OECD health-care systems confront the dual challenge of containing costs and maximising the health of their populations. The effectiveness of health-care provision in fostering longer and healthier lives is therefore of fundamental importance. In order to respond to these challenges, policy...

The OECD Social Expenditure data base (SOCX) allows the monitoring of trends in aggregate social expenditure and changes in its composition. But aggregate social expenditure may sometimes fail to reflect the true ‘effort’ of a country in providing social support. Account needs to be taken of...

<OL><LI>This paper summarises trends and driving factors in income distribution and poverty in 21 OECD Member countries analysing separately the working- and the retirement-age populations. Shifts in relative incomes in the past ten years generally favoured prime-age and elderly age groups. Persons...</li></ol>

As most other OECD Member countries had already done, Australia has, since 1991, supplemented an existing flat-rate universal (but means-tested) residence-based old-age pension by a compulsory earnings related second tier for employees known as the “Superannuation Guarantee”. However, it was...

As the population in OECD countries ages and requires longer periods of care and as more children are cared for outside their homes, there is growing recognition of the significance of caring services both economically and socially. Up to now the policy discussion has focussed mainly on two...

This paper contains an overview of <I>net</I> total (public and private) social expenditure indicators. These indicators have been developed to supplement available historical information on <I>gross</I> social expenditure trends by accounting for the varying impact of the tax system across countries. Tax...</i></i>

This paper contains a first analysis of trends in private social benefits within a comparative framework. There is growing interest in the role of the private sector in the provision of social support in the light of concerns about the high level of public social spending. However, up to now,...

The age of withdrawal from the labour force is an issue of great policy importance. As populations age, an accurate understanding of trends and cross-country differences has become important. However, the age of withdrawal from the labour force cannot be measured directly using cross-sectional...

National definitions of part-time work are based either on hours thresholds or on an assessment by the respondent of the nature of the job, or on a combination of both methods. This report compares the results obtained from the application of an hours-based definition to job of wage and salary...

It is sometimes asserted that an era of faster economic growth has come about --the so-called New Economy. New technology, notably information and communications technology (ICT), is seen as a key factor at work, together with international economic integration. This report examines the issue...