The European economy is gradually recovering but further policy action will be required to address unresolved legacies of the global economic crisis that are weighing on growth and major new concerns that have emerged, according to two new OECD reports.

Concerns around weak productivity growth are everywhere these days. As the latest OECD Economic Outlook notes, since the mid-2000s, productivity growth has been markedly lower than at any other time since the 1950s.

The Canadian economy is adjusting to the fall in commodity prices, but additional policies are needed to boost productivity, reduce financial stability risks and make future growth stronger, greener and more inclusive, according to a new OECD report.

The US economy is making one of the strongest comebacks in the OECD, but there are risks on the horizon, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of the United States.

A dynamic small business sector can heighten competition and underpin productivity growth, as discussed in the 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Canada and Carey et al. (2016, forthcoming).

Membership of the European Union contributes to the economic prosperity of the United Kingdom.

The German economy has steadily recovered from the 2008 global crisis. Thanks to past reforms, the labour market has proved strong and export performance has been impressive.

In many OECD countries, the labour market has yet to recover the lost ground suffered in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In some of them, unemployment has been persistently high, resulting in a very high incidence of long-term unemployment.

Strong and adequate skills are essential to support workers’ productivity and to ensure robust employment outcomes. Developing workers’ skills would also increase their personal satisfaction and wages, contributing in making growth more inclusive. The Netherlands performs well in terms of competences of a large part of the population. Moreover, the country has been successful in adjusting the required level of skills over time.

In 2015 the Lithuanian government launched an ambitious Social Model reform agenda aimed at balancing flexibility of the labour market and security provided through the system of social protection.

The nexus of slowing productivity growth and rising inequality is capturing the attention of policymakers and researchers. The productivity slowdown, its causes, and the link with inclusiveness will be discussed on 7-8 July in Lisbon at the first Annual Conference of the new Global Forum on Productivity, which was created by the OECD in collaboration with a number of Member and non-Member countries.

Productivity catch-up along with deeper integration into the global economy played a central role in the convergence of the Czech incomes toward OECD countries before the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2015 the Lithuanian government launched an ambitious Social Model reform agenda aimed at balancing flexibility of the labour market and security provided through the system of social protection.

This paper analyses the effects of the Greek crisis on inequality and poverty in 2009-2014 using the micro-simulation model EUROMOD.

Small business dynamism is a feature of an SME sector that contributes to overall productivity growth, not an end in itself.

Boosting national productivity to sustain the convergence process towards OECD countries living standards will hinge on creating the right conditions for domestic firms to thrive and become more innovative and productive, while maintaining the long-standing commitment to open international markets and investment.

Reviving productivity requires improving framework conditions further so labour and capital can more easily move to the most dynamic sectors and firms, making the tax system more growth-friendly, and supporting innovation, basic research and young firms’ financing.

Macro-simulations benchmarking employment in Finland to the Nordic average show that closing the large gaps in labour participation vis-à-vis the other Nordics across genders and age groups would boost employment significantly.

Leaders of the G20 countries meeting at their Summit in Hangzhou, China, have called on the OECD to help develop an agenda to build a stronger, more innovative and inclusive world economy.

With weak domestic demand and a relatively low export share in the economy there is much potential to raise exports. Despite a recent pick-up Greek export performance deteriorated in the last decade particularly in the service sector and by much more than in the Euro area on average

Weak trade growth and financial distortions are exacerbating slow global economic growth, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

Yesterday’s OECD Interim Economic Outlook warns that trade growth is slowing, contributing to another slowing of global GDP growth in 2016 and with few signs of improvement for 2017.

The post-crisis recovery in entrepreneurial activity remains mixed across countries, but new data released today by the OECD provides tentative signs of a turning point, with trends in enterprise creation rates pointing upwards in most economies.

World trade growth was rapid in the two decades prior to the global financial crisis but has halved subsequently.

