Government stability and structural policies: Is Austria a model for Germany?

Since the mid-1990s, Germany has grown more slowly than the average of the European countries. From 1995 to 2004 German gross domestic product increased by 13%, British GDP by 22%, French GDP by 20% und Austrian GDP by 22%. Helmut Frisch, Technical University of Vienna and Committee on Government Debt, analyses several factors that may have caused the weak growth performance of Germany, looking in particular at German and Austrian developments, emphasising the role of economic policy in both countries. In particular, he is concerned with the problem of high unemployment and the rapid increase in the public debt. In both areas, he arrives at the conclusion that Austrian policy may truly be considered a model for Germany.