Reports

This policy paper explores the contribution of platform cooperatives to local development as an alternative model to conventional digital platforms. It considers their role in reducing potential negative effects of the digital transition on local communities and places, as well as the new opportunities they present to provide greater quality of life for local residents. The paper introduces the main features of platform cooperatives, explores their contributions to local development and identifies the challenges to their emergence and expansion. It then provides policy orientations that could support the development of platform cooperatives and enhance their contributions to local development. This paper was produced as part of the OECD Global Action on Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Partnership Instrument.

Scotland (UK) is a strong innovator, ranking among the top 20% of economies among European regions, with strengths in university-firm collaborations and skills for innovation. With close to two-thirds of all growth in productivity from 2010 to 2018 coming from better use of resources in remote rural areas, rural areas are critical to economic prosperity. In addition to the valuable heritage that they offer, rural areas in Scotland have had remarkable achievements over the past decade in terms of economic growth, social innovation and progress for climate mitigation. Unlike the demographic decline perceived in OECD countries, the decline in rural areas of Scotland is much slower. In the case of accessible rural areas, the population is still growing. In part, much of the progress of ensuring well-being in rural areas, is supported by mechanisms to link entrepreneurs with researchers, regional support for entrepreneurs and an established system of social entrepreneurship. This report sets the scene, reviews main policies and programmes impacting rural innovation, and explores the importance of social innovation in rural areas. It provides recommendations to reinforce some of the good practices in Scotland, which is particularly important as the government implements the new National Innovation Strategy.

This working paper examines the role of networks and rural-urban linkages to absorb and enhance innovation in rural regions, placing a special focus on the distinctive characteristics of rural areas that drive the different ways they adopt and diffuse innovation. After a review of the literature on innovation and innovation adoption through networks and linkages for rural areas, three enablers of innovation absorption and diffusion through networks and linkages are discussed: place-based networks focusing on digital infrastructure; linkages between people via migration flows; and firm-based networks including university-industry linkages, international trade and foreign ownership, and clusters. It also provides some policy-takeaways.

Building on strong local roots to address local development challenges, many social and solidarity economy (SSE) entities are increasingly extending their operations internationally. By responding to international social and environmental challenges, SSE entities can help make global value chains more inclusive and sustainable. With the pursuit of a social mission and participatory governance at the core of their operations, SSE entities adopt specific approaches to internationalise their presence. Some internationalise to scale their impact to reach more people and areas, while some do so to deepen their impact on existing target groups by leveraging resources internationally. This paper analyses what SSE internationalisation involves and its specific drivers (chapter 1), trends in SSE internationalisation (chapter 2), competitive advantages and barriers of the SSE for internationalisation (chapter 3), and actionable areas for policy makers to promote its internationalisation (chapter 4).

The frequency and severity of extreme wildfires are on the rise in Portugal, causing unprecedented disruption and increasingly challenging the country’s capacity to contain losses and damages. These challenges are set to keep growing in the context of climate change, highlighting the need to scale up wildfire prevention and climate change adaptation. This paper provides an overview of Portugal’s wildfire policies and practices and assesses the extent to which wildfire management in the country is evolving to adapt to growing wildfire risk under climate change.

This paper provides novel evidence on the regional impact of immigration on native employment in a cross-country framework based on rich European Labour Force Surveys and past censuses data for 2010-2019. The paper finds a modest average impact of the rise in the share of immigrants across European regions on the employment-to-population rate of natives, but highly uneven effects over time and across workers and regions. The short-run estimates show adverse employment effects in response to immigration that nevertheless disappear in the longer run. High-school or less educated native workers experience employment losses due to immigration, whereas higher educated workers are more likely to experience employment gains. Moreover, the presence of institutions providing strict employment protection and high coverage of collective wage agreements exert a protective effect on native employment. Finally, the paper finds that regions experiencing strong growth can absorb immigrant workers, resulting in little or no effect on the native workforce, including in the short-run.

