This paper provides initial reflections on the impact of the economic crisis on education across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area by analysing the OECD educationtoday crisis survey responses of June 2009. It first looks at the impact of the crisis on education demand and participation, after which the focus…

This paper provides an overview of the available information concerning selected policy instruments intended to promote employer-provided training, including the stated rationale and objectives, the target groups and operational design as well as a at a summary of the evaluative evidence regarding their operation. The analysis focuses on policy…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Directorate for Education surveyed the impact of the economic recession on education for the first time in June 2009. Responses were received from seventeen OECD member countries, the Flemish Community of Belgian and two Canadian provinces. The results of the survey reflect the…

America's higher education system is among the best in the world. Nevertheless, there is scope for improvement. In particular, there appear to be substantial financial barriers to higher education despite large government expenditures aimed at promoting access. Policy makers have proposed addressing these barriers by increasing student grants.…

This paper assesses how policies and institutions affect private returns to invest in tertiary human capital, the ability of individuals to finance this investment and the institutional characteristics of tertiary education systems. Focusing on core tertiary education services, the paper presents new measures of private returns to tertiary…

This paper examines the potential role of innovation policy in enhancing long-term productivity growth in Russia. It begins by exploring the role of framework conditions for business in encouraging innovative activities, particularly with respect to intellectual property rights and competition. Realising Russia's innovation potential will also…

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 20151. The need for additional development funding, if the MDGs are to be achieved by 2015, is…

This paper looks at ways of ensuring Czech regions and municipalities are fully motivated to make efficiency improvements in public service provision and so help achieve countrywide fiscal sustainability. The very large number of small municipalities in the Czech Republic means that scale economies are difficult to exploit and the policy options…

Widening the skills base and improving labour-market efficiency requires the support of good education. This paper describes the structure of the education system, identifies weaknesses and considers ways to improve performance in light of the ongoing rapidly expanding demand for tertiary level education. The paper discusses ways to modernise the…

Fiscal federalism can be an important complement to structural reforms and budget consolidation. Empowering sub national governments, while at the same time making them accountable to local citizens in the uses of tax money, could improve the allocation of public resources and promote catch up of the lagging regions. Italy has launched itself in…

A good framework for investment in innovation can contribute to increasing Chile's growth potential. Spending on R&D is currently low in relation to GDP and heavily reliant on government financing. Innovation activity in the business sector is also limited by insufficient seed and venture capital and human capital constraints. This is despite…

For many years, Brazil lagged behind other middle-income countries in terms of school enrolment rates. But since 1998 policies have aimed at bridging this gap, in particular, with the implementation of FUNDEF, a fund for financing sub-national spending on primary and lower-secondary education. Using state- and municipality-level data during…

In about two decades, Spain was transformed from one of the most centralised countries to one of the most decentralised. Spending functions were devolved rapidly. Following the rapid decentralisation to the regions since the early 1980s, the sub-national authorities now have more staff to manage than the central government and have…

The development of digital content raises new issues as rapid technological developments challenge existing business models and government policies. This OECD study identifies and discusses six groups of business and public policy issues and illustrates these with existing and potential OECD Digital Content Strategies and Policies: (1) Innovation…

What contribution can information technology (IT) make to India's overall economic development? This paper provides an analytical framework centred around the concepts of comparative advantage, complementarities, and innovation. There is strong evidence that India has a strong and sustainable comparative advantage in software development and…