Zuzana Smidova
OECD Economic Surveys: Estonia 2024
Abstract
The shrinking of the working-age population will slow potential growth in the years ahead. Productivity trends since the pandemic are difficult to assess given the volatility of the economy, but productivity growth had already decelerated before the pandemic and the labour market has been marked by a large skills mismatch. Adoption of digital technologies in traditional sectors of the economy lags behind, and managerial skills are average. Grants for digital diagnostics, as well as access to programmes for upskilling, should be extended. R&D investments have been rising. Barriers to competition in professional services, such as notaries and lawyers, could be lowered further.
Productivity growth had decelerated in Estonia before the pandemic and it is unclear what path it will return to as the economy recovers (Figure 3.1). With the population ageing, steady productivity convergence will be key to raising living standards. Estonia is a highly open, small economy and has prospered through participation in regional value chains, particularly in machinery and equipment, wood products and fast-growing exports of ICT services. Nevertheless, despite the innovative ICT sector and being a frontrunner for e-government, traditional sectors lag behind in productivity and the use of digital technologies. Raising performance of firms outside the ICT sector is needed through improvements in business conditions, helping SMEs to adopt digital technologies and upgrading managerial and digital skills.
GVA per hour worked, constant prices
Source: OECD Productivity database.
Estonia made great progress in terms of productivity convergence over past decades, but productivity growth decelerated in the years running up to the pandemic (Figure 3.1). Many OECD countries experienced a productivity slowdown since the mid-2000s, reflecting both weaker multifactor productivity (MFP) developments and slower capital accumulation (Unsal et al, 2024, forthcoming). The Estonian economy has converged to the levels observed in the upper half of OECD countries in terms of capital intensity, although substantial past investment in real estate played a role. However, it lags behind in terms of labour productivity due to weak multifactor productivity with a gap of around 30% to the upper half of OECD countries (Figure 3.2). With the employment rate on an increasing trend and already above the OECD average, productivity growth is key to raising living standards as the population ages.
Productivity trends since the pandemic are difficult to assess given the volatility of the economy over this period and large shocks to different sectors, notably wood processing and manufacturing, but the current data suggest a fall in the level of labour productivity (Figure 3.1). Although this likely largely reflects cyclical factors with a fall in output and resilient employment, it underlines the uncertainty about future productivity prospects.
Source: OECD, Economic Outlook Database.
Estonia has prospered through its connections to regional value chains, particularly in machinery and equipment manufacturing (including foreign owned businesses), through domestic wood products and a dynamic ICT sector that has spurred productivity improvements. Empirical research has shown that exporting firms tend to be more productive, and this is also true in Estonia (Benkovski et al, 2018). Finland, Latvia and Sweden have been traditionally the main exporting markets, while Germany and the United States are also among the top destinations for exports in terms of domestic value added. Goods account for around two-thirds of exports, with a large share of machinery, transport equipment, plastics, minerals and chemicals and further significant share in wood and related products (Figure 3.3). In services, exports are dominated by business services (28%), transport (26%) and telecommunications (21%) (Eesti Pank, 2023a). Exports have grown by an annual average of 5.5% over past five years driven by growth in services and outpacing GDP growth.
More recently, the fallout of trade with Russia and Belarus and weak demand for Estonian products in the Nordic countries has cast some uncertainty about the future performance of Estonian exports. lthough trade with Russia and Belarus represented only 10% of imports and 4% of exports in 2022, Russian imports were used in 40% of Estonian exports, notably in transport, wood, chemicals, manufacturing and fuel re-exports, leading to considerable disruptions in exporting industries since the start of the war (Eesti Pank, 2022a). The slowdown in Nordic export markets for construction materials has added further strain as weakening of their housing markets spilled over to Estonian manufacturing exports, in particular to construction services, wood and furniture. The future performance of this sector will depend to a large extent on the ability to find new suppliers and markets, while maintaining the cost competitiveness of exports.
Source: OECD.
Estonia relies heavily on foreign inputs and external demand through its integration in global value chains (GVCs) and moving up these value chains would help to boost productivity. The foreign content of Estonia’s exports and the share of domestic value added driven by foreign demand are higher than in neighbouring countries and the OECD average (Figure 3.4). Dependency on foreign markets, measured by the ratio of domestic output used in foreign production to domestic output, is the third highest in the OECD, following Luxembourg and Ireland, although the majority of this exposure relates to OECD countries (Schwellnus et al, 2023). The ICT and electrical equipment and machinery sectors are the most dependent on foreign demand and have a high rate of foreign ownership (OECD, 2023a).
