The way businesses operate is rapidly changing. A strong online presence and tailored services are crucially important to their global development. Together with the emergence of the on-demand economy the traditional employment relationship is therefore being replaced by a diversity of more detached, agile and adaptable forms of employment.

Korea’s economy has progressed rapidly over the past 40 years, catching up with the level of well-being in most OECD countries. It now needs to continue and speed up the reforms of its labour market in order to strengthen its social safety net, create better quality jobs and boost inclusive growth, according to a new OECD report.

Chile’s economy is strengthening and wage growth picking up. The country should now address the challenge of improving people’s skills, particularly among women and low-skilled workers, in order to boost productivity, innovation and inclusive growth, according to a new OECD report.

Indonesia has improved its macro-economic and structural policies over the last 15 years. Its economy, with strong and stable growth rates of 5–6.6%, is catching up with other countries in the region and allowing Indonesia to focus on its development agenda.

This report assesses progress in the implementation of regulatory policy within the MENA region and highlights good practices from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia.

The OECD’s Annual Meeting at Ministerial Level reinforced member governments’ support across a broad range of key OECD work.

Governments should do more to improve the design and delivery of new laws, as even small efforts to fix regulatory shortcomings can have a tangible positive impact on economic activity and well-being, according to a new OECD report.

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.

Comments are to be submitted electronically to bppexpost@oecd.org by 17 July 2019.

Comments are to be submitted electronically to bppria@oecd.org by 17 July 2019.

The United Kingdom has significantly boosted its foreign bribery enforcement efforts but needs to be more transparent when resolving cases.

Due to serious concerns about the extremely low level of enforcement of Japan’s offence of bribing foreign public officials – just three prosecutions since 1999 – the OECD Working Group on Bribery recommended in December 2013 that Japan establish an Action Plan to organise police and prosecution resources to be able to proactively detect, investigate and prosecute cases of foreign bribery by Japanese companies.

Mexico needs to give more priority to foreign bribery enforcement, having yet to prosecute a case involving the bribery of foreign public officials 19 years after ratifying the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

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.

As the spectre of another economic downturn looms large in many countries and is already a reality in others, new data from the 2012 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators – released today – provides powerful insights into the link between education, economic progress and social mobility around the world.

The global crisis led to a smaller increase in the unemployment rate than in most other OECD countries as employment has been sustained through intensive use of reduced working time schemes.

There are few OECD countries where vocational education and training (VET) is held in such high regard or takes so many forms as in Austria. Some 60 percent of young Austrians aged between 25 and 34 have completed a VET course below tertiary level (vocational school or technical college).

Korea has made significant progress towards decentralising the management of employment and training programmes, but can still do more to create stronger links with employers at the local level, according to a new OECD report.

The Indonesian economy has enjoyed strong and stable growth over the past decade and a half, leading to impressive reductions in poverty and major improvements in living standards. But challenges remain to continue to converge towards higher-income countries, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Indonesia.

Structural reforms and income distribution

Analysing the efficiency of education systems and organisations is at the forefront of today’s policy and academic debate.

The OECD’s Annual Meeting at Ministerial Level reinforced member governments’ support across a broad range of key OECD work.

Educational opportunities have a very important impact on a person’s life. Employment, earnings, well-being, health and trust are all strongly related to education and skills. A lack of high-quality educational opportunities is the most important way in which poverty, social inequality and exclusion are transmitted from one generation to another.

Poor skills severely reduce a person’s chance of a better-paying and more-rewarding job, and have a major impact on how the benefits of economic growth are shared within societies. In countries where large shares of adults have poor skills, it is difficult to introduce productivity-enhancing technologies and new ways of working, which stalls improvements in living standards, according to a new OECD report.

26 Ministers and State Secretaries representing 15 countries and the European Commission gathered in Bergen, Norway, for the first Skills Summit on 29-30 June 2016. The Summit, hosted by Norway, was opened by Prime Minister Erna Solberg and the OECD’s Secretary General, Angel Gurría.

Although Lithuania’s growth has been impressive, inequality is high, the risk of poverty is one of the highest of European countries, and life expectancy is comparatively low and strongly dependent on socio-economic background.

In 2015 the Lithuanian government launched an ambitious Social Model reform agenda aimed at balancing flexibility of the labour market and security provided through the system of social protection.

