Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

STAN Bilateral Trade Database by Industry and End-use category (BTDIxE) provides values of imports and exports (as well as re-imports and re-exports) of goods broken down by industrial sectors and by end-use categories. BTDIxE was designed to extend the old BTD database which provided bilateral trade in goods by industry only.  BTDIxE allows, for example, insights into the patterns of trade in intermediate goods between countries to track global production networks and supply chains, and it helps to address policy issues such as trade in value added and trade in tasks.  The database presents estimates of bilateral flows of goods from 1990 to the latest available year, i.e. 2018; the latest year shown is subject to the availability of underlying product-based annual trade statistics.  Reporters are the OECD member countries and a large number of non-OECD economies, including the BRIICS: Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, Indonesia, People's Republic of China and South Africa; other selected G20 and Asian economies; and major African and Latin American nations.  It should be noted that starting from mid-2012, the OECD and the United Nations agreed to centralise the data collection and processing procedures within UNSD Comtrade.  The list of partners covers the OECD countries, more than a hundred of non-member economies as well as the partners "World", "Rest of the World" and "Unspecified". The partner "Total foreign trade" corresponds to the flows with partner "World" excluding intra-country flows. Trade flows are divided into economic activities based on the Revision 4 of ISIC and nine end-use categories including capital goods, intermediate goods and household consumption.

Unit of measure used: Thousands   OECD countries seldom have tools specifically designed to measure the inflows and outflows of the foreign population, and national estimates are generally based either on population registers or residence permit data. This note is aimed at describing more systematically what is measured by each of the sources used.   Flows derived from population registers   Population registers can usually produce inflow and outflow data for both nationals and foreigners. To register, foreigners may have to indicate possession of an appropriate residence and/or work permit valid for at least as long as the minimum registration period. Emigrants are usually identified by a stated intention to leave the country, although the period of (intended) absence is not always specified.   When population registers are used, departures tend to be less well recorded than arrivals. Indeed, the emigrant who plans to return to the host country in the future may be reluctant to inform about his departure to avoid losing rights related to the presence on the register. Registration criteria vary considerably across countries (as the minimum duration of stay for individuals to be defined as immigrants ranges from three months to one year), which poses major problems of international comparison. For example, in some countries, register data cover a portion of temporary migrants, in some cases including asylum seekers when they live in private households (as opposed to reception centres or hostels for immigrants) and international students.   Flows derived from residence and/or work permits   Statistics on permits are generally based on the number of permits issued during a given period and depend on the types of permits used. The so-called “settlement countries” (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) consider as immigrants persons who have been granted the right of permanent residence. Statistics on temporary immigrants are also published in this database for these countries since the legal duration of their residence is often similar to long-term migration (over a year). In the case of France, the permits covered are those valid for at least one year (excluding students). Data for Italy and Portugal include temporary migrants.   Another characteristic of permit data is that flows of nationals are not recorded. Some flows of foreigners may also not be recorded, either because the type of permit they hold is not tabulated in the statistics or because they are not required to have a permit (freedom of movement agreements). In addition, permit data do not necessarily reflect physical flows or actual lengths of stay since: i) permits may be issued overseas but individuals may decide not to use them, or delay their arrival; ii) permits may be issued to persons who have in fact been resident in the country for some time, the permit indicating a change of status, or a renewal of the same permit.   Permit data may be influenced by the processing capacity of government agencies. In some instances a large backlog of applications may build up and therefore the true demand for permits may only emerge once backlogs are cleared.   Flows estimated from specific surveys   Ireland provides estimates based on the results of Quarterly National Household Surveys and other sources such as permit data and asylum applications. These estimates are revised periodically on the basis of census data. Data for the United Kingdom are based on a survey of passengers entering or exiting the country by plane, train or boat (International Passenger Survey). One of the aims of this survey is to estimate the number and characteristics of migrants. The survey is based on a random sample of approximately one out of every 500 passengers. The figures were revised significantly following the latest census in each of these two countries, which seems to indicate that these estimates do not constitute an “ideal” source either. Australia and New Zealand also conduct passenger surveys which enable them to establish the length of stay on the basis of migrants’ stated intentions when they enter or exit the country.

This dataset presents patent statistics and indicators that are suitable for tracking innovation in environment-related technologies. They allow the assessment of countries and firms' innovation performance as well as the design of governments' environmental and innovation policies.

The OECD Environment Directorate, in collaboration with the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, has developed patent-based innovation indicators that are suitable for tracking developments in environment-related technologies. The indicators allow the assessment of countries' and firms' innovative performance as well as the design of governments' environmental and innovation policies. The patent statistics presented here are constructed using data extracted from the Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) of the European Patent Office (EPO) using algorithms developed by the OECD. Consistent with other patent statistics provided in OECD.Stat, only published applications for "patents of invention" are considered (i.e. excluding utility models, petty patents, etc.). The relevant patent documents are identified using search strategies for environment-related technologies (ENV-TECH) which were developed specifically for this purpose. They allow identifying technologies relevant to environmental management, water-related adaptation and climate change mitigation. An aggregate category labelled "selected environment-related technologies" includes all of the environmental domains presented here.

The OECD Environment Directorate, in collaboration with the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, has developed patent-based innovation indicators that are suitable for tracking developments in environment-related technologies. The indicators allow the assessment of countries' and firms' innovative performance as well as the design of governments' environmental and innovation policies. The patent statistics presented here are constructed using data extracted from the Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) of the European Patent Office (EPO) using algorithms developed by the OECD. Consistent with other patent statistics provided in OECD.Stat, only published applications for "patents of invention" are considered (i.e. excluding utility models, petty patents, etc.). The relevant patent documents are identified using search strategies for environment-related technologies (ENV-TECH) which were developed specifically for this purpose. They allow identifying technologies relevant to environmental management, water-related adaptation and climate change mitigation. An aggregate category labelled "selected environment-related technologies" includes all of the environmental domains presented here.

Patents are a key measure of innovation output, as patent indicators reflect the inventive performance of countries, regions, technologies, firms, etc. They are also used to track the level of diffusion of knowledge across technology areas, countries, sectors, firms, etc., and the level of internationalisation of innovative activities. Patent indicators can serve to measure the output of R&D, its productivity, structure and the development of a specific technology/industry. The relationship between patents as an intermediate output resulting from R&D inputs has been investigated extensively. Patents are often interpreted as an output indicator; however, they could also be viewed as an input indicator, as patents are used as a source of information by subsequent inventors. Like any other indicator, patent indicators have many advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of patent indicators are :patents have a close link to invention;patents cover a broad range of technologies on which there are sometimes few other sources of data;the contents of patent documents are a rich source of information (on the applicant, inventor, technology category, claims, etc.); andpatent data are readily available from patent offices. However, patents are subject to certain drawbacks:the value distribution of patents is skewed as many patents have no industrial application (and hence are of little value to society) whereas a few are of substantial value;many inventions are not patented because they are not patentable or inventors may protect the inventions using other methods, such as secrecy, lead time, etc.;the propensity to patent differs across countries and industries;differences in patent regulations make it difficult to compare counts across countries; andchanges in patent law over the years make it difficult to analyse trends over time.