Reports

The Swiss economy is innovative and knowledge-intensive. Consequently, it relies heavily on intellectual property rights. Swiss industries are also export-oriented and solidly integrated in the global economy. At the same time, the threats of counterfeiting and piracy are growing, and Swiss industries are vulnerable. This report measures the direct economic effects of counterfeiting on Swiss industry and the Swiss government. It estimates the impact of the global trade in fake products that pose as 'Swiss made' in terms of lost jobs, forgone profits and lower tax revenues.

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on SME access to finance. In particular, the sudden drop in revenues created acute liquidity shortages, threatening the survival of many viable businesses. The report documents an increase in demand for bank lending in the first half of 2020, and a steady supply of credit thanks to government interventions. On the other hand, other sources of finance declined, in particular early-stage equity. This paper, a special edition of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs, focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on SME access to finance, along with government policy responses. It reveals that the pre-crisis financing environment was broadly favourable for SMEs and entrepreneurs, who benefited from low interest rates, loose credit standards and an increasingly diverse offer of financing instruments. It documents the unprecedented scope and scale of the policy responses undertaken by governments world-wide, and details their key characteristics, and outlines the principal issues and policy challenges for the next phases of the pandemic, such as the over-indebtedness of SMEs and the need to continue to foster a diverse range of financing instruments for SMEs.

The design of intergovernmental fiscal relations can help to ensure that tax and spending powers are assigned in a way to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Decentralisation can enable sub-central governments to provide better public services for households and firms, while it can also make intergovernmental frameworks more complex, harming equity. The challenges of fiscal federalism are multi-faceted and involve difficult trade-offs. This synthesis paper consolidates much of the OECD’s work on fiscal federalism over the past 15 years, with a particular focus on OECD Economic Surveys. The paper identifies a range of good practices on the design of country policies and institutions related strengthening fiscal capacity delineating responsibilities across evels of government and improving intergovernmental co-ordination.

This report contains the 2020 Peer Review Report on the Exchange of Information on Request of Switzerland.

This paper presents and discusses the general findings and key policy messages of the 2019 OECD Open, Useful and Re-usable data (OURdata) Index, and provides a detailed analysis of the results for each pillar and sub-pillar. Additionally, it assesses the main advancements and challenges related to the design and implementation of open government data (OGD) policies in OECD member and partner countries by comparing the results for 2019 with those of the 2017 edition. This policy paper contributes to the OECD work on the digital transformation of the public sector, including digital government and data-driven public sector and open government data.

Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The minimum standard is complemented by a set of best practices.The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by Switzerland, which is accompanied by a document addressing the implementation of best practices which can be accessed on the OECD website.

The OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts periodic reviews of the individual development co-operation efforts of DAC members. The policies and programmes of each DAC member are critically examined approximately once every five years. DAC peer reviews assess the performance of a given member, not just that of its development co-operation agency, and examine both policy and implementation. They take an integrated, system-wide perspective on the development co-operation and humanitarian assistance activities of the member under review. This review assesses the performance of Switzerland including its strategic support to multilateralism in order to tackle global goods and challenges, its comprehensive vision for development and partnerships and the current pressure on development and humanitarian programmes.

Switzerland has the lowest carbon intensity among all IEA countries, owing largely to the carbon free electricity sector that is dominated by nuclear and hydro generation. However, following the 2017 decision of the Swiss people to gradually phase out nuclear power, Switzerland’s energy sector is now undergoing a considerable transition. Filling the gap left by nuclear power closures while maintaining low carbon generation and high standards of supply security will be one of the challenges that Switzerland has to address in its long-term energy strategy. The country’s Energy Strategy 2050 maps the way towards a low-carbon economy in which higher energy efficiency and renewable energy sources replace nuclear energy. In this context, the latest IEA review of Switzerland’s energy policies focuses on two areas that are critical to guiding it towards a more secure and sustainable energy future: the design of the electricity market and the climate policy for the post-2020 period. The new energy strategy will require opening the Swiss electricity market and full integration into the European electricity market to meet future energy needs. The IEA encourages the Swiss government to bring ongoing negotiations with the European Union on an electricity agreement to a successful outcome. Switzerland’s carbon dioxide levy on stationary fuels and its automatic upward adjustment have proven highly effective in shifting energy demand from oil towards gas and renewable energy sources. However, more needs to be done to limit emissions from transport.

In 2014 the OECD carried out work to take stock of OECD countries' achievements in building resilience to major natural and man-made disasters. The report suggested that albeit significant achievements were made through effective risk prevention and mitigation management, past disasters have revealed persistent vulnerabilities and gaps in risk prevention management across OECD. Based on the findings of this OECD-wide report a cross-country comparative study was undertaken in Austria, France and Switzerland to test the recommendations put forward in specific country contexts. This report summarises the individual and comparative country case study findings. It highlights that the risk prevention policy mix has shifted in favor of organisational measures such as hazard informed land use planning or strengthening the enforcement of risk sensitive regulations. In the meantime, the great need for maintaining the large stock of structural protection measures has been overlooked and vulnerability might increase because of that. The report highlights the need for better policy evaluation to increase the effectiveness of risk prevention measures in the future. The report highlights practices where countries succeeded to make risk prevention a responsibility of the whole of government and the whole of society, by analysing supporting governance and financing arrangements.