The main features of China’s current sub-national finance arrangements date back to the 1994 tax reform. China has a multi-level government structure that shares national tax revenues through a system of tax sharing and transfers, and divides spending assignments and responsibilities.

Following a sharp drop amidst the global economic crisis and a subsequent recovery, the spot price of crude oil has been broadly stable for the past couple of years. This paper discusses the factors that drive oil demand and supply and, hence, the price of the resource.

Under the Universal Credit reform, the main means-tested benefits except the Council Tax Benefit will be pooled into one single benefit with one single taper rate. The reform will give people better incentives to work, reduce complexity and contribute to reducing poverty.

Employment has risen by more and unemployment has risen less than expected, given the path of output. Nevertheless, long-term and youth unemployment and involuntary part-time work are high. A polarised labour market risks worsening income inequality, which is high by OECD standards, despite a recent and likely temporary decline.

Luxembourg is a rich and fast-growing country. However, inequality of disposable incomes has trended up modestly over the past decades and relative poverty has risen reflecting mainly the rapid growth of high incomes.

China’s new leadership has signalled that it is time to step up the pace of reform, building on the remarkable economic and social achievements to date while recognising the pressing need for deep structural changes. Indeed, far-reaching reforms are necessary for continuing to raise living standards and well-being, even as China is poised to become the world’s largest economy by around 2016.

Our economic growth models have not equitably distribute benefits. Inequalities were brewing under the surface prior to 2007 and increased almost everywhere even during periods of sustained economic growth. We need to reverse this trend, said OECD Secretary-General.

Income inequality in Colombia has declined since the early 2000s but remains very high by international standards. Income dispersion largely originates from the labour market, which is characterised by a still high unemployment rate, a pervasive informal sector and a wide wage dispersion reflecting a large education premium for those with higher education.

Income inequality in Colombia has declined since the early 2000s but remains very high by international standards. While most of the inequality originates from the labour market, wealth – and thus capital income – is also highly concentrated and the tax and transfer system has little redistributive impact.

The economic situation of young people is unsatisfactory. Educational inequalities have been widening for over a decade, due to a sharp decline in the results of the most highly disadvantaged students. The unemployment rate for the 20-24 age bracket has not dropped below 16% for nearly 30 years.

Informality has important implications for productivity, economic growth, and the inequality of income. In recent years, the extent of informal employment has increased in many of Mexico's states, though highly heterogeneously.

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

Old ways of thinking won’t bring developed countries back to economic life. Weighed down by the legacy of the crisis, they also face deep challenges like a faltering labour supply and slowing innovation. And growth itself won’t be enough–it must also be stable, inclusive and green. The need for structural reforms has never been greater, but they will require difficult trade-offs.

Italy took courageous decisions and engaged reforms to address the crisis and create the necessary conditions to ensure economic recovery. The economic situation remains fragile but you are making visible progress and it is crucial to maintain the reform momentum, said OECd Secretary-General.

Today the OECD is publishing a report on Portugal's challenges as far as structural reform is concerned. The OECD is an outstanding reference for policy-makers all around the world and I wanted my country to benefit from your skills, experience, and insights, especially on the question of structural reform, said the Portuguese Prime Minister.

After two decades of strong economic growth and convergence in living standards towards the levels of more prosperous OECD countries, Portugal’s performance weakened in the 2000s, productivity growth slowed and competitiveness deteriorated. Restoring Portugal’s potential for strong, inclusive growth calls for a comprehensive reform of the State.

This paper uses panel regression techniques to assess the policy determinants of private sector innovative Activity – proxied by R&D expenditure and the number of new patents – across 19 OECD countries. The relationship between innovation indicators and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth is also examined with a particular focus on the role of public policies in influencing the returns to new knowledge.

Recent OECD research has utilised harmonised cross-country firm level data to explore the contribution of public policies to cross-country differences in productivity, innovation and resource allocation.

Innovation-based growth, underpinned by investments in a broad range of knowledge-based capital (KBC), is central to raising long-term living standards.

Income inequality and relative poverty in the United States are among the highest in the OECD and have substantially increased over the past decades. These developments have been associated with a number of other worrying statistics, including low intergenerational social mobility and weak real income growth for many households.

The problems of Japanese agriculture – in particular low productivity and the prevalence of part-time farmers and small plots have been evident for the past 50 years.

This paper derives estimates of the efficiency of welfare spending in Slovenia and the other OECD countries from data envelopment analysis based on model specifications used in earlier OECD studies.

OECD indicators of structural policy show that policy changes in Italy since 1998 should have improved the environment for entrepreneurship significantly, but in the same period its economic performance has deteriorated noticeably.

