Restoring Public Finances is the work of the OECD Directorate for Public Governance (GOV), under the overall leadership of Elsa Pilichowski, Director. The publication was prepared by GOV’s Public Management and Budgeting Division (PMB), under the direction of Jón R. Blöndal, Head of Division.
The report was co-ordinated by Stéphane Jacobzone, Senior Adviser, with Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow, heading a core team, including Anne Keller, Policy Analyst and Conor Das-Doyle, Economist. The core team was responsible for the collection and analysis of RPF Survey data, supported co-ordination, provided feedback across chapters and prepared the publication. The overall report benefited from comments and feedback from János Bertók, Deputy Director of GOV, and Andrew Blazey Deputy Head of PMB. Chapters were prepared as follows:
Chapter 1. Overview, key findings and strategic directions, was drafted by Conor Das Doyle together with Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow. Feedback was provided by: Eddie Casey, Policy Analyst; Delphine Moretti, Senior Policy Analyst; and Álfrún Tryggvadottir, Senior Policy Analyst, from PMB; and Sebastien Barnes, Head of Division; Boris Cournède, Senior Economist; Thomas Kozluk, Economic Counsellor to the Chief Economist, from the OECD Economics Department (ECO).
Chapters 2-4, Old-age Pensions, Unemployment, sickness and disability benefits, and Family and child benefits, were drafted by Laurence Dynes, Junior Policy Analyst, with Stéphane Jacobzone. Feedback was provided by the following experts from the Social Policy Division in the OECD Employment Labour and Social Affairs Directorate (ELS): Willem Adema, Senior Economist; Hervé Boulhol, Senior Economist; Emily Farchy, Senior Analyst; Herwig Immervoll, Senior Economist;, Maxime Ladaique, Manager of Statistical Resources; Lis Maciej, Economist; Veerle Miranda, Senior Economist; Marissa Plouin, Senior Policy Analyst; Andrew Reilly, Analyst; Wouter de Tavernier, Economist; as well as Olivier Thevenon, Head of the Child Well-Being Unit in the Centre on Well-Being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE).
Chapter 5, Housing, was drafted by Amanda Moreno, Junior Policy Analyst, with Stéphane Jacobzone. Boris Cournède from the OECD Economics Department provided feedback.
Chapter 6, Health and long-term care, was drafted by Laurence Dynes, Stéphane Jacobzone and Camila Vammalle Senior Policy Analyst, with input from Eva Ullinger, junior policy analyst. Feedback was provided from the following experts from the Health Policy Division in ELS: Chris James, Senior Health Economist; Ricarda Milstein, Health Policy Analyst; David Morgan, Senior Health Policy Analyst; Ana Llena-Nozal, Senior Health Economist.
Chapter 7, Education, was drafted by Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow. Feedback was provided by the following experts from the OECD Education Directorate (EDU): Paulo Santiago, Head of Division, Policy Advice and Implementation; Abel Schumann, Senior Analyst, Innovation and Measuring Progress Division; and Kelsey Burns, Senior Counsellor in the Director’s Office.
Chapter 8, Agriculture and primary sectors, was drafted by Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow. Feedback was provided by Martin von Lampe, Head of Unit, and Guillaume Gruère, Head of Agriculture and Resource Policies Division in the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD).
Chapter 9, Research and development, was drafted by Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow. Feedback was provided by the following experts from the OECD Science Technology and Innovation Directorate (STI): Silvia Appelt, Economist; Fernando Galinda Rueda, Senior Economist; Michael Keenan, Senior Policy Analyst; and Kazuhito Oyamada, Policy Analyst, all in the Science and Technology Division, as well as by Alice Holt, Counsellor in the Director’s Office.
Chapter 10, Public investment, was drafted by Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow. Feedback was provided by the following experts in the Regional Development and Multi-level Governance Division of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE): Pietrangelo De Biase, Policy Analyst; Isabelle Chatry, Head of Unit; and Courtenay Wheeler, Policy Analyst; as well as by Simon Cox, Policy Analyst, and Robert Addison, Policy Analyst, from GOV’s Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division (IPP).
Chapter 11, Government operations, was drafted by a team co-ordinated by Claire Salama, Policy Analyst, with Pietro Gagliardi, Policy Analyst; Angelos Karayannopoulos, Intern; Donal Mulligan, Policy Analyst; Francois Villeneuve, Policy Analyst; Sara Fyson, Senior Policy Analyst; in PMB. Feedback was provided by experts from the GOV’s Governance Indicators and Performance Division, including Santiago Gonzalez, Senior Policy Analyst; Alessandro Lupi, Statistician; Valerie Frey, Head of Division; Arnault Pretet, Senior Policy Adviser; Felipe Gonzalez-Zapata, Policy Analyst; as well as by Erika Bozzay, Deputy Head of GOV’s IPP Division.
Chapter 12, Fiscal transfers across levels of government, was drafted by Sean Dougherty, Senior Adviser, OECD Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government, with input from Ines Dezcallar, Junior Analyst. Feedback was provided by Pietrangelo de Biase, Policy Analyst in the Regional Development and Multi-level Governance Division, (CFE).
Chapter 13, Other areas of public spending, was drafted by Liv-Kristin Korssjøen Skow, Policy Analyst for the section on support to businesses and households. Amanda Moreno and Conor Das-Doyle drafted the section on Development Assistance. Feedback on the section on support to businesses and households was provided by experts from the Public Policy Analysis Division in ECO: Tobias Kruse, Economist; Mauro Pisu, Senior Economist; as well as from Cassie Castle, Junior Economist in the Office of Head of Department. Feedback on the section on development assistance was provided by the following experts from the Development Co-operation Directorate: Harsh Desai, Senior Policy Analyst in the Financing for Sustainable Development Division, and Megan Kennedy-Chouanne, Senior Policy Analyst in the Reforms and Partnerships for Development Impact Division.
Chapter 14, Revenue measures, was drafted by Daniel Fichmann, Tax Policy Adviser, under the supervision of Bert Brys, Head of Unit, in the Tax Policy and Statistics Division of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.
The Secretariat is grateful to delegates to the OECD Committee of Senior Budget Officials (SBO) for providing the survey materials as well as comments. Comments were also received from participants in the meeting of the Joint SBO-Health and SBO-Social Policy Network Meetings held on 8-9 April 2026 for Social Welfare (2-4) and Health chapters. The chapter on Agriculture benefited from feedback from Delegates to the Committee of Agriculture. The chapter on Research and Development benefitted from feedback from Delegates to the Committee of Science and Technology Policy. Comments were also received from participants to the meeting of the Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government held on 30 April for the chapter on Fiscal Transfers across Levels of Government. The chapter on Revenue Measures was commented upon by the Working Party no. 2 of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs.
The report was prepared for publication by Meral Gedik and benefitted from editorial assistance from Andrea Uhrhammer. Deborah Merran provided executive co-ordination. Della Shin, Thibaut Gigou and Justin Kavanagh provided communication support. Moe Hanta, Intern, assisted with research.