Globalisation has failed to create a level playing field in trade, investment and corporate behaviour, being one of the factors contributing to a backlash against openness in many countries and a decline in confidence in government institutions.

This web page presents the 10 dimensions of the framework for the governance of public infrastructure. The dimensions relate to how governments prioritise, plan, budget, deliver, regulate and evaluate infrastructure investment. Each area covers the principal objective of policy in each area, followed by key questions decision makers need to address and indicators identifying the enabling factors.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly turning to alternative sources of financing, while new bank lending is declining in a number of countries. Many SMEs remain over-reliant on bank credit, however, and the take-up of instruments other than straight debt varies greatly from one country to another, according to a new OECD report.

This paper brings together information collected through Working Party on Nanotechnology discussions and projects. It relies in particular on preliminary results from a project on the responsible development of nanotechnology and outcomes of a symposium held in 2012.

This report examines examples of new and emerging governance models to support responsible development of diagnostics and treatments based on the latest advances in biomedicine. It identifies some of the main challenges for policy makers, regulators and other communities involved in the translation of biomedical innovation and health technologies from the lab bench to point of care.

Health Data Governance: Strong health data governance frameworks are needed

Urgent research is needed to assess the possible risks to human health and ecosystems from the ever-increasing amounts of engineered nanomaterials going into household waste and ending up in the environment, according to a new OECD report.

This document revises the OECD's statistical definition of biotechnology, which had last been reviewed in 2008, and proposes the adoption of a statistical definition of nanotechnology in the same format.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, was in Sydney from 21 to 23 February 2014 to attend the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings. While in Sydney, the Secretary-General launched the 2014 OECD Going for Growth report, alongside Mr. Joseph Benedict "Joe" Hockey, Treasurer of Australia.

PISA 2012 financial literacy results focusing on the performance of Australia amongst 17 other countries and economies who participated in the assessment: Belgium (Flemish Community), Shanghai-China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Israel, Italy, Latvia, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and the United States.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 5-6 June 2013 - This meeting served as an opportunity to better understand the particular features and challenges associated with equity market developments worldwide and in particular, corporate governance policies and practices and their relationship to equity market growth in Asia.

The Secretary-General presented OECD’s recent analysis and recommendations on the world economy, on more balanced and efficient financial markets for growth, and on progress on the international tax system. He also spoke at the G7 High-Level Symposium “Future of the Global Economy”, organised by the Japanese G7 Presidency.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and Japan’s Minister of Finance Taro Aso presided today over a signing ceremony to establish a new centre of the OECD International Academy for Tax Crime Investigation in Wako, Japan.

The transition from education to work is not easy for many young people, particularly when it comes to finding sustainable employment with progression opportunities. Recently established national policies to support youth will be only effective if implemented in a coordinated way at local level.

Austria has taken important steps to improve its school system, but needs to reform its complex school governance to further improve quality and equity, according to a new OECD report.

G20 finance ministers have agreed new principles on financial consumer protection developed by the OECD. “Without consumer trust and confidence we could jeopardise the basis for global economic recovery and growth,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

At this Financial Regulation Session of the G20 Leaders Summit, M. Gurría spoke of 'a comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture that should include financial inclusion, protection and education'.

Europe's sovereign debt crisis has exposed structural weaknesses in economic governance that now threaten the entire euro region. Efforts to reinforce public finances and preserve the currency union must go further than solutions proposed to date.

The OECD/INFE High level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education provide international guidance to policy makers with a view to developing evidence-based, co-ordinated and tailored approaches to financial education, both in emerging markets and more advanced economies. G20 Leaders recognised the important role of financial education policies when they endorsed these Principles in 2012.

G20 Finance Ministers have welcomed a new OECD/G20 framework designed to help governments develop financial strategies for disaster risk management.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría opens the Global Forum on Better Governance for Inclusive Growth held in Paris. The Forum will focus on public sector reforms worldwide and identify lessons learned, good practices and innovative solutions for advancing the governance reforms necessary to foster inclusive growth.

OECD countries are intensifying their fiscal consolidation efforts, introducing additional measures and extending the time horizon to implement them. Most have announced fiscal consolidation of more than 3% of GDP over the period 2009-15, according to the OECD’s Restoring Public Finances 2012.

This conference in Nairobi, Kenya, addressed specific issues relating to financial literacy in Africa and the MENA region. It presented the output of the Russia/OECD/World Bank Trust Fund on Financial Literacy and Education.

This conference, taking place on 4-5 March 2013 in New Delhi, India, addressed specific issues relating to financial literacy in India and the Asia region. It presented the output of the Russia/OECD/World Bank Trust Fund on Financial Literacy and Education.

