Making the grass greener
Despite the ambitious carbon reduction targets set by policy makers worldwide, current investments fall well short of the net-zero emissions scenario. This paper analyses the factors holding back corporate green investment, with a particular focus on...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersScaling-up infrastructure investment to strengthen sustainable development in Brazil
Infrastructure investment has been low in Brazil over the last decades, leaving significant gaps in all infrastructure sectors. To close these gaps, public investment will need to increase and become more effective, while additional private resources...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersIndependent fiscal institutions
The paper reviews the diverse experience of OECD countries in establishing and running independent fiscal institutions, offering insights that could be useful for Latin American countries seeking to set-up and strengthen those institutions in the...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersQuantifying the effect of policies to promote educational performance on macroeconomic productivity
This paper evaluates the link between educational policies and i) student performance and ii) macroeconomic measures of productivity. The analysis has two stages. First, using the 2015 and 2018 PISA databases, it quantifies the relationship between...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersEmployment dynamics across firms during COVID-19
This paper analyses employment dynamics across firms during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of job retention schemes (JRS) in shaping these dynamics. It relies on a novel collection of high-frequency harmonised micro-aggregated statistics,...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersIdentifying and tracking climate change mitigation strategies
This paper identifies different types of climate change mitigation strategies countries adopted over the last two decades and assesses the policy synergies they might generate. The analysis exploits the rich policy repository of the OECD’s Climate...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersDo governments re-prioritise spending?
This study investigates the capacity of governments to reallocate spending across different functions of the government. It mobilises the COFOG dataset for the period 1996 - 2017, which allows comparing public spending mixes at detailed levels in...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersAddressing labour market challenges for sustainable and inclusive growth in Israel
High employment growth has sustained Israel’s high GDP growth in recent decades, but demographic change and labour market duality put future growth at risk. Policy action is required to stimulate employment and raise labour productivity, especially...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersA better performing labour market for inclusive convergence in Croatia
Croatia’s labour market has made important progress over the past decade. Employment rates are rising, reducing the gap with OECD countries, and poverty has fallen. While important weaknesses remain, many dimensions of equity and working conditions...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersImproving the business environment to accelerate convergence in Croatia
Raising productivity growth is central to closing the gap with the incomes and well-being enjoyed in many OECD countries. Croatia has internationally competitive firms, and a dynamic economy with many young and potentially productive firms. However,...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersLabour market and education reforms are needed to create more and better jobs in Türkiye
The Turkish economy grew strongly over the past two decades and created many jobs. However, given its young and growing workforce, Türkiye needs to ramp up efforts to achieve high-quality formal job creation. A sizeable share of the workforce, mostly...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersDoombot: a machine learning algorithm for predicting downturns in OECD countries
This paper describes an algorithm, “DoomBot”, which selects parsimonious models to predict downturns over different quarterly horizons covering the ensuing two years for 20 OECD countries. The models are country- and horizon-specific and are...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersThe law of the strongest? Exploring the drivers of firm performance during the COVID-19 crisis
Using data on more than 150.000 non-financial companies operating in both manufacturing and services sectors around the world, we analyse the drivers of firm performance throughout the whole COVID cycle (until end 2021). We highlight three key...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersClimate policies and Sweden’s green industrial revolution
Sweden is among OECD best performers in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, much thanks to a comprehensive policy framework and relatively efficient policies. There is nonetheless room to further improve consistency of targets and policies, notably...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersPromouvoir l'égalité des genres pour renforcer la croissance économique et la résilience
Les taux d'emploi et les salaires des femmes restent inférieurs à ceux des hommes dans les pays de l'OCDE, avec des écarts moyens d'emploi et de salaire désormais autour de 15% et 12% respectivement. Les écarts se sont réduits à un rythme...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersAccelerating the EU’s green transition
The EU’s ambitious Green Deal aims at achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The EU is starting from a relatively good position. It has successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions over the past decade. But further efforts are needed to reach the net...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersPromoting gender equality to strengthen economic growth and resilience
Women’s employment rates and wages are still lagging those of men across OECD countries, with average employment and wage gaps now around 15% and 12% respectively. Gaps narrowed at a relatively modest pace over the past decade, calling for further...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersEconomic effects of the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ climate mitigation policies: A computable general equilibrium analysis
This study analyses the economic effects of the EU's ‘Fit for 55’ climate mitigation policies using the OECD ENV-Linkage model, a dynamic, global Computable General Equilibrium model. The model projects macroeconomic, sectoral, energy and emission...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersThe cost of job loss in carbon-intensive sectors: Evidence from Germany
The green transformation of the economy is expected to lead to a sharp reduction in employment in carbon-intensive industries. For designing policies to support displaced workers, it is crucial to better understand the cost of job loss, whether there...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersEnvironmental policy stringency and CO2 emissions
This paper provides empirical evidence on the short and long-term sectoral effect of environmental policy stringency on CO2 emissions, exploiting longitudinal data covering 30 OECD countries and more than 50 sectors. The analysis relies on the OECD...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersImmigration in Iceland
Immigration has increased rapidly since the late 1990s, driven largely by strong economic growth and high standards of living. By mid-2023, foreign citizens made up around 18% of the population. This has brought important economic benefits to...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersLifting labour supply to tackle tightness in the Netherlands
The Dutch labour market is strong but very tight. The unprecedently fast recovery from the pandemic, fast-changing skill demand, low hours worked, and the segmentation of the labour market contribute to labour shortages, weighing on growth potential...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersUnleashing strong, digital and green growth in Viet Nam
Viet Nam has been quick to recover from the downturns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it faces long-term economic challenges. Boosting labour productivity will be crucial to sustained high economic growth. Attracting further foreign investment...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersInstitutional shareholding, common ownership and productivity
The increase in institutional ownership, the shift towards passive portfolio management and the rise of common ownership have transformed OECD countries financial markets in the last decades. The paper investigates the potential consequences of these...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersHow does corporate taxation affect business investment?
Business investment in OECD countries has remained weak, in particular since the 2008 global financial crisis. At the same time, the cost of capital has significantly and steadily decreased over the last thirty years, reflecting a fall in both...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersReaching net zero while safeguarding competitiveness and social cohesion in Germany
Germany intends to reach climate neutrality in 2045, tripling the speed of emission reductions that was achieved between 1990 and 2019. Soaring energy prices and the need to replace Russian energy imports have amplified the urgency to act. Various...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersDigitalisation and the labour market: Worker-level evidence from Slovenia
This paper provides evidence on the effects of digitalisation on the labour market in Slovenia using a unique dataset of Slovenian workers and firms for the years 2016 to 2020. Results show that at the firm level, digitalisation – measured in terms...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersCOVID-19 and productivity-enhancing digitalisation: Firm-level evidence from Slovenia
This paper provides evidence on the impact of digitalisation on productivity in Slovenia during the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic affected overall labour productivity negatively. Nonetheless, results show that firms that were more ICT-intensive...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersImproving the business regulatory environment in Poland
A competition-friendly business regulatory environment is essential for the well-functioning of markets. It ensures that important policy goals are addressed, and market failures tackled. However, regulation can also create barriers to the entry and...
OECD > Economics Department Working PapersDoing green things: skills, reallocation, and the green transition
The need to rapidly decarbonise economies raises questions about whether countries’ workforces possess the requisite skills to achieve the net zero transition as well as the capacity to redeploy workers from “brown” to “green” jobs. This paper...
OECD > Economics Department Working Papers