The paper classifies small open economies in Europe into three categories. First, countries moving primarily in line with international fluctuations. Second, countries responding mainly to shocks at the EU level, and third, countries where fluctuations can be attributed essentially to domestic...

The Single Market project of the European Commission was supposed to foster productivity growth in the financial service industry. We assess its consequences on productivity development in the German insurance industry, one of the largest insurance markets within the European Union, by applying...

For the Austrian private insurance industry, 2008 was another year of sluggishly rising premium income. Since 2006 the growth rates of the industry as a whole fluctuated within a narrow band between 1.4 percent (in 2008) and 2.1 percent (in 2007). At the same time the accrued gross premiums...

The crisis of the financial markets had its onset as early as February 2007, when the first defaults of mortgage debts with a low rating of creditworthiness were reported. Following that, the crisis shifted to the secured mortgage debt market to finally affect the entire financial system. All in...

In Austria occupational pensions serve as a voluntary complement to public pension payments. This is why at 2.4 percent (2006) Austria's share of occupational pensions in total pension income is below the international reference value. With pension funds, group life insurance and direct pension...

By international standards occupational pensions are not very common in Austria. They are implemented using several financial modes. Of the three most important ones, i.e., pension funds, group life insurance and direct pension commitments only pension funds offer a comprehensive data base. Any...

The current financial crisis cannot be attributed to a single cause, but resulted from the interaction of several simultaneously active forces. The causes can be classified into three categories: macroeconomic causes, regulatory or supervisory shortcomings and causes related to incentives or...

In 1997, Austrian private insurance companies saw their revenues from domestic and foreign premiums decline by 4.4 percent to ATS 156 billion. They registered a fall of 6.3 percent in their domestic direct business, but successful acquisitions of indirect business enabled them to compensate for...

In 2000, occupational pension systems comprised 430,000 individuals as eligible for a future old-age pension. With one out of six dependently employed persons entitled to a future company pension, this figure is markedly below EU average. Company pensions are most prevalent among major...

The private insurance industry recorded above-average premium growth rates in 1999. In contrast to previous years, all insurance lines contributed to the growth. Premiums grew by almost one fifth in the life sector. Projections by the Austrian Insurance Association indicate that the trend should...