Publications & Documents

Labour markets across the Netherlands recovered quickly from the COVID-19 shock and Dutch cities are now facing an unprecedented level of labour market tightness. The high demand for workers presents a unique opportunity for Dutch municipalities to find pathways into employment for those with the lowest labour market attachment and alleviate the pressure faced by local employers that struggle to find suitable workers. Supporting the diverse population in Dutch cities in finding their way into the labour market requires the efficient use of existing labour market instruments, advancing innovative methods of skills-based job matching and improving the cooperation between national, regional and local labour market institutions. This OECD report analyses current and future bottlenecks that could hamper the effective provision of local labour market services. It highlights policy options for strengthening the capacity of municipalities to support different population groups in making the transition from social welfare recipients to workers.

This work employs a novel approach to identify and characterise firms adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), using different sources of large microdata. Focusing on the United Kingdom, the analysis combines data on Intellectual Property Rights, website information, online job postings, and firm-level financials for the first time. It shows that a significant share of AI adopters is active in Information and Communication Technologies and professional services, and is located in the South of the United Kingdom, particularly around London. Adopters tend to be highly productive and larger than other firms, while young adopters tend to hire AI workers more intensively. Human capital appears to play an important role, not only for AI adoption but also for firms’ productivity returns. Significant differences in the characteristics of AI adopters emerge when distinguishing between firms carrying out AI innovation, those with an AI core business, and those searching for AI talent.

Data are generated wherever digital technologies are deployed namely, in almost every part of modern life. Using these data can empower individuals, drive innovation, enable new digital products and improve policy making and public service delivery. But as data become more widely used across sectors and applications, the potential for misuse and harm also grows. To advance data governance for growth and well-being, this report advocates a holistic and coherent approach to data governance, domestically and across borders. It examines how data have emerged as a strategic asset, with the ability to transform lives and confer economic advantage. It explains how the unique characteristics of data can pose complex trade-offs and challenge policies that pre-date the data-driven era. This report provides new insights, evidence and analysis and outlines considerations for better data governance policies in the digital age.

The ubiquitous collection, use, and sharing of data that power today’s economies challenge existing governance frameworks and policy approaches. Drawing on the extensive research and analysis conducted at the OECD on data governance, on countries’ policies and practices, and the OECD legal instruments in this area, the Going Digital Guide to Data Governance Policy Making supports policy makers in navigating three fundamental policy tensions that characterise efforts to develop, revise, and implement policies for data governance across policy domains in the digital age: balancing data openness and control while maximising trust; managing overlapping and potentially conflicting interests and regulations related to data; incentivising investments in data and their effective re-use. The operative part of the guide consists of a checklist of questions to orient policy makers as they develop and revise effective policies for data governance, based on possible policy approaches and real-life examples.

Firms are at the forefront of digital transformation and drive production, innovation and the greater deployment of digital technologies into economies and societies. As digital transformation progresses, how firms use data, and how that use affects markets and influences competitive dynamics, has risen to the top of policy agendas. This report highlights that too few firms use data, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, despite data’s potential to boost productivity, foster innovation and new business models. This report analyses how this uneven use of data affects productivity dispersion, industry concentration and shape competitive dynamics in markets. Finally, the report outlines key policy lessons to increase the ability of the full business population to thrive in the data-driven age and enhance long-term prosperity and welfare.

This report reviews the effectiveness of carbon pricing, how it might be applied to the shipping sector and with what effects. It also evaluates recent proposals by countries to introduce a price on shipping’s carbon emissions and examines related policy issues.

This report assesses the linkages between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Slovak Republic. It provides policy recommendations to national and subnational governments on how to foster productivity and innovation spillovers from FDI to the local economy. The report looks at the quality of investment the country attracts, the absorptive capacity of Slovak SMEs, and a broad range of economic, business and policy conditions that can strengthen knowledge and technology diffusion from FDI to domestic SMEs. It also provides a diagnostic assessment of the core FDI-SME spillover diffusion channels, namely value chain linkages, strategic partnerships, labour mobility, and competition and imitation effects. The report provides an overview of the Slovak policy arrangements for promoting international investment, SME performance and innovation, and regional development. It does so by taking a close look at multi-level coordination, stakeholder consultation and impact evaluation. It then reviews the policy mix in support FDI-SME linkages and spillovers and proposes concrete areas for further policy reforms. The last chapter introduces a regional lens, focusing on the regions of Banská Bystrica and Košice. This report is part of a multi-year European Commission-OECD project on strengthening FDI-SME ecosystems and is the second pilot review for future country assessments.