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This report represents the second outcome of the collaboration between the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to improve the measurement and analysis of productivity developments across APO and OECD member economies. The report discusses the potential impact of COVID-19 on productivity and examines the role of Multifactor Productivity (MFP) as a major driver of economic growth and changes in living standards. It then identifies the most important factors influencing MFP growth and describes the most important challenges affecting the measurement of each of these factors as well as the estimation of their impact on MFP. The report provides key recommendations to improve the reliability and interpretation of the empirical evidence for economic analysis.

On 20 February 2019, OECD Council adopted the Recommendation on Countering the Illegal Trade of Pesticides to strengthen cooperation between countries and inspectors. A Best Practice Guidance was developed to provide guidance for inspectors and regulatory authorities on best practices for identifying and tackling illegal pesticides throughout the complete lifecycle of a pesticide, from manufacture, through formulation, trade and use to destruction.

Several states in West Africa have experienced significant episodes of political violence since the early 2010s. These have included civil wars, religiously motivated terrorism, separatist insurgencies, military coups and communal strife, each of which have local, national and transnational dimensions. Intended to help guide responses to the region’s political challenges, the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC/OECD) created an interactive, spatial tool for policy makers in 2019, the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi). The SCDi monitors political violence at subnational scales. It combines different quantitative dimensions of conflict into a mappable tool that describes the circumstances in each location. The latest enhancement to the SCDi brings two new features to aid the identification of local conflict trends. First, the tool now identifies regions that are newly entering into or exiting from conflict. This allows a more detailed picture of how the geography of conflict is spreading or contracting within and across national borders. Second, the tool now characterises the current conditions in a location as either worsening or improving, based on past conditions at the same location. The SCDi is implemented in SWAC’s new Mapping Territorial Transformations in Africa (MAPTA) platform.

This paper identifies different types of climate change mitigation strategies countries adopted over the last two decades and assesses the policy synergies they might generate. The analysis exploits the rich policy repository of the OECD’s Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework (CAPMF). This is the most comprehensive and harmonised mitigation policy database to date, covering more than 120 policy instruments and 50 countries over 2000-20. Statistical cluster analysis yields four types of mitigation strategies, which differ in the variety and stringency of mitigation policies. Until the mid-2000s mitigation strategies were similar and based on few policies and low overall stringency. They started to differentiate in the mid-2000s and then in the mid-2010s as some countries enlarged the variety of policy instruments and raised stringency. Regression results indicate that emissions are negatively associated with the overall stringency of the country’s mitigation strategies. Moreover, this relationship is stronger for mitigation strategies comprising a larger set of instruments, pointing to larger policy synergies.

Since 2014 over 600 000 African migrants have arrived in Italy through the perilous Central Mediterranean route, and nearly 120 000 arrived in 2017. This paper is the first examination of migration motivations at the individual level using nationally representative surveys and focus group data collected in West Africa. Respondents in six West African countries cite economic factors as the reason for migrating and those who wish to stay claim family and love of country as the ties that bind. The study then specifically focuses on Nigeria, the country of origin for a quarter of all Africans traveling through the Central Mediterranean route. Half of the Nigerians were interested in leaving their country of origin if given the opportunity, well above the number in neighbouring countries. Evidence from the six-country survey suggests individuals are migrating for economic reasons but statistical analysis of the Nigeria data reveals a different set of push factors behind the desire to migrate. In fact, economic standing has a limited effect on Nigerians’ desire to leave their home. Instead, individual perceptions of the strength of Nigeria’s democracy are most strongly associated with Nigerians’ desire to migrate abroad, in addition to low levels of trust in local security institutions. Urban and more highly educated Nigerians, especially from Lagos, are also more likely to want to migrate abroad. These findings shed new light on domestic policy steps that could address the grievances and concerns of those who seek to migrate.

This Test Guideline describes an in vitro assay that may be used for identifying water soluble ocular corrosives and severe irritants as defined by the UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling, Category 1. The assay is performed in a well where a confluent monolayer of Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) is used as a separation between two chambers. It uses a fluorescein dye as marqueur. The test substance has the potential to impair the junctions of the MDCK cells and thus to increase the monolayer¡¯s permeability. Consequently the fluorescein passes through the monolayer and the fluorescein leakage (FL) increases. The FL is calculated as a percentage of leakage relative to both a blank control and a maximum leakage control. The concentration of test substance that causes 20% FL (FL20, in mg/mL) is calculated and used in the prediction model for identification of ocular corrosive and severe irritants. The cut-off value of FL20 to identify water soluble chemicals as ocular corrosives/severe irritants is ¡Ü 100mg/mL. The FL test method should be part of a tiered testing strategy.

