Meta-Studie zur Handelsabhängigkeit Europas und Österreichs von China

Die Studie enthält eine Auswertung wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Studien der vergangenen fünf Jahre zum Thema der Handelsabhängigkeit der EU und Österreichs von China. Ergänzt wird die Literaturanalyse durch die Auswertung internationaler Handelsdatenbanken. Österreichs Importanteil aus China ist mit 8% deutlich unter dem Durchschnitt der EU (21%), der Wertschöpfungsanteil Chinas in Österreich liegt aber mit 1,9% nahe beim EU-Durchschnitt (2%).Die über Handelselastitzitäten ermittelte Abhängigkeit Österreichs von Produkten aus China entspricht den Werten der wichtigsten Handelspartner bzw. Mitbewerber Österreichs. Bei 71 aus China importierten Gütern wurde von der Europäischen Kommission eine strategische Abhängigkeit Europas identifiziert. Eine Analyse für Österreich ergibt aus dieser Menge von Gütern eine vergleichsweise geringe strategische Abhängigkeit. Aktuell besteht jedoch eine kritische Abhängigkeit der EU von Rohstoffen für Technologien im Bereich der Dekarbonisierung. Dies betrifft vor allem seltene Erden. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass China folglich mittelfristig bei der Batterieproduktion eine dominante Rolle beibehalten wir

When happy people make society unhappy: Emotions affect tax compliance behavior

Emotions affect judgments and decision making. Our paper presents a study to show that incidental background emotions (i.e., emotions not related to the actual decision) influence individuals’ tax compliance attitudes and behavior. A large-scale survey of 22,220 German taxpayers and a controlled laboratory experiment provide evidence that positive background emotions reduce willingness to comply compared to aversive (negative) background emotions. The participants in our survey show less favorable tax compliance attitudes on weekends, which are usually associated with more positive background emotions. These findings are supported by the results of a controlled laboratory experiment in which background emotions were induced by standardized pictures. Individuals choose to evade taxes more often after being exposed to positive emotions than after being exposed to aversive emotions

The Discourse on Social Egg Freezing in Austria: Individual Solution to a Societal Problem

Social egg freezing (SEF) is the process of freezing a woman’s eggs for non‐medical reasons to preserve her ability to become pregnant in the future. SEF is both praised as a procedure that every woman should consider to prolong fertility, and criticized for medicalizing social problems, making unrealistic promises, trivializing risks, and having a poor cost–benefit ratio. This article explores the debate surrounding SEF and societal attitudes towards it in Austria, a country currently discussing the legalization of the procedure. Ten qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals involved in the public debate on medically assisted reproduction (MAR). Thematic analysis revealed three groups of respondents—advocates, ambivalents, and one opponent—who held different views on several key themes. All groups perceived SEF as not being “the” solution to the underlying problem of balancing parenthood and work. Interviewees demanded comprehensive counseling before SEF, including information about the technical procedure and medical risks. Many interviewees characterized the Austrian debate on MAR as polarized, describing policymakers as frequently uninformed and the political system as stagnant and reluctant to reform. They also expressed a need for more public debate in an open and dialogue‐driven spirit. This article contributes to existing research by investigating the Austrian discourse on SEF, a topic that has rarely been explored. It shows that the regulation of SEF remains controversial in Austria, with attitudes towards it being based not only on the right to reproductive autonomy, but also on a wide range of broader social issues in contemporary societies

Economic impact of labor productivity losses induced by heat stress: an agent-based macroeconomic approach

Against the backdrop of rising temperatures, this paper analyzes how prolonged heat affects labor productivity and the corresponding macroeconomic outcomes, using Austria as a case study. While previous research primarily focused on specific industries or used industry aggregates, this study also considers inter-industrial economic connections. We assess the macroeconomic effects of an increase in seasonal heat stress triggered by climate change with an emphasis on (1) industry-specific work intensity and (2) the vulnerability to heat-induced impairments resulting in an industry-specific loss of labor productivity. To account for indirect and non-linear economic relationships, we apply an agent-based model of the Austrian economy, which translates heat-induced productivity losses into economy-wide effects via shocks to industry-related input-output structures on the level of economic agents. The findings highlight how in the scenario with the highest temperature increase, the largest average loss in real GDP amounts to 0.7% in the third year compared to the baseline scenario. The largest aggregate effect is found for investments in dwellings. In line with existing literature, industries most affected directly are those that perform intense work in the sun, such as agriculture and construction. Our methodological approach, model, and the corresponding EU data sources can serve as a blueprint for further comparative research

Digitale Patient*innensteuerung mittels Apps: Wo steht Österreich?

Das Gesundheitssystem steht vor großen Herausforderungen: Digitale Lösungen könnten der Schlüssel sein, um Patient*innen schneller und gezielter zu versorgen. Welche konkreten Anwendungen sind im internationalen Kontext bereits etabliert und wo steht Österreich

Ein Leben ohne eigenes Auto? Reine Appelle bringen nichts

Wer im Autoland Österreich etwas bewegen will, muss auf pragmatische Maßnahmen setzen. Die verhaltensökonomische Forschung liefert Ansätze, wie Carsharing den Privat-Pkw in der Stadt ersetzen kann

Faith and the Child Penalty: Religious Affiliation and Gendered Earnings Losses After Childbirth

The relationship between parenthood and gendered labor market outcomes has been extensively studied, with the ‘child penalty'—defined as the effect of having children on mothers' labor earnings relative to their partners'—documented in many countries. While prior research has explored institutional and normative drivers of this gap, the role of religious affiliation remains understudied, particularly at the population level. Religious beliefs shape both fertility decisions and labor market behavior and hence are potentially an important factor shaping heterogeneity in the size of the child penalty. Using comprehensive Austrian register data, this study provides novel evidence on the intersection of religious affiliation and the child penalty. Our results indicate that religious affiliation acts as a moderator of child penalties. Women with a religious affiliation, particularly those belonging to the Catholic majority, experience substantially larger earnings losses following childbirth compared to their secular peers. A decade after the birth of the first child, the woman’s share of the couple’s joint labor income declines by around 25 percentage points among couples where both partners are Catholic, compared to 18 percentage points among religiously unaffiliated couples. These findings underscore the importance of cultural factors in shaping the economic consequences of motherhood