Belgium has a good record in delivering accessible care, but adaptation to population ageing will be complicated by the fragmentation of responsibilities in the healthcare system and a strong reliance on government regulations.

Austria has achieved high levels of economic growth and well-being, but must address serious demographic, environmental and globalisation challenges if future generations are to share the same prosperity, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Austria.

The 2011 disaster and nuclear problems opened the door to a new energy policy, as they raised fundamental questions about the electricity system’s ability to prevent and respond to accidents.

Several studies have reported a large negative effect of national borders on the volume of trade. We provide new estimates of the border effect for continental Europe using road rather than great circle – or "as-crows-fly" – distance.

This paper analyses convergence in per capita gross regional product of Russia’s regions during the period 1995-2010, when regional data are available.

In the wake of the Great Recession, a massive monetary policy stimulus was provided in the main OECD economies. It helped to stabilise financial markets and avoid deflation. Nonetheless, GDP growth has been sluggish and in some countries lower than expected given the measures taken, and estimated economic slack remains large.

How far to go – and to remain – in the direction of highly expansionary monetary policy hinges on the balance of marginal benefits and costs of additional monetary easing and its expected evolution over time. This paper sketches a framework for assessing this balance and applies it to four OECD economic areas: the euro area, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Young people have been hit hard by unemployment during the Irish recession. While much research has been undertaken to study the effects of the recession on overall labour market dynamics, little is known about the specific effects on youth unemployment and the associated challenges.

Combining existing information with a newly collected dataset, the paper develops indicators of the performance and the institutional characteristics of OECD judicial systems.

This report presents an update of OECD policy advice in areas that are critical to China’s long-term economic performance and social development. They include food security, social safety nets, health reform, green growth, climate change and urbanisation.

This paper examines the heavily supported Swiss food and agriculture sector. It reviews some of the key features and trends in the sector and reveals its low relative labour productivity in international comparison.

Credible and consistent carbon pricing must be the cornerstone of government actions to tackle climate change, according to a new OECD report.

There is no simple remedy for fixing the post-crisis global economy. But three key ingredients for sustainable long-term growth are jobs, equality and trust, said OECD Secretary-General in Washington.

Sound macroeconomic policies and the commodity boom have helped Chile record an enviable period of economic growth and job creation. Further reforms are needed to make the labour market more inclusive and growth greener, while more could be done to support innovation and entrepreneurship, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Chile.

China is well-placed to avoid the so-called "middle-income trap" and to continue to converge towards the more advanced economies, even though growth is likely to slow from near double-digit rates in the first decade of this millennium to around 7% at the 2020 horizon.

With sound framework conditions, fine universities, good infrastructure and policies friendly towards foreign direct investment, Ireland scores high in international innovation scoreboards. Overall, policies to boost innovation and entrepreneurship are on the right track, but investment in knowledge-based capital could be made a more dynamic source of growth and jobs.

As Mexico seeks to boost economic growth, pressures on its natural resources and environmental outcomes may intensify, jeopardizing the sustainability of that growth and the well-being of the population.

This paper aims at identifying which countries and regions in the world might face structural overcapacities or capacity shortfalls in the automobile industry in the near future.

In Europe, the two most pressing structural policy priorities that must be addressed are the challenge of unemployment and the restoration the health of euro area banks, said OECD Secretary-General in Brussels.

A slowdown in EMEs has larger effects on the global economy than in the past, via trade and financial cross-border linkages.

Israel’s economy is in good shape, but further efforts are needed to fight poverty and close the gap in living standards with other leading nations, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Israel.

Government bond yields have recently increased in many OECD countries from rock-bottom levels and a further increase is likely with the normalisation of monetary policies.

Irish youth was hit hard by the crisis. New labour-market policy initiatives have been introduced recently, but more will be needed to limit scarring effects and keep youth connected so that they can get back to work as soon as the recovery strengthens.

The OECD will launch its latest Economic Survey of the Russian Federation in Moscow on Wednesday 15 January 2014 during the annual Gaidar Forum.

This paper reviews the state of the banking sector in Europe. At the aggregate level, the empirical data suggest that the Baltics, Cyprus, Greece and Ireland, in particular, are hit by a strong decline in lending in the wake of the financial crisis.

The Russian Federation’s economy is growing, but further reforms are needed to bolster future growth, improve the business climate and strengthen innovation, according to the OECD.

Poverty and income inequality have worsened since the onset of the crisis. While the design of fiscal measures has mitigated the burden sharing of fiscal adjustment, as the recession has deepened unemployment has risen, earnings have declined and social tensions have increased.