Everybody is interested in the impacts of what companies are doing and the environmental practices and impacts of doing business are coming under increasing scrutiny. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría looks at how both governments and investors are ready to scale up climate disclosure and the use of climate information.

Many governments have expressed concerns about the uncertainty linked to the perceived inconsistency of treaty interpretation in Investor-State dispute settlement. This working paper looks at how governments can take action to improve the interpretation of investment treaties through consideration of the potential role of State-to-State dispute settlement in this area.

La inversión pública en Colombia ha aumentado sustancialmente en los últimos años hasta alcanzar casi el 4% del PIB, una cifra superior a la media OCDE de 3.2%. Sin embargo, según indica un nuevo informe de la OCDE, para hacer frente a la brecha en infraestructuras y para superar las desigualdades territoriales será necesario que el país mantenga y amplíe sus esfuerzos en materia de inversión.

Finland has proactively investigated seven allegations of Finnish individuals or companies paying bribes to foreign public officials since 1999 but needs to address its discouragingly high acquittal rate.

Compensation for adjudicators is generally considered as a core issue for judicial independence and for attracting good judges in the institutional design for courts. This paper examines compensation systems for adjudicators and dispute settlement administrators in investor-state dispute settlement. The paper uses in part a comparative perspective based on approaches in domestic courts in advanced economies.

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.

The next review of Sweden’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, which was scheduled for October 2018, has been delayed until 2019. This is due to the fact that Sweden has not yet enacted legislation to urgently address remaining recommendations to reform its laws on corporate liability for the bribery of foreign public officials.

The consultation on appointing authorities and the selection of arbitrators in investor-state dispute settlement paper and comments received are being made available in order to foster informed public and inter-governmental debate.

Though overall medical care is improving, efforts to prevent and better manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma would improve results and lower costs, according to the OECD’s latest edition of Health at a Glance.

More than 35 million people worldwide had dementia in 2010 and this number is expected to exceed 115 million by 2050. This paper reports on the opportunities offered by the informatics revolution and big data to address Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. This will require careful planning and multi-stakeholder collaboration as technical, administrative, regulatory, infrastructure and financial obstacles emerge.

Strengthening primary health care and prevention programmes would help stem the growing tide of diabetes and other chronic health conditions in the Czech Republic, according to a new OECD report.

Dementia is increasing in prevalence, and to date has no cure or treatment. One element in improving this situation is using and sharing data more widely to increase the power of research. Further, moving beyond established medical data into big data offers the potential to tap into routinely collected data from both within and outside the health system.

Rising levels of obesity and diabetes around the world could halt a trend of decreasing mortality rates for cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and heart attacks, and even cause rates to start rising again, particularly among younger people, according to a new OECD report.

Too many lives are still lost in OECD countries because healthcare quality is improving too slowly to cope with ageing populations and the growing number of people with one or more chronic diseases, according to a new OECD report.

Better public health and prevention policies as well as more effective health care could save hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of euros each year in Europe, according to a new joint OECD/European Commission report.

Australia has been successful at reducing the mortality due to cardiovascular diseases. The mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has decreased over the past 50 years at a faster pace than the OECD average, reaching 208 per 100 000 population, 30% lower than the OECD average of 299 in 2011.

The OECD event "Risk Governance and Resilient Cities" will examine how risk governance can better manage complex risks and how to improve the resilience of cities to these risks.

Japan has been successful at reducing the mortality due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) but there is room to reduce the burden of CVD and diabetes even more.

日本は心疾患による死亡率を減少させるのに成功したが、心疾患と糖尿病の負担をさらに減らす余 地は残されている

This spotlight report draws upon the OECD report Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools.

This study models the distance-to-default (DTD) of a large sample of banks from 2004 to 2011 and examines the results from the perspective of policy approaches that aim to reduce the riskiness of banks.

G20 Finance Ministers have welcomed a new OECD/G20 framework designed to help governments develop financial strategies for disaster risk management.

