For the last five years the global economy has been in a low-growth trap, with growth disappointingly low and stuck at around 3 per cent per year. Persistent growth shortfalls have weighed on future output expectations and thereby reduced current spending and potential output gains.

Governments in Latin America will need to improve public sector management and capacity – including budget allocation – to compensate for the pressure on public finances from sliding commodity prices, according to a new report by the OECD and Inter-American Development Bank covering more than 15 countries in the region.

Spending on public administration itself is relatively low and so are indicators of its performance.

Spending on public administration itself is relatively low and so are indicators of its performance.

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

OSINERGMIN, the Supervisory Agency for Investment in Energy and Mining of Peru, advances in transparency and accountability to improve its regulation.

Comments on the draft OECD Best Practice Principles on Stakeholder Engagement in Regulatory Policy are to be sent to regstakeholders@oecd.org by 15 March 2017.

Towards Gender Equality before the Law

OECD promotes the exchange of experiences and good practices for the improvement of regulation among Latin American countries

OECD blog on the current dwindling levels of trust and what governments can do to help rebuild public trust.

In 1998 Indonesia embarked on an ambitious course of decentralisation. Over a period of a few years, facilitated by financial transfers from the central government, responsibility for many public services and administrative tasks were devolved to local authorities.

A Job for Life? The old notion of a safe job in the civil service is profoundly changing - OECD Insights blog by Bill Below.

Information is in no short supply these days. Indeed, as comedian Joey Novick has pointedly remarked: “The information in the world doubles every day. What they don’t tell us is that our wisdom is cut in half at the same time.”

It doesn’t feel like a great time to be an expert. Experts rely on facts, evidence and careful analysis to make assessments of the past, present, and future. All those categories—expertise, evidence and logical analysis—seem under attack. Equally importantly, public trust in the institutions that house experts has ebbed at an alarming rate over the last 40 years.

Democracy is a living organism; it is made by and for the people. And encouraging more people to participate surely strengthens democracy.

It is hardly surprising that rising inequality has translated into growing political disaffection, anti-market sentiment and disenchantment with globalisation. In such a context, we desperately need to take action to promote inclusive growth and restore public confidence in the power of policymakers to improve people’s lives.

Digitalisation has already been under way for about half a century, yet it is only now that everyone is talking about a digital revolution. Why? One reason is the spread of faster and better connectivity. In 2013, about 80% of OECD countries had complete broadband coverage, fixed or wireless.

The OECD assessed the legal framework of key anti-corruption related legislation in the Slovak Republic in order to set the ground for strengthening integrity in the Slovak public sector and beyond.

In relation to GDP, India's public debt and interest payments are high compared with most other emerging economies and rating agencies have put India's sovereign debt at the lowest investment grade.

Combatting corruption and restoring trust in institutions by upholding the principles of public integrity will be at the heart of a major conference in Athens from 11-12 July 2017.

Training Workshop on the elaboration and evaluation of regulatory impact assessment (RIA)

Toolkit providing a gateway to the various global budget and fiscal transparency institutions, official instruments, standards, and guidance materials.

A new OECD/ EUIPO study maps counterfeit trade routes, and they’re complicated, writes Bill Below from the OECD Directorate for Public Governance.

This side event at the "High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development" will provide a focused discussion on how governments can tackle the governance challenges in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Description of regulatory policy activities in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The OECD is working with Tunisia to develop a system of subnational indicators.

OECD work on the independence of regulators and how to protect them from undue influence. Information includes new data from a survey of 48 regulators across the world.

This paper investigates the factors that shape governments’ capacity to collect revenue.

The 2017 edition of the OECD E-Leaders meeting will discuss how governments can best adapt to the growing role of advanced technologies in service delivery. Delegates will discuss the implications of the digital transformation in governments, including the skills base, the data infrastructure and approaches to the commissioning of ICT goods and services.

This publication examines the role of institutional investors in promoting good corporate governance and reviews Australia, Chile and Germany in more detail.

