WIFO White Paper: Towards Higher Employment via Economic Growth Based on Innovation and Qualification. Summary

The economic growth rate currently forecast for Austria does not suffice to reduce unemployment. Stronger growth remains the key leverage factor to increase employment and reduce joblessness. For a high-wage country that orients itself against Europe's top performers and that is one of the richest states in Europe and worldwide, a strategy to strengthen growth and employment needs to be developed on the basis of innovation and qualification. The key words are technological progress and quality improvement rather than quantitative growth based on low wages. To this end, it is necessary to have a bundle of well-matched reform measures carried by a strategy that is borne by social consensus and optimism and secured by long-term financing. Such a strategy is proposed in WIFO's White Paper "Towards Higher Employment via Economic Growth Based on Innovation and Qualification". The white paper builds upon eleven strategic elements centering around a refocus of the Austrian innovation strategy from technology acceptance to technology provision and a radical change of the education and training system. The strategy elements are translated into eight target-focused packages. The overall strategy is to be implemented in three phases, starting with a kick-off period between 2007 and 2009. After 2015, growth will then be able to build solely on technological progress and quality improvement.