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Data plays an increasingly important role for online platforms and the majority of digital business models. Along with data becoming central to competition and the conduct of actors in digital markets, there has been an increase in data privacy regulations and enforcement worldwide. The interplay between competition and data privacy has prompted questions about whether data privacy and the collection of consumers’ data constitute an antitrust issue. Should competition considerations be factored into decisions by data protection authorities, and, if so, how can synergies between the two policy areas be enhanced and tensions overcome? This paper explores the links between competition and data privacy, their respective objectives, and how considerations pertaining to one policy area have been, or could be, included into the other. It investigates enforcement interventions and regulatory measures that could foster synergies or lead to potential challenges, and offers insights into models for co-operation between competition and data protection authorities. This is a joint working paper from the OECD Competition and Digital Economy Policy Secretariat.

As populations age and the number of people with chronic conditions increases, countries need to assess how their health systems perform with regard to the management of chronic conditions. OECD's Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys (PaRIS) initiative aims to measure outcomes and experiences of healthcare as reported by patients with chronic conditions as part of the efforts to improve quality of care. The PaRIS survey, an international survey of people living with chronic conditions who are managed in primary care, is implemented in twenty countries. Following a rigorous design and development phase, the PaRIS survey was field-tested in participating countries. This paper reports on the implementation and the results of the Field Trial. The Field Trial provided important lessons which have been used to improve the survey tools and the implementation of the Main Survey.

Inter-municipal co-operation (IMC) has proved to be a constructive and efficient instrument in many EU and OECD countries for solving several issues at the local government level, including the lack of resources, administrative fragmentation, the investment burden of individual municipalities or better and more efficient organisation of public service provision. Although IMC is still often thought of as an alternative to the politically sensitive merging of small municipalities, nowadays its use has raised the interest of public administrations whose local governments are medium- and large-sized and that see this instrument as a way to empower local governments, provide them with more responsibilities, ensure sustainability of public services and fuel planning capacities and strategic thinking at the local and regional level. This paper summarises examples from EU and OECD countries where IMC either has a long-standing history or has recently received increased support and attention. It also provides an analysis of the legislative basis, support and incentives and practical data of IMC in the Western Balkan administrations. The paper offers several recommendations specific to the Western Balkan administrations for how to benefit from IMC.

Before the war, the Ukrainian Pay-As-You-Go pension system required large government transfers. Since then, large scale emigration and an increasing number of people eligible for pensions have further increased the need for government transfers and exacerbated the challenges of population ageing. At the same time, the system provides relatively low pension benefits, despite fairly high contribution rates and short time in retirement. This reflects to a large degree a relatively narrow contribution base due to a large informal economy and underreporting of labour income. Reform of the system must encourage participation, secure liveable pensions, and safeguard the system’s fiscal sustainability.

As “market referees”, regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour, actions and governance are important factors in how they, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) looks at the institutions, processes and practices that can create an organisational culture of performance and results. This report uses PAFER to assess both the internal and external governance of Brazil’s National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation (ANA). The review offers recommendations for the regulator to build upon its strong technical reputation and good practices. It proposes an integrated set of recommendations to help ANA best fulfil its roles relating to water resource management and water-use regulation, dam safety, and water supply and sanitation.

Na condição de "árbitros do mercado", os reguladores contribuem para a prestação de serviços essenciais de utilidade pública. A cultura organizacional, o comportamento, as ações e a governança são fatores importantes no desempenho dos reguladores e dos setores que supervisionam. O Quadro de Avaliação de Desempenho para Reguladores Econômicos (PAFER, na sigla em inglês) da OCDE analisa as instituições, os processos e as práticas que podem criar uma cultura organizacional baseada em desempenho e resultados. Este relatório utiliza o PAFER para avaliar a governança tanto interna quanto externa da Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básico (ANA) do Brasil. O relatório oferece recomendações para que o regulador desenvolva sua sólida reputação técnica e suas boas práticas, propondo um conjunto integrado de recomendações que ajudarão a ANA a cumprir da melhor forma possível seu papel na gestão de recursos hídricos e regulação do uso da água, na segurança de barragens e no saneamento básico.