At their meetings on 19-20 September 2013, APEC Finance Ministers welcomed a survey report prepared by the OECD on disaster risk financing practices in the Asia Pacific region.

The OECD presented today the final package of measures for a comprehensive, coherent and co-ordinated reform of the international tax rules to be discussed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October, in Lima, Peru.

This article addresses the potential implications of climate change for the financial management of disaster risks. It outlines the contribution of insurance to reducing the economic disruption of disaster events and policy approaches to supporting the penetration of disaster insurance coverage and the capacity of insurance markets to absorb disaster risks.

Adopted by the OECD Council on 23 February 2017, this Recommendation provides high-level policy guidance for designing a strategy for addressing the financial impacts of disasters on individuals, businesses and sub-national levels of governments, as well as the implication for public finances.

OECD’s PISA publications highlight the impact of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) on students’ results within countries. The focus here is to investigate whether ESCS measures could contribute to differences in aggregate educational outcomes between countries.

Income inequality in Colombia has declined since the early 2000s but remains very high by international standards. While most of the inequality originates from the labour market, wealth – and thus capital income – is also highly concentrated and the tax and transfer system has little redistributive impact.

This paper provides an assessment of how households’ income has fared compared with GDP. While the prime focus is on incomes around the median, attention is paid also to the bottom of the income distribution.

Smarter planning for natural and man-made disasters that increases collaboration between countries and encourages households and businesses to take more responsibility would improve resilience and reduce future economic losses, a new OECD report says.

In a majority of OECD countries, GDP growth over the past three decades has been associated with growing income disparities. To shed some lights on the potential sources of trade-offs between growth and equity, this paper investigates the long-run impact of structural reforms on GDP per capita and household income distribution.

The Swedish economy has been among the most resilient in Europe, despite the slow global recovery and high uncertainty, but challenges remain if it is to maintain high growth and well-being and extend prosperity to all, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Sweden.

Structural reforms and income distribution

This paper analyses the effects of the Greek crisis on inequality and poverty in 2009-2014 using the micro-simulation model EUROMOD.

Weak trade growth and financial distortions are exacerbating slow global economic growth, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

Widespread increases in inequality over the past three decades have raised the question of the distribution of the growth dividends.

In a majority of OECD countries, GDP growth over the past three decades has been associated with growing income disparities.

Widespread increases in inequality over the past three decades have raised the question of the distribution of the growth dividends.

In a majority of OECD countries, GDP growth over the past three decades has been associated with growing income disparities.

This paper contributes to the empirical literature investigating reasons for the fall in real interest rates in advanced economies.

Israel disability pension note July 2017

This paper presents the global income distribution between all individuals living in the developed world.

The personal tax system has a large influence on incentives to work, save and invest and hence growth. At the same time it is a key policy lever for income redistribution.

Redistribution is quantified as the relative reduction in market income inequality achieved by personal income taxes, employees’ social security contributions and cash transfers, based on household-level micro data.

The United Kingdom displays large regional disparities in productivity compared to most other OECD countries, with a large gap between London and most other regions.

Many OECD countries have been facing a prolonged period of low growth and stagnating income of the poorest. This challenges governments’ fiscal redistribution, all the more so in a context where new forms of work are calling into question the effectiveness of traditional social safety nets and population ageing is putting pressure on public finances.

Rapid technological change – from digitalisation to artificial intelligence, 3D printing and nanomaterials – is transforming the way goods and services are produced and consumed. It will have profound implications for the dynamics of productivity, jobs, investment and trade over the next 10 to 15 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.

La economía de Costa Rica es sólida y continúa convergiendo hacia los niveles de vida de los países miembros de la OCDE.

Income inequality has increased in most OECD countries over the past two decades. This has come about both because incomes before taxes and transfers have become more unequally distributed, and because the extent of redistribution through taxes and transfers has fallen.