In this paper we present an extension of the Taylor model with staggered wages in which wage-setting is also influenced by reference norms (i.e. by benchmark wages). We show that reference norms can considerably increase the persistence of inflation and the extent of real wage rigidity but that...

This study examines the importance of wage staggering and wage leadership in the Austrian system of collective bargaining. Collective wage agreements in Austria generally remain valid for one year and are staggered; the highest concentrations of new agreements can be found in the months of...

In this paper we present an extension of the Taylor model with staggered wages in which wage-setting is also influenced by reference norms (i.e. by benchmark wages). We show that reference norms can considerably increase the persistence of inflation and the extent of real wage rigidity but that...

The crisis has reignited a debate on deeper fiscal integration in the euro area. The goal is to improve the capability of the currency union to cope with asymmetric shocks. One instrument in this context is the implementation of a European unemployment insurance (EUI) scheme aiming at automatic...

We study Austrian job reallocation in the period of 1978 to 1998, using a large administrative dataset where we correct for “spurious†entries and exits of firms. We find that on average 9 out of 100 randomly selected jobs were created within the last year, and that about 9...

In this paper a data set with price records collected for the computation of the Austrian CPI is used to estimate the average frequency of price changes and the duration of price spells to provide empirical evidence on the degree and characteristics of price rigidity in Austria. Depending on the...

Increases in life expectancy, lower birthrates and the aging of the baby-boom generation call for measures to increase the effective retirement age. In Austria, the employment rate of older workers rose from 28.8% to 41.4% between 2000 and 2011, which would imply substantial progress in keeping...

We provide empirical evidence on the degree and characteristics of price rigidity in Austria by estimating the average frequency of price changes and the duration of price spells from a large data set of individual price records collected for the computation of the Austrian CPI.