This article by OECD Deputy Secretary-General Rintaro Tamaki focuses on three issues that will be important in shaping the future of the Asian economic and financial community: trade, funding long-term investment and strengthened regional financial co-operation.

The OECD provides an update on global economy in this statement to the International Monetary and Financial Committee - April 2013.

This statement by Adrian Blundell-Wignall and Paul Atkinson was presented to the German Bundestag's Finance Committee Hearing on the Draft Bank-Separation Law (Drucksache 17/12601) on 22 April 2013.

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.

This conference in Moscow explored strategies for developing financial literacy and capability and building effective consumer protection systems.

This report provides an overview of the status of financial education programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, discusses their rationale, and offers initial guidance for policy makers.

This seminar took place in Palembang, Indonesia, with discussions focusing on institutional investors and long-term financing and policy measures and initiatives to address constraints to infrastructure investment identified by APEC under the Indonesian presidency.

The financial crisis has shown that many people need to have a better understanding of the financial issues in order to make informed decisions on matters such as savings, investments, pensions and credit, according to a report to be presented to G20 leaders in Saint Petersburg this week.

Both women and men need to be sufficiently financially literate to effectively participate in economic activities and to take appropriate financial decisions for themselves and their families, but women often have less financial knowledge and lower access to formal financial products than men. Women therefore have specific and additional financial literacy needs.

At their meetings on 19-20 September 2013, APEC Finance Ministers welcomed a survey report prepared by the OECD on disaster risk financing practices in the Asia Pacific region.

Low levels of financial inclusion are associated with lower levels of financial literacy. This report looks at how policy makers are developing financial education policies for financial inclusion. It highlights challenges faced and solutions found, as well as outlining the main lessons learnt and possibilities for the way forward.

This book addresses gender differences in financial literacy and reviews policy responses and initiatives across the world to tackle women’s and girls’ needs, drawing lessons from existing experiences.

This paper identifies the main trends in long-term financial intermediation focusing on the role of institutional investors in providing long-term finance for growth and development. It also highlights infrastructure as one specific sector that is facing major challenges in long-term financing.

This paper investigates whether countries that had controls on inflows in place prior to the crisis were less vulnerable during the global financial crisis. More generally, it examines economic growth effects of such controls over the entire economic cycle, finding that capital restrictions on inflows (particularly debt liabilities) may be useful in good times but may have adverse effects in a crisis.

This event, co-organised by the OECD and the Korean authorities, explored policies and good practices for supporting long-term savings and investments through financial education and financial consumer protection.

This article presents a brief overview of current financing difficulties for SMEs and policy measures to support SME lending during the crisis, and presents a literature review related to difficulties in SME’s access to finance during the crisis, against a background of a sharp decline in bank profitability and an erosion of bank capital that negatively affected lending.

This report shows how OECD’s work on financial markets, with the Committee on Financial Markets (CMF) at its core, has evolved over the past five decades. More than just a chronology, it attempts to explain and analyse the factors and dynamics that transformed financial markets and the work conducted in that area – thereby putting into perspective the challenges that lie ahead.

This book addresses the challenges linked to the introduction of financial education in schools and and provides practical guidance and case studies to assist policy makers.

This event addressed cutting-edge policy issues and research ideas to advance consumer protection globally. Discussions will focus on mobile, online and digital payment systems; behavioural and decision-making insights; and, frameworks for treating consumers fairly.

Organised in Istanbul, this event focused on financial education across Europe and in Turkey, the role(s) of the private and not-for-profit sectors in financial education, financial literacy and innovation for young people and financial education for migrant workers and their families.

This seminar took place in Dalian, China, with discussions focusing on institutional investors and long-term financing and policy measures and initiatives to address constraints to infrastructure investment identified by APEC under the Chinese presidency.

The results of the first international assessment of 15-year-old students’ financial literacy competencies were presented in Paris on 9 July 2014.

Since the 1980s, OECD investment-saving correlations – as an inverse measure of economic openness – indicate a very wide disparity of openness between the OECD and emerging market economies (EMEs) with an absence of open markets in the latter. Given the increasing weight of EMEs in the world economy, this paper warns that this pattern of growth with disparity of openness is ultimately unsustainable.

This article summarises discussions from an OECD Financial Roundtable on reducing bank dependence in financing small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-bank debt financing alternatives.

The infrastructure financing market has gone through a process of radical transformation starting from the mid-2000s. This article provides an overview of international trends in infrastructure finance. It proposes a map of the different investment channels that private investors can use to access the infrastructure investment on the equity and debt side, highlighting the historical evolution of these segments in the past few years.

This paper analyses the effects of government policies on flows of private finance for investment in renewable energy. It also examines whether direct provision of public finance for a project increases the volume of private finance raised. The analysis covers 87 countries, six renewable energy sectors (wind, solar, biomass, small hydropower, marine and geothermal).