This guidance addresses the unique due diligence challenges posed by gold, such as its intrinsic high-value and fungible nature, the non-linear structure of its supply chain, and its multiple downstream uses.

07/11/12 - the OECD and the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions concluded a Memorandum of Understanding to promote respect by multinational enterprises of the new human rights chapter of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights upon which the OECD Guidelines are based.

This paper charts the key changes in equity markets over the last decade or so which may affect the conditions for corporate governance. It also provides a brief overview of related policy discussions and selected national initiatives that have been taken as a response to equity market developments.

The recent scandal over the use of horsemeat in readymade meals that has shaken the entire European continent has revealed not only the complexity and opacity of our food supply chain, but also–and above all–the shortcomings of European food law.

Boards of directors of SOEs play a fundamental role in corporate stewardship and performance. Over the last decade, OECD governments have sought to professionalise SOE boards, ensure their independence and shield them from ad hoc political intervention. In general these approaches have worked; yet, more remains to be done. This report seeks to shed slight on good practices drawing on national practices from over 30 economies.

Slovenia is facing the legacy of a boom-bust cycle that has been compounded by weak corporate governance of state-owned banks. The levels of non-performing loans and capital adequacy ratios compare poorly in international perspective and may deteriorate further, which could require significant bank recapitalisation.

This study provides critical observations on the state of key global equity markets as recent developments have put into question their efficiency and effectiveness in facilitating capital formation. It covers the top 26 initial public offering (IPO) producing nations, with a particular focus on stock markets in the United States.

Muscat, Oman - 2 December 2013 - This meeting was organised in the format of a high level regional roundtable, where heads and other representatives of regional exchanges were invited to participate, alongside regulators and relevant international and regional institutions.

This paper provides a framework for analysing ownership engagement by institutional investors. It argues that the general term “institutional investor” in itself doesn’t say very much about the quality or degree of ownership engagement. It is therefore an evasive “shorthand” for policy discussions about ownership engagement.

This report explores the efforts of MENA stock exchanges to restructure their ownership through regional comparisons and case studies, situating this process within the global transformation of the stock exchange industry over the past two decades.

This article provides a framework for analysing the character and degree of ownership engagement by institutional investors. There are large differences in ownership engagement between different categories of institutional investors. There are also differences in ownership engagement within the same category of institutional investors such as hedge funds, investment funds, etc.

This Global Forum plays an important role as the tool for on-going dialogue on responsible business conduct. I am pleased to announce that today, Ministers from over 20 countries are coming together to discuss how to integrate responsibility considerations throughout government policies. Their work will contribute to protect internationally recognised fundamental rights and to ensure good governance, fair regulations, and transparency.

This report analyses a dataset detailing the size of national state-owned enterprise (SOE) sectors (by number, value and employment) and their composition by sector and corporate forms for 34 countries.

This roundtable provided a forum for dialogue on building responsible supply chains in the textile and garment sector that contribute to inclusive growth and sustainable development, in line with the OECD and ILO recommendations. The Roundtable also identified challenges and areas for future collaborative action.

Beijing, 24 October 2014 - China presented guidelines intended to provide a roadmap for the responsible business conduct of Chinese companies operating overseas. In addition, China and the OECD signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the implementation by Chinese companies of responsible business conduct in global mineral supply chains.

The German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), supported by the OECD, has initiated a study to assess the contribution of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to due diligence for responsible mineral supply chains. To gather information for this study, SMEs were invited to take part on a confidential survey of due diligence activities by SMEs.

The promotion of responsible business conduct has taken an important step forward with the launch of a new reporting framework. Businesses now have no excuse for not explaining how they’re meeting their human rights obligations.

This public consultation is being held to gather comments on the draft OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in the Extractives Sector which provides practical guidance to mining, oil and gas enterprises in addressing the challenges related to stakeholder engagement. The deadline for comment is 5 June 2015.

OECD Corporate Governance Working Paper No.17. This report examines the influence of institutional shareholders and their activities towards good corporate governance, the historical changes to practices within shareholder meetings and the role that institutional shareholders have played in the improvement of corporate governance within Japanese listed companies.