Up to the early 1990s, the export surplus for tourism was the major component in the current account offsetting the perennial trade deficit. Since then the structural weaknesses of the Austrian tourism industry have had a negative impact on the balance for travel services. The trend decline in...

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Austrian tourism industry has suffered a series of setbacks, partly caused by specific factors such as German reunification, currency devaluations in several important competitor countries and the slump in air fares, and partly due to substantial structural...

Cross-border purchases are a normal feature of market economies. The magnitude of these purchases depends on economic factors (such as price differentials), administrative factors (such as import quotas), and on a variety of other factors (such as geographic constellations). Within the EU the...

With the Austrian economy becoming more integrated into Eastern Central Europe, manufacturing steps are being shifted to Eastern Europe (outsourcing or "fragmentation"), following the intermediate step of lower costs payable for imported materials and services. Outsourcing impacts directly and...