The NICE OECD countries’ geographic search filters: Part 2—validation of the MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) filters

Objective: We previously developed draft MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) geographic search filters for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to assess their feasibility for finding evidence about the countries. Here, we describe the validation of these search filters.Methods: We identified OECD country references from thirty National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines to generate gold standard sets for MEDLINE (n=2,065) and Embase (n=2,023). We validated the filters by calculating their recall against these sets. We then applied the filters to existing search strategies for three OECD-focused NICE guideline reviews (NG103 on flu vaccination, NG140 on abortion care, and NG146 on workplace health) to calculate the filters’ impact on the number needed to read (NNR) of the searches.Results: The filters both achieved 99.95% recall against the gold standard sets. Both filters achieved 100% recall for the three NICE guideline reviews. The MEDLINE filter reduced NNR from 256 to 232 for the NG103 review, from 38 to 27 for the NG140 review, and from 631 to 591 for the NG146 review. The Embase filter reduced NNR from 373 to 341 for the NG103 review, from 101 to 76 for the NG140 review, and from 989 to 925 for the NG146 review.Conclusion: The NICE OECD countries’ search filters are the first validated filters for the countries. They can save time for research topics about OECD countries by finding the majority of evidence about OECD countries while reducing search result volumes in comparison to no filter use.

Finding the Poster Child: Reference Patterns in OECD Country Reports

In Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-78885-8_6, Helen Seitzer seeks to find the origin of the OECD’s ‘model education system’ by analyzing country reports on education. Through these reports and the corresponding policy advice, the OECD is contributing considerably to the diffusion of a transnational model of education. However, critics argue that one size does not fit all, and the policy advice distributed might not benefit all countries equally; this is due to their specific local conditions as well as the ‘model education system’s’ origin. In this chapter, Seitzer explores a reference network in OECD publications to detect where the education systems most referenced are located. Furthermore, she determines if reference patterns are regionally clustered or if references transcend all geographical and cultural boundaries.

Vaccination Is Not Enough: Understanding the Increase in Cases of COVID-19 in Chile despite a High Vaccination Rate

Chile, an OECD country in the southern hemisphere, surprised the world with a high speed COVID-19 vaccination rate at the beginning of 2021. Despite this, cases reached a record high again in April 2021, and the country went back to a state of emergency. The reasons for this are multiple, complex, and interconnected. A feeling of false safety with the beginning of vaccination, the appearance of new more transmissible variants, too early relaxation of non-pharmacological measures at a point of vaccination below herd immunity, and vaccination in a high prevalence setting, appear to be main reasons for the resurgence. However, the political context and the socio-economic inequalities in Chile also play an important role, and are more difficult to measure and to compare with other countries. In conclusion, the Chilean example is a warning sign not to count on vaccination figures alone, and to maintain some of the previous non-pharmaceutical strategies to contain the pandemic.

Relationships between fluctuations of environmental regulation, technological innovation, and economic growth: a multinational perspective

PurposeEnvironmental regulation is in a continuous state of intense change and modification amid the long-term tensions between environmental protection and economic growth. In this article, the authors creatively investigate how fluctuations of environmental regulation influence a nation's economic growth while also examining the mediating effect of technological innovation.Design/methodology/approachUsing sample data of 36 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2013 to 2018, environmental regulation is differentiated in two aspects of formal environmental regulation (FER) and informal environmental regulation (IER) and analyzed to assess the effects of regulatory fluctuations on investment and technological innovation.FindingsThe research results demonstrate that both FER fluctuation and IER fluctuation exert a significant negative impact on economic growth. These two fluctuations in environmental regulation increase uncertainty and unpredictable risks for corporations and investors, significantly stifling the willingness to contribute to innovation activities and leading to a diminished level of innovation. Technological innovation is revealed to have a mediating influence on the relationship of environmental regulation fluctuation to economic growth.Originality/valueThese findings enrich the research on the impact of environmental regulation from a dynamic, multinational perspective, contributing to the literature by exploring the relationships between environmental regulation fluctuation, technological innovation and economic growth at the OECD-country level.

