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This interim report of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS is a follow-up to the work delivered in 2015 under Action 1 of the BEPS Project on addressing the tax challenges of the digital economy. It sets out the Inclusive Framework’s agreed direction of work on digitalisation and the international tax rules through to 2020. It describes how digitalisation is also affecting other areas of the tax system, providing tax authorities with new tools that are translating into improvements in taxpayer services, improving the efficiency of tax collection and detecting tax evasion.
How should governments tax e-commerce? What does e-commerce mean for existing international tax principles and systems? What are the administrative challenges of taxing e-commerce, and how can these be tackled? How can governments harness the new technology to improve taxpayer service and reduce compliance costs? These are just some of the pressing questions addressed in this book.
This volume provides a comprehensive guide to the status of the OECD-led international work on these questions, and hence to emerging conclusions and recommendations across a wide span of tax policy and tax administration issues. It sets out the latest thinking of the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs on the taxation aspects of electronic commerce, and on progress toward implementing the Ottawa Taxation Framework Conditions. It includes a number of documents for public review and comment, and details the outputs from the past two years' intensive dialogue with the international business community and with non-member economies. As such it is an invaluable reference for all those interested in how governments around the globe are responding to the taxation challenges presented by e-commerce.
Vocational education and training (VET) plays a central role in preparing young people for work, developing the skills of adults and responding to the labour-market needs of the economy. Teachers and leaders in VET can have an immediate and positive influence on learners’ skills, employability and career development. However, when compared to general academic programmes, there is limited evidence on the characteristics of teachers and institutional leaders in VET and the policies and practices of attracting and preparing them. VET teachers require a mix of pedagogical skills and occupational knowledge and experience, and need to keep these up to date to reflect changing skill needs in the labour market and evolving teaching and learning environments. This report fills the knowledge gap on teachers and leaders in VET, and produces new insights into what strategies and policies can help develop and maintain a well-prepared workforce. It zooms in on VET teacher shortages; strategies for attracting and retaining teachers; initial training and professional development opportunities for teachers; the use of innovative technologies and pedagogical strategies; and the important role of institutional leaders and strategies for better preparing and supporting them.
Poverty reduction remains a major development challenge in much of Asia and the Pacific. Historically, technology has played a central role in raising living standards across the region, including those of the poor. The Green Revolution and various innovations of modern medicine and public health have been instrumental in improving nutrition, health, and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Yet, the pace of improvement from these sources appears to have slowed, and new technological impetus — as well as improved policies and institutions — are needed to address the persistent poverty problem in some regions and among some social groups. Agricultural and medical biotechnology hold tremendous promise but also bring with them new risks and concerns that need to be addressed before their full potential can be realised. New information technologies are only beginning to diffuse widely in developing Asia and the Pacific, but ultimately these too can have profound impacts on the lives of the poor, empowering them with access to information that once was the preserve of the privileged few.
The biological sciences are adding value to a host of products and services, producing what some have labelled the “bioeconomy” and offering the potential to make major socio-economic contributions in OECD countries. Using quantitative analyses of data on development pipelines and R&D expenditures from private and public databases, this book estimates biotechnological developments to 2015. Moving to a broader institutional view, it also looks at the roles of R&D funding, human resources, intellectual property, and regulation in the bioeconomy, as well as at possible developments that could influence emerging business models to create scenarios to 2030. These scenarios are included to stimulate reflection on the interplay between policy choices and technological advances in shaping the bioeconomy. Finally, the book explores policy options to support the social, environmental and economic benefits of a bioeconomy.
How can growing social diversity be harnessed to make for more creative societies in the future? Three powerful forces are simultaneously shaping the social foundations of the future: deep-seated change in underlying economic systems, rapid global integration, and growing social diversity itself. The question is whether the three will combine constructively and lead to social progress or whether another, grimmer scenario lies ahead.
Does growing diversity, commendable in itself, mean we are headed for more inequality across the world's populations? Will access to and use of new knowledge and advanced technologies alleviate or aggravate the differences? What steps can policy makers take to ensure that growing differentiation within and among societies gives rise to increased creativity instead of mounting tensions?
