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

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.

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

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

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?

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 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.

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.

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

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.

The Spanish government has launched a series of ambitious public administration reforms as part of wider efforts to promote economic competitiveness and strengthen trust in government and public institutions.

Public trust is the cornerstone of effective governance, the main ingredient to promote economic growth and social progress. Like never before, our citizens have doubts about their government’s capacities to make the right decisions. Therefore, we need to take the necessary measures to recover that confidence, said OECD Secretary-General.

This working paper offers an evaluation of the performance of the inland ports of the Slovak Republic within the framework of the Danube Axis, an analysis of the impact of the ports on their territory and an assessment of policies in this field. It examines port performance over the last decades and identifies the principal factors that have contributed to it.

This Forum took stock of the key challenges and trends in regulating money in politics; identify emerging risks and opportunities; shape a common understanding of the policy options ahead and trade-offs in enhancing fairness, integrity and transparency in decision making including in the realm of political finance; and mobilise partners to work together and promote synergies in the future agenda.

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.

Using panel data for OECD countries, this study investigates the extent to which changes in government spending on education, health and other areas influence long-term growth.

The OECD has launched a public consultation on its draft principles on the governance of critical risks.

Recommendation of the OECD Council on Effective Public Investment Across Levels of Government

Spain’s planned public sector reforms should help make the country’s institutions stronger and more effective, and proposals to increase transparency and root out corruption will do much to restore public trust, according to a new OECD report.

Finnish municipalities enjoy ample fiscal autonomy and provide or arrange the provision of a large share of public services. In recent years, their spending and debt has been increasing steadily, especially because of population ageing and increases in the cost of health care and social services.

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).

Webinar presenting OECD’s and UNEP’s Compendium of Best Practices in Green Public Procurement

The OECD Conference on Innovating the Public Sector: From Ideas to Impact on 12-13 November 2014 will bring together public sector practitioners, researchers, civil society and businesses to discuss how innovation can help solve today's complex challenges.

MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries are looking for ways to build a strategic public sector capacity to enable full women’s empowerment in society and public life in a sustainable manner. They also seek to ensure conformity with international standards related to issues of gender equality and human rights.

Over the past couple of years the OECD has been working with countries to develop the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, to help them make the most of innovation. The Observatory puts the experiences of innovators from across the world at everyone’s finger tips.

This report documents procurement regulations and practices in Mexico's main electricity company (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) and makes policy recommendations in key procurement areas.

This country review series assesses countries public governance ability in delivering government objectives and determines their preparedness to meet current and future challenges.

This Recommendation provides clear and effective guidance on how to implement a public procurement system that uses state-of-the-art tools and techniques to use public funds sustain-ably and efficiently.

This report is the first joint OECD Public Governance Review between two countries. The Report discusses challenges in whole-of-government strategy steering and the opportunities of digital government.

Meeting focusing on challenges on gender sensitive policies and gender budgeting in MENA region. Delegates will also discuss the progress to date on legal reforms in advancing gender equality and promoting women’s political participation in the region.

Blog article by Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of Transparency International, written for the OECD Integrity Forum 2015.

The OECD Secretary-General, Mr. Angel Gurría, chaired several high-level panels; the OECD actively participated through a series of events, the launch of four new reports and by taking part in a number of workshops and seminars throughout the forum. ‌

This online resource will guide you in implementing the OECD Principles on Effective Public Investment Across Levels of Government. In addition to better familiarising yourself with the 12 Principles, the Toolkit lets you compare indicators and best practices in use in numerous countries, regions and municipalities.

Improving public sector efficiency can help to meet two conflicting objectives: ensuring fiscal consolidation and maintaining room for growth-friendly spending.

Better access to and use of public sector information (PSI), including open government data, are inter-related parts of the shift towards knowledge-based economies, and drivers of innovation, growth and employment. PSI can be used directly to generate products and services, and it contributes in a wide variety of ways to improving efficiency and productivity across the economy (including within the public sector).

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?".

Countries need to do more to identify and reduce conflicts of interest and other breaches of integrity to help win back trust in national governments, which surveys suggest remains below pre-crisis levels, according to a new OECD report.

Report looks at how to create the environment in government where innovation is encouraged and nurtured.

This working paper explores avenues to improve public sector efficiency in Latvia, a catching-up and ageing economy where spending needs are large.

Ministers and cabinet-level officials from OECD countries and beyond will participate to help determine how we shape the policy cycle to deliver inclusive outcomes.

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.

This Recommendation offers a whole-of-government policy arsenal commonly agreed upon among OECD Members that governments can use to close remaining gender gaps in public life, scale up inclusive approaches to policy making and public service delivery, and monitor continuous progress.

Study outlining how OECD countries are dealing with the challenges of Open Government Data with a special chapter on the policy context of OGD in the United Arab Emirates.

This paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of welfare spending in a sample of OECD countries around 2012, focussing on health care, secondary education and general public services.

Despite having low government spending, Switzerland scores highly in various public policy outcomes, including health, education and transportation. But, as the population grows and ages, efficiency of public spending will have to rise to maintain low tax rates.