Working hours in a period of low economic growth

Collectively agreed reductions of working hours phased out in Europe in the 1990s. During the last two decades, working time became more flexible and heterogeneous. Working hours of full-time employees in the EU hardly changed. The strong increase in part-time work was the outstanding phenomenon. Today, one third of female employees and almost ten percent of male employees work part-time. In a period of slow growth, productivity gains will be squeezed by subdued investment and low capacity utilisation. Thus, a smaller pie will be available either for real wage increases or for working time reductions. In this situation, it will be politically even more difficult to find an agreement on shorter working hours than in past decades. Since the productivity and employment effects of a working time reduction in a low growth period are quite uncertain, social partners must be willing to negotiate again when the effects become apparent

Beschäftigungspolitik in Österreich

Standard international trade lectures normally comprises three central theories: the Ricardian Model, the Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson Modell and New Trade Theory a la Krugman 1979 and 1980. Nowadays this trilogy needs to be enhanced with the basic concepts of a new class of trade models: the New New Trade Theory which accounts for firm heterogeneity and market entry costs. The basic objective of this paper is to present the contribution of Marc J. Melitz in Econometrica 2003 which is central to this new class of trade theory. I show how it is embedded in antecedent theory and highlight the new insights for trade patterns stemming from it. --

Neglecting Demand and Cycle in the Euro Area

The stagnation of the economy in the Euro area since 2000 is closely connected to the dominance of purely long-run supply-side oriented policies in the Euro area. While exports and profits soared, domestic demand has been weak. The neglect of cyclical and demand factors appears to be the major deficiency of the EU policy guidelines, the Lisbon strategy and the Brussels/Paris (European Commission–OECD) consensus on growth policy. Monetary policy in the Euro area is only slightly expansionary, fiscal policy is at the best on a neutral stance and social reforms are deterring consumers. Cyclical and demand considerations are not only denied in the short term, but also in the medium term. In fact, growth differentials in the period 1995 and 2005 can largely be explained by rising house prices as well as by the adoption of anti-cyclical policies in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries rather than by "structural reforms". In the long run, there prevails an interaction between supply and demand factors as well. Higher expenditure on R&D and education (input factors) are important to improve potential economic growth, this will however only materialise if effective demand is sufficiently high

Growth Policy in the Spirit of Steindl and Kalecki

There are large differences between Steindl's ideas on growth policies and the Brussels/Paris consensus. Steindl called for innovation and education policies, the mainstream today rather favours deregulation and privatisation. Steindl stressed the positive demand-side effects of the public sector and the contribution of lower household savings and anti-cyclical policies to growth. The economic mainstream praises the efficiency effects of a declining public sector, the importance of high savings for investment and warns of active anti-cyclical policies being an impediment to budget consolidation. Steindl and the Keynesians regarded the labour market situation as a consequence of economic growth. Today many economists see low growth as a result of labour market rigidities

Reform Perspectives on Welfare State Models in Global Capitalism

The paper characterises a number of welfare state models in the tradition of Esping-Andersen, analysing the economic and social performance of these different welfare regimes on an encompassing empirical basis both in the long run and with respect to their adaptability to the challenges of the last decades. While the differences with regard to growth dynamics had been very small in the decades after World War II (1960-1990), growth rates as well as the employment and social policy records have diverged over the past 15 years. The best performances were found for the extremes: the Scandinavian model and the liberal Anglo-Saxon model, while the continental model produced low growth and increasing unemployment. The reforms primarily in the Scandinavian countries allow us to delineate elements of a "New Welfare State Architecture" which on the one hand upholds important characteristics of a European social model, but on the other hand allows welfare states to be competitive in the globalising economy. Such a European socio-economic model could redirect incentives in such a way that the welfare state is able to shift from a burden (increasing costs and lowering flexibility) to a productive force

Literature review on fundamental concepts and definitions, objectives and policy goals as well as instruments relevant for socio-ecological transition

