Effects of Economic Integration as Seen by Austrian Manufacturing Firms

A WIFO survey of 850 Austrian manufacturing enterprises comes to the conclusion that for the case of Austria's participation in the internal EC market Austrian firms expect to achieve significant growth in market shares within the EC countries, to suffer smaller share losses within Austria, and, on average, to experience neither losses nor gains in third countries. EC market participation is not expected to affect outward direct investment, be it within the EC or in third countries. In general, firms plan to carry out offensive strategies more frequently in case of EC participation. It seems that these firms underestimate the necessity for such strategies in case of non-participation.