Andrés Fuentes

Raising Education Outcomes in Spain

Impressive progress has been made in raising participation in early childhood education as well as tertiary educational attainment over the past 30 years. However, the inflow of poorly educated youth into the labour market is unusually heavy for a high-income country, largely on account of high drop-out rates in lower secondary education which, in turn, reflect one of the highest grade repetition rates in the OECD. The supply of workers with intermediate vocational skills is surprisingly low, despite the high return, in terms of labour market outcomes that these skills offer, even if they have recently deteriorated. There is room to raise learning outcomes up to the end of compulsory school, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), although, owing to a compressed distribution of such outcomes, the share of poorly performing pupils is not unusually large. While significant reforms have been undertaken to address these problems, more measures are needed to reduce grade repetition and raise education outcomes, by improving accountability of schools and school staff, as well as by raising school autonomy further than has already occurred. Vocational training needs to become more attractive. In tertiary education, few Spanish universities have attained a high level of international standing, and scope remains to improve the contribution tertiary attainment can make to gains in economic welfare, notably by reforming funding arrangements.

Improving the Capacity to Innovate in Germany

Key indicators show Germany belonging to the countries in the OECD with strong innovation activity even though some weakening in Germany’s position relative to other OECD countries has occurred recently. While the redirection of resources towards unification-related spending as well as low economic growth have contributed to this development, more fundamental structural issues have also played a role. Germany has benefited less than other high-performing countries from the surge in new technologies, such as ICT and biotechnology, as innovation activities continue to focus on sectors, such as machinery and automobiles, in which Germany has a long record of strong export performance. Some features of the regulation of capital, product and labour markets are hampering the supply of risk capital, the creation of new firms and the reallocation of labour. In addition, firms are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit highly qualified labour. Measures to improve the framework ... Selon les principaux indicateurs, l’Allemagne est l’un des pays de l’OCDE ou l’activite d’innovation est soutenue, meme si sa position relative s’est quelque peu degradee ces derniers temps. Si ce phenomene peut s’expliquer en partie par un detournement des credits vers les depenses liees a l’unification et par la lenteur de la croissance economique, des facteurs structurels plus fondamentaux sont egalement intervenus. L’Allemagne a beneficie moins que autres pays de l’explosion des nouvelles technologies, telles que les TIC et la biotechnologie, l’activite d’innovation restant axee sur les secteurs dans lesquels l’Allemagne obtient depuis longtemps de tres bons resultats a l’exportation. Certaines caracteristiques de la reglementation des marches des capitaux, des produits et du travail freinent l’offre de capital-risque, la creation de nouvelles entreprises et la redistribution de la main-d’œuvre. De plus, les entreprises ont de plus en plus de mal a recruter des travailleurs ...