Middle Eastern and North African countries should press ahead with further economic and structural reforms to boost flagging trade and investment, restore public trust and create jobs for the region’s young population, the OECD told ministers from the region today.
Population ageing is setting in earlier in Germany than in most other OECD economies and will be marked.
Non-residential investment has fallen over the past 20 years as a share of GDP and is now lower than in several other high-income OECD countries.
World trade growth was rapid in the two decades prior to the global financial crisis but has halved subsequently.
The post-crisis recovery in entrepreneurial activity remains mixed across countries, but new data released today by the OECD provides tentative signs of a turning point, with trends in enterprise creation rates pointing upwards in most economies.
Given the secular decline in productivity growth and the persistent weakness of the economic recovery in many advanced economies, increased attention is being paid to the potential role of structural reforms for restoring economic growth.
Across the OECD, GDP per capita is converging. In contrast, regional disparities – or differences in GDP per capita across jurisdictions – are rising, mainly as a result of widening productivity differences. Fiscal decentralisation could help reduce them again. According to new OECD research, assigning more ownsource revenue to sub-national governments dampens regional GDP disparities and underpins regional convergence.
Yesterday’s OECD Interim Economic Outlook warns that trade growth is slowing, contributing to another slowing of global GDP growth in 2016 and with few signs of improvement for 2017.
Weak trade growth and financial distortions are exacerbating slow global economic growth, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.
With weak domestic demand and a relatively low export share in the economy there is much potential to raise exports. Despite a recent pick-up Greek export performance deteriorated in the last decade particularly in the service sector and by much more than in the Euro area on average
Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.
Canada’s productivity performance has lagged that of many other OECD countries, despite some improvement in recent years.
In the past two decades, the income level in Lithuania has steadily risen toward that of OECD countries. Between 1995 and 2013, GDP per capita rose from one third to two thirds of the OECD average. Productivity catch-up was critical to this process, aided by enhanced integration into the global economy which enabled the adoption of more advanced production technologies from abroad.
Macro-simulations benchmarking employment in Finland to the Nordic average show that closing the large gaps in labour participation vis-à-vis the other Nordics across genders and age groups would boost employment significantly.
Policies to speed up tertiary graduation, improve work incentives and activation of the unemployed and postpone labour market exit are necessary to bring the employment rate closer to the level of other Nordics
Reviving productivity requires improving framework conditions further so labour and capital can more easily move to the most dynamic sectors and firms, making the tax system more growth-friendly, and supporting innovation, basic research and young firms’ financing.
Boosting national productivity to sustain the convergence process towards OECD countries living standards will hinge on creating the right conditions for domestic firms to thrive and become more innovative and productive, while maintaining the long-standing commitment to open international markets and investment.
To support the recovery, structural reforms that yield short-run as well as long-run gains should be prioritised.
Small business dynamism is a feature of an SME sector that contributes to overall productivity growth, not an end in itself.
This paper analyses the effects of the Greek crisis on inequality and poverty in 2009-2014 using the micro-simulation model EUROMOD.
This paper analyses the effects of product market reforms in the short and medium term across 10 regulated industries and 18 advanced economies for the period 1998-2013 using internationally comparable firm-level data based on Orbis.
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.
This paper develops an analytical framework to identify the policies relevant for firm exit and the channels through which they shape aggregate productivity growth.
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.
GDP per capita in Lithuania rose from one third to two thirds of the OECD average level between 1995 and 2014, despite internal and external crises. Productivity catch-up was critical to this process, although the level of labour productivity also remains around one-third below the OECD average.
Governments should use tax policy to drive forward economic agendas that seek to boost growth while sharing the benefits more evenly within society, according to a new OECD report.
Costa Rica’s economic, social and environmental achievements are impressive. It has succeeded in combining rising living standards, virtually universal health care, pension and primary education systems with sustainable use of natural resources.
Turkey’s economy has proven remarkably resilient in the face of a challenging global economic context. However, further action can be taken to raise productivity and advance the shift to a more balanced, sustainable and stronger growth path that will boost living standards for the entire population, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Turkey.
Productivity catch-up along with deeper integration into the global economy played a central role in the convergence of the Czech incomes toward OECD countries before the 2008 financial crisis.
The nexus of slowing productivity growth and rising inequality is capturing the attention of policymakers and researchers. The productivity slowdown, its causes, and the link with inclusiveness will be discussed on 7-8 July in Lisbon at the first Annual Conference of the new Global Forum on Productivity, which was created by the OECD in collaboration with a number of Member and non-Member countries.
This paper analyses the effects of product market reforms in the short and medium term across 10 regulated industries and 18 advanced economies for the period 1998-2013 using internationally comparable firm-level data based on Orbis.
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.
This paper develops an analytical framework to identify the policies relevant for firm exit and the channels through which they shape aggregate productivity growth.
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.
GDP per capita in Lithuania rose from one third to two thirds of the OECD average level between 1995 and 2014, despite internal and external crises. Productivity catch-up was critical to this process, although the level of labour productivity also remains around one-third below the OECD average.
Strong and adequate skills are essential to support workers’ productivity and to ensure robust employment outcomes. Developing workers’ skills would also increase their personal satisfaction and wages, contributing in making growth more inclusive. The Netherlands performs well in terms of competences of a large part of the population. Moreover, the country has been successful in adjusting the required level of skills over time.
Investment has rebounded during the recent economic revival, but from a low level. The investment slump during the crisis was mostly caused by a fall in residential investment. However, business investment has been trending downwards since 1990, holding back capital stock accumulation and productivity.
In many OECD countries, the labour market has yet to recover the lost ground suffered in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In some of them, unemployment has been persistently high, resulting in a very high incidence of long-term unemployment.
Norway’s predominately public and tuition-free tertiary education system has encouraged participation and generated high attainment rates. However, few Norwegian universities rank high in international comparisons on the basis of research related and other indicators.
The German economy has steadily recovered from the 2008 global crisis. Thanks to past reforms, the labour market has proved strong and export performance has been impressive.
Membership of the European Union contributes to the economic prosperity of the United Kingdom.
A dynamic small business sector can heighten competition and underpin productivity growth, as discussed in the 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Canada and Carey et al. (2016, forthcoming).
Improving opportunities for women in the United States
The US economy is making one of the strongest comebacks in the OECD, but there are risks on the horizon, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of the United States.
The Greek economy is turning around lately, but it remains in a deep depression. GDP has fallen by more than a quarter between 2007 and 2015, unemployment remains extremely high at 25 percent and anchored poverty – which measures poverty relative to its pre-crisis income level – has nearly tripled between 2007 and 2014, reaching a third of the population.
The Canadian economy is adjusting to the fall in commodity prices, but additional policies are needed to boost productivity, reduce financial stability risks and make future growth stronger, greener and more inclusive, according to a new OECD report.
Concerns around weak productivity growth are everywhere these days. As the latest OECD Economic Outlook notes, since the mid-2000s, productivity growth has been markedly lower than at any other time since the 1950s.
The European economy is gradually recovering but further policy action will be required to address unresolved legacies of the global economic crisis that are weighing on growth and major new concerns that have emerged, according to two new OECD reports.
The ECB, the Bank of Japan and five other central banks in Europe have applied negative interest rates on commercial banks’ reserves. This additional monetary policy stimulus, following large asset purchases by central banks in some of these areas, should boost the economy and thus raise inflation closer to target.
The Czech Republic needs new reforms to boost productivity, improve economic growth and accelerate convergence toward the levels of income and well-being seen in the most advanced European countries, according to a new OECD report.