Throughout most of the post-war period, the fight against inflation was one of the most important tasks of economic policymakers. For some months now, with ample spare capacity in major advanced industrial countries and inflation receding in the wake of the fall of oil prices, some commentators...

Der Preisauftrieb war in Österreich 1992 und 1993 stärker als in den meisten OECD-Ländern. Trotz der Konjunkturschwäche und sinkender Rohstoffpreise erreichte die Inflationsrate 1993 3,6% und lag damit nicht nur erheblich über dem OECD-Durchschnitt, sondern war auch höher als in den...

A just income distribution is an important goal of economic policy. Thus the question to what extent this goal has been achieved in comparison to other countries is an important subject of economic research, but, as in many other countries, the statistical basis for an analysis of the personal...

The acceleration of inflation in OECD countries since mid-1988 led to policy counteraction using mainly monetary policy instruments. In the US, monetary restriction gradually succeeded in reining in inflation, but also provoked a recession. Also in other countries with strong inflationary...

The standard of living of blue-collar workers in manufacturing rose by 2.2 percent per year over the period 1970 to 2000. At the same time the number of working hours was reduced by close to 15 percent. The real income gains are illustrated by a few examples: how many hours does a worker in...

During the boom years of the 1960s and 1970s wage drift (the difference between growth rates of wages and salaries actually paid and wage increases as negotiated by unions in collective bargaining) was strongly positive in Austria's manufacturing industry. This trend was reversed during the...

According to the concept of the productivity-oriented wage policy, increases in wages should be guided by the development in labour productivity. This would leave unit labour costs unchanged. This applies, however, only to economies which are in equilibrium; it is not valid for disequilibrium...