Participation in GVCs has been shown to increase productivity (Masso and Vahter, 2022). Estonian firm-level data confirm that GVC participation at the industry level significantly boosted productivity at both industry- and firm-level: while the impact differed across firms, frontier firms and large firms in terms of sales benefited more from participation in upstream GVCs (Banh et al., 2020). Nevertheless, there has been a longstanding concern that Estonia has been too reliant on foreign inputs of more complex products and that it needs to move to higher value-added activities in value chains (OECD, 2019). The largest shares of exports are of high and low productivity goods, but much of the growth of good exports during 2016-2021 came from moderate complexity products (Hausman et al, 2021).
Source: OECD TIVA database.
A key challenge is improving productivity of firms outside the digital sector, including by increasing the uptake of digital technologies to allow them to move up the value-chain (OECD, 2019). While Estonia is home to a number of successful ICT start-ups (e.g., Skype, Bolt and TransferWise), firms in other part of the economy fare less well in terms of productivity and digital take up and these differences have been increasing over time (Mosiashvili and Pareliussen, 2020) (Figure 3.5). Firm-level wage premia appear to be particularly high between firms within a given sector, which may reflect these large differences in firm-level productivity (Criscuolo et al, 2021). The performance of laggard firms is partly the result of weaker digitalisation across parts of the economy, including in the adoption of digital tools and advanced management techniques (OECD, 2019).
Estonia has a solid and secure digital infrastructure but take-up of high-speed connections by companies has been lagging pointing to lack of investment in digital technologies and organisational capital needed to employ them (OECD, 2019) (Figure 3.7). Intense competition for labour from the ICT sector itself may also make it harder for other industries to bring in these skills. It may also reflect a combination of a small home market in the geographic periphery of the EU and traditional reliance on low labour costs (OECD, 2019). Recent research suggests that firm-to-firm transactions are an important channel for diffusion of good practices between Estonian firms (Box 3.1).
Note: Based on an unbalanced panel of a full population of Estonian firms, using unweighted averages. “Frontier firms” are those whose log labour productivity is among top 5% of companies with highest productivity levels in 2-digit industry and year. “Non-frontier” firms capture averages for the log productivity distribution in each industry and year, excluding the top 5%. “High” and “low” digital intensities classifications follow Calvino et al (2018).
Source: Mosiaschvili and Pareliussen (2020)
Estonia is one of a small but growing number of countries that make high-quality firm-level data on business-to-business transactions made available to researchers. This covers all value-added tax (VAT) transactions between businesses worth more than 1 000 euros each month, covering around 100 000 firms (around 85% of the total number of firms that employ 99% of the total number of workers).
Such data provide rich insights into the behaviour of firms and firm-level networks that can be relevant to policy design (Criscuolo et al., 2023). Most firms depend on a small number of suppliers and customers. However, some firms have a large number of connections to other businesses and play a central role in the Estonian production network, as well as being more likely to be involved in international trade. Larger, older and better performing firms in terms of productivity, digitalisation and CO2 emissions tend to have more connections to customers and suppliers and play a more central role in the networks (Figure 3.6)
An algorithm-based approach identifies 13 industrial clusters, “communities”, of firms that are closely linked covering 95% of firms. The largest one consists mostly of firms operating in the ICT sector and located near the capital city, while the second largest community gathers together both construction firms and wood manufacturing firms. A large majority of VAT transactions (75%) happen within these communities, that correspond to the main domestic value chains of the Estonian economy.
Source: Criscuolo et al. (2023), A firm-level portrait of the Estonian production network, OECD STI Working Paper, forthcoming.
Diffusion between customers and suppliers along supply chains within communities can help to raise good practices and know-how. New OECD research shows that, following the 2018-19 emissions price increases in the EU ETS, the energy-efficiency of firms not directly involved in the EU ETS but buying from or selling to EU ETS participants increased by 5% on average, compared to firms operating in similar sectors but not connected to ETS participants. In a similar way, firms which traded with partners that were more digital-intensive increased their own technology adoption by 3 percentage points (or 10%) following the pandemic compared to other firms (Criscuolo et al., 2023, forthcoming).
Estonia’s transaction data suggest the existence of important green and digital technology spillovers rippling through the production network. The design of business support policies such as those supporting technology adoption or the green transition should take into account relationships between firms and between sectors, for instance by adopting a community or an ecosystem approach.
