After the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, Austria adhered to an exchange rate policy of adjustably pegging the schilling to a basket of stable currencies. Over the years the basket changed according to the respective priorities of overall economic policy and eventually shrunk to a single...

In the context of the proposal of the EU Commission for a Services Directive, a debate has evolved concerning the possible market orientation of services of general public interest. The Directive, suggesting the liberalisation of services from state control, is supposed to cover, with important...

In a small open economy, the crowding-out effects on private demand of increasing public expenditures are different under fixed and flexible exchange rates. Differences also emerge under perfect and imperfect capital mobility as well as under full and imperfect capacity utilization. After...

The Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) was long the monopolistic producer of an Austrian stock market index, but in 1981 decided to discontinue its calculation. The founder of the Institute and later Nobel laureate August F. Hayek introduced the index in 1927 when he was guided by...

The theory of international financial markets considers the origins and developments of such markets, the functions they serve, their potential of creating international liquidity, and their impact on national monetary policies. The paper provides an overview of the issues debated in the early...

In this paper the causal relationship between the domestic and the foreign components of the Austrian monetary base has been investigated. The two components seem closely and negatively related which induced the formulation of two hypotheses: the "capital mobility hypothesis" implying that the...

This volume brings together the statements delivered during a discussion forum organized by the Austrian Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labour. A number of articles deal with competition policies on the EU and national levels. They include an introductory statement by Nobel Laureate Joseph E....