Progress in the prevention and treatment of diseases has contributed to remarkable improvements in life expectancy and quality of life in OECD countries in recent decades. At the same time, spending on health care continues to climb, consuming an ever-increasing share of national income: health expenditure now accounts for 9% of GDP on average in...

More and more OECD governments are giving firms tax breaks to drive innovation while cutting their direct spending on business research and development (R&D), and are also encouraging public research organisations to commercialise their inventions, according to this report. Two thirds of the 30 OECD member countries offered businesses tax subsidies in 2006, up from...

This new portal provides access to a range of broadband-related statistics gathered by the OECD. Policy makers must examine a range of indicators which reflect the status of individual broadband markets in the OECD. The OECD has indentified five main categories which are important for assessing broadband markets.

Numerous social policy analysts have suggested that globalisation and the emergence of more knowledge based economies have encouraged high income nations to shift away from a model of protective welfare focused on social rights and towards a model of productive welfare focused on social investment. However, much of the work in this area remains purely...

This report shows that the number of doctors in OECD countries has increased by 35 per cent over the past fifteen years to 2.8 million. In most countries, this growth was driven largely by rising numbers of specialists – up nearly 50 per cent between 1990 and 2005 - compared with the 20 per cent...