OECD Economic Surveys Austria 2017 [Paperback]

Austria is a stable and wealthy economy and growth has picked up following the 2016 tax reform and the recovery of export demand.Austria is a stable and wealthy economy and growth has picked up following the 2016 tax reform and the recovery of export demand. Employment has expanded, driven by rising participation of women and elderly and by immigration, although hours worked per worker have declined. Nonetheless, like in most OECD countries, productivity has slowed. Boosting potential growth requires reforms in a broad range of areas. Austrias transition to a digital economy and society is progressing but is slower than in the most advanced economies. A whole-of-government approach should help embrace change and facilitate the flourishing of innovative businesses, work practices and lifestyles throughout Austria. Digitalisation will redesign production processes and alter the relationships between work and leisure, capital and labour, the rich and the poor, the skilled and the unskilled. Under the aegis of the Digital Roadmap they issued earlier in 2017, policy makers will need to ensure equality of opportunities in the race with technology, and find the appropriate level of redistribution of the gains associated with digitalisation to foster social cohesion.The OECD is an international organization that consists of 30 Member countries from the developed world that accept the principles of representative democracy and free market economy. It originated in 1948 as the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) to help administer the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. Later its membership was extended to non-European states, and in 1961 it was reformed into the OECD. The organization provides a forum where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and co-ordinate domestic and international policies. With active relationships with some 70 other countries and economilãž