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Do teachers spend more time on actual teaching and learning in a typical lesson compared to previous years? Do they feel prepared to teach when they start teaching? What sort of continuous professional development programmes do they participate in and how does it impact their practice? This report looks first at how teachers apply their knowledge and skills in the classroom in the form of teaching practices, with an accompanying assessment of the demographic makeup of those classrooms and the school climate to provide context on learning environments. The volume then assesses the ways in which teachers acquired their knowledge and skills during their early education and training, as well as the steps they take to develop them through continuous professional development over the course of their career. Based on the voice of teachers and school leaders, the report offers a series of policy orientations to help strengthen the knowledge and skills of the teaching workforce to support its professionalism.
The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the largest international survey asking teachers and school leaders about their working conditions and learning environments, and provides a barometer of the profession every five years. Results from the 2018 cycle explore and examine the various dimensions of teacher and school leader professionalism across education systems.
Behavioural insights can help policy makers obtain a deeper understanding of the behavioural mechanisms contributing to environmental problems, and design and implement more effective policy interventions. This report reviews recent developments in the application of behavioural insights to encourage more sustainable consumption, investment and compliance decisions by individuals and firms.
Drawing on interventions initiated by ministries and agencies responsible for environment and energy, as well as cross-government behavioural insights teams, it portrays how behavioural sciences have been integrated into the policy-making process. The report covers a variety of policy areas: energy, water and food consumption, transport and car choice, waste management and resource efficiency, compliance with environmental regulation and participation in voluntary schemes. It shows what has proven to work – and what has not – in policy practice in OECD countries and beyond.
Alcoholic beverages, and their harmful use, have been familiar fixtures in human societies since the beginning of recorded history. Worldwide, alcohol is a leading cause of ill health and premature mortality. It accounts for 1 in 17 deaths, and for a significant proportion of disabilities, especially in men. In OECD countries, alcohol consumption is about twice the world average. Its social costs are estimated in excess of 1% of GDP in high- and middle-income countries. When it is not the result of addiction, alcohol use is an individual choice, driven by social norms, with strong cultural connotations. This is reflected in unique patterns of social disparity in drinking, showing the well-to-do in some cases more prone to hazardous use of alcohol, and a polarisation of problem-drinking at the two ends of the social spectrum. Certain patterns of drinking have social impacts, which provide a strong economic rationale for governments to influence the use of alcohol through policies aimed at curbing harms, including those occurring to people other than drinkers. Some policy approaches are more effective and efficient than others, depending on their ability to trigger changes in social norms, and on how well they can target the groups that are most at risk. This book provides a detailed examination of trends and social disparities in alcohol consumption. It offers a wide-ranging assessment of the health, social and economic impacts of key policy options for tackling alcohol-related harms in three OECD countries (Canada, the Czech Republic and Germany), extracting relevant policy messages for a broader set of countries.
Greater integration into the world economy and important policy reforms have resulted in Brazil, China, India and South Africa becoming major actors in the globalisation process, with impressive results in terms of economic growth, social development and poverty reduction. But the benefits of stronger growth have not always been shared equally and income inequality has remained at very high levels.
Existing evidence suggests that the evolution of the distribution of income in these four countries is the result of many forces. These include demographic change, migration, unequal access to education, informal employment, existing regulations and their enforcement, social norms and cultural legacy. These forces are often interlinked and reinforce one another. However, as employment is the primary source of income for most households, understanding the impact of labour market outcomes is crucial.
This book focuses on the role of growth and employment/unemployment developments in explaining recent income inequality trends in Brazil, China, India and South Africa, and discusses the roles played by labour market and social policies in both shaping and addressing these inequalities. It includes the papers presented at the joint OECD and European Union High-Level Conference on Inequalities in Emerging Economies held in Paris in May 2010. This work is part of OECD’s ongoing dialogue and co-operation with non-member economies around the world.
A majority of workers in the world are informally employed and contribute to economic and social development through market and non-market activities that are not protected, regulated, well-recognised or valued. This study provides an in-depth diagnosis of informality and the vulnerability prevailing in the informal economy. It explores new ideas to improve the lives of workers in the informal economy based on the ILO indicators of informality and the new OECD Key Indicators of Informality based on Individuals and their Household (KIIbIH).
The report contributes in four ways to the global debate on the transition from the informal to the formal economy: 1) by examining the multiple faces of informality in a large sample of countries representing diverse conditions, locations and stages of development; 2) by presenting new empirical evidence on the links between informality and the development process; 3) by assessing risks and vulnerabilities in the informal economy, such as poverty and occupational risks, which can be mitigated with social protection and appropriate risk management instruments; 4) by showing that the transition to formality is a complex issue that touches on a wide range of policy domains.
Following a brief pause after the economic crisis, health expenditure is rising again in most OECD countries. Yet, a considerable part of this health expenditure makes little or no contribution to improving people's health. In some cases, it even results in worse health outcomes. Countries could potentially spend significantly less on health care with no impact on health system performance, or on health outcomes. This report systematically reviews strategies put in place by countries to limit ineffective spending and waste. On the clinical front, preventable errors and low-value care are discussed. The operational waste discussion reviews strategies to obtain lower prices for medical goods and to better target the use of expensive inputs. Finally, the report reviews countries experiences in containing administrative costs and integrity violations in health.
