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Sections » Economy » General
  • The value of trade

    The emergence of global value chains in manufacturing and services has revolutionised the way the world trades. It has also provided a valuable entry point for many developing economies into the global economy.

    More...

  • Fixing finance

    There are good reasons why the public has lost confidence in banking and finance. Two issues in particular must be addressed before it can be restored– moral hazard and conflict of interest. Reforms should ensure that banks and bankers–not taxpayers–pay the price of failure and are held fully accountable for their actions.

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  • A recipe for trust

    Have the policy errors that contributed to the global economic crisis been rectified? Sharan Burrow shares her vision for building trust and restoring confidence in the countries still suffering from the crisis. 

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  • Boardrooms in transition

    Recent years have brought a flood of stories about dubious standards in business. In the past, many of these might not have impinged on the public’s consciousness. But in today’s interconnected world, consumers and stakeholders are raising the bar for what’s acceptable in corporate behaviour.

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  • ©Blend images/Alamy

    Can youth entrepreneurship work?

    Larry Page and Sergey Brin were young doctoral students when they created the company we now know as Google. Virgin’s Richard Branson started out in business as a teenager selling records. These big names are just part of a long list of young entrepreneurs that made it in business, a list that could include the founders of Facebook, e-Bay, France’s Free telecom and more.

    (633 words)
  • Banking, ethics and good principles

    Whether you blame poor regulation, sloppy governance, greed or bad luck, banks were frontline culprits in causing the crisis. Governments have been working on reforms to fix the financial sector and improve governance, but a lot more work remains to be done. Some OECD principles can help.

    (1313 words)
  • HL Mencken, by Robert H Davis, 1928 © Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland’s State Library Resource Center. All Rights reserved.

    The economics of courage

    Avoidance and false certainty are common afflictions of economic policymakers. Could this explain why they missed something as big and obvious in hindsight as the 2008 financial crisis? Courage to take on the causes of the crisis is needed now. 

    (1048 words)
  • Will China’s economy avoid the doldrums?

    Will China’s growth slowdown last and what does it mean for the rest of us?

    (1287 words)
  • ©Guri Dahl/Scanpix–Office of the Prime Minister

    Meeting our challenges

    How can we increase employment and strengthen social cohesion? The prime minister of Norway argues that we need urgent action to ensure that an entire generation of young people remains connected to the labour market. We must also address the issue of income distribution to protect the vulnerable and guarantee greater equality of opportunity across our societies.

    More... 

    (60 words)
  • ©Vanderlei Almeida/AFP

    Growth is not enough

    Brazil’s labour leaders have long argued against pursuing economic growth for its own sake. What matters most, they believe, is not the size of the economic pie but how it’s carved up. In recent years, calls for social justice have increasingly informed policy in Brazil, bringing about a veritable “revolution” in the economy.

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  • ©Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP

    Give youth a chance

    Young people are being excluded from economic life by a combination of joblessness and barriers to the creation of start-ups. Unleashing the energy, entrepreneurial spirit and technological genius of the young is not just a moral imperative, but an economic necessity.

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  • ©Norwegian government

    It’s all about people

    Ultimately the economic crisis is about people, says Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s minister of foreign affairs. That is why respecting human rights and adherence to democratic principles are fundamental when addressing the current economic crisis. We are in this together, so we need multilateral solutions more than ever.

    (975 words)
  • Transport potential

    Transport is not only a fundamental driver of economic activity, it is a major sector in its own right. But while transport has suffered from the economic crisis, as echoed in downturns in trade and activity generally, it could be a source of recovery too. We asked José Viegas, head of International Transport Forum, to explain. 

    (781 words)
  • ©DR

    A recipe for trust

    Have the policy errors that contributed to the global economic crisis been rectified? Sharan Burrow, who heads the International Trade Union Confederation, shares her vision for building trust and restoring confidence in the countries still suffering from the crisis.

    More...

  • ©Reuters/Jason Lee

    Asia’s Challenges

    The forces driving Asia’s rapid growth–new technology, globalisation, and market-oriented reform–are also fuelling rising inequality. Some income divergence is inevitable in times of fast economic development, but that shouldn’t make for complacency, especially in the face of rising inequality in people’s opportunities to develop their human capital and income-earning capacity.

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  • © OCDE

    How to get it right

    Austerity programmes to restore order to public finances can add to the woes of already struggling economies, leading to more job losses and social hardship. But there are ways for governments to put their fiscal houses in order, while supporting growth and reducing income inequality at the same time.

