Population ageing poses stark dilemmas for labour markets, social protection systems and cultural norms. It will put strong downward pressure on labour supply, leading to falling real incomes and huge financial pressures on social protection systems unless there is an offsetting increase in...

The OECD Survey of Adult Skills is the jewel in the crown of its Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This paper argues that the findings and policy lessons from the project to date justify the high hopes which were placed in PIAAC when detailed planning for...

Activation policies aimed at getting working-age people off benefits and into work have become a buzzword in labour market policies. Yet they are defined and implemented differently across OECD countries, and their success rates vary too. The Great Recession has posed a severe stress test for...

A new technological epoch is underway – the so-called Machine Age –reflecting advances in artificial intelligence, digitalisation and Big Data. Some commentators have claimed that this epoch is different from previous ones in that it will produce large-scale technological unemployment, while...

This paper seeks to answer the following question: what is the potential contribution which active labour market policies can make a part of a strategy to combat high and persistent unemployment and the problems of low pay and poverty among the working-age population? In order to answer this...

This paper presents simulation results using the OECD Secretariat's GREEN model to quantify the economic costs of possible international agreements to curb CO2 emissions. These results supersede the initial GREEN results published in Working Paper no. 103 in June 1991. The first section of the...