Exploring the Nexus of Energy Burden, Social Capital, and Environmental Quality in Shaping Health in US Counties

The United States spends more on health care than any other OECD country, yet the nation’s health is declining. Recent research has identified multiple sources for this decline, including one’s position in social and economic structures, environmental quality, and individual and collective social capital. This paper assesses the primary hypotheses that the health effects of household energy burden, social capital and environmental quality on aggregated community health levels remain while controlling for other determinants. The analysis moves beyond prior research by integrating multiple secondary data sources to assess those effects across US counties. Three indicators of public health are analyzed (premature mortality, self-reported health, and life expectancy). The county-level energy burden is measured by the percent of household income spent on housing energy bills for low- and moderate-income households. In addition to energy burden, social capital, environmental quality and other determinants are included in the analysis. The results produced by multivariate regression models support the primary hypotheses, even while a number of control variables also have a significant effect on health. The paper concludes that public health is associated with a complex nexus of factors, including environmental quality and social capital, and that energy burden needs to be among the considerations.

A Gender Perspective on Sick Leave Among Young Adults – Barriers and Resources for Return to Work as Experienced by Young Employees and Managers: A Protocol for a Qualitative Study

Introduction: About 20% of the working-age population in the average OECD country is suffering from a mental disorder. The prevalence rates are especially high among young adults and women. Young adults need to deal with challenges connected to growing up and entering the labour market, their young age often leaving them with little experience and a low level of preparedness for failure. Moreover, young women and men are confronted with gender norms and expectations that have been found to affect both sick leave and return to work. While managers have been shown to have a significant impact on the well-being of employees, few studies investigate the experiences of both employees and managers in relation to sick leave and return to work among youth. The aim of this study is to investigate perceived causes of sick leave owing to common mental disorders as well as barriers to and resources for return to work for young employees, from the perspectives of both employees and managers. Furthermore, differences and similarities in the patterns of experiences of women and men will be analyzed. Methods and analysis: This study has a qualitative research design. Data will consist of individual interviews with employees aged 19–29 and managers in female- and male-dominated occupations in a Swedish setting. The participants will be recruited using a purposive sampling strategy. The interviews will be analysed in two steps: firstly, a conventional content analysis will be conducted. Secondly, a gender analysis focusing social relations and gender order will be applied to interpret the data by examining differences and similarities in the patterns of experiences of women and men.

Board Long-Term Orientation, Earnings Management, Disclosure and Risk

Short-term thinking continues to dominate corporate decision making due to the pressure to achieve expected quarterly earnings. As such, strategic goals take a back seat to short-term performance among the prime objectives of CEOs, the board of directors and management teams. Be that as it may, shareholders and stakeholders expect corporate leaders to pay equal attention to the long-term health of the corporate enterprise. An empirical study is conduced to test how long-term oriented board of directors diminish earnings management, increase disclosure and reduce risk. The results show that a long-term board orientation decreases earnings smoothing, stock price synchronicity and downside risk. To study this relationship, we construct a panel data from 2004 to 2015 comprising of 2834 OECD country firms. We conclude that board independence, board expertise and board audit committee activity increase long-term firm orientation. We find that boards with these characteristics are prone to the implementation of executives’ long-term incentives, suggesting that a long-term orientation is beneficial not only to increase firms’ transparency and disclosure but also to reduce firms’ downside risk. Firms with long-term orientation reveal enough information to avoid stock price synchronicity, prevent the use of earnings management to conceal real firm performance and reduce downside risk - all decreasing the chance of financial failure. The results of the study not only nullify the arguments that there is no impact of long-term orientation and long-term incentives but also bolster and enrich the stream of literature that supports these variables’ impact on earnings management, stock price synchronicity and downside risk. Within the context of the international setting of the paper, we have substantiated the external validity of the results across geographies and country-wide regulations.