Indonesia has undergone an extraordinary transformation over the past two decades, benefiting from strong growth that has lifted millions out of poverty and allowed important progress in areas such as health and education. But low levels of public spending and tax revenue are undermining the quality of social services and exacerbating infrastructure gaps, according to the OECD.

The effect of the size and mix of public spending on growth and inequality

Over the past two decades, the income level of the Czech Republic has converged considerably towards the OECD average.

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

Over the past two decades, the income level of the Czech Republic has converged considerably towards the OECD average.

Promoting inclusive growth in India requires improving social and physical infrastructure.

Poverty has risen in Spain in the wake of the crisis, mainly due to lack of quality jobs that provide enough hours of paid work to support decent incomes.

The private sector can be a strategic partner in the pursuit of sustainable and inclusive growth, with the ability to have a profound impact, particularly in areas such as climate change, inclusiveness, equality and good governance.

A combination of market-based policies and a redistributive welfare state have boosted Belgium’s per-capita GDP to well above the average of OECD countries and raised well-being, according to a new OECD report.

The Slovak Republic continues exhibiting robust economic performance, with strong growth backed by a sound financial sector, low public debt and high international competitiveness drawing on large inward investment.

Argentina is making progress in its path to advance its growth agenda. The first OECD Multi-dimensional Economic Survey of Argentina underlines the achievements to date of the government’s recent and comprehensive programme of macroeconomic and structural reforms.

Modernisation has mainly been achieved by training young Slovenians to fill new occupations. In contrast, those with obsolete skills tend to retire or become unemployed rather than retrain, leaving Slovenia with persistent long-term unemployment, and amongst the lowest employment rates of older workers in the OECD.

The world economy has picked up momentum, as expanding investment, employment and trade support synchronised growth across most countries, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

Changing labour market demand and moving up the global value chain requires high-skilled workers.

Slovenia has continued to shift from traditional manufacturing to business services and high-tech production. However, not all Slovenians have been included in this progress.

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.

This paper investigates if higher public spending in education and better teacher qualifications are related to student’s performance, using data from Saber 11, a national standardized test conducted by Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación.

New firm-level analysis undertaken in tandem with the OECD Economic Survey of Ireland 2018 finds that the majority of businesses in Ireland have actually experienced falling productivity since the mid-2000s.

Greece is finally recovering from a deep depression. In 2017 GDP expanded by 1.3%, according to initial estimates, and is projected to accelerate to 2% in 2018 and 2.3% in 2019.

Thailand has made remarkable socio-economic progress over the past several decades. Poverty has plummeted and access to education and health services has become near universal.

The analysis suggests that countries with a counter-cyclical fiscal stance typically have a public spending structure that is more supportive of inclusive growth.

Thailand’s "sufficiency economy philosophy" encourages the prioritisation of long-term sustainability over short-term benefits.

The German economy is undergoing a robust expansion, with record-low unemployment and real wage gains underpinning domestic demand while strong exports are driving business investment. The strong fiscal position will offer opportunities for funding structural reforms and public investment to meet future challenges, according to a new report from the OECD.

Short-term prospects for the Korean economy are good, with an uptick in world trade and fiscal policy driving growth, but productivity remains relatively low and the country faces the most rapid population ageing in the OECD area, according to a new report from the OECD.

With still large government debt and interest payments in many OECD countries, actively adjusting debt maturity can help to minimise debt servicing costs.

The Czech economy is thriving, with robust employment, expanding exports and falling government debt. Efforts should now focus on boosting workforce skills and innovation to improve labour supply and productivity, further reduce poverty and inequality, and green the economy, according to two new OECD reports.

The Irish economy has experienced a decline in productivity growth over the past decade. This has mostly reflected the poor performance of local firms, with the large productivity gap between foreign-owned and local enterprises having widened.

This paper examines an industry whose economic activity uses a natural capital on which its profit also relies.

Governments today need to balance the policy goals of boosting economic growth and improving equity when making budget decisions. How can public spending choices promote inclusive growth? What can be learned from previous spending decisions in times of crisis?

The euro area sovereign debt crisis has exposed important flaws in the design of the Economic and Monetary Union, especially when it comes to dealing with macroeconomic shocks.

4-5 September 2018, Paris - The OECD Blockchain Policy Forum on "Distributed Ledgers: Opportunities and Challenges" was the first major international conference to take stock of blockchain’s impacts across the full range of government activities and public priorities.

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.

Brazil’s economic growth has been supported in recent years by important government investment and social programmes that mobilise resources across the country. These programmes could help Brazil to meet its goals of sustaining economic growth and fostering social development, while reducing regional disparities.

Education at a Glance 2013 - Country notes and key fact tables

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.

Brazil has made significant progress in building a reputation for sound fiscal policy since it passed the Fiscal Responsibility Law in 2000. In recent years, however, the fiscal situation has become more difficult as public spending and gross debt have risen.

As part of continuing efforts to boost transparency by multinational enterprises (MNEs), Brazil, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Latvia signed today the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports, bringing the total number of signatories to 49.

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.

The OECD Recommendation on Principles for Public Governance of Public-Private Partnerships can help governments get PPPs right, by providing best practices based on Member country experiences with what works (and what doesn't).

The aim of this workshop was to present recent developments in implementing Regulatory Impact Assessment in the Czech Republic as well as to enable an exposure to different approaches in some leading OECD countries.

This new publication looks at how renewable energy can bring the greatest benefits to host regions.

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.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría opens the Global Forum on Better Governance for Inclusive Growth held in Paris. The Forum will focus on public sector reforms worldwide and identify lessons learned, good practices and innovative solutions for advancing the governance reforms necessary to foster inclusive growth.

OECD countries are intensifying their fiscal consolidation efforts, introducing additional measures and extending the time horizon to implement them. Most have announced fiscal consolidation of more than 3% of GDP over the period 2009-15, according to the OECD’s Restoring Public Finances 2012.

Launch Meeting of the Leading Practitioners on Public Procurement

Brazil’s economic growth has been supported in recent years by important government investment and social programmes that mobilise resources across the country. These programmes could help Brazil to meet its goals of sustaining economic growth and fostering social development, while reducing regional disparities.

Intergovernmental fiscal frameworks usually reflect fundamental societal choices and history and are not foremost geared towards achieving economic policy objectives. Yet, like most institutional arrangements, fiscal relations affect the behaviour of firms, households and governments and thereby economic activity.

This paper puts the original Reinhart-Rogoff dataset, made public by Herndon et al. (2013), to a formal econometric test to pin down debt thresholds endogenously. We show that the nonlinear relation from debt to growth is not very robust.

Mexico regularly faces a wide range of natural hazards, including earthquakes, tropical storms and floods. Over the years, the National Civil Protection System has improved its institutional and operational preparedness to manage these disruptive events. But more can be done to avoid future losses and at the same time support sustainable economic development.

After peaking in the first half of 2008, international imbalances declined sharply during the global crisis of 2008-09, in part reflecting cyclical factors such as large contractions in domestic demand on the back of bursting housing bubbles in a number of deficit countries, as well as large declines in cross-border capital flows, interest rates and commodity prices.