This paper develops a novel classification of high-polluting occupations for a large sample of European countries. Unlike previous efforts in the literature, the classification exploits country-level data on air polluting emission intensity by industry. The country-level data allows to capture important cross-country differences, due to differences in technology and in production focus. Applying the new classification to European Labour Force Survey data shows that, on average across the countries covered, about 4% of workers are employed in high-polluting jobs, ranging from 9% in Czechia and the Slovak Republic to around 2% in Austria. These shares do not exhibit any clear decreasing trend over the past decade. High-polluting jobs are unequally distributed, being over-represented among men, workers with lower and medium educational attainment and those living in rural areas.

This paper (i) explains the motivation for articulating the benefits of accessibility; (ii) provides a narrative basis for articulating how accessibility affects economic and social life; and (iii) moves a framework for quantifying the benefits of accessibility.

In examining laws, regulations and judicial proceedings in different nations, the paper finds that most view cost as a limiting factor on what public and private entities can be compelled to provide in relation to the accessibility of transportation, the build environment, employment, and services. This is so even in the context of constitutionally and legislatively enshrined human rights. This paper also finds that cost-benefit balancing is emerging as a necessary part of the accessibility governance framework. When addressing the specific application of accessibility rights, governments, regulatory bodies ad courts around the world deal comprehensively with costs but fail to value important categories of benefit, such as the reduction of stigmatic harms, “option” benefits and “existence” value, and capability value. The paper describes progress towards a comprehensive narrative and analytical framework for describing and measuring such benefits.

The Isolated Chicken Eye  (ICE) test method is an in vitro test method that can be used to classify substances as “ocular corrosives and severe irritants”. The ICE method uses eyes collected from chickens obtained from slaughterhouses where they are killed for human consumption, thus eliminating the need for laboratory animals. The eye is enucleated and mounted in an eye holder with the cornea positioned horizontally. The test substance and negative/positive controls are applied to the cornea. Toxic effects to the cornea are measured by a qualitative assessment of opacity, a qualitative assessment of damage to epithelium based on fluorescein retention, a quantitative measurement of increased thickness (swelling), and a qualitative evaluation of macroscopic morphological damage to the surface. The endpoints are evaluated separately to generate an ICE class for each endpoint, which are then combined to generate an Irritancy Classification for each test substance.

This Test Guideline describes an in vitro procedure allowing the identification of chemicals (substances and mixtures) not requiring classification and labelling for eye irritation or serious eye damage in accordance with UN GHS. It makes use of reconstructed human cornea-like epithelium (RhCE) which closely mimics the histological, morphological, biochemical and physiological properties of the human corneal epithelium. The test evaluates the ability of a test chemical to induce cytotoxicity in a RhCE tissue construct, as measured by the MTT assay. Coloured chemicals can also be tested by used of an HPLC procedure. RhCE tissue viability following exposure to a test chemical is measured by enzymatic conversion of the vital dye MTT by the viable cells of the tissue into a blue MTT formazan salt that is quantitatively measured after extraction from tissues. The viability of the RhCE tissue is determined in comparison to tissues treated with the negative control substance (% viability), and is then used to predict the eye hazard potential of the test chemical. Chemicals not requiring classification and labelling according to UN GHS are identified as those that do not decrease tissue viability below a defined threshold (i.e., tissue viability > 60%, for UN GHS No Category).

The Vitrigel-Eye Irritancy Test (EIT) method is an in vitro test method that allows the identification of test chemicals not requiring classification and labelling for eye irritation or serious eye damage. This test measures the eye irritation potential of a test chemical based on its ability to induce damage to the barrier function of the human corneal epithelium (hCE) models used in the Vitrigel-EIT method. It is known that chemicals that are irritating to the eye first destroy tear film and epithelial barrier function of the eye, subsequently induce epithelial cell death, and finally produce stromal degeneration and endothelial cell death, resulting in corneal opacity. Therefore, the change of the epithelial barrier function is a relevant endpoint for detecting eye irritation. In the Vitrigel Eye Irritancy test method , time-dependent changes in the Transepithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) values are indicative of damage to the barrier function of the corneal epithelium following exposure to a test chemical; this situation is similar to the observed damage of the rabbit cornea following exposure to a test chemical, which is an important mode of action leading to damage of the corneal epithelium and eye irritation. The Vitrigel-Eye Irritancy Test (EIT) method can be used within the limited applicability domain of test chemicals having pH > 5.0 (based on 2.5% weight/volume (w/v) preparation).