment. Based on new research from the OECD, this article reviews some of the main factors holding back investment and innovation in renewable energy and looks at what governments can do to take action.

Entrepreneurial activity appears to be recovering from the crisis as new data show that the number of new businesses created has been rising in most OECD countries.

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.

Governments need to rethink their tourism policies to encourage more diversity, reduce concentration in high-density destinations and put in place long-term strategies that are ecologically sustainable and socially inclusive, according to the OECD.

The “Freedom of Investment" (FOI) process hosted by the OECD Investment Committee monitors investment policy developments in the 58 economies that participate in the process. This report covers investment measures taken between 16 February 2017 and 15 September 2017.

The OECD welcomes the outcomes of today's Ministerial meeting of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, and congratulates Germany on this important achievement on the last day of its G20 Presidency. The Global Forum was created by G20 Leaders, at their Hangzhou summit in September of last year. The OECD is honoured to be serving the Global Forum as its Facilitator and to contribute to its achievements to date.

Weak productivity growth is a major problem afflicting most societies. It curbs growth in incomes and endangers the sustainability of social security systems. An important, but often ignored, source of the productivity slowdown is the increasing prevalence of weakly productive firms and, among them, “zombie firms” – in essence firms that would typically exit or be forced to restructure in a competitive market.

7 December 2017, Paris - This workshop addressed the growing demand for transparency and information on how companies deal with human rights, environmental, social and other "non-financial" issues with a particular focus on how companies are identifying and addressing impacts in their supply chains.

This report is part of a series of assessments on Colombian gold supply chains and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. It analyses conditions of mineral extraction and related risks.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly turning to alternative sources of financing, while new bank lending is declining in a number of countries. Many SMEs remain over-reliant on bank credit, however, and the take-up of instruments other than straight debt varies greatly from one country to another, according to a new OECD report.

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.

29/03/2018 - The OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct is seeking candidates for a new Chairs to assist in implementing and promoting the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

The OECD Due Diligence Guidance is being used as the basis and benchmark by many industry initiatives created to ensure the responsible sourcing of minerals. This report presents the findings of a pilot alignment assessment of five industry programmes against the recommendations of the OECD Guidance to gauge the coherence, effectiveness and credibility of these initiatives.

Many governments seek to promote and facilitate inward investments that they expect will benefit their economy. This paper looks at the merits of an international framework to facilitate investment in support of sustainable and inclusive growth.

Ministers from OECD and developing economies have committed to step up their efforts to promote responsible business conduct by companies in order to drive more inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

Governments adhering to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises are required to set up a National Contact Point (NCP) that functions in a visible, accessible, transparent and accountable manner. This report contains a peer review of the Chilean NCP, mapping its strengths and accomplishments and also identifying opportunities for improvement.

Governments adhering to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises are required to set up a National Contact Point that functions in a visible, accessible, transparent and accountable manner. This report contains a peer review of the French NCP, mapping its strengths and accomplishments and also identifying opportunities for improvement.

Governments adhering to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises are required to set up a National Contact Point (NCP) that functions in a visible, accessible, transparent and accountable manner. This report contains a peer review of the German NCP, mapping its strengths and accomplishments and also identifying opportunities for improvement.

Weak labour productivity growth continues to mark the world’s advanced economies and risks compromising improvements in living standards, says a new OECD report.

ASEAN countries have made progress in SME policies – especially on GVC integration, business development and e-commerce – but future productivity growth will depend on continued reforms, says new joint OECD-ERIA-ASEAN report

A steady economic expansion in Indonesia is boosting living standards, curbing poverty and offering millions of people greater access to public services.

The world’s consumption of raw materials is set to nearly double by 2060 as the global economy expands and living standards rise, placing twice the pressure on the environment that we are seeing today, according to a new OECD report.

Business and government should work more closely together to reduce inequality and foster inclusive growth. To help achieve this, at the Paris Peace Forum, Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff, G7/G20 Sherpa and leader of the OECD’s Inclusive Growth Initiative, and Emmanuel Faber, Chairman & CEO of Danone, launched the Business for Inclusive Growth (B4IG) Platform.

As part of the implementation strategy for the recently adopted OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector, the OECD is conducting a series of surveys that target SMEs operating within the sector.

This joint OECD-UNIDO report identifies investment and related policies to enhance linkages between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Southeast Asia and multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their impacts on SME outcomes in Southeast Asia.

This report builds on national reviews of seven countries in Southeast Asia. It looks at common challenges across the region and at the interplay between regional initiatives and national reforms.

Countries deploy a variety of policy instruments to promote science-industry knowledge exchange. While these instruments are often discussed in isolation, they are implemented collectively and may negatively affect each other or add excessive complexity. This paper develops a conceptual framework to map policy instruments for knowledge exchange and assess interactions.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are turning to non-bank financing sources at a faster pace than in the past, as bank lending to them has risen less than expected given today’s favourable credit conditions and business environment.

Employment is rising in OECD countries but most jobs continue to be created in relatively low-productivity, low-wage activities, says a new OECD report.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been a significant driver of employment growth in recent years, mainly through the creation of new firms, including in high-growth sectors such as information and communication technologies (ICT).

This publication brings together contributions from leading female policy makers and thought leaders from all across the world on how to shape our economies.

This joint OECD and IDB report presents rich new information on the organization, activities, and operative practices of IPAs in 51 countries, comprising 32 OECD countries and 19 Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries (outside of the OECD area), providing a thorough understanding of who agencies are, what they do, and how they do it.

Drawing on the 2018 update of the OECD’s Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) database, this paper explores the evolution of trade in value added between 2005 and 2015. Changes in international production systems are examined with particular attention given to four key sectors heavily integrated into global value chains: textiles and apparel, chemicals, ICT and electronics, and motor vehicles.

A group of major international companies has pledged to tackle inequality and promote diversity in their workplaces and supply chains as part of an initiative sponsored by the French Presidency of the G7 and overseen by the OECD.

This report brings together data on patents, trademarks and scientific publications of the world’s top corporate R&D investors to shed light on the role of these key players in shaping the future of technologies, artificial intelligence in particular.

Powered by the OECD, spearheaded by Danone, and driven forward at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Biarritz in August 2019, B4IG, the ambitious initiative against inequality sponsored by French President Emmanuel Macron, is a coalition of leading multinational enterprises committed to tackling inequalities and promoting inclusive growth: economic growth that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all.

Adopted in 2017, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector establishes a common understanding of due diligence in the sector to help companies meet the due diligence expectations laid out in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

This note is taken from Chapter 2 of Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2011.

Korea tops a new OECD PISA survey that tests how 15-year olds use computers and the Internet to learn. The next best performers were New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong-Kong China and Iceland.

This note is taken from Chapter 2 of Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2012.

The workshop identified key challenges in the design and implementation of one-stop shops in Hungary and ways to address them.

Going for Growth 2015: Key findings for Hungary

Water resources allocation determines who is able to use water resources, how, when and where. Capturing information from 27 OECD countries and key partner economies, the report presents key findings from the OECD Survey of Water Resources Allocation and case studies of successful allocation reform.

Hungary has made progress in greening its economy and cutting emissions, but it needs to speed up efforts to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, improve energy efficiency in buildings and promote sustainable transport, according to a new OECD Review.