This book asks some hard questions about our changing world, and examines the policy opportunities that need to be grasped if we are to foster sustainable social foundations for the 21st century.
This report updates developments in terms of the roll out of broadband access in OECD countries. It does not aim to provide a definitive description of the technological alternatives or the applications for which it is being used but rather to highlight developments in relation to the leading platforms. The focus of the analysis is on how fast broadband access is being developed, what regulatory barriers exist to this development and what initiatives might be taken to increase the pace of development.
The report reviews progress on the availability of broadband access across the OECD area. It particularly focuses on benchmarking digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modem expansion and availability, as well as the emergence of broadband wireless as a platform to provide low-cost high-performance access networks in rural and remote areas. The paper finds that DSL availability is proceeding apace, with around three-quarters of existing subscriber lines being able to provide service by 2003. Cable networks pass 58% of households with just under three-quarters of those networks having been upgraded for broadband access. The paper also explores the increasing capabilities of wireless...
Despite potentially tremendous benefits, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lag in the digital transformation. Emerging technologies, as diverse as they are, offer a range of applications for them to improve performance and overcome the size-related limitations they face in doing business. However, SMEs must be better prepared, and stakes are high. SMEs make the most of the industrial fabric in many countries and regions, they create jobs (most jobs sometimes) and are the cement of inclusive and sustainable societies. The SME digital gap has increased inequalities among people, places and firms, and there are concerns that the benefits of the digital transformation could accrue to early adopters, further broadening these inequalities. Enabling SME digitalisation has become a top policy priority in OECD countries and beyond. The report looks at recent trends in SME digital uptake, including in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. It focuses on issues related to digital security, online platforms, blockchain ecosystems, and artificial intelligence. The report identifies opportunities, risks of not going digital, and barriers to adoption. It looks to concrete policy action taken worldwide to speed the SME transformation and raises a series of considerations to advance the SME digital policy agenda.
This report examines digitalisation’s effects on science, technology and innovation and the associated consequences for policy. In varied and far-reaching ways, digital technologies are changing how scientists work, collaborate and publish. While examining these developments, this book also assesses the effects of digitalisation on longstanding policy themes, from access to publicly funded research data, to the diffusion of technology and its absorption by firms. New and emerging topics are also explored. These include the roles of artificial intelligence and blockchain in science and production, using digital technology to draw on the collective intelligence of the scientific community, advances in the digitalisation of biotechnology, and possible "dark sides" of digitalisation.
Counterfeiting and piracy are illicit businesses in which criminal networks thrive. The report shows that the items that they and other counterfeiters and pirates produce and distribute are often substandard and can even be dangerous, posing health and safety risks that range from mild to life-threatening. Economy-wide, counterfeiting and piracy undermine innovation, which is key to economic growth.
The magnitude and effects of counterfeiting and piracy are of such significance that they compel strong and sustained action from governments, business and consumers. More effective enforcement is critical in this regard, as is the need to build public support to combat the counterfeiting and piracy. Increased co-operation between governments, and with industry, would be beneficial, as would better data collection.
Information and communications technology (ICT) has become a key driver of economic growth over the past decade. The rapid diffusion of the Internet, of mobile telephony and of broadband networks all demonstrate how pervasive this technology has become. But how precisely does ICT affect economic growth and the efficiency of firms? And how well can these effects be measured?
This report provides an overview of the economic impact of ICT on economic performance, and the ways through which it can be measured. Using available OECD data, the first part of the book examines the available measures of ICT diffusion, the role and impact of ICT investment and the role of ICT-using and ICT-producing sectors in overall economic performance. The second part of the book offers nine studies for OECD countries, based on detailed firm-level data and prepared by researchers and statisticians from a wide range of OECD countries. These studies use a variety of methods and provide detailed insights on the effects of ICT in individual countries.
