In the face of rapid population ageing and the trend towards early retirement, there is a need to promote better employment opportunities for older people. Much has been said about the need for reform of old-age pensions and early retirement schemes but this may not be sufficient to raise...

In the face of rapid population ageing and the trend towards early retirement, there is a need to promote better employment opportunities for older people. Much has been said about the need for reform of old-age pensions and early retirement schemes but this may not be sufficient to raise...

The integration of immigrants at the local level is a topic of significant interest for OECD countries. The growing importance of the knowledge economy means that the battle for talent is becoming as important as the battle for inward investment, and skilled migrants can offer a significant...

The striking turnaround in the Netherlands' economic performance over the past decade and a half has attracted widespread attention. Emerging from deep recession and high unemployment in the early 1980s, the economy shifted to a pace of growth more rapid than that in neighboring economies, and...

The paper examines the consequences of fiscal consolidation in times of persistently low growth and high unemployment by estimating medium-term fiscal multipliers during protracted recessions (PR) in a sample of 17 OECD countries. Based on Jorda’s (2005) local projection methodology, we find...

This Staff Discussion Note looks at the stark fiscal challenges posed by the decline and aging of populations between now and 2100. It finds that without reforms, pensions and health spending would rise to 25 percent of GDP by end-century in more developed countries (and 16 percent of GDP in...