Spain has been confronted with weak wage and productivity growth for several decades. This report provides an overview of the role that labour market policies as well as other policies can play in reviving broadly shared productivity growth in Spain. To set the scene, it starts with documenting the decline in broadly shared productivity growth and its underlying mechanisms. It then provides a discussion of how policies can enhance the adaptability of the economy and labour market to structural change. It concludes with a discussion of the role of selected labour market policies for promoting broadly shared productivity gains. The emphasis is on wage-setting institutions, employment protection and job retention support, consistent with the focus of recent reforms.

Social and emotional skills (SES) are important for various life outcomes, such as academic achievement, mental health, job performance or civic engagement. The assessment of these skills in children and adolescents, however, currently relies heavily on the use of self-reported questionnaires. As such, there is an urgent need for more direct measurement approaches of SES, which look at behaviours, actions and choices, in order to diversify the current portfolio of available assessments. The aim of this working paper is, thus, to map and review innovative assessment tools as well as technological approaches, aimed at the direct assessment of SES. Firstly, the paper documents almost 60 different behavioural tools, namely tasks and digital games. These instruments are reviewed according to a set of criteria, including their reliability, construct and ecological validity, and feasibility. Secondly, the paper identifies technological approaches, such as biophysiological measures, virtual reality or different artificial intelligence applications. Many of these technologies have the potential of being transversally integrated into different tasks and game, enriching the quality of SES assessment, albeit bringing new challenges. Lastly, the paper promotes a dialogue between the different types of innovative assessments, identifying comparative strengths and challenges.

The paper contributes to renewed debates about industrial policy in the context of recent initiatives in several OECD economies. It discusses the pros and cons of industrial policies motivated by environmental, national security and place-based/inclusiveness objectives. The paper also considers implementation and design issues, and how to respond to industrial policies in other countries. There are well-grounded economic, social and environmental justifications for some industrial policies. However, there are legitimate concerns that the benefits of such policies could be limited and the costs high. This mainly relates to measures curbing domestic and international competition and the practical and political challenges in designing and implementing effective measures. Thus, while governments may want to experiment with future and welfare-oriented industrial policies, they should exert moderation in scope, exercise caution in design and implementation, and be mindful of possible negative international implications.

Le guide de politique publique sur les cadres légaux pour l'économie sociale et solidaire vise à soutenir les pays, les régions et les villes qui souhaitent utiliser les cadres légaux comme un levier approprié pour développer des écosystèmes favorables à l'économie sociale et solidaire (ESS). S'appuyant sur des données, des informations et des exemples de bonnes pratiques provenant de plus de 33 pays, ce guide international fournit des conseils étape par étape, ainsi que des "facteurs de réussite" et des "écueils à éviter" pour aider les décideurs politiques à i) évaluer pourquoi et quand des cadres légaux pour l'ESS sont nécessaires ; ii) sélectionner des options légales et impliquer les parties prenantes ; iii) évaluer la performance des lois, et, iv) favoriser l'apprentissage international par les pairs sur ce sujet. Le guide s'appuie également sur les enseignements du document sur les cadres légaux pour l'économie sociale et solidaire, élaboré dans le cadre de l'action mondiale de l'OCDE "Promouvoir les écosystèmes de l'économie sociale et solidaire", financée par l'instrument de partenariat étranger de l'Union européenne, et de l'étude "Designing Legal Frameworks for Social Enterprises : Practical Guidance for Policy Makers".

Most workers who will be exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) will not require specialised AI skills (e.g. machine learning, natural language processing, etc.). Even so, AI will change the tasks these workers do, and the skills they require. This report provides first estimates for Canada on the effect of artificial intelligence on the demand for skills in jobs that do not require specialised AI skills. The results show that the skills most demanded in occupations highly exposed to AI are management, communication and digital skills. These include skills in budgeting, accounting, written communication, as well as competencies in basic word processing and spreadsheet software. The results also show that, in Canada, demand for social and language skills have increased the most over the past decade in occupations highly exposed to AI. Using a panel of establishments confirms the increasing demand for social and language skills, as well as rising demand for production and physical skills, which may be complementary to AI. However, the establishment panel also finds evidence of decreasing demand for business, management and digital skills in establishments more exposed to AI.

