Canada has weathered the global economic crisis comparatively well but will have to become more productive to sustain its high standard of living, according to OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Canada.

As advanced economies struggle to consolidate recovery from the deepest financial crisis in modern times, promoting innovation becomes critically important to develop new products, new services, and new ways of doing thing, said OECD Secretary-General.

The ability to measure innovation is essential to an improvement strategy in education. This country note analyses how the practices are changing within classrooms and educational organisations and how teachers develop and use their pedagogical resources.

The Netherlands is gradually emerging from a double-dip recession with strengthened public finances and reforms on track to improve the labour and housing markets and the health care and pension systems. These reforms are paying off, says the OECD. Growth is expected to reach 1% this year and 1.3% in 2015.

The ability to measure innovation is essential to an improvement strategy in education. This country note analyses how the practices are changing within classrooms and educational organisations and how teachers develop and use their pedagogical resources.

The conference discussed the results of the project as well as policy recommendations on training and skills development for the creation of an innovative and competitive SME sector in OECD countries.

Disruptive innovation is redefining markets around the world and the Latin American and Caribbean region is no exception. In the run-up to the Latin American and Caribbean Competition Forum in Mexico-City on 12-13 April 2016, this article looks at the competition enforcement challenges and advocacy opportunities around disruptive innovations in the region.

Disruptive innovations are beginning to transform legal services and the manner in which they are delivered. Competition authorities can play a role in advocating for regulatory systems that reflect current market realities and ensure market access for pro-competitive disruptive innovations.

This report explores the impact of innovative technologies on the electricity sector and examines priorities for regulatory policies that governments will need to put in place to negotiate the energy transition to a zero-carbon economy.

Most OECD governments use tax incentives to encourage businesses to invest in research and development (R&D) to boost innovation and drive economic growth. Others, like China, India and South Africa, are doing the same. But reforming these incentives would give countries a better return on their investment and support young innovative firms that play a crucial role in job creation, according to a new OECD report.

Fiscal incentives, including tax policies, should be directed at specific barriers, impediments or synergies to facilitate the desired level of investment in R&D and innovations. Without careful design, policies can have unintended consequences such as favouring incumbent firms, encouraging small firms to undertake less efficient activities, or creating arbitrage and rent-seeking activity.

Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.

There is no shortage of capital available globally to finance renewable-energy projects. The financial sector encompasses more than €100 trillion of assets. So how is it that investment in renewable energy is not flowing faster? This article by OECD policy analyst Geraldine Ang proposes responses to the trillion-dollar question.

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.

This paper brings together information collected through Working Party on Nanotechnology discussions and projects. It relies in particular on preliminary results from a project on the responsible development of nanotechnology and outcomes of a symposium held in 2012.

There is now strong evidence that microbiomes play an important role in human health, as there are clear linkages to many major non-communicable diseases. This report assesses the key policy challenges for innovation in the microbiome. It argues that if such a promising scientific field is to lead to innovative applications, policies on science and innovation must be improved in five areas.

Several countries have been setting up strategic roadmaps to support marine biotechnologies that could drive innovation and help address the global sustainability goals of food, energy, and health. This report identifies and begins to address challenges facing cooperation on marine biotechnology across countries.

This report identifies, and seeks to address, key challenges for the responsible development of neurotechnology. In particular, it analyses frameworks and mechanisms for integrating social concerns in the early development of technology, and discusses best practices for research funders across the public and private sector.

How can government policies move towards increasing agricultural innovation and improving productivity? This OECD conference shared case studies and ideas from Europe, China, United States, India, Africa, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

The ability to measure innovation is essential to an improvement strategy in education. This country note analyses how the practices are changing within classrooms and educational organisations and how teachers develop and use their pedagogical resources.

To improve productivity and help address socio-economic challenges, such as ageing, Japan needs to strengthen its innovation performance.

Japan’s agriculture sector has traditionally been characterised by small-scale rice production, but has recently begun to respond to new market opportunities for higher value food products across a rapidly growing East Asia. Today, rice represents less than 20% of the value of agriculture production, and larger, more productive, and more profitable farm businesses now account for more than half of total agriculture output.

Public policy has an important role to play in promoting research and development (R&D) and the development, diffusion, and use of new knowledge and innovations. Fiscal incentives, including tax policies, should be directed at specific barriers, impediments or synergies to facilitate the desired level of investment in R&D and innovations.

Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.