This book contributes to the current debate on migration policy, focusing on three main elements in the standard migration policy dialogue: the regulation of flows, the integration of immigrants and the impact of labour mobility on development.
In particular it argues that the current governance of international migration is both insufficient and inefficient. Restrictive and non-cooperative migration policies not only affect development in sending countries but also have counterproductive effects in the countries that implement them. Likewise, the lack of integration policies generates costs for society. In this respect, the book focuses on South-South migration and highlights the specific risks of neglecting integration in developing countries. It also analyses the effects of emigration on origin-country labour markets and underlines the externalities of immigration policies in migrant-sending countries.
The book explores the feasibility of implementing a coherent governance framework centred on three complementary objectives: i) a more flexible regulation of international migration flows; ii) a better integration of immigrants in developing countries; and iii) a higher impact of labour mobility on development.
Violence against women remains a global crisis. Worldwide, more than one in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. OECD’s inaugural conference on violence against women, entitled “Taking Public Action to End Violence at Home,” facilitated a survivor-centred exchange of ideas and experiences. Held on 5-6 February 2020, attendees convened to share experiences, practices and ideas on how to prevent, address, and eradicate intimate partner violence (IPV), a particularly insidious form of violence against women. Just a few weeks after this OECD conference concluded, the regional health crisis of COVID-19 in Asia had turned into a global pandemic. In less than a month, the entire world was grappling with the massive health, social, and economic effects of the crisis – including the consequences of millions of women becoming trapped at home with their abusers, as governments implemented containment measures to stop the spread of the virus. The issues, challenges, and solutions to intimate partner violence that were debated at OECD conference have taken on a new and even more pressing urgency in the face of the global crisis.
More than three million individuals who were born in Germany lived in another OECD country in 2010/11. To assess the potential that this group represents for the German labour market, this review establishes the distribution of German emigrants over OECD countries, as well as their age, sex, and educational attainment. Shifts in the German diaspora towards European destination countries and higher educational attainment are documented. The largest German diaspora still resides in the United States, but the diaspora in Switzerland and Spain has grown particularly quickly. International students from Germany have even come to represent the largest group of international students from any OECD country. While German emigrants experience less favourable labour market outcomes than their peers in Germany, the emigrants work disproportionately often in high-skill occupations. Survey evidence suggests that many Germans in Germany consider emigration and that many German emigrants are open to return. Those who have returned in recent years, however, appear to have a lower educational attainment than those leaving.
Close to 3 million people who were born in Morocco lived in OECD countries in 2010/11. To assess the potential that this group represents for the Moroccan economy, this review looks at the distribution of Moroccan emigrants over OECD countries, as well as their age, sex, and educational attainment. It analyses the labour market outcomes of Moroccan emigrants and documents the characteristics of return migrants in Morocco. Moroccan emigrants primarily reside in France, followed by Spain and Italy, where their numbers grew strongly before flows were affected by the economic crisis. Moroccan emigrants have lower educational attainment and less favourable labour market outcomes than native-born persons in destination countries, and many work in low-skill occupations. Those who have returned to Morocco are often retired, but they are also especially likely to become entrepreneurs there.
In recent years, Romania has undergone major economic, social and political transformations. Given the significant emigration of the Romanian population and the recognition of the contributions of the diaspora, Romanian authorities are seeking to better understand this pool of talent residing abroad, which has great potential to contribute to the economic and social development of Romania. This review provides the first comprehensive portrait of the Romanian diaspora in OECD countries. By profiling Romanian emigrants, this review aims to strengthen knowledge about this community and thus help to consolidate the relevance of the policies deployed by Romania towards its emigrants.
This report provides a global assessment and outlook on wildfire risk in the context of climate change. It discusses the drivers behind the growing incidence of extreme wildfires and the attribution effect of climate change. It outlines the environmental, social and economic impacts of wildfires by illustrating the losses and costs observed during recent extreme wildfire events. Building on this, the report presents the findings of a cross-country comparative analysis of how countries’ policies and practices have evolved in recent years in light of observed and projected changes in wildfire risk. The analysis draws on in-depth case studies conducted in Australia, Costa Rica, Greece, Portugal and the United States. The report underlines the urgent need for governments to scale up climate change adaptation efforts to limit future wildfire costs.
Although men and women are typically taxed under the same rules, their different social and economic characteristics (e.g. income levels or labour force participation) mean that the tax system can inadvertently contribute to gender inequalities in society. Understanding and improving the impact of taxes on gender equality is a key dimension that governments need to consider as part of tax design to support inclusive growth. This report provides the first cross-country overview of governments' approaches to tax policy and gender, including reforms undertaken to date and potential areas of explicit and implicit gender bias. Covering 43 countries, it also explores the extent to which governments take into account gender implications in policy development, gender considerations in tax administration and compliance, and the availability and use of gender-disaggregated data. Finally, it also discusses priorities for further work on tax policy and gender issues.
