Israel disability pension note July 2017

Financial globalisation has given international capital flows a central role in the functioning of the global economy and has therefore led to considerable economic research over the past 30 years.

With gross government debt of 219% of GDP in 2016, Japan’s fiscal situation is in uncharted territory and puts the economy at risk.

The peace agreement will boost economic growth, but to share it fairly Colombia must also achieve better educational outcomes and bring more people into the more productive formal economy.

Can reforms that shift the balance among different taxes in the revenue mix lastingly influence the overall prosperity of an economy and the distribution of income across households?

More than a quarter of adults in the United Kingdom have low basic skills, which has a negative impact on career prospects, job quality and productivity growth.

A favourable growth outlook offers Chile an opportunity to address its low productivity levels compared to other advanced economies, improve access to quality jobs and take steps to reduce its persistently high inequality, according to a new OECD report.

Chile has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the OECD in recent decades. Sound macroeconomic management, bold structural reforms, such as trade and investment liberalisation, and buoyant natural-resource sectors, supported fast convergence in living standards.However, progress has slowed: declining productivity gains are limiting prospects for rising incomes and better-quality jobs; and inequality remains stubbornly high.

The Irish economy is booming and is expected to continue expanding at healthy rates over the next few years.

What is the relevant perspective for evaluating people’s living standards in advanced countries? According to standard assessments of inequality it is fellow citizens within the country.

This paper compares Finland’s benefit system with two benefit reform scenarios: a uniform benefit for all ("basic income") and a universal tapering rule ("universal credit").

Costa Rica has made impressive economic and social progress in recent years, with robust economic growth facilitating near-universal access to education, health care and pensions.

The Nordics are rightly renowned for being inclusive societies with low inequality compared to other OECD countries. However, some of the largest inequality increases over the past few decades took place in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Greece’s recovery from deep economic depression is finally gaining traction, according to the OECD. Economic growth has started to pick up led by a rise in exports while labour market reforms have improved competitiveness and are helping to create jobs.

Consecutive years of primary deficits have led to mounting public debt of almost 50% of GDP, one of the fastest increases in Latin America over the last decade.

Lithuania’s economy has grown faster than most other OECD economies over the past 10 years, unemployment continues to fall and public finances have stabilised after a long period of deficits and rising debt.

Turkey’s business sector exhibits one of the highest investment rates among OECD countries.

This paper investigates the effect of structural characteristics on debt limits of middle income countries.

This paper uses a novel data set of digital technology usage covering 25 industries in 25 European countries over the 2010-16 period to explore the drivers of digital adoption across two broad sets of digital technologies by firms, cloud computing and back or front office integration.

“What is the city but the people?” asked Shakespeare in Coriolanus. All city planning focuses on people and the quality of life. The big cities in Brazil took shape from the 1950s, when the country’s population amounted to approximately 52 million inhabitants, only 36.2% of whom lived in cities.

Sustaining high agricultural growth is critical to Brazil's overall development given the importance of agriculture and agro-industries to the national economy and the resource potential that has yet to be exploited.

This case study provides an overview of the Brazilian political financing system, including the applicable legislation, categories of political parties and funding, regulation mechanisms and transparency initiatives. It also reviews some of the tools provided to political actors to comply with the legal standards, and draft legislation designed to strengthen and reform the political funding system.

Can both less income inequality and more growth be achieved? A recent OECD study sheds new light on the link between policies that boost growth and the distribution of income.

This report compares urbanisation trends on the basis of a common methodology which helps cross-country comparison of the socio-economic and environmental performance of metropolitan areas in 28 OECD countries.

This Guide provides concrete recommendations of high impact reforms to simplify the processes of business start ups, construction permits, property registration, procurement, and to upgrade regulatory transparency and efficiency in the management of formalities in Mexico.

The economics profession seems to increasingly endorse the existence of a strongly negative nonlinear effect of public debt on economic growth. Reinhart and Rogoff (2010) were the first to point out that a public debt to GDP ratio higher than 90% of GDP is associated with considerably lower economic performance in advanced and emerging economies alike.