This working paper assesses the impact of climate mitigation policies and the quality of the investment environment on investment and innovation in renewable power in OECD and G20 countries. It also examines how countries’ investment environments interact with climate mitigation policies to influence investment and patent activity in renewable power.

“Insurtech”is the term being used to describe the new technologies with the potential to bring innovation to the insurance sector and impact the regulatory practices of insurance markets. This report catalogues these technologies and examines how InsurTech is being funded and how insurers are engaging with the start-ups entering the market.

This publication looks at regional innovation in Wallonia, Belgium, by examining the political context, governance issues and the role of innovation in the economy, along with regional innovation strategies to promote growth.

Canada has weathered the global economic crisis comparatively well but will have to become more productive to sustain its high standard of living, according to OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Canada.

Canada has weathered the global economic crisis comparatively well but will have to become more productive to sustain its high standard of living, according to OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Canada.

The United States should do more to foster innovation and provide more equitable access to high-quality education in order to maintain its status as the world's most vibrant and productive economy, according to OECD's latest Economic Survey of the United States.

The tertiary education system in Canada performs well in fostering a skilled workforce with generally good labour market outcomes and is internationally recognised for its research contributions.

This paper discusses how to improve Canada’s business innovation in order to boost labour productivity and output growth. Many general framework conditions are highly favourable to business risk taking and innovation, including macro stability, openness, strong human capital, low corporate tax rates, low barriers to firm entry and flexible labour markets.

The US innovation system has many strengths, including world class research universities and firms that thrive in innovation-intensive sectors.

Innovation-based growth, underpinned by investments in a broad range of knowledge-based capital (KBC), is central to raising long-term living standards.

Investment in knowledge-based capital (KBC) – assets that lack physical embodiment, such as computerised information, innovative property and economic competencies – has been rising significantly. This has implications for innovation and productivity growth and requires new thinking on policy.

Well-functioning judicial systems play a crucial role in determining economic performance – notably by guaranteeing the security of property rights and the enforcement of contracts – but not all countries’ judiciaries operate at the same level of efficiency.

After a decade of relatively strong growth, Latin America is facing headwinds associated with declining trade, a moderation in commodity prices and increasing uncertainty over external financial conditions, according to the latest Latin American Economic Outlook jointly produced by the OECD Development Centre, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN ECLAC) and CAF - Development Bank of Latin America.

Young firms play a crucial role in job creation but have missed out on many of the benefits of structural reforms of the past decade in OECD countries.

The Netherlands is gradually emerging from a double-dip recession with strengthened public finances and reforms on track to improve the labour and housing markets and the health care and pension systems. These reforms are paying off, says the OECD. Growth is expected to reach 1% this year and 1.3% in 2015.

Danish productivity has grown only weakly over the past two decades, both historically and in relation to other countries, despite sound policies and institutions. Denmark needs to continue its efforts to reap the benefits of globalisation, which would contribute to invigorating productivity growth.

Increasing productivity is critical to achieving strong, sustainable and inclusive growth and well-being. Technological change and innovation are the key drivers of increased productivity, along with better skills and organisational change.

Despite large and growing investments in knowledge and innovation, productivity growth in many countries has slowed in recent years. At the same time, the urgent need for more rapid innovation (including its uptake and diffusion) in several key areas, such as in environment. This joint OECD-NBER workshop on 25-26 September 2014 will bring together academic experts to consider these challenges.

The labour market in Russia is very flexible. This results in a high and stable overall employment rate, but also high wage inequality, informality and labour turnover, which limits incentives for firms to invest in human capital and productivity improvements.

The project provided recommendations to the city of Medellin and Antioquia to support the development of the local economy and includes a focus on how the innovative environment can be strengthened to support inclusion, entrepreneurship, SME, and local developmentto and how to better coordinate and integrate its policies with the national level.

Innovation is key to boosting economic growth in the face of a rapidly ageing population. While Japan spends heavily on education and R&D, appropriate framework conditions are essential to increase the return on such investments by strengthening competition, both domestic and international, and improving resource allocation.

Productivity catch-up along with deeper integration into the global economy played a central role in the convergence of the Czech incomes toward OECD countries before the 2008 financial crisis.

Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.

Raising productivity requires addressing a wide range of policies that affect resource allocation, the creation and diffusion of technology, human capital and the creation and financing of start-ups.

On several measures, China has caught up with OECD economies in the area of innovation.

The recent pick-up in global growth is good news, but a durable return to healthy growth supported by productivity and trade will require stronger political commitment to implement policy packages to make growth more inclusive.