Non-residential investment has fallen over the past 20 years as a share of GDP and is now lower than in several other high-income OECD countries.

Population ageing is setting in earlier in Germany than in most other OECD economies and will be marked.

Middle Eastern and North African countries should press ahead with further economic and structural reforms to boost flagging trade and investment, restore public trust and create jobs for the region’s young population, the OECD told ministers from the region today.

A key recent OECD work, the "Future of Productivity" implies that inefficient firms increasingly linger as opposed to exit the market, despite their inability to adopt new technologies.

Labour market reforms are essential to promote social cohesion by removing obstacles to employment, particularly for women, youth and older persons.

Costa Rican well-being indicators are comparable or even above the OECD average in several dimensions (OECD, 2016a). Nevertheless, gaps with OECD countries are large in two dimensions: labour market participation and education.

Economic and social reforms undertaken over the past two decades have driven Peruvian efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth and important reductions in poverty. Against a context of weak global growth, Peru will need to diversify its economy, boost skills, reinforce productivity across the labour force and unleash the potential of all regions in order to spur more inclusive national growth.

Indonesia has undergone an extraordinary transformation over the past two decades, benefiting from strong growth that has lifted millions out of poverty and allowed important progress in areas such as health and education. But low levels of public spending and tax revenue are undermining the quality of social services and exacerbating infrastructure gaps, according to the OECD.

This Global Forum, held on 24-25 October 2016, aimed to shed light on the links between environment and economic growth, and the toolkits to quantify these links. It provided a platform to explore how a well-managed natural environment can contribute to economic growth and how an effective and efficient regulatory system can best be designed?

As described in the 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Indonesia, economic growth is expected to pick up over the course of 2016 and into 2017. Despite persistently weak external conditions, confidence is returning, with inflation moderating, a stable rupiah and government investment in infrastructure gathering pace.

Labour market mobility in the European Union is increasing, but it remains too low to provide sufficient adjustment in the face of diverging labour market developments.

The Danish financial sector is big and there is a high degree of inter-connectedness between banks, mortgage institutions and pension funds.

The generous Danish welfare state relies on a high degree of labour force participation both for financing and in order to ensure social cohesion.

The generous Danish welfare state relies on a high degree of labour force participation both for financing and in order to ensure social cohesion.

Malaysia’s economy has proven resilient to global headwinds, but more can be done to boost innovation, raise productivity and shift to a more sustainable growth path that will boost living standards for all, according to two new reports from the OECD.

Productivity growth is essential for living standards to durably improve. Malaysia has reached a development stage where growth needs to be driven more by productivity gains than the sheer accumulation of capital and labour inputs.

Widespread increases in inequality over the past three decades have raised the question of the distribution of the growth dividends.

In a majority of OECD countries, GDP growth over the past three decades has been associated with growing income disparities.

Widespread increases in inequality over the past three decades have raised the question of the distribution of the growth dividends.

In a majority of OECD countries, GDP growth over the past three decades has been associated with growing income disparities.

We have always had plumbers, electricians, and lawyers who do temporary work, and are not paid by a household when they are idle. However, do new apps such as Uber or Deliveroo mean the end of the 9 to 5 job, and do these platforms need to be regulated?

The effect of the size and mix of public spending on growth and inequality

Expansionary fiscal initiatives and maintaining trade openness are needed to push the global economy out of today’s low-growth trap, according to the OECD’s latest Global Economic Outlook.

Do flexibility-enhancing reforms imply more employment instability? Using individual-level data from harmonised household surveys for 26 advanced countries, this paper analyses the effects of product and labour market reforms on transitions in and out of employment.

Reforms that boost growth by enhancing economic flexibility often meet strong opposition related to concerns that they may imply adverse consequences for categories of workers. This study investigates how making product or labour market regulation more flexible changes workers’ risks of moving out of employment and jobless people’s chances of becoming employed.

OECD annual inflation picks up to 1.4% in October 2016, driven by energy prices