The research project WWWforEurope undertakes to lie the theoretical and empirical foundations for the embarkment on a new socio-ecological growth path in Europe. The new path underlines the need to guarantee Welfare as a broad universal principle for its population, assuring economic and social prosperity. The new path stresses the value of achieving – what we call – Wealth, a value in which material and immaterial resources are combined with the goal to enrich people‘s lives and to preserve natural resources, nature and bio-diversity. Both cannot be achieved without Work: Europe needs to enable its population to achieve their life satisfaction at the highest level possible and Work is one of the most – if not, the most – fundamental precondition for this. In short, the overarching question the WWWforEurope project attempts to answer is what kind of new European growth and development strategy is necessary and feasible, enabling a socio-ecological transition to high levels of employment, well-being of its citizens, social inclusion, resilience of ecological systems and a significant contribution to the global common goods like climate stability. Thus the project’s central goals are to identify the forces and challenges necessitating deliberations on a new growth path, to define socio-ecological transition, key actors and main obstacles, and to find out how the process of a socio-ecological transition can be initiated, monitored, and accelerated on an institutional level (EU, national and regional level). A central prerequisite to successfully accomplish these central goals is to establish a common understanding of the central questions raised by this undertaking and to create awareness for the project’s systemic and interdisciplinary approach. To this behalf, this paper presents fundamental concepts, terms and definitions relevant for socio-ecological transition. Hereby the paper focuses on the concepts of sustainability, growth, innovation, welfare and well-being, wealth and work. We also look at the various dimensions and definitions of transition/transformation which can be found in the literature, trying to concretise the concept of a socio-ecological transition forming the context and starting point of the WWWforEurope project. The necessity to accomplish a socio-ecological transition represents the starting point and the background against which the concepts and terms addressed in this paper gain their relevance. Economic, environmental and social sustainability and sustainable growth and development, respectively, are the central and final aim of the envisaged socio-ecological transition. Sustainability is an indispensable precondition for societal and individual welfare/well-being. Socio-ecological transition to achieve sustainability requires putting into question the prevailing view on economic growth. While economic growth may help to reduce poverty or unemployment and may thus be positively related with social sustainability, this often implies negative external effects for the environment. Alternative growth concepts are to be explored therefore, which do not consider the economic dimension of sustainability only, but explicitly try to incorporate social and environmental aspects in addition. Several more sustainability-oriented growth concepts have been brought into the discussion more recently. All of them are departing from the empirical fact that with increasing levels of GDP per capita the relation between economic growth and societal as well as individual well-being is weakening and that economic growth on the contrary may even endanger environmental and social sustainability (e.g. due to too little time for family and friends) and thus negatively affect quality of life and well-being. A more sustainable perspective on growth requires a more sustainable view on innovation, as a central driver for growth. Within the context of a socio-ecological transition based on sustainable growth, ecological and social innovation gain in importance vis-à-vis purely profit-oriented innovation. Long-term growth is based on wealth as the productive base of an economy. Sustainable growth and development needs to rest on a comprehensive/inclusive wealth concept taking into account, besides the conventional material assets, also natural capital. Finally, socio-ecological transition will also affect the organisation of work/labour. This paper tries to define and concretise these fundamental concepts and terms. Thus it should provide some kind of lexicon, which serves as starting point and background for the work on the central questions guiding the WWWforEurope project. Wherever possible, the paper should facilitate the agreement on common definitions. It is not the aim of the paper to elaborate tradeoffs in depth and to offer solutions and answers already. It rather strives to motivate all research groups involved in the WWWforEurope project to use and discuss the existing concepts, may they be consistent or just offer a variety of thought. It also attempts at drawing attention to the existence of trade-offs and open questions relevant for the various research areas. Moreover, the paper wants to inspire the search for best (or the identification of not working) practices, and it wants to increase the awareness for existing barriers to change. While the paper is not able to elaborate in depth distributional and gender aspects as crucial cross-cutting issues, it aims at directing attention at them and at inspiring research undertaken in the WWWforEurope project to consider these cross-cutting issues. Finally, the paper does not focus too much on policy issues. It is the aim of the overall project to identify (potential) interlinkages, trade-offs and synergies and to discuss policy options and instruments in details to support a more dynamic, inclusive and ecological growth and development path for Europe

Cyclical Recovery Losing Momentum

In the last couple of months, business surveys in the euro area point to a slowdown of the recovery in the manufacturing sector. The boom in exports has not, or only hesitantly been transmitted to domestic demand. In Austria, exports and manufacturing output were still relatively lively early this year, while retail sales in the first two months of 2005 disappointed, given the positive income effects from the tax reform. The marked upward drift of inflation is squeezing private purchasing power.Business Cycle Report

Erdölverteuerung und Budgetkonsolidierung dämpfen Wirtschaftswachstum. Prognose für 2000 und 2001

Der deutliche Anstieg der Erdölpreise und die rasche Budgetkonsolidierung werden das Wirtschaftswachstum im kommenden Jahr dämpfen. Nach einem kräftigen Konjunkturaufschwung 2000 (+3,5%) wird das BIP 2001 um nur noch 2,8% zunehmen. Der Preisauftrieb schwächt sich 2001 mit dem Abklingen der Erdölpreishausse ab, und die Arbeitslosenquote geht weiter deutlich zurück. Das angestrebte Budgetziel eines Nettodefizits der öffentlichen Haushalte von ¾% des BIP kann dank der forcierten Konsolidierungsmaßnahmen erreicht werden, allerdings wird die Abgabenquote spürbar steigen.Erdölverteuerung und Budgetkonsolidierung dämpfen Wirtschaftswachstum. Prognose für 2000 und 2001