OECD Economic Surveys: France 2019

Basic statistics of France, 2018
Executive summary
Key policy insights
	Economic growth has peaked
		The economic outlook has weakened, but remains positive
		Financial risks
	Better use of public spending to boost growth and well-being
		Key economic and social challenges remain
		Reducing public spending and improving their efficiency
			Containing local government spending
			Reforming the pension system
			Containing health care spending
			Reforming the delivery of public services to improve their efficiency
			Reducing inefficient tax expenditures
		Making taxes more favourable to employment and productivity
			The tax burden on businesses is hefty
			The property tax system has room for improvement
			Illustrating the effects of OECD-recommended reforms
		Ensuring environmental sustainability
	Improving productivity, employment and social mobility
		Product and services market reforms would boost growth
			Continuing the efforts to prevent corruption
		Boosting innovative business investment
			Leveraging the potential of cryptoassets to finance innovative business investment
		Strengthening skills through initial education
	Bibliography
Thematic Chapters
	Chapter 1.   Improving labour market performance
		Implementing the OECD Jobs Strategy
		The labour market has improved but challenges remain
		Those with few qualifications and young people face the most difficulties
			Employment and inequality have polarised
			Wages have decoupled from productivity
			The labour market needs to be transformed successfully
		Strengthening and adapting people’s skills
			Promoting lifelong learning and skill acquisition
			Increasing support for those in the greatest difficulty
				The government has focused on training the least qualified
				Subsidised jobs have been refocused on the non-market sector
			Improving young people’s move into employment
		Encouraging job quality and productivity gains
			Improve incentives to work for low wage earners
			Reducing labour market duality
			Strengthening collective bargaining
		Limiting inequality and improving support for low incomes
			Better co-ordinating and simplifying support for low income households
			Reducing gender bias at work
		Bibliography
	Chapter 2.   Improving the efficiency of public investment
		Overview and challenges to public investment
			The stock of public capital is extensive and its quality is high…
			…but a stronger focus on maintenance and on a thorough selection of investment projects is needed
			Local governments are responsible for the majority of public investment and the private sector could play a bigger role
			Investing for the future
		Strengthening framework conditions for effective public investment
			Towards a better prioritisation and selection of investment projects
				Promoting the use of socio-economic assessments prior investment decisions
				Spreading good practices to all relevant stakeholders
				Raising public awareness of economic efficiency considerations to improve investment decisions
			Leveraging the private sector in the provision of infrastructure
			Strengthening local government capacities for public investment
				Continuing institutional reforms would help achieve efficiency gains
				Transfers to local governments should better reflect their spending needs
				Improving public procurement
		Better maintenance and greener investment in transport and energy
			Improving transport infrastructure investment
				Zero-carbon transport infrastructure should be better included in investment plans
				The increasing focus on maintenance spending is welcome
				Promoting car-sharing services can relieve investment needs in public transport
				Developing an efficient pricing for the use of road infrastructure would help finance maintenance needs and promote alternative transport modes
			Promoting appropriate energy infrastructure
				Raising energy efficiency to mitigate energy demand
				The economic challenges of nuclear power
				Promoting renewable energy sources
				Developing electricity interconnections
		Encouraging digitalisation and innovation
			Fostering a faster transition towards digitalisation
				The quality of digital infrastructure is modest
				Leveraging digital investment to improve public-sector efficiency
			Getting the most out of public investment in R&D
				Competitive funding of research is increasing, but remains low
				Support for business innovation has increased substantially
		Bibliography