Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

An organization of industrialized countries formed to promote the economic health of its members and to contribute to worldwide development.

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Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OECD. An international organization studying proper economic policies and promoting cooperation in those policies between members. The OECD consists of members accepting the principles of the free market and the democratic process; informally, it consists of the so-called developed world. The OECD produces working papers and other documents detailing economic statistics and data and often offering recommendations for policy courses. The organization also provides an open forum for members to discuss these policies, with an aim of members taking roughly the same stand on economic policy. This has not always been successful. However, the OECD also offers a forum for pursuing policies of common interest, such as setting up an office to discourage tax havens. It was established in 1961 as a successor organization to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which was originally established to help implement the Marshall Plan.