Source: Criscuolo et al. (2023), A firm-level portrait of the Estonian production network, OECD STI Working Paper, forthcoming
Strengthening productivity requires measures to enhance performance of firms across the economy. A broad range of policies can impact productivity growth with their effectiveness depending on the type of firms that they impact (Unsal et al, 2024, forthcoming). Given that the more productive firms in Estonia are already well integrated into global trade, policy attention should be on the rest of the economy. This section focusses on strengthening digitalisation, skills and the business environment, as well as reducing the risk of distortions caused by corruption.
Boosting productivity through further digitalisation and R&D
Advancing the use of digital tools could accelerate productivity growth across the business sector (Figure 3.7). Illustrative estimates show that wider use of high-speed broadband and upgrading of technical and managerial skills could increase productivity by around 7% in 3 years (Sorbe et al, 2019). At the firm level, productivity premiums can also be important, ranging from 0.15 to 5% (Mosiashvili and Pareliussen, 2020).
All businesses, 2023 or latest available
Note: Panel D refers to 2021, the rest of the panels to 2023.
Source: ICT Access and Usage by Business Database, OECD.
In the private sector, investment in intangible assets (research and development, software, training or business processes) accounted for a quarter of total investment, below the EU average of 31% in 2022 (EIB, 2022). This may reflect a lack of awareness of potential gains, a prerequisite for motivating forms to adopt digital technologies (OECD, 2019). Estonian Business and Innovation Agency, a public agency, offers grants to cover the costs of digital diagnostics. These are however administratively challenging and only firms with annual sales above EUR 200 000 are eligible. This program could be simplified and extended to all SMEs, as they often lack the knowledge and skills to choose appropriate ICT tools, which results in low demand for ICT investment. OECD countries use a wide range of policies to help SMEs to digitalise, including grants, awareness raising schemes to training. Training and seminars are also offered by AI&Robotics Estonia, another public agency led by the Tallinn University of technology, funded largely by the European funds and focused on the manufacturing industry.
Broad-based government support for R&D, training programmes and infrastructure can help to increase productivity in the long term and make domestic firms more innovative (Appelt, 2015; Criscuolo et al., 2022; Criscuolo et al., 2022). Spending on R&D activities has been increasing in recent years, from 1.5% in 2015 to 1.8% in 2022, with a broadly stable share of public financing of around a half (Figure 3.8). The authorities are committed to allocating at least 1% of GDP annually to public research, with around a quarter earmarked for the private sector, and expect an additional 2% of GDP to come directly from the private sector.
A new a centre for applied research aims to bring together the business and research sectors, which is welcome. The authorities should ensure active involvement of the private sector in the management of the centre. In 2022, around 400 businesses reported R&D investments and around a half of the businesses were large (i.e. with more than 250 employees). With innovation vouchers in place since 2009, SMEs are already able to work with universities. As recommended in the previous Survey, one way of incentivising more cooperation between business and research sectors is to allow academic staff or researchers to share the returns on patent commercialisation as permitted in other OECD countries.
2022 or latest available
Source: OECD.
Improving skills and matching workers better to jobs
Estonian firms and the economy benefit from a well-educated workforce and a flexible labour market. Past reforms and strong demand in recent years have attracted a growing share of people into the labour market. Employment rates reached 77% in the second quarter of 2023, well above the OECD average of 71%, although structural unemployment (particularly of younger and less well-educated people) has been elevated compared to similar countries. Educational attainment is high, with over 40% of the population having tertiary education. The country scores near the top of international rankings on educational outcomes of 15-year-olds, as well as of the adult population (OECD, 2023). Nevertheless, lack of skilled staff has been a long-standing barrier to further investment across the economy with as many as 80% of firms reporting it as a main obstacle to further investments (EIB, 2019; EIB 2023). There is a persistent skills mismatch, with almost 40% of workers over or underqualified in 2019 (Figure 3.9). Lowering the skills mismatch can improve allocative efficiency and is estimated to raise productivity by at least 4% (McGowan and Andrews, 2015).
