OECD.org

Students who feel part of a school community and enjoy good relations with their parents and teachers are more likely to perform better academically, according to the first OECD PISA assessment of students’ well-being. The survey recommends that both parents and teachers need to be involved in school planning and responses to bullying.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría discusses the OECD Economic Survey of Japan with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo, 13 April 2017. Japan’s economy has gained momentum, with “Abenomics” playing a key role, but the new survey warns that more needs to be done to underpin inclusive growth and well-being amid debt and demographic pressures.

Development aid reached a new peak of USD 142.6 billion in 2016, a real increase of 8.9% from 2015. A rise in aid spent on refugees in donor countries helped boost the total, according to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Bilateral aid to the least-developed countries fell by 3.9% from 2015, and aid to Africa fell 0.5%.

Taxes on labour income for the average worker across the OECD continued to decrease for the third consecutive year during 2016, dropping to 36% of labour costs, according to a new OECD report. Taxing Wages 2017 also finds that taxes on families with children are generally lower than taxes on single earners.

Nearly one in five mobile phones shipped internationally is fake, as a growing trade in counterfeit IT and communications goods weighs on consumers, manufacturers and public finances. An OECD report, Trade in Counterfeit Goods, finds that batteries, chargers, memory cards, video game consoles and music players are also being counterfeited.