Malaysia has followed a comparatively equitable development path, largely eliminating absolute poverty and greatly reduced ethnic inequality.

This public session will discuss the financial incentives to invest in education, with a particular focus on how tax systems impact skills development in OECD countries. The webinar will present some of the key findings from the OECD’s new report, Taxation and Skills and their implications for policy makers.

This public session discussed the financial incentives to invest in education, with a particular focus on how tax systems impact skills development in OECD countries. The webinar presented some of the key findings from the OECD’s new report, Taxation and Skills and their implications for policy makers.

The Dutch education system and the skills of the Dutch population are very strong overall. But there are concerns that too many people in the Netherlands are not developing the “right” skills to succeed or taking sufficient responsibility for maintaining and further developing their skills in adulthood.

In August 2015, a newspaper published a story about Sam Cookney’s commute to work. Pretty boring, one would think, as long commutes are nothing new for most of us. However, Sam’s story is not so common. He works in London and commutes, several times per month, from Barcelona!

Costa Rica is recognised across Latin America as a leader in education. The country was among the first in the region to enrol all children in primary school and combat adult illiteracy.

Globally, enrolment in secondary education has expanded dramatically over the past decades. This expansion is also reflected in PISA data, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. Between 2003 and 2015, Indonesia added more than 1.1 million students, Turkey and Brazil more than 400 000 students, and Mexico more than 300 000 students, to the total population of 15-year-olds eligible to participate in PISA.

The finding could explain several mysteries, including why children are unlikely to die from COVID-19.

The Institute for Competitiveness India, the National Skill Development Corporation India and the OECD LEED Programme in collaboration with the ILO are joining forces to discuss local skills strategies for job-rich and inclusive growth in India.

Vibrant and dynamic urban centers are among the main drivers of national growth and employment, but OECD’s new report Promoting Growth in All Regions highlights that even less wealthy regions have the potential to bolster stronger, greener, and more inclusive economies.

Many areas like Manisa suffer from a local lack of sophisticated demand in terms of expressed SME requirements. This leaves considerable scope for demand and supply side initiatives set within KOSGEB’s framework that will assist in shaping intervention and promoting a coherent approach to SME development.

Ireland’s economy is now showing encouraging signs of recovery from the financial crisis, but more must be done to reinvigorate growth and create the jobs that will get the country back to full health, according to the OECD.

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 facts are simple: the bulk of people live in cities and an overwhelming percentage of economic activity originates in cities. So we must find ways to empower cities to set positive trends and lead the way toward stronger, more resilient and inclusive growth.

A series of short reports aimed at policy makers examine issues and policies instruments related to inclusive entrepreneurs policy. The key message of these briefs is that there is under-exploited potential among entrepreneurs from non-mainstream groups and that there are many examples of specially tailored policies that are successful in increasing participation that can serve as models for others.

Statistics Working Paper N. 58 - 2014/3 - This paper presents a set of indicators of income inequality and poverty across and within regions for 28 OECD countries. These indicators were produced through a new household-level data collection based on internationally harmonized income definitions undertaken as part of the OECD project on “Measuring regional and local well-being for policymaking”.

Korea has made significant progress towards decentralising the management of employment and training programmes, but can still do more to create stronger links with employers at the local level, according to a new OECD report.

With Africa’s population set to double by 2050, modernising local economies will be vital to make the continent more competitive and to increase people’s living standards, according to the African Economic Outlook 2015, released at the African Development Bank Group’s 50th Annual Meetings.

Mayors from cities across the United States, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America gathered in New York to launch a global campaign to address rising inequalities and foster inclusive growth in their cities, in their countries and worldwide.

This document presents draft principles for leveraging local benefits from global sporting events. These draft principles have been prepared as part of a project on optimising the local benefits from hosting the EURO 2016. They build upon previous work on Local Development Benefits from Staging Global Events.

A three-year programme of co-operation between the European Commission and LEED on self-employment and entrepreneurship in Europe.

The OECD, the City of Paris and the Ford Foundation will host its second meeting in the fight against rising inequality in cities. The event will include sessions open to the public, drawing Mayors, business leaders, experts and policy makers, in addition to thematic workshops where our Champion Mayor will take to the stage to discuss subjects from affordable housing to integrating migrants and refugees.

Mayors and local leaders from around the world launched today a plan of action to help tackle inequality, boost job creation and harness economic development.