Skills formation could be improved over the working life. Around 20% of employees participated in life-long learning in 2022, a share similar to Nordic peers (Figure 3.9). However, the share of businesses providing ICT training to staff is low. In 2021, only 14% of small and 34% of medium-sized firms did so, compared to 34% and 60% respectively in Finland, one of the top performers. Management and organisational skills, keystones in the digital transition, are on par with the OECD median and the use of high-performing work practices, a proxy for the quality of management practices, is at the OECD average (OECD, 2019). As recommended in the previous Economic Survey, the public sector can play a role in disseminating good management practices by adopting them internally and in SOEs, as this can spillover to the private sector over time. Moreover, programmes to improve managerial practices and the organisational performance of firms with a strong element of network building can help to disseminate good practice and mutual learning (OECD, 2019; OECD, 2021a). These could be organised for instance by Estonian Business and Innovation Agency.
The vocational education and training system (VET) underwent extensive reforms in the past. It is well-designed, with strong engagement of employers and a growing number of apprenticeships (OECD, 2019). Around a quarter of secondary students’ study at 35 VET schools and the share of adult students has been growing. Nevertheless, as in many OECD countries, VET is perceived to have low social status and dropout rates remain an issue. The authorities plan to improve its attractiveness by increasing subjects that would allow continuation into higher education as done for instance in Switzerland, which is welcome.
Furthermore, the education system is undergoing significant reforms as compulsory schooling is being extended by one year to 18 years, and teaching in Russian is being phased out, both of which create pressures on providing adequate teaching staff. The language transition has started this year and should be completed by 2030. To ensure adequate teaching staff, wages were increased last year and additional resources have been allocated (Ministry of Education and Research, 2023).
Source: OECD, Labour Force Survey.
Closing the gender gap
The female employment rate, at 75% of working age population, is above the OECD average of 63% and the majority of Estonian women work full time. They are well educated with around half of 25–34-year-old women having attended tertiary education, compared to a third of men of that age. However, there is a large and persistent gender wage gap of around 20%, although this has decreased over time (Figure 2.13). Women tend to assume the bulk of childcare responsibilities within the family, often leaving the labour market for at least a year when a child is born, which contributes to gender pay gaps over a career. Moreover, women continue to do most of the unpaid work in the household. Recent OECD analysis illustrates that fully closing the gender gap in labour force participation and hours worked could boost GDP per capita by an additional 4% by 2050 or add 0.14 percentage points to growth each year (OECD, 2021b).
Around half of the gender wage gap reflects differences in tasks, responsibilities and skills, with the rest accounted for by differences in firm pay practices, the weak bargaining position of female employees and possible pay discrimination (OECD, 2021b). Legislation on equal pay has been in place for several years, but policy initiatives for more transparency on equal pay have had a limited impact as employers continue to show low awareness of the obligations imposed by the Gender Equality Act (Ministry of Finance, 2023c). As of 2027, EU-wide regulation on pay transparency will mandate companies with more than 100 employees to report regularly on the gender pay gap. To this end, the authorities are developing a digital tool, the so-called “pay mirror”, to help employers in analysing the situation in their company. Nevertheless, a significant share of employers is small and will not be affected by this requirement. Moreover, the coverage of collective wage bargaining is very low with most wages negotiated individually.
Estonia has comprehensive early childhood education and care, but there are gaps in availability. Spending on family benefits, at around 3% of GDP, focusses on cash support rather than investing in services (OECD, 2021b). While net childcare costs are well below the OECD average, access for children below the age of three is an issue, particularly in the main cities (OECD, 2023b; ERR, 2023). The share of children aged 0-2 enrolled in early childhood education and care services remains one of the lowest in the OECD as parents tend to be on parental leave. Redirecting some cash supports to increase family services, such as childcare, could encourage parents to return to work earlier and make it easier to do so. A number of policy initiatives have been launched to add flexibility in parental leave, including 30-day parental leave for fathers, a possibility to combine work with parental leave and flexible parental leave sharing between parents, that can help create a better balance in household duties. The proportion of fathers taking shared parental leave increased from 10% in 2013 to 19% in 2023 (Social Insurance Board, 2023). While the parental benefit can already be taken by either parent, the ‘father quota‘, a non-transferable 30 days of leave that is reserved for fathers who take time off to care for children, should be extended. A more even sharing of parental responsibilities and the normalisation of taking parental leave across genders could help to reduce the gender pay gap.
Source: OECD Distribution of earnings database and OECD Family database.
Despite strong employment rates and educational attainment, Estonian women experience one of the largest pay differences vis-à-vis men in Europe and among OECD countries. Average gross hourly earnings of women were lower by 20% in 2021, well above the euro area’s 13.6% difference or the OECD average of 11.6% (Eurostat, 2023; OECD, 2023e), although it is assessed to be smaller using national estimates. It has been decreasing steadily and past increases of the minimum wage have helped to narrow it.
