House prices have been moving up strongly in real terms since the mid-1990s in the majority of OECD countries, with the ongoing upswing the longest of its kind in the OECD area since the 1970s. If interest rates were to rise significantly, real house prices may be at risk of nearing a peak. The...

Social safety nets protect citizens against hardship. By offering compensation, social safety nets may help overcome the political resistance to trade liberalisation and structural reform, but they can also weaken the incentives to work and save. Depending on their design, safety nets may also...

The current monetary policy framework in several Latin American countries, combining inflation targeting and a floating exchange-rate regime, has contributed to disinflation by anchoring expectations around low, stable levels. This paper uses co-integration analysis to estimate simultaneously a...

The purpose of this test is to determine the effects of a substance on the growth of freshwater microalgae and/or cyanobacteria. Exponentially growing test organisms are exposed to the test substance in batch cultures over a period of normally 72 hours. The system response is the reduction of...

Few topics in the life sciences today provoke as much debate as the availability of patent protection on "genetic inventions". Some hold that protection is essential to encourage innovation and development of new products. Others argue that patents restrict access to the very innovations they...

This publication offers a general introduction to sustainability impact assessment, which is an approach for exploring the combined economic, environmental and social impacts of a range of proposed policies, programmes, strategies and action plans. Such assessments can also assist...

This study provides a number of case studies that illustrate how the international trade system has been exploited by criminal organisations. It also presents the results of a survey gathering information on the current practices of more than thirty countries in fighting money laundering. This...

This report complements earlier OECD work on liquid biofuels and provides information on biomass based heat and power, as well as on biogas. It discusses the heterogeneous portfolio of different biomass feedstocks, conversion technologies, and pathways of utilisation. It also shows that...