Austria's Well-being Goes Beyond GDP Röhn, Oliver; Gönenç, Rauf; Beer, Christian ...
OECD Economic Department Working Papers,
08/2013
1079
Paper
Austria enjoys strong material well-being and high quality of life. Steady convergence with top GDP per capita levels has translated into decisive improvements in household disposable incomes while ...significant redistribution has ensured low income inequality and poverty. This performance was achieved with a unique combination of supportive conditions for a dynamic business sector, priority for family based care, a wide supply of public services, and a well-functioning social partnership. Particularly remarkable for a small open economy has been the degree of stability, which may have contributed to Austria's high quality of life. However, a number of weaknesses also exist. Older, unskilled people, and particularly people with migrant backgrounds, have lower labour market attachments. Outcomes in education and health care are subject to inequalities. Family services are still mainly carried out by women, who have closed the gap in education attainment with men but face tensions between work and family responsibilities and a high wage gap.
Important challenges for the future of Austrian well-being arise from demographic and environmental trends. The ageing of the population calls for a fair balance between life-time pension ...contributions and entitlements, drawing on the recent pension reform. Such progress will allow Austrians to make more informed choices between the length of their work and contribution periods and retirement length and income according to their preferences, without threatening fiscal sustainability. With female labour force participation rising, family policies should help reconcile equality of opportunity within families by promoting the availability, affordability and quality of support services. A growing share of immigrant groups with low human capital calls for remedial policies to preserve social cohesion. Environmental pressures arise from urban sprawl and the strong expansion of road transport. Turning around these trends will require more appropriate pricing of the externalities and better regional development policies to foster denser settlements that are well connected to public transport. This entails a need to strengthen coordination between different government layers and better integration of regional development with transport and housing policies. This Working Paper relates to the 2013 OECD Economic Survey of Austria (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/austria-2013.htm). Bien-être en Autriche : les grands défis Le bien-être des Autrichiens va se heurter à l'avenir à des défis importants liés aux tendances démographiques et environnementales. Le vieillissement de la population nécessite un juste équilibre entre les cotisations et les droits à pension, sur la base de la réforme récente du régime de retraite. Ces progrès vont permettre aux Autrichiens de faire des choix plus éclairés entre la durée de leur vie active et de leurs cotisations et celle de leur retraite ainsi que leurs revenus en fonction de leurs préférences, sans pour autant peser sur la viabilité des finances publiques. Face à l'augmentation du taux d'activité des femmes, les politiques familiales devraient contribuer à l'égalité des chances au sein des familles et favoriser des services de soutien accessibles, abordables et efficaces. La proportion grandissante des groupes immigrés ayant un faible niveau de capital humain exige la mise en place de mesures correctives afin de préserver la cohésion sociale. Les pressions pesant sur l'environnement sont causées par l'étalement urbain et l'expansion rapide du transport routier. Pour contrer ces évolutions, il faudra mettre en place une tarification plus appropriée des externalités et de meilleures politiques de développement régional afin de promouvoir des habitats plus denses et bien desservis par les transports publics. Il faut pour cela renforcer la coordination entre les différents niveaux d'administration et mieux intégrer les politiques de développement régional, de transport et de logement. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l'Étude économique de l'OCDE de l'Autriche, 2013 (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/austria-2013.htm).
Austria enjoys strong material well-being and high quality of life. Steady convergence with top GDP per capita levels translated into decisive improvements in household disposable incomes while ...significant redistribution has ensured low income inequality and poverty. This has been combined with gains in leisure time, especially time spent in retirement, low unemployment, high environmental standards, rising life expectancy, a well-functioning social support network and high subjective well-being. This performance was achieved with a unique combination of supportive conditions for a dynamic business sector, priority for family based care, a wide supply of public services, and a well-functioning social partnership. Particularly remarkable for a small open economy has been the degree of stability, which may have contributed to Austria's high quality of life. However, a number of weaknesses also exist. Older, unskilled and in particular people with migrant background, have lower labour market attachments. Outcomes in education and health care are subject to inequalities. Family services are still mainly carried out by women, who have closed the gap in education attainment with men but face tensions between work and family responsibilities and a high wage gap. The gaps experienced by people with migrant background are in several dimensions larger than in the average OECD country. This Working Paper relates to the 2013 OECD Economic Survey of Austria (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/austria-2013.htm). En Autriche, le bien-être ne se limite pas au PIB En Autriche, le bien-être matériel et la qualité de vie sont élevés. Un mouvement constant de convergence vers un PIB par habitant élevé a permis une nette amélioration du revenu disponible des ménages. Parallèlement, une redistribution importante a permis que les inégalités de revenu et le taux de pauvreté soient faibles. À cela s'ajoutent une augmentation du temps disponible pour les loisirs, en particulier du temps passé à la retraite, un faible taux de chômage, une bonne qualité de l'environnement, un allongement de l'espérance de vie et un bien-être subjectif élevé. L'Autriche doit ces résultats à un modèle unique en son genre, qui associe des conditions favorables au dynamisme du secteur privé, une priorité accordée à la prise en charge familiale, une offre développée de services publics et un système de partenariat social efficace. Un certain nombre de faiblesses existent cependant. Ainsi, les travailleurs âgés et non qualifiés et, surtout, les personnes issues de l'immigration, sont plus éloignés du marché du travail. On observe des inégalités dans les résultats en matière d'éducation et de santé. Les services aux familles restent dans une large mesure l'apanage des femmes, qui, malgré la résorption de l'écart de niveau d'instruction avec les hommes, rencontrent des difficultés à concilier vie professionnelle et familiale et sont confrontées à un gros écart de rémunération. Pour plusieurs dimensions du bien-être, les différences entre les personnes issues de l'immigration et le reste de la population sont supérieures à celles observées dans le pays moyen de l'OCDE. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l'Étude économique de l'OCDE de l'Autriche, 2013 (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/austria-2013.htm).
