Higher education is growing rapidly, and becoming a veritable global sector in its own right. That means challenges for educators, students and policy makers.
The worst economic crisis in half a century still holds us in its grip. In fact, with a bleak short-term outlook, global public opinion could be forgiven for questioning the ability of political leaders and policymakers to find a way out.
Despite two decades of outsourcing and globalisation, the US remains the world’s largest manufacturer in 2009. However, its share of world value-added in manufacturing declined from around 22.7% of the total in 1990 to less than 20% in 2009. China’s share rose from a minute 2.7% to 17.5% over the same period, taking over Japan, hitherto the world’s second largest manufacture, whose share dropped from 17.7% to 11.4% over the two decades.
OECD economies are in the doldrums, but the trend in global mergers and acquisitions has rarely been more buoyant. International M&A investment in 2011 reached $822 billion as at 21 October. If this pace can be sustained, international M&A will top $100 billion by the end of the year, a 32% increase over 2010 (see chart).
There are signs of a new, more confident and self-affirming Africa taking shape. As the 2011 edition of the African Economic Outlook argues, this newness is also evident in the continent’s relationships with emerging economies.
The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises have just been updated. What are the main changes and how might they affect international corporate behaviour?
Uncertainty about the future, eagerness to devise new ways of managing our economies, and to contribute to the debate on how to make better policies for better lives: these were just some of the discernable public moods at the OECD Forum, held on 24-25 May.
In 2008, the Chinese economist Justin Yifu Lin became the first person from a developing country to be appointed World Bank Chief Economist.
The number of people travelling abroad to seek medical treatment appears to have been growing in recent years. This could be part of a growing global trend.
Malthus is dead, but prosperity for all guarantees neither peace nor happiness. This is the key message emanating from Daniel Cohen’s acclaimed new book, La prospérité du vice: Une introduction (inquiète) à l’économie. This professor of the École Normale Superieure and deputy director of the Paris School of Economics looks back over four centuries and draws on the thinking of the great economists, historians and sociologists in order to bring us to this insight: prosperity alone guarantees neither peace nor happiness. Despite Cohen’s prevailingly pessimistic tone, his pedagogical talent makes this book an exciting and educational read.
International trade fell off the charts in the fourth quarter of 2008 and showed only a modest easing in the rate of decline in the early months of 2009. Well-regulated open trade is essential for economic recovery and development, yet in times of crisis, protectionism may appear an attractive solution. It should be resisted.
OECD faces a huge challenge of image. You insist that the organisation, known for its in-depth analyses and reliable statistics, aims to represent all relevant economies. Emerging countries, however, cultivate the impression that the OECD, despite its co-operation and development efforts well beyond its membership, is still the voice of "rich nations" only.
In 1962, we usually divided the world into three regions. The advanced capitalist group was then known as the developed world. The second was the “Sino-Soviet bloc”. Countries “in course of development” were the third world. The China-USSR split occurred in the early 1960s; most of the communist regimes collapsed around 1990, and the hostility of the cold war has largely faded away. The income gap between the former communist countries and the advanced capitalist group has become very much wider than it was. For this reason, a tripartite division of the world economy is no longer appropriate.
