On the Sources of the High Growth Experience in Austria

This paper attempts to investigate and empirically verify several explanations for the growth performance in Austria. Total factor productivity data for Austria are presented for the first time, adopting a growth regression method. We find that the real appreciations, supported by structural change, gross investment, union density, a low duration of unemployment, and high youth employment, exhibit a significant influence on economic growth. This validates the new capital vintage hypothesis, the hard currency policy hypothesis, the structural change hypothesis, and both the macro- and microinstitutions hypotheses, while all others fail according to this exercise.