Browse by: "2023"

This report looks at the demand for counterfeit goods and identifies its key drivers. It discusses the specificity of the demand for counterfeit goods, including both deliberate and unintentional demand. Indeed, some consumers will deliberately buy counterfeit and pirated goods while others will be deceived into buying illicit products, thinking they are genuine. The report also examines the profiles of destination economies in the global trade of counterfeit and pirated goods. It uses quantitative analysis to study the economic characteristics of various economies, including the quantitative relationship between counterfeit intensity and certain observable socioeconomic factors. The identification of socio-economic factors, in particular, influencing the demand for counterfeit and pirated goods is crucial to help policymakers develop appropriate policies, including better targeting of consumer awareness campaigns.

With more chronic conditions and an ageing population, a growing share of the population will need end-of-life care, reaching close to 10 million people by 2050. While end-of-life care services help improve quality of life through relieving pain and other symptoms, currently, there are substantial gaps in the provision of services. More than half of deaths still occur in hospital across OECD countries, despite home generally being the preferred place of death, because of lack of appropriate services and poor care co-ordination. There are marked inequalities in access with people from higher education twice as likely to receive end-of-life care services than those with low education. Planning, recording of wishes and shared decision-making fall short of what is desirable, with only one-quarter of wishes being recorded in the form of advance directives. People at the end of life do not always receive appropriate symptom relief, while others suffer from overtreatment. This report suggests avenues to improve care for the dying by enhancing measurement and monitoring of quality and rethinking funding and governance models of care. End-of-life care could also be improved by increasing knowledge among health care staff across different care settings, and making communication around the topic more person-centred.

This report is the first country review undertaken as part of the OECD work on LGBTI+ inclusion. It explores legal and policy progress towards LGBTI+ equality in Germany at both the national and subnational levels, and identifies good practices. The report first investigates the life situation of LGBTI+ Germans by presenting the most up-to-date data on the share of Germans who self-identify as LGBTI+, evaluating the extent to which LGBTI+ Germans face discrimination and violence, and assessing how this population fares in terms of well-being, mental and physical health. The report then examines whether laws critical to achieving LGBTI+ equality have been passed and how LGBTI+ equality in Germany could be further improved through legislation. Finally, beyond laws, the report focuses on policy achievements towards LGBTI+ equality, by distinguishing between remedial policies, aimed at enforcing antidiscrimination and anti-violence laws, and preventive policies, aimed at fostering a culture of equal treatment of LGBTI+ individuals at school, in the workplace, and in healthcare.

The world of work is getting older in advanced and an increasing number of emerging economies. Two powerful and persistent trends, longer lifespans and lower birth rates, all but guarantee that midcareer and older workers will make up an even larger portion of the future workforce, with profound implications for our economies, businesses and workers. Are societies adapting quickly enough to cope with ageing at an unprecedented scale? What are some of the key structural barriers, the embedded attitudes and behaviours, that stand in the way of helping midcareer and older workers stay employed longer? What steps can we take to support them as we transition to a more digital and sustainable economy, and make sure that age is no longer a barrier to work? In search of answers, the OECD and Generation, a global employment nonprofit network, teamed up to develop new research based on a survey of thousands of employed and unemployed people, and hiring managers in eight countries: the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The evidence presented in this report aims to foster a more inclusive and resilient labour market for workers at all stages of their careers.

The use of telemedicine was quite limited in most OECD countries before the COVID-19 pandemic, held back by regulatory barriers and hesitancy from patients and providers. In early 2020, as COVID-19 massively disrupted in-person care, governments moved quickly to promote the use of telemedicine. The number of teleconsultations skyrocketed, playing a vital role in maintaining access to care, but only partly offsetting reductions in in-person care. This report provides an overview of the use of telemedicine in OECD countries, describing how governments scaled up remote care during the pandemic and exploring the impact that this massive shift to remote care has had on health care system performance. Telemedicine may be here to stay, but questions remain concerning how to regulate its use, how to pay for it, how to integrate it with in-person care, and how to make sure that it constitutes good value for money for all. This report puts forth priorities for policy makers to inform the discussion and to promote the best use of remote care services in the future.