L’Afrique connaît une transition urbaine et climatique sans précédent. Si certaines conditions sont réunies, une plus grande compacité urbaine pourrait contribuer à améliorer la qualité de vie, la résilience, et la durabilité au cours des prochaines décennies. S’appuyant sur des outils novateurs et de nouvelles données, cette analyse remédie à certaines lacunes en présentant des mesures de la compacité et d’autres variables des formes urbaines pour près de 5 625 agglomérations urbaines du continent. Même si l’urbanisation reste souvent un phénomène non planifié et non coordonné, une tendance prometteuse se dessine : les mégalopoles (plus de 4 millions d’habitants) sont en moyenne plus compactes que les grandes villes (1 million à 4 millions d’habitants) et celles de taille intermédiaire (50 000 à 1 million d’habitants) . Les agglomérations moins compactes présentent des bâtiments plus petits, une forme urbaine plate et basse, un centre moins dense (reflétant une utilisation peu optimale de l’espace) et une structure polycentrique (plusieurs centres, par opposition à une ville monocentrique). Cette note analyse les conséquences d’une moindre compacité urbaine en termes de durabilité et de qualité de vie, soulignant des besoins d’énergie plus élevés, une moindre accessibilité aux services et opportunités, des espaces urbains où il est moins facile de se déplacer à pied et où la dépendance à l’automobile est plus forte, ainsi qu’une plus grande pollution de l’air extérieur. Elle examine également les compromis potentiels en termes de résilience; une plus grande compacité peut résulter en la perte d’espaces verts et donc en plus grandes effets d’îlot de chaleur urbain. Elle identifie enfin les options susceptibles d’améliorer, dans les années à venir, la résilience incluant le suivi-évaluation des progrès.

Le présent document d’orientation intitulé « Améliorer les programmes de formation à l’entrepreneuriat inclusif et social » a été produit par l’OCDE et la Commission européenne. Il traite de l’importance des programmes de formation et présente une vue d’ensemble des types de programmes de formation disponibles. Il analyse également les possibilités pour les pouvoirs publics de renforcer ces programmes de formation et fournit des conseils sur la manière de concevoir des programmes de formation à l’entrepreneuriat inclusif et social plus efficaces.

Scale-ups, i.e. firms that grow fast over a short period of time, significantly contribute to job creation and economic growth. This study uses granular firm, establishment and employee data to understand how relocations, domestic expansions or foreign acquisitions impact the life cycle of scale-ups. Around 95% of scale-ups remain in their 'home' region over the 2014-20 period, reflecting the importance of their personal local business networks in driving growth. Instead of relocating, many scale-ups create new plants or branches in different regions to serve new customers, tap into new markets, or to gain access to new resources and capabilities. Scale-ups that relocate or expand continue to grow. However, relocations and expansions can be a challenge for talent retention, as they may lead existing employees to find other opportunities in new places. Foreign capital appears to support the scale-ups’ growth process. Across the five Nordic countries, between 6% and 20% of scale-ups became foreign owned between 2014 and 2020.

By 2050, the global population living in cities is projected to reach 5 billion, growing from 3.5 billion in 2015. Massive investment in infrastructure will be needed to accommodate this growth, and to adapt infrastructure to climate change and benefit from the digital transition. This report explores three ways to meet this challenge. Firstly, it outlines how new forms of urban planning can help to mobilise private finance for inclusive, resilient and sustainable urban investment. Secondly, it explores how leveraging private investment can help to strengthen cities capacity to support needed investment in a tighter fiscal environment. Finally, it considers the potential opportunities and challenges for mobilising sustainable finance – green, social and sustainable bonds and loans, sustainability-linked bonds and catastrophe bonds – for infrastructure investment by City Governments. The report also includes 17 short case studies from 12 countries that demonstrate innovative practices for creating the Cities of Tomorrow.