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  • ©Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

    The cost of mistrust

    Trust is at the heart of today’s complex global economy. But, paradoxically, trust is also in increasingly short supply in many of our societies, especially in our attitudes towards big business, parliaments and governments. This decline threatens our capacity to tackle some of today’s key challenges.

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  • ©DR

    Trusting in crowds

    “Crowdsourcing” pools the strength of the many to perform complex tasks–everything from funding a film to sequencing DNA. At its heart is trust–not a blanket belief in great institutions, but rather the confidence among individuals that each will do the right thing. Its power is being increasingly felt today, even in the world of international development.

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  • ©UK Government Service

    “Made in the world”

    The new OECD/WTO database on trade in value-added is not just about changing the numbers, but policymakers’ approaches too. It gives trade fresh importance, and a place high on the agenda of the UK’s G8 presidency. 

    (1064 words)
  • ©Charlotte Moreau

    Homo Economicus: An uncertain guide

    As humans, we face a constant internal conflict between immediate gratification and more prudent living. This conflict is also apparent in society. How can we ensure that the homo economicus within us takes the decisions that best affect our lives, and economies?

    More...

    (43 words)
  • Readers' views: Labour advice

    You paint a positive picture of Turkey’s economy in terms of growth of GDP and employment (OECD Observer No 290-91, Q1-Q2 2012). Nevertheless, the interview states that for the future of the Turkish economy, “labour market reform is key, especially to encourage the shifting of resources from the informal to the formal sector: a more flexible labour contract is needed and minimum wage setting should be decentralised”

    (319 words)
  • Headline economic data

    GDP +0.4% Q1 2013 (0.0% Q4 2012)
    Leading indicators +0.5% Apr 2013, year on year
    Inflation +1.5% May 2013 (+1.3% Apr) annual
    Unemployment 8.0% Apr 2013 (8% Mar 2013)

    Data for OECD area. Latest update: 05 July 2013

    Databank - Latest quarterly data by country

    For details on these and other numbers, click titles or visit www.oecd.org/statistics

  • Still booming

    The Internet is much more than a multi-billion dollar industry. The world’s economy now depends on this global “cloud”, which was once little more than a means of connecting different computers over a phone network. Today, the digital age has vast new potential to serve as a force of progress in the global economy, but better, smarter public policies will be needed for that potential to become reality.

    (339 words)
  • This time it's different - Click to enlarge

    Policy can brighten the economic outlook

    After five years of crisis, the global economy is weakening again. In this we are not facing a new pattern. Over the recent past, signs of emergence from the crisis have more than once given way to a renewed slowdown or even a double-dip recession in some countries. The risk of a new major contraction cannot be ruled out. A recession is ongoing in the euro area, the US economy is growing but below what was expected earlier this year, and a slowdown has surfaced in many emerging market economies.

    (664 words)
  • From the information revolution to a knowledge-based world

    To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary edition of the OECD Observer, we take a brief look at how the information world and the global economy have transformed since the OECD’s first secretary-general, Thorkil Kristensen, launched the magazine in November 1962.  

    (796 words)
  • Global economy facing hesitant and uneven recovery

    The global economy is expected to make a hesitant and uneven recovery over the coming two years. Decisive policy action is needed to ensure that stalemate over fiscal policy in the United States and continuing euro area instability do not plunge the world back into recession, the OECD said in its latest Economic Outlook.

    For more info visit: www.oecd.org/oecdeconomicoutlook

  • The euro: A message of solidarity

    The EU’s crisis has as much to do with leadership and solidarity as resolving fiscal and debt problems. It is time to dispense with caricatures and write the next chapter in the EU’s ongoing history. And for that, clear and transparent data will be needed.

    (1740 words)
  • Click to enlarge

    Investment dries up

    The fallout from uncertainty that continues to undermine the global economy is reflected in international investment, which is falling once again, following two years of steady gains.

    (229 words)
  • Click to enlarge

    Restart-up?

    Start-up rates in OECD countries are slowly edging back to their pre-crisis levels, but not all countries have seen significant acceleration in new businesses, according to Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2012

    (214 words)
  • ©Jim Young/Reuters

    Obama vs. Romney: Is it the economy, stupid?

    Are you able to make sense of the barrage of opinion poll data that is currently being published in the lead up to the US presidential election on 6 November? Bruce Stokes, Director of Pew Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center, sheds light on the poll trends and assesses to what extent issues such as the economy will be deciding factors when voters approach the ballot box.

