During the forecast period 2012-2016 growth will be weaker than in the recent past. On average real GDP is expected to increase by 1.6 percent per year. Thus, the Austrian economy will expand at a slower pace than on average during the years preceding the financial and economic crisis. The...

Agricultural expenditures had been a major item of the EU budget over decades. Yet, consequent to extensive reforms that began in 1992, farming's share of the budget has been shrinking substantially. Expenditures for structural policies and competition have reached levels in excess of the...

The budget plan drawn up in the Austrian Stability Programme 2009-2013 projects government net borrowing above the Maastricht limit of 3 percent of GDP for at least five years. The debt ratio will rise from just below 60 percent of GDP in 2008 to almost 80 percent of GDP in 2013. Fiscal...

To curb the rise of government debt it is necessary to evaluate public expenditures and revenues in terms of their necessity and efficiency. Notwithstanding the potential to improve the balance by raising taxes or levying new ones this article concentrates on adjustment options on the...

As a result of the economic crisis many countries are battling rising debt once more. Therefore political discussions about future consolidation strategies are becoming more frequent. As there is a large number of relevant studies on to fiscal adjustment, this article tries to sum up and compare...

The programmes for financial market stabilisation and economic stimulus, which were implemented to cushion the effects of the financial and economic crisis, as well as additional government expenditures in the wake of the crisis, have entailed substantial costs for government budgets....

At the end of 2008 the international financial and economic crisis triggered the deepest recession since the 1930s. At an annual rate of 1.8 percent the Austrian economy will expand more slowly – by ¾ percentage points – than in the 10 years before the economic crisis of 2009. Austria's...

Following difficult negotiations, the European institutions eventually, in May 2006, arrived at a consensus on a new Financial Framework for the European Union's budget over the years 2007 to 2013. In an additional declaration, the European Commission was invited to undertake a full review...

As of the beginning of the year 2008, a reformed system of federal fiscal relations will start in Austria with a planned duration of six years. The new system is essentially a continuation of the previous system. However, the agreements also include the establishment of a commission of experts...

The standard exercise of conjecturing the savings potentials in public administration draws on a general notion that Austria's bureaucracy is "too big" and/or "too expensive". Against the background of a perennial discussion of administrative reform we compare the cost of public administration...