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants harvest sunlight to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water. It is the primary source of energy for all life on Earth; hence it is important to ...understand how this process responds to climate change and human impact. However, model-based estimates of gross primary production (GPP, output from photosynthesis) are highly uncertain, in particular over heavily managed agricultural areas. Recent advances in spectroscopy enable the space-based monitoring of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from terrestrial plants. Here we demonstrate that spaceborne SIF retrievals provide a direct measure of the GPP of cropland and grassland ecosystems. Such a strong link with crop photosynthesis is not evident for traditional remotely sensed vegetation indices, nor for more complex carbon cycle models. We use SIF observations to provide a global perspective on agricultural productivity. Our SIF-based crop GPP estimates are 50-75% higher than results from state-of-the-art carbon cycle models over, for example, the US Corn Belt and the Indo-Gangetic Plain, implying that current models severely underestimate the role of management. Our results indicate that SIF data can help us improve our global models for more accurate projections of agricultural productivity and climate impact on crop yields. Extension of our approach to other ecosystems, along with increased observational capabilities for SIF in the near future, holds the prospect of reducing uncertainties in the modeling of the current and future carbon cycle.
Household borrowing in a foreign currency is a widespread phenomenon in Austria. Twelve percent of Austrian households report their housing loan to be denominated in either Swiss franc or Japanese ...yen for example. Yet, despite its importance, peculiar character, and immediate policy concerns, we know too little about the attitudes and characteristics of the households involved in this type of carry trade. We analyze a uniquely detailed financial wealth survey of 2,556 Austrian households to sketch a comprehensive profile of the attitudes and characteristics of the households involved. We employ both univariate tests and multivariate multinomial logit models. The survey data suggests that risk-loving, wealthy, and married households are more likely to take a housing loan in a foreign currency. High-income households are more likely to take a housing loan in general. These findings may partially assuage policy concerns about household default risk on foreign-currency housing loans.
Retrieval of forest stem volume from synthetic aperture (SAR) backscatter and interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence is generally performed using a model-based approach, where in situ measurements are ...necessary to estimate the unknown model parameters. Problems arise when in situ data are either not available or of low quality or the observables present spatial variations. In this work we present three approaches for automatic modeling and inversion of forest backscatter and coherence to retrieve forest stem volume. The three approaches exploit statistical distributions of the observables to obtain estimates for the unknowns in the model. Results shows remarkable agreement with those obtained by means of traditional modeling approaches based on in situ data.
The single dose pharmacokinetics of caffeine (220-230 mg per dose) were investigated in 12 healthy male volunteers before and during treatment with ofloxacin (200 mg bd), ciprofloxacin (250 mg bd) ...and enoxacin (400 mg bd) with a cross-over study design. None of the parameters: mean elimination half-life (T1/2el), Cmax, total body clearance (Cltot) and the volume of distribution (aVd) of caffeine were noticeably altered by administration of ofloxacin. Striking changes were observed, however, after administration of enoxacin: the T1/2el was prolonged by as much as 260%, the Cmax increased by 41%; the aVd was reduced by 20% and Cltot by 78% (mean values). Treatment with ciprofloxacin led to a prolongation of T1/2el by 15%, to a decrease of aVd by 25% and to a 33% decrease of Cltot. The results of this intra-individual comparison of caffeine pharmacokinetic data demonstrate that treatment with ciprofloxacin and enoxacin may have a significant inhibitory effect on caffeine elimination.