This report provides a detailed review of the tax treatment of philanthropic entities and philanthropic giving in 40 OECD member and participating countries. The report first examines the various arguments for and against the provision of preferential tax treatment for philanthropy. It then reviews the tax treatment of philanthropic entities and giving in the 40 participating countries, in both a domestic and cross-border context. Drawing on this analysis, the report then highlights a range of potential tax policy options for countries to consider.
Taxing Working Families provides insights into how income taxes and social security contributions affect the distribution of income between different types of families in OECD countries. Certain generally available cash benefits for families – regarded as negative taxes – are also taken into account.
The study concentrates on the effects of these taxes on the distribution of income between different types of working households, looking at three dimensions of inequality: vertical inequality between households at different income levels, horizontal inequality between households with different numbers of children and the tax treatment of one-earner versus two-earner households.
This report provides an initial evaluation of the comprehensive reform of the Spanish labour market undertaken in 2012. It describes the key components of the 2012 reform and places them in the context of the evolution of labour market institutions in other OECD member countries, with a particular focus on collective bargaining and employment protection legislation. The report also assesses the impact of the reform on the ability of firms to adjust wages and working time to cope with demand shocks, as well as the flows in the labour market for different types of contracts and the overall duality of the Spanish labour market. It also considers what complementary reforms would be required to improve the effectiveness of the labour market reform, in particular in the area of active labour market policies.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders at the United Nations on 25 September 2015, sets out an ambitious action plan to improve the lives of people everywhere. On 14 February 2017, the Polish government adopted its Strategy for Responsible Development, which sets out over 700 actions to increase the income of Polish citizens and strengthen social, economic, environmental and territorial cohesion within the country. With its Strategy for Responsible Development, Poland has taken an important first step towards tackling all these issues. But achieving the SDGs will be a long journey with many hurdles, during which Poland will regularly have to adapt its strategies, actions plans and policy measures and refresh the commitment of all stakeholders. Exchanging experiences with other countries throughout the process on what works and what doesn’t can help the country successfully navigate this journey.
Preventing hardship among those with few or no resources is no easy task. Today, institutions whose goal is to help those at the margins seek to integrate and encourage them in order to avoid social exclusion. How can social assistance best balance the adequacy of benefits with financial incentives to work? What policy measures are essential to promote independence and reduce (intergenerational) welfare dependence? What can be done to promote individual responsibility in societies where taxpayers and voters are explicitly regarded as major stakeholders in social policy? These are some of the most pressing social issues this book addresses by comparing social assistance policies in four Canadian provinces -- Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan -- and four Swiss cantons -- Graubünden, Ticino, Vaud and Zürich.
In Switzerland, few people were forced to rely on social assistance until unemployment rose sharply at the beginning of the 1990s. The authorities are now struggling with how to promote social inclusion by keeping benefit levels high whilst at the same time improving measures designed to get benefit recipients back into work. In Canada, all provinces have stressed the role of work as the best way of avoiding benefit dependency, and some provinces have also cut benefit levels and restricted access to benefits. The success of Canada in reducing social assistance benefit dependency stands out in an area of social protection where across the developed world there are remarkably few such successes.
Further reading This book is part of "The Battle against Exclusion" series, consisting of comparative studies of social assistance policies. To get a more comprehensive picture of social policies in OECD countries, please consult the first two volumes of the series, both published in 1998: the first volume covers Australia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and the second volume, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway.
Institutions whose goal is to help those at the margins have been a feature of social life for centuries. Today, social assistance institutions have integration and encouragement as their goal. They seek to avoid exclusion and stigmatisation.
Poverty can tear at the fabric of society. However, preventing hardship among those with no resources while reducing exclusion and marginalisation is no easy task. How can social assistance best balance these goals, minimising disincentives to paid employment? What can be done to promote independence and individual responsibility?
This book compares the social assistance policies of Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway. Although at first sight these countries appear very different, in fact the same policy dilemmas exist in the four countries. That local action is necessary to identify and help the excluded is accepted, but the balance between ensuring that sufficient resources are available at the local level while limiting budgets so as to ensure efficient use of resources is a continuing preoccupation. Governments stress their commitment to combat poverty, but benefits cannot be raised too high because this would harm work incentives. Different institutions sometimes disagree about whether benefit recipients are "job ready" or whether more social help is needed. No country has yet found a policy package which prevents exclusion, but innovative policies in each of these four countries are proving successful in limiting its extent.
This book examines the performance of social assistance policies in four countries with similar per capita incomes: Australia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It confronts their -- very different -- social protection systems and sheds light on issues such as social insurance and social assistance, central and local social security systems, active and passive policies. The often complex interactions involved are analysed and lessons are drawn from the countries' varied experiences. Particular attention is paid to young people, the long-term unemployed, lone-parent families, immigrants and asylum seekers. Conclusions -- both country-based and thematic -- are presented with a particular emphasis on how barriers and disincentives to employment can be overcome: these are indispensable weapons in the battle against exclusion.