Though only three years old, electronic commerce over the Internet has the potential to transform the marketplace. E-commerce will change the way business is conducted. Traditional intermediary functions will be replaced, new products and markets will be developed, and new relationships will be created between business and consumers. It will alter the way work is organised and open new channels of knowledge diffusion and human interactivity in the workplace. Workers will need to be more flexible as their functions and skills are redefined. The changes e-commerce will bring are far-reaching. They require new frameworks for doing business and a re-examination of government policies relating to commerce and skills. What is electronic commerce? What is the current state and likely future direction of e-commerce? What are the drivers and what are the inhibitors? What is its impact on costs, prices, and ultimately on economic efficiency? How is it affecting intermediaries? How do firms compete in the electronic environment? What market structure is likely to emerge? What is the impact on jobs? What types of skills will be needed? What major societal transformations will it entail? The full impact of e-commerce remains to be seen. This book begins to address these questions and provides a ground-breaking assessment of the economic and social impacts of electronic commerce and its effects on jobs by drawing on existing qualitative and quantitative evidence. This early analysis of an extremely dynamic activity identifies a number of areas where research is urgently needed and serves as the basis for an informed policy debate.
The development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to expand opportunities for the achievement of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including gender equality.
Taking a closer look at the intersection of gender and technology, this collaboration between UNESCO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) examines the effects of AI on the working lives of women. This report describes the challenges and opportunities presented by the use of emerging technology such as AI from a gender perspective. The report highlights the need for more focus and research on the impacts of AI on women and the digital gender gap, in order to ensure that women are not left behind in the future of work.
This report explores likely future changes in family and household structures in OECD countries; identifies what appear to be the main forces shaping the family landscape between now and 2030; discusses the longer-term challenges for policy arising from those expected changes; and on the basis of the three subsequent thematic chapters, suggests policy options for managing the challenges on a sustainable basis.
This book addresses the rising productivity gap between the global frontier and other firms, and identifies a number of structural impediments constraining business start-ups, knowledge diffusion and resource allocation (such as barriers to up-scaling and relatively high rates of skill mismatch).
Analysis based on micro and industry-level data highlights the importance of reallocation-friendly policies, including well-functioning product, labour and risk capital markets, efficient judicial systems, bankruptcy laws that do not excessively penalise failure, housing policies that do not unduly restrict labour mobility, and improvements in public funding and organisation of basic research which do not excessively favour applied vs basic research and incumbents vs young firms.
Most countries offer a range of policies focused on assisting and encouraging mobility, although few have a specific and coherent mobility strategy. Many nations aim to attract the same pool of highly skilled talent; thus, relying on international flows to fill existing or future gaps in supply may entail risks. Addressing shortcomings in national policies that may limit domestic supply of skilled workers, and ensuring that the wider environment for innovation and scientific endeavour is sound, are key policy challenges for countries.
This report aims at assisting tax authorities in designing and implementing an effective Value Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax (VAT/GST) policy response to the growth of the sharing and gig economy. The rise of this phenomenon, powered by digital platforms, has transformed a number of industries within just a few short years. It involves large numbers of new economic operators (often private individuals), who monetise (often) underutilised goods and services by offering these, via digital platforms, for temporary (“shared”) use by primarily private consumers. Questions have been raised whether existing VAT/GST policy and administration frameworks are sufficiently capable of dealing with this new economic reality notably with a view to protecting VAT/GST revenue and minimising economic distortions. This report sets out the core components of a comprehensive VAT/GST policy strategy for tax authorities to consider in response. It analyses the key features of the sharing and gig economy and its main business models; identifies the associated VAT/GST challenges and opportunities; and presents a wide range of possible measures and approaches to support an effective policy response. This includes detailed guidance on the possible role of digital platforms in facilitating and enhancing VAT/GST compliance in the sharing and gig economy.
Nanotechnology has its origin in the converging abilities of physics, chemistry and materials science. Its purpose is the manipulation of atoms and molecules in order to create new properties of materials and systems for a wide variety of applications in a very broad range of sectors. Nanotechnology is forecast to create large markets and many new jobs and may be the springboard for industrial renewal and long-term growth. Governments around the world have targeted this emerging technology in their R&D investments and are strategising about the best ways to promote the responsible development and use of nanotechnology given the absence of any in-depth analysis of its commercialisation.
What are the potential economic impacts of nanotechnology, how are companies using nanotechnology for innovation, and what are the key challenges in its commercialisation? These are some of the issues that this book addresses, based on a large number of company case studies in several countries.