The pay gap is pronounced in sectors such as health and social work that are traditionally female dominated. Nevertheless, a considerable part of the pay gap remains unexplained, and cannot be accounted for by sectoral or occupational segregation (Merikull and Tverdostup, 2021; OECD, 2021b).
Prevailing gender stereotypes lead to a gendered division of unpaid household work. In 2017, 70% of Estonians believed that the most important role of a woman is related to care and housework, which is around 20% higher than the OECD average. Women spent about 1.5 hours more per day on unpaid work than men, and more than half of Estonian women felt overburdened by housework, compared to one-fifth of men (OECD, 2021b).
Maintaining favourable framework conditions
Well-designed product market regulation promotes competition by removing unnecessary barriers to firm entry and facilitates the efficient allocation of resources across firms, as competition allows more efficient firms to enter markets and gain market share at the expense of less efficient ones (OECD, 2022). A favourable business environment has been one of the backbones of economic convergence in Estonia. Overall, the regulatory burden on business is low and has decreased even further in recent years. Barriers to trade are below the OECD average in most areas but can be decreased further to the OECD best performers.
While the restrictiveness of Estonia’s regulation of most professional services covered by the OECD’s product market indicator (PMR) is below the OECD average, the stringency of regulation for notaries and lawyers could be eased further. Notaries are subject to quantitative and territorial restrictions and several fees remain regulated. They face a ban on inter-professional cooperation and on advertising and marketing. Lawyers need to pass a final exam administered by the professional organisation and become its members (OECD, 2022b). Law firms can be owned only by lawyers and cannot be set up with other professionals. Such restrictions can limit the development of potentially innovative business models. Studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between the degree of regulation and productivity in several services including the legal professions (Paterson et al, 2007; Verboven and Yontcheva, forthcoming). Reviewing regulation of architects and civil engineers vis-à-vis the best practice in other OECD countries (e.g., Ireland or New Zealand) could also point to areas for further improvement.
Estonia has reformed its previously strict insolvency regime in 2020 by introducing an early warning mechanism and a pre-insolvency regime, limiting the length of stay on assets in restructuring and allowing creditors to initiate both liquidation and restructuring, as well as enabling courts to specialise and bringing transparency in remuneration of trustees. Enabling efficient restructuring can help to spur reallocation, lowering social costs and facilitating technological diffusion by promoting experimentation (Andrews et al, 2017). To align its procedures with the OECD best performers, the personal cost of insolvency could be decreased further and prevention and streamlining tools enhanced (for example, with special procedures for small and medium sized businesses). With advancing digitalisation, insolvency regimes are likely to have a greater impact on productivity as intangible-intensive industries imply a higher risk of failure. Recent OECD analysis illustrates that productivity gains from lowering barriers to efficient corporate restructuring increase with a sector’s intangible asset intensity (Demmou and Franco; 2021a).
While the cost of corporate financing has increased along with the increase of interest rates (Chapter 1), access to finance was not identified as a structural barrier prior to the pandemic (OECD, 2019). Majority of firms (75%) uses internal funds for investment (EIB, 2023). With a small stock exchange, alternatives forms of financing such as factoring have become an important source of finance for SMEs (EC, 2018). Enterprise and Innovation Foundation (EISA), a public agency tasked with helping to finance businesses, offers credit guarantees, interest rate subsidies and loans to selected industries, that can be used for investment of intangibles as well (OECD, 2019).
Reducing distortions by lowering risks of corruption
Corruption can contribute to an inefficient allocation of resources in the economy by distorting competition, contributing to a misallocation of resources and undermining a good business climate. In Estonia, corruption in the public sector seems low as documented by business and population surveys of experience and perceptions of petty corruption (European Commission, 2023; World Bank, 2021) (Figure 3.11, Panels A and B).
Past episodes of money-laundering of foreign proceeds in the financial sector (e.g., Danske Bank) and concentration of virtual asset providers necessitate robust risk management. A recent assessment by MONEYVAL, a committee of experts on the evaluation of anti-money laundering measures and the financing of terrorism, a permanent body of the Council of Europe. recommended enhancing the understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks across key stakeholders in both public and private sector, including in the financial intelligence unit, prosecutors’ office as well as developing a further understanding of risks in misuse of legal persons in e-residency program and company service providers (Council of Europe, 2022). New OECD data on internal control and risk management in the public sector identify weaknesses in terms of limited assessment of integrity and corruption risks (OECD, 2023c).
