The rapid growth of cities in West Africa poses significant challenges across development dimensions. In particular, as the location of poverty spreads from rural to urban areas so have issues of food insecurity and malnutrition. Indeed, the potential impact of growing food insecurity in urban areas was highlighted by the widespread rioting over food prices in 2008. More...
In a vigorous policy debate over investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) with many elements, adjudicator selection has emerged as an important new subjec. More...
The goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well-below 2 degrees is an ambitious challenge by any measure. To start, countries have set themselves voluntary targets for 2020 and beyond, but even if those targets are achieved, without greater ambition the world would still be stuck in a roughly 3 degree scenario. More...
Posted . The Nordics are rightly renowned for being inclusive societies with low inequality compared to other OECD countries. However, some of the largest inequality increases over the past few decades took place in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. A newly released article building on previous OECD work discusses how market forces, demographic trends and redistribution together shaped the income distribution of the Nordics. More...
Posted . Employment is rising strongly while the external and fiscal imbalances are being addressed. Public finances are outperforming European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Stability Support programme’s targets, helping to restore fiscal credibility. Financial markets are taking notice, with bond spreads falling and agencies upgrading their ratings of Greece’s public debt. More...
Posted . Markets and commentators are speculating that there may be a sustained pick-up in inflation in the United States, after years of subdued price pressures. Along with continued solid US jobs growth and low unemployment, there are tentative signs of higher wage growth and the fiscal stimulus will also boost short-term growth. More...
Posted . Irish GDP growth made headlines recently due to enormous upward revisions (e.g. + 25.6% for the sole year of 2015) related to the activities of a small group of multinationals. This raises the question of how much Irish productivity relies on multinational companies alone. More...
Posted . The OECD 2018 Economic Survey of Costa Rica finds that anti-competitive regulations and high labour market segmentation hinder the full realisation of opportunities to make growth more inclusive. Setting in motion a ‘virtuous cycle’ of inclusive growth will require reforms across several policy areas that present win-win opportunities in terms of equity and productivity improvements. More...
Posted . Thailand has made commendable socio-economic progress since the 1970s and has set itself the goal of joining the group of high-income countries by 2036. To make that happen, the government has spelled out a Thailand 4.0 vision that involves a transformation to a more productivity- and technology-driven economy. This is the next step – after Thailand 1.0 (accumulation of capital and labour inputs led by the agricultural sector), Thailand 2.0 (light industry) and Thailand 3.0 (heavy industry). More...
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