Economy and Economic Policy in the Kreisky Era

Hans Seidel (1922-2015) had planned a book on the "Economic Policy of the Kreisky Era". It was intended to continue his extensive work "Austria's Economy and Economic Policy after the Second World War" from 2005. Hans Seidel was particularly interested in the presentation of economic policy in the 1970ies and 1980ies because he had been actively involved as head of WIFO, as advisor to Finance Minister Hannes Androsch, as State Secretary in the Kreisky government and as Director of the IHS. It was the time when Austrian economic policy enjoyed a high international reputation for its success. Austria's economic catching-up process was blatant and inflation was kept within bounds in turbulent times. Hans Seidel coined the term Austro-Keynesianism for Austrian economic policy and presented this concept at home and abroad. Seidel not only wanted to contribute his extensive knowledge as an economic researcher to the book, he also undertook extensive research in the Austrian State Archives as well as in the archives of the Austrian National Bank and the Bruno Kreisky Foundation. Like all his works, this book is characterised by the combination of economic theory with empirical data and economic policy practice on the basis of meticulous research. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to complete this work himself. However, he left behind a large number of text and data fragments which were planned as sections or drafts of the book. The structure of the book is the attempt of the editors to reconstruct Seidel's concept in his sense.