Note: Panel A shows subcomponents of the Control of Corruption indicators that is built based on expert perceptions by Varieties of Democracy Project. Panel C summarises the overall assessment on the exchange of information in practice from peer reviews by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. Peer reviews assess member jurisdictions' ability to ensure the transparency of their legal entities and arrangements and to co-operate with other tax administrations in accordance with the internationally agreed standard. The figure shows results from the ongoing second round when available, otherwise first round results are displayed. Panel D shows ratings from the FATF peer reviews of each member to assess levels of implementation of the FATF Recommendations. The ratings reflect the extent to which a country's measures are effective against 11 immediate outcomes. "Investigation and prosecution¹" refers to money laundering. "Investigation and prosecution²" refers to terrorist financing.
Source: Varieties of Democracy, Eurostat, OECD Secretariat’s own calculation based on the materials from the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes; and OECD, Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
References
Andre, Ch. and L. Demmou (2022), Enhancing insolvency frameworks to support economic revival, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1738, OECD Publishing, Paris
Andrews, D. and F. Petroulakis (2017), Breaking the Shackles: Zombie Firms, Weak Banks and Depressed Restructuring in Europe, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1433.
Banh et al (2020), Global value chains and productivity: Micro evidence from Estonia, IMF Working Paper, WP/20/117, Washington.
Council of Europe/MONEYVAL (2022), Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures – Estonia: Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation Report, Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
Criscuolo et al (2023), A firm-level portrait of the Estonian production network, OECD STI Working Paper, forthcoming.
Demmou, L. and G. Franco (2021a), Mind the financing gap: Enhancing the contribution of intangible assets to productivity, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1681, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Eesti Pank (2023), Estonian Competitiveness Report, Eesti Pank, Tallinn.
EIB (2023), European Investment Bank Investment Survey Country Overview 2022: Estonia, European Investment Bank, Luxembourg.
ERR (2023), Thousands of kids on kindergarten waiting list in Tallinn suburbs, Err.ee.
European Commission (2023), Eurobarometer Survey – Citizens’ attitudes towards corruption in the EU in 2023, Eurostat.
Hausman R., et al (2011), The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping paths to prosperity, accessed July 15, 2023.
Masso, M. and J. Vahter (2022), Joining and exiting the value chain of multinationals and the performance of suppliers: Evidence from inter-firm transaction data, University of Tartu, School of Economics and Business Administration, Tartu.
McGowan M., and A. Andrews (2015), Skills Mismatch and Public Policy in OECD Countries, OECD Economics Department Working Paper No.1210, OECD Publishing, Paris
Ministry of Education and Research (2023), Transition to Estonian-language education, Ministry of Education and Research, Tallinn.
Mosiashvili, N. and J. Pareliussen (2020), Digital technology adoption, productivity gains in adopting firms and sectoral spill-overs: Firm-level evidence from Estonia, OECD Economics Department Working Paper No. 1638, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2019), OECD Economic Surveys: Estonia 2019, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2021a), Incentives for SMEs to Invest in Skills: Lessons from European Good Practices, Getting Skills Right, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2021b), The economic case for more gender equality in Estonia, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2022), Assessment of the links between the European National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the OECD Product Market Regulation Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2023a), ICO-TIVA Highlights: GVC Indicators for Estonia, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2023b), PISA 2022 Results – The state of learning and equity in education, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2023c) Public Integrity Indicators - Estonia, Internal control and risk management indicators, OECD publishing, Paris.
Paterson et al (2007), Economic Impact of Regulation in the Field of Liberal Professions in Different Member States, WP Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna.
Sorbe, S. et al (2019), Digital Dividend: Policies to harness the potential of digital technologies,
Economic Policy Papers, No. 26, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Schwellnus et al (2023), Global value chain dependencies under the magnifying glass, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Paper No 142, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Verboven, and F. Yontcheva (2024), Private Monopoly and Restricted Entry – Evidence from the Notary Profession, Workshop presentation, forthcoming.
Unsal et al (2024), Reviving productivity growth: A review of policies, OECD Economics Department Working Paper, forthcoming.
World Bank (2021), Enterprise Business Survey, World Bank, Washington.
Srdan Tatomir