    (294 words)
  • ©Govt. of Israel

    Israel reports progress

    Two years after Israel joined the OECD, Sharon Kedmi, Director General at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, is leading a delegation to an important OECD Employment Labour and Social Affairs Committee meeting on 26 October. He spoke with the OECD Observer.

    (1661 words)
  • Taxes on personal income

    See the trends in taxes on personal income for the G7 from 2008 to 2011.

    (37 words)
  • Believing in angels

    The current economic climate has put increased pressure on young firms trying to raise money and develop their businesses. Banks remain reluctant to provide loans to start-ups and venture capital firms prefer to invest in later stage companies. Now, a growing class of experienced entrepreneurs and business people–known as “angel investors”–is stepping in to fill this funding gap. Could this be encouraged further?

    (830 words)
  • Click to enlarge

    Productive hours

    “Work more to earn more” was former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s refrain in his 2007 election campaign. But does working more hours mean the economy is better off?

    (249 words)
  • Towards a new departure

    Two decades ago, when the first Rio Earth Summit took place in 1992, the most advanced economies were in an economic downturn. It was not as severe as the crisis many countries have endured since 2008, but asset bubbles had burst, unemployment had risen and recovery seemed a remote prospect.

    (836 words)
  • ©Shutterstock

    How manufacturing can create value and jobs

    Bring back manufacturing! This refrain has echoed about since the start of the crisis: is it a serious proposition to win back manufacturing activity after years of decline and if so, how?

    (1599 words)
  • ©Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters

    Making the euro area work

    The euro area has been at the centre of the global financial storms for two years. Some serious observers have begun to question whether the euro area will survive these currents. The recently published OECD Economic Survey of the Euro Area shows how Europe’s bold experiment in economic integration can be made to work. 

    (1303 words)
  • ©Reuters/François Lenoir

    Euro: A strategic choice

    Poland is not yet a member of the euro area, though is watching the euro situation with close interest. 

    (703 words)
  • ©Deutsche Bank

    Is the euro crisis over?

    The new euro architecture that is to come into effect from July still suffers from shortcomings, and problem countries have yet to prove that they can survive within the euro says Thomas Mayer. It would be premature to sound the all clear on the euro crisis. 

    (935 words)
  • Towards growth and a “social contract” for Europe

    European leaders should shift their focus from austerity to growth, not least to fight unemployment, says the ETUC, which urges a Social Progress Protocol to be attached to the European treaties. 

    (1183 words)
  • Look out, not in

    The crisis-induced trend towards inward-looking policies poses great dangers for Europe. 

    (816 words)
  • ©Mehmet Kacmaz/NAR Photos-REA

    Turkey’s economy

    The OECD is preparing its forthcoming Economic Survey of Turkey. What issues will be examined? We asked the OECD Economics Department to outline them. Turkey has achieved strong growth in terms of GDP and employment and its public finances are in comparatively good shape. As you prepare your forthcoming Economic Survey of Turkey, what factors would you say contributed to these successes? 

    (676 words)
  • New approaches to bring all on board!

    (762 words)
  • A new vision of growth and well-being

    The economic headlines may have brightened somewhat in 2012, but an OECD Spring this is not. The economic and financial crisis has left deep scars that will take a long time to heal and which will shape policymaking for years to come. 

    (1498 words)
  • ©INET

    A pathway to sound economic thinking

    Financial market overhang rather than excessive fiscal spending threatens confidence today. And there are sounds investments which can make society healthier.

    (893 words)
  • ©www.susannawyatt.com

    The limits to legislation

    When it comes to fixing the economy, could the collective efforts of business and other interested parties be a better solution than passing new laws?

    (1111 words)
  • ©REUTERS/Carlos Barria

    Protecting consumers, and the economy too

    Was a major lapse of consumer protection at the heart of the subprime crisis? For consumer advocate Ira Rheingold, only better financial regulation and consumer protection will prevent future meltdowns. 

    (896 words)
  • ©OECD

    Voyage of discovery

    The OECD Better Life Initiative can make a difference to policies, and to people’s lives too, though that also depends on participation. 

    (1093 words)
  • ©Rick Winning RTW/REUTERS

    Long-term investors: Getting the model right

    Since the 2008 financial crisis, strains in the financial sector and in government balance sheets mean there is less and less supply of long-term capital. This has profound implications for growth and financial stability. Policymakers should take action. 

    (1345 words)
  • When corporate governance is a family affair

    Family-run firms tend to believe that principles of good corporate governance do not really concern them. This is a mistaken view. The question is how to convince them.

    (1181 words)
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NOTE: All signed articles in the OECD Observer express the opinions of the authors
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