Reports

The Impact of Regulation on International Investment in Finland examines what drives FDI into Finland and which domestic regulatory aspects may discourage foreign investment. The report analyses trends in FDI flows towards Finland and other Nordic-Baltic countries and discusses the benefits of foreign investment for the Finnish economy. It provides a comparative overview of the regulatory frameworks in force in Finland and its Nordic-Baltic peers, outlining both economy-wide and sector-specific findings, and explores how changes in these regulatory frameworks are linked to changes in FDI inflows in the region. Foreign investors’ views on Finland’s business environment complement these findings. The report underlines potential areas for reform and suggests policy actions that could further improve Finland’s investment climate and contribute to attracting and retaining more FDI, while also strengthening its positive impact.

This publication examines how to strengthen the scope and effectiveness of entrepreneurship policies for women. It examines both dedicated measures for women and ensuring that mainstream policies for all entrepreneurs are appropriate for women. Evidence is offered on the gender gap in entrepreneurship and its causes. At the heart of the report are 27 policy insight notes by leading international experts on the role of public policy in facilitating entrepreneurship by women and how policies can be strengthened. They highlight many long‑standing issues related to the scope and effectiveness of women’s entrepreneurship policies – many of which have been exacerbated by the COVID‑19 pandemic – and point the way to more effective policy. Issues addressed include fostering a gender‑sensitive entrepreneurship culture, building entrepreneurship skills for women, improving women’s access to financial capital, supporting networks for women entrepreneurs and creating supportive regulatory environments. Issues in the design and delivery of policy support are also addressed. The report was prepared by the OECD in collaboration with members of the Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Research Project (Global WEP), a network of established researchers from over 30 counties.

This work proposes an experimental methodology to identify and measure artificial intelligence (AI)-related trademarks. It aims to shed light on the extent to which (new) companies and products appearing on the market rely on, exploit or propose AI-related goods and services, and to help identify the companies and organisations that are active in the AI space. The paper finds evidence that AI-related goods and services have expanded in consumer markets in recent years. Companies and other economic agents appear to register AI-related trademarks primarily to protect computer-related products and/or services, especially software, audio-visual devices and for analytical purposes. Important trademark activities related to AI also emerge in the education space, with AI-related keywords being frequently associated with educational services as well as classes, publications, workshops and online material.

Biorefineries present an alternative to fossil-based production, and can create employment, wealth and the ecosystem needed to make them function. Thailand is establishing a bioeconomy with widespread biorefining as a strategy for future economic growth. There is political will to establish in Thailand, if feasible, small, decentralised biorefineries to which farmers can locally deliver biomass as feedstock, which can then be processed into bio-based products. This would help to relieve rural poverty, which is still a problem in some areas of Thailand despite progress. Developing a biorefining roadmap will help to assess the feasibility of such an initiative.

This work proposes an analysis of the statistical properties and distributional characteristics of Burning Glass Technologies’ (BGT) data on online job openings from platforms and companies, at the occupation level. BGT data are compared to official data on employment by occupation to assess their occupation-specific representativeness. This work further proposes weighting schemes aimed at making BGT-based analysis fully representative at the occupation and country levels, where appropriate. The analysis encompasses six economies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States – for the period 2010-19. Overall, it finds that BGT data exhibit good statistical properties and are a useful source of timely information about labour market demand, especially for high-skill occupations and recruitment processes that are more likely to happen online.

This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the policy instruments adopted by the Netherlands to reach carbon neutrality in its manufacturing sector by 2050. The analysis illustrates the strength of combining a strong commitment to raising carbon prices with ambitious technology support, uncovers the pervasiveness of competitiveness provisions, and highlights the trade-off between short-term emissions cuts and longer-term technology shift. The Netherlands’ carbon levy sets an ambitious price trajectory to 2030, but is tempered by extensive preferential treatment to energy-intensive users, yielding a highly unequal carbon price across firms and sectors. The country’s technology support focuses on the cost-effective deployment of low-carbon options, which ensures least-cost decarbonisation in the short run but favours relatively mature technologies. The paper offers recommendations for policy adjustments to reach the country’s carbon neutrality objective, including the gradual removal of exemptions, enhanced support for emerging technologies and greater visibility over future infrastructure plans.

The COVID-19 crisis may bring lasting socioeconomic changes, also affecting science, technology and innovation (STI). This paper discusses the effects that the COVID-19 crisis could have on the future of STI and its policies, building on lessons learned from past crises, an analysis of diverse sources of early data and insights from expert discussions in international policy fora. Factors shaping the future of STI include the unequal effects of the crisis on R&D spending across sectors, the accelerated adoption of digital tools and techniques, and changes in the openness and inclusiveness of research and innovation ecosystems. The paper also explores how STI policy could experience fundamental changes as resilience, environmental sustainability and inclusiveness become more prominent objectives on policy agendas. This includes experimentation with new data and digital tools for policy purposes and unconventional policy approaches, which could spur the adoption of new and more effective STI policies.