Informality is a long-standing structural challenge of Latin American labour markets, as almost half of people in the region live in a household that depends solely on informal employment. Informal workers are often insufficiently covered by social protection policies, for which the eligibility is often tied to formal-sector employment. The need to reform social protection systems across Latin America to make them more effective and fiscally sustainable has become more salient after the COVID pandemic. This paper argues that a basic set of social protection benefits available to all workers, whether they work in the formal or the informal sector, should and can be put in place, although it would require the ability to raise additional tax revenues. Moreover, the incentives for formal job creation would be strengthened if its principal source of financing for such basic social protection were shifted towards general tax revenues, as opposed to social security contributions, which tend to increase the cost of formal job creation. Reforming social protection systems will not be easy, but these reforms can provide the basis for both stronger and more inclusive growth in Latin America.

Ces Principes pour un soutien pertinent et efficace aux médias et à l’espace de l’information dans le cadre de la coopération pour le développement ont été élaborés par le Réseau sur la Gouvernance du Comité d'Aide au Développement. Les Principes visent à répondre à la nécessité de garantir que la réponse internationale à la crise du secteur des médias s'adapte mieux à un environnement de l'information en rapide évolution. Les Principes ont été élaborés à partir d'un processus de consultation inclusif et fortement impulsés par les membres et les organisations partenaires.

This paper is part of a subset of working papers within the Environment Working Paper series, presenting research on the enabling environment for investment in water security. The subset includes country and regional projects aimed at pilot testing the Scorecard, designed to assess the enabling environment for investment in water security. The paper “Assessing the Enabling Conditions for Investment in Water Security: Scorecard Pilot Test in Asian Countries” delineates the findings from the initial phase. This paper marks the commencement of the second round of pilot tests in the EU’s Eastern Partnership Countries. It presents the results obtained from assessing the enabling environment for investment in water security in Armenia, using the Scorecard. It also presents policy recommendations based on the priority investment barriers identified during stakeholder consultations in the country, involving representatives from various Ministries engaged in water security and international donors. The assessment and recommendations cover the public investment framework and its impact on water-related sectors, the water investment framework, project bankability and sustainability, as well as the contribution of other economic sectors to water security.

The report outlines the aggregate trends in annual climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries for climate action in developing countries over the period 2013-2022. It presents these trends by source of finance, climate theme, sector, income group and type of financial instrument. Additionally, the report explores adaptation finance trends in relation to the Glasgow Pact's call for developed countries to double adaptation finance by 2025 and offers insights into the growing significance of multilateral providers in the climate finance landscape.

Le rapport décrit les tendances agrégées du financement climatique annuel fourni et mobilisé par les pays développés pour l'action climatique dans les pays en développement au cours de la période 2013-2022. Il présente ces tendances par sources de financement, thèmes climatiques, secteurs, groupes de revenus et types d'instruments financiers. En outre, le rapport explore les tendances du financement de l'adaptation dans le contexte de l'appel du Pacte de Glasgow pour que les pays développés doublent le financement de l'adaptation d'ici 2025, et souligne l'importance croissante des fournisseurs multilatéraux dans le paysage du financement climatique.

This paper analyses of the use of sustainability initiatives within the agricultural and minerals sectors across Latin America and the Caribbean. Building on a detailed mapping of almost 40 selected initiatives and insights from survey data collected from over 300 business representatives, it aims to promote consistency and deepen understanding of the landscape and role of sustainability initiatives in relation to Responsible Business Conduct. This paper identifies key trends, challenges, and opportunities, facilitating a more integrated approach to sustainability across these critical sectors.