In collaboration with the Federal Government of Germany, the OECD organised four workshops at the International Regulatory Reform Conference (IRRC) 2013 in Berlin. The workshops focused on the use of cost-benefit analysis in governmental decision making, as well as on the role of key actors of regulatory governance in the regulatory policy cycle: Parliaments, regulatory agencies and audit offices.

Austerity programmes to restore order to public finances can add to the woes of already struggling economies, leading to more job losses and social hardship. But there are ways for governments to put their fiscal houses in order, while supporting growth and reducing income inequality at the same time.

More than five years into an economic crisis which has taken on several names–from subprime crisis and financial crisis to great recession–no term accurately depicts the fundamental result of this economic turbulence: people facing hardship.

With gross government debt surpassing 200% of GDP, Japan’s fiscal situation is in uncharted territory. In addition to robust nominal GDP growth, correcting two decades of budget deficits requires a large and sustained fiscal consolidation based on a detailed and credible multi-year plan that includes measures to control spending and raise revenue.

This workshop is to discuss the policy relevance of inequalities in the access to services in regions and cities, including the institutional and territorial organization for service delivery.

Italy’s policy of fiscal consolidation and growth-friendly structural reforms has substantially improved its economic prospects, but the adverse sentiment that the country has faced in the sovereign bond market over the past years has deep roots.

The OECD and the Municipality of San Luis Potosí in Mexico launched a programme to improve municipal formalities according to the OECD Guide.

Wikiprogress online discussion on Latin America entitled "Quality Urban Life: How to make it a reality?".

The economic crisis has hit certain regions and cities harder than others in the OECD area, calling for better regional policies across levels of governments to foster an inclusive and sustainable recovery, according to two new OECD reports.

The metropolitan region of Aix-Marseille in the south of France needs to tackle its fragmentated governance if it is to return to more inclusive and sustainable economic growth, according to a new OECD report.

This blog, by Wikichild co-ordinator Melinda George, takes a look at the well-being aspects and the quality of public service provision in the OECD's "Government at a Glance 2013" report. The post is part of Wikiprogress' December spotlight on governance.

This blog, written by David Satterthwaite with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), discusses what indicators are needed in order to assess the quality of life of the urban poor.

Latin American and Caribbean countries need to do more to improve budget management, tax collection and public sector pay equality if they are to catch up with advanced economies in terms of government performance, according to a joint report by the OECD and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This study aims to assess the degree of institutional fragmentation of transport and land use planning in Chicago. It provides an overview of local governments in metropolitan Chicago and mechanisms for coordination. Five main challenges are identified.

The Municipality of Hermosillo in Mexico shows a 12% progress in the implementation of OECD recommendations to simplify formalities to boost entrepreneurship and create employment.

The second progress report in the implementation of regulatory improvement actions shows a 52% progress for the Municipality of Hermosillo.

The tramitesmetepec.mx website organises formalities by “life events”, facilitating the search of information for citizens and entrepreneurs, and reducing the cost of regulatory compliance.

The world is experiencing a wave of urbanisation that has the potential to greatly benefit residents, countries and the planet at large. This report analyses the secrets of successful cities and the policies that contribute to their success.

Governing the Metropolitan City of Venice

Hermosillo scores 96% in implementing the recommendations of the Guide on improving the regulatory quality of formalities at the municipal level

Despite progress in the past decade, financial markets in Colombia remain relatively small and shallow. In particular the banking system suffers high intermediation costs, which limit constrains access to finance by households and firms.

Colombia has engaged in a sustained process of fiscal decentralisation over the past decades. Evidence is presented that the current framework is conducive to fiscal sustainability, especially after the reforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Launch of the OECD programme for regulatory improvement in the Municipality of Torreon, Mexico.

The Public Governance Review of Lithuania was launched in Vilnius on 19 June 2015 as part of the closing event of Lithuania’s Open Progress Forum "Innovative Public Sector – Mission (Im)possible?".