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.

Many OECD governments regularly identify violence against women as the top gender equality issue their country faces. Yet in all countries, addressing this multifaceted issue presents serious governance and implementation challenges as victims/survivors have complex needs both during and after experiences of violence. Different service delivery providers such as health, justice, housing and social protection must work together seamlessly – across governmental and non-governmental providers – to provide an effective response. This report presents a stocktaking of OECD governments’ efforts to integrate service delivery to address the most prevalent form of gender-based violence against women: intimate partner violence. It presents an overview of different strategies for coordinating key services commonly offered in OECD countries: healthcare, justice, housing, child services, income support, and preventative programmes to stop the reoccurrence of violence. Based on extensive feedback from 35 out of 38 OECD countries and a consultation with non-governmental service providers, this report identifies best practices and investigates the barriers to resolving one of the most pressing human rights issues in OECD countries today.

This report calls on policy makers to step up the policy response to increase physical activity. Being physically active is one of the most important things people can do to improve their physical and mental health. It helps prevent a range of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and improves mental health and cognitive functioning, among other benefits. Nevertheless, too many Europeans are physically inactive. One in three European adults do not meet the WHO physical activity guidelines, and almost half never exercise or play sport. The report describes patterns and trends of insufficient physical activity in Europe. It reviews the detrimental impact that current physical inactivity levels have on population health and health expenditure. The report provides policy makers with options to address insufficient physical activity, drawing on case studies from across Europe.

Flanders experienced large inflows of immigrants over the past decade, coming from an increasingly diverse range of countries, with growth rates outpacing the Netherlands, France and Germany, as well as Belgium as a whole. While integration outcomes have improved in recent years, some of the core indicators remain unfavourable in international comparison, especially for non-EU immigrant women, refugees, and youth with migrant parents. Against this backdrop, Flanders has developed a comprehensive integration policy. This review, the fourth in the series Working Together for Integration, provides an in-depth analysis of the Flemish integration system, highlighting its strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for improvement. Earlier reviews in this series looked at integration in Sweden (2016), Finland (2018) and Norway (2022).

Illicit trade in counterfeit goods causes economic damage by reducing sales and profits as well as innovation incentives in legitimate industries. This study looks at damages caused by illicit trade in counterfeits to small and medium-sized enterprises. The robust evidence on the magnitude, scope and trends of this risk informs policy makers about the need to include anti-counterfeiting elements in policy packages designed to support SMEs.

The deep and rapid changes in the world of work driven by the digital and green transformations as well as population ageing have been associated with greater job instability, with potential costs for companies, workers and society. The unprecedented labour and skill shortages that emerged during the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic have raised further the importance of developing and retaining talent. In the context of a more age-diverse workforce, addressing this challenge will require better working conditions, greater investments in training and tackling difficulties in reconciling work with health issues and caring responsibilities. This report presents evidence on recent trends in job tenure and employee turnover, how they have changed due to the COVID-19 shock and sheds light on why employees quit their jobs. It identifies key employer and public policies that can support increased employment retention through better job quality, health at the workplace, and training and skills.

Pay transparency policies are gaining momentum throughout the OECD. Over half of OECD countries require private sector firms to report their gender pay gap statistics regularly to stakeholders like employees, employee representatives, the government, and/or the public. Gender pay gap reporting, equal pay audits and other pay transparency policies help advance gender equality at the workplace, as these measures present up-to-date information on a firm’s gender pay gap, encourage employers to offer equal pay for work of equal value, and give individual workers and their representatives valuable insights to fight for pay equity. This report presents the most thorough stocktaking to date of gender pay gap reporting policies and evaluations across OECD countries, and offers guidance to countries interested in introducing, reforming and monitoring their pay transparency systems to promote equal pay for women and men.