The review of past events provides a compilation of the inspiring and educational seminars and webinars organised by the Office of the Austrian Productivity Board in the past. These events brought together industry leaders, experts and the interested public to explore a variety of topics related to productivity and competitiveness.
3rd TSI Workshop
The Austrian Productivity Board hosted the 3rd Technical Support Instrument Workshop of CompNet, which took place in Vienna on February 22-23 2024. CompNet members, productivity board executives and representatives of national statistical offices from all over Europe met to discuss the current status of the development of a European microdata platform and recent research contributions with comparative microdata at the firm level.
This workshop was an activity in the „Microdata platform for productivity“ project supported by a grant of the European Commission Directorate-general for Structural Reform Support under grant agreement No. 101101853 and No. 101140673 (Austria).
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Transformative innovation policy in practice in Austria, Finland and Sweden
What do the Recovery and Resilience Plans tell us about linking transformation and innovation policy?
Webinar with DI DR. Matthias Weber
December 7, 2023
Governments are increasingly utilising research and innovation (R&I) policy to foster economic and societal change. Yet, the empirical correlation between these policies and socio-technical transformations remains under-explored. The report investigates this relationship by comparing the Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) of Austria, Finland and Sweden, initiated under the NextGenerationEU framework post Covid-19. The report to be presented at this seminar investigates significant disparities in the content, process and transformative value of the RRPs among these countries. The differences in the content of the national RRPs, and the ability and willingness to seize the opportunity presented by the RRPs to drive transformation, are explained by existing national policy contexts and frameworks. Surprisingly, the role of R&I policy in the RRPs is less important than expected, despite its emphasised importance in literature and political rhetoric. The report further identifies implications for a transformative innovation policy as well as areas for further research.
Link to the report: https://doi.org/10.1787/45d3a149-en
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A structural break in EU corporate leverage trends (part 2 of double seminar)
Webinar with Alessandro Zona Mattioli — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (vu.nl)
14.11.2023 11-12:30 CEST
Contrary to widespread concern about EU firms’ indebtedness, we show that EU corporate leverage is steadily declining in a clear reversal from its historical trend. Using tax filing data from the universe of French and Dutch firms, we find a consistent decline in both gross and net leverage since 2000—a trend that also occurs in other EU countries as well as among non-listed US firms. The decline occurred during periods of strong growth, sharp crises and recovery under very loose monetary policy. It is consistent across the entire size distribution, dividend and non-dividend paying firms, and firms with high or low productivity growth. It appears robust to financial constraint measures, and is not driven by survival bias. These results point to a significant decline in credit demand, which is supported by a 2SLS analysis using shocks to exporting firms’ investment opportunities. Our tentative conclusion is that most EU firms demand less credit because of reduced investment prospects, while a subset rely more on intangible assets that can be created with little debt financing.
Key insights into the CompNet 2023 Flagship Firm Productivity Report (part 1 of double seminar)
Webinar with Filippo di Mauro - IWH
14.11.2023 11-12:30 CEST
The 2023 Flagship Firm Productivity Report offers critical insights on the short-term impact of the COVID-19 crisis across several dimensions: firm-level productivity, competitiveness, potential output, the reallocation of resources, and firm concentration. The report also examines firm responses to energy price shocks and tighter credit constraints. The results are relevant for the post-COVID recovery across Europe, and for building resilience while waiting for the next crisis.
Link to the paper: CompNet_Productivity_Report_-_July_2023.pdf (comp-net.org)
Institutionalising experimentation in innovation policy: challenges and solutions in upscaling
Webinar by Prof Slavo Radosevic | UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) - UCL – University College London.
11.10.2023
The webinar focuses on the challenge of institutionalizing experimentation in transformative innovation policy beyond initial pilot projects. It compares two experimental approaches: pilots and policy labs, and explores how to embed them into regional settings either via agencies or through grassroots stakeholder involvement. Drawing from EU regional innovation policy case studies, including Slovenia, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden, the analysis reveals that mainstream solutions like pilots and policy labs face significant hurdles. It advocates for a blend of top-down and bottom-up strategies facilitated by regional or national governments to successfully implement Partnerships for Regional Innovation (PRI). The study offers preliminary guidance on policy design to enhance the likelihood of scaling up innovations.
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Further reading:
S. Radosevic, D.Kanellou, G.Tsekouras (2023). The experimentation–accountability trade-off in innovation and industrial policy: are learning networks the solution? Science and Public Policy, Volume 50, Issue 4, August 2023, Pages 655–669, https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scad013
S. Radosevic, G. Tsekouras and P. Wostner. (2023). Institutionalising experimentation in innovation policy: challenges and solutions in upscaling, European Commission, Seville, Spain 2023, JRC134408
Pro-Productivity Institutions: A Review of Analysis and Policy Recommendations
Online-Vortrag mit anschließender Diskussion von Dirk Pilat, Research Fellow am The Productivity Institute (UK) und Associate Researcher am Valencia Institute of Economic Research
01.02.2023
Dirk Pilat presented a comprehensive review of recent analytical work and policy recommendations from ten national productivity commissions, including those from countries such as Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, etc. He demonstrated that while these commissions face similar challenges, there are also some crucial areas of competitiveness and productivity improvement that have not received enough consideration, such as the interconnection between climate change and productivity, the significance of the public sector in enhancing productivity, and the impact of productivity growth on improving the standard of living and overall well-being.
D. Pilat (2023). The Rise of Pro-Productivity Institutions: A Review of Analysis and Policy Recommendations. Productivity Insights Paper No. 015, The Productivity Institute, Link.
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Jahresgutachten des Sachverständigenrates für Wirtschaft – Präsentation der Key Findings zu den Themen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Strukturwandel der deutschen Industrie
Online-Vortrag mit anschließender Diskussion von Dr. Niklas Garnadt, Generalsekretär des Sachverständigenrates für Wirtschaft
07.12.2022
In einem Online-Vortrag präsentiert Generalsekretär Dr. Niklas Garnadt vor einem Fachpublikum die Hauptergebnisse des Jahresgutachtens des SVR für Wirtschaft 2022/23. Der Vortrag fokussiert auf die Themen Energiekrise und Strukturwandel, Fachkräftesicherung und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und bietet die Möglichkeit zur anschließenden Diskussion der Ergebnisse
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