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19-Jul-2007
The world of work has seen enormous change over the past couple of decades. Manufacturing jobs account for an ever smaller percentage of the workforce in most developed economies. Indeed, salaries in manufacturing have generally fallen behind those of other sectors. Today, “knowledge workers” – a category covering everything from call-centre workers to architects, teachers and financial employees – are increasingly pivotal to economic success in developed countries.
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18-Jul-2007
Globalisation raises many important challenges and is high on the policy agenda in many OECD countries. Globalisation itself is not new – the process of international economic integration has been underway for decades – but the pace and scale of today’s globalisation is unprecedented.
One reason for the speeding-up of the whole globalisation process is the rapid emergence of “global value chains”.
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13-Jul-2007
Austria occupies a place among the top performing economies. Eastern enlargement of the European Union has provided a boost for the economy, and Austria is among the largest investors in neighbouring EU member countries as well as in South-Eastern Europe. Living standards and overall employment rates are high while the risk-of-poverty rate is low. The very open Austrian economy is also benefiting well from the current European recovery. However, some structural indicators signal concerns.
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04-Jun-2007
Governments have long been engaged in providing goods or services to their citizens that could, in some form, be provided by the private sector. The trend over the past few decades, however, has been to transfer these functions, and the state-owned assets used to provide them, to private hands. The most common method, and the one usually preferred, is privatisation, or outright sale or transfer of ownership of the relevant assets to one or more private parties. A second, however, is concessions.
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25-May-2007
Nations and regions are struggling to remain competitive and adapt in the context of globalisation. The regional specialisations built up over decades are transforming rapidly. Many regions that were historically production centres are losing out to lower-cost locations and are reorienting their activities to higher value-added non-manufacturing industries or R&D-intensive manufacturing niches.
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30-Mar-2007
Regulatory reform contributes to promoting sustained economic growth, complementing sound macro-economic policies. While Sweden has made significant progress on regulatory reform since the early 1990s and enjoyed major productivity gains as a result, it should instil more competition in the public sector, cut red tape and liberalise labour markets if it is to meet the challenge of an ageing population and maintain its high standards of social welfare.
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29-Jun-2007
1. OECD Forum 2007 Innovation, Growth and Equity
2. New OECD Recommendation sets higher environmental standards in order to qualify for export credits backing
3. OECD Adopts OECD Principles for Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure
4. Calendar of recent or upcoming OECD events with Civil Society
5. OECD Publications
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27-Jun-2007
While growth has proceeded in France since the 2001-03 slowdown much as
in the euro area as a whole, it has been held back by weak competitiveness.
Employment has been rising and the budget deficit coming down, but
persistent high unemployment and low participation reflect underlying
structural problems that need to be further addressed. Stronger employment
growth would be beneficial for fighting poverty and social exclusion, as well as for boosting public finances.
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20-Jun-2007
Korea remains one of the fastest growing economies in the OECD area. Strength in high-technology sectors and strong demand from China have supported export growth over the past four years despite sluggish domestic demand. This growth pattern has exacerbated imbalances between the manufacturing and service sectors and between large and small firms, thus increasing income inequality and aggravating structural weaknesses.
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19-Jun-2007
Open trade and investment policies can be a powerful force for raising living standards. Economists have long emphasised this point and it is confirmed by much research. For example, the OECD’s Growth Study estimated that a 10 percentage point increase in trade openness translates over time into an increase of around 4% in per capita income in the OECD area.
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This Annual Report highlights some of the OECD's achievements in 2008 and describes how it is helping its member countries respond to new challenges ahead.
2008 Edition
An easy-to-read series to help understand the economic and social issues high on everyone's agenda, from economic growth to health, pensions, trade and development.
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