Posted by . France’s economy has been recovering gradually from the Global Financial Crisis, and economic growth is projected to continue to strengthen in the next years (OECD, 2017). However, the unemployment rate remains above the OECD and EU average and a large share of the unemployed have been out of work for more than 12 months. This suggests that many skills in France are not being used, and are therefore at risk of depreciation and even obsolescence. Labour market outcomes are especially poor for youth, migrants and the low-skilled. More...
Energy for the 2030 Agenda
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been ratified, and access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 is a target in its own right (SDG 7). Modern energy is central to achieving global development: it has never been a more important time to understand where the world stands on achieving this target, and to propose pragmatic strategies for achieving universal energy access. More...
Norway’s economy, a need to ensure policies can cope with upcoming challenges
Posted . In its latest Economic Survey for Norway, the OECD underscores the importance of policy facilitating transition away from oil-related activities and helping businesses seize opportunities from digitalisation and globalisation, through providing i) macroeconomic and financial stability, and ii) improvements to structural-policy settings. It also recommends making public expenditure services more efficient, so as to reduce the injection of oil-money into the economy and to ensure an equitable participation in oil-wealth returns across future generations. More...
High household debt: a challenge for medium-term growth?
Posted . The global economy is now growing in sync at his fastest pace in years, but financial vulnerabilities create challenges for medium-term growth. Private indebtedness, including of households, remains a source of concern, as set out in the special chapter of our latest Economic Outlook on “Resilience in a time of high debt”. More...
Statistical Insights: Merchandise trade statistics without asymmetries
Posted . To properly understand global trade patterns we need high quality, consistent and harmonised statistics on international merchandise trade. Currently available statistics, however, fall short of this standard. In theory the exports of country A to country B should mirror the imports of country B from country A, but in practice this is rarely the case. To tackle this issue the OECD, through its Working Party on International. More...
Busting the myth about standardised testing
Standardised testing has received a bad rap in recent years. Parents and educators argue that too much testing can make students anxious without improving their learning. In particular, standardised tests that could determine a student’s future – entry into a certain education programme or into university, for example – might trigger anxiety and, if conducted too frequently, might lead to poorer performance, absenteeism and lower self-confidence. But are standardised tests really used all that frequently? And do they exacerbate anxiety and undermine performance?Evidence from PISA dispels these myths. More...
Citizenship and education in a digital world
"Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence”, George Orwell wrote in 1943. And in an era of ‘fake news’ and post-truth, it resembles our world today. More...
Educating our youth to care about each other and the world
In 2015, 193 countries committed to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, a shared vision of humanity that provides the missing piece of the globalisation puzzle. The extent to which that vision becomes a reality will in no small way depend on what is happening in today’s classrooms. Indeed, it is educators who hold the key to ensuring that the SDGs become a real social contract with citizens. More...
What the expansion of higher education means for graduates in the labour market
The latest Education Indicators in Focus policy brief analyses long-term trends in employment outcomes of adults based on their highest level of educational attainment. The figure above shows that, in all OECD countries, adults with tertiary education still enjoy higher employment rates than those without by 10 percentage points, on average, and this advantage has changed little over the past two decades. More...
Third Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference highlights crucial role of university governance
The conference, which was organised in Bucharest, Romania, on 27-29 November, is part of the European Higher Education Area official calendar of events and conferences, promoting and sustaining the development of EHEA. It aims at providing a unique forum for dialogue between researchers, experts and policy makers in the field of higher education. The conference brought together higher education researchers ahead of the Bologna Process Ministerial Conference to be held in Paris in May 2018. More...