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Karl Aiginger

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Karl Aiginger
Born (1948-10-23) October 23, 1948 (age 76)
Vienna, Austria
NationalityAustrian
Academic career
FieldIndustrial organization
InstitutionAustrian Institute of Economic Research
Vienna University of Economics and Business
Johannes Kepler University Linz
Alma materUniversity of Vienna
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Karl Aiginger (born October 23, 1948) is an Austrian economist. He was the head of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) between 2005 and 2016, he is a professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and an honorary professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. He was succeeded by Christoph Badelt as the head of WIFO in September 2016. [1] He established and manages the lateral thinking platform Policy Crossover Center,[2] an interdisciplinary discussion forum on European policy. As an author, he is widely held in libraries worldwide.[3]

Life

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He studied at the University of Vienna (1966–1974) and at Purdue University (Indiana, United States (1978). He has been working at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) since 1970. Karl Aiginger is a professor of economic policy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. He was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1991) and at the University of California, Los Angeles (United States, 1997). He has worked as a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (California, United States, 2002) and given lectures at the Changsha University (Hunan, China). Karl Aiginger is married and has two children.

Work

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Karl Aiginger specializes in industrial organization and economic strategies. He also focuses on the analysis of industrial policy, innovation, the competitiveness of companies, international competition, and the European economic and social model. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

He is the founding editor of the Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade[9] and was the project leader for the analytical principles underpinning the competition reports of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.[10] [11] He evaluated the Finnish system for innovation on behalf of the Government of Finland and was in charge of the evaluating the system of Austrian research subsidies and funding[12] on behalf of the Federal Government of Austria. He was on the supervisory board of the holding company of nationalized Austrian companies.

His work encompasses theoretical essays on decisions made under uncertainty by companies[13] and essays on the policy-relevant assessment of the competitiveness of nations (for the European Commission and the OECD). He has written articles for the Advisory Council for Economic and Social Affairs as well as the reform dialogue of the Austrian Federal Government. Over the past few years, he has focused increasingly on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis of 2007–08 and European economic policy strategies.[14] [15] [16] [17] Recently he published on globalization, the future role of Europe in the new world order with the USA as “sole remaining superpower” retreating from multilateralism and China on the way back to Number 1. He discusses possible cooperation with Africa in combating climate change as well mitigating the refugee streams to Europe.[18][19][20][21][22][23] He led the research project Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe[24] from 2012 to 2016.[25] This is the largest socio-economic project in the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research.[26] It was funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research. It was a key academic project accompanying the European Union's Europe 2020 strategy [27] and extending it beyond, providing a basis for a more dynamic, green and socially-oriented society.[28] The closing report [29] and the executive summary were presented in Brussels in February 2016 to the European Parliament, the European Commission and the media in a final conference at which Kenneth Arrow of Stanford University held the welcoming address.[30]

A white paper was prepared under his leadership in 2006 on Austrian economic policy entitled "More employment through growth on the basis of innovation and qualification", which had a major influence on Austrian economic policy.[31] In industrial policy, Aiginger advocates the concept of a systemic industrial policy which cooperates with innovation policy, labor market and competition policy with the final goal of serving societal needs. If it is designed strategically, a "green industrial policy" must not reduce price competitiveness but should actually create a competitive advantage. This issue is explored in depth in a special volume of the Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade.[32] Higher costs for energy or emission at an industrial location should be offset by lower taxes on labor and a better supply of research resources, universities and technical colleges. In this way, a country gains competitive advantages that are important for the future, it becomes a technological leader in renewable energies and energy efficiency, and saves costs associated with making up for environmental damage.[33] [34]

It is a main message of Aiginger's work not to equate competitiveness with low costs or to measure it using the external balance, but to measure it by outcomes, specifically defining competitiveness as the "ability to deliver Beyond GDP goals". Industrialized countries must follow a strategy based on quality. A cost strategy can be copied by low-income countries at any time (the "high road strategy vs. the low road strategy"). The broad definition of competitiveness was also recently adopted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)[35] in which the trade unions originally wanted to reject the new "national committees for competitiveness" because they feared an overly restrictive, cost-cutting policy. Following a change in the definition of competitiveness in the direction of fulfilling targets that go "beyond GDP", as proposed by Aiginger and WWWforEurope,[36] the EESC was able to approve the creation of new commissions. Karl Aiginger continues to work on European issues in the Policy Crossover Center, Vienna-Europa[2] and at the Vienna University of Economics and Business from an increasingly interdisciplinary standpoint.

References

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  1. ^ "Christoph Badelt tritt Amt als neuer WIFO-Leiter an". Austrian Institute of Economic Research.
  2. ^ a b "Policy Crossover Center, Vienna-Europa". Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  3. ^ "Aiginger, Karl". worldcat.org. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  4. ^ "Das europäische Wirtschafts- und Sozialmodel". Austrian Institute of Economic Research. Retrieved 2016-08-25..
  5. ^ Aiginger, K. and A. Guger, 2006, The European Socio-Economic Model, in Giddens, A., Diamond, P., Liddle, R. (eds.), Global Europe, Social Europe, Polity Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, pp. 124-150. ISBN 9780745639352.
  6. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Guger, Alois (2006), "The Ability to Adapt: Why It Differs between the Scandinavian and Continental European Models", Intereconomics, Review of European Economic Policy, 41 (1): 14–23, doi:10.1007/s10272-006-0168-5, hdl:10419/41907, S2CID 189844017.
  7. ^ Aiginger, Karl, 2008, The Swedish Economic Model: "lessons to be learned", in: Lacina, L., Fidrmuc, J., Rusek, A. (eds.) Economic Performance of the European Union: Issues, Trends and Policies, Palgrave Macmillan: Economics, Business and Management Division, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ISBN 978-0-230-22227-4.
  8. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2007). Coping with globalisation and unemployment: new challenges for the European Model, Growth versus Security - Old and New EU Member's Quest for a New Economic and Social Model. Palgrave Macmillan..
  9. ^ "Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade". Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  10. ^ "Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW)". Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  11. ^ "Europe's position in quality competition" (PDF). European Commission, Enterprise Directorate-General, Enterprise DG Working Paper, Brussels. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Evaluation of the Austrian Industrial Research Promotion Fund (FFF) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)" (PDF). www.ffg.at. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-05. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  13. ^ Aiginger, Karl (1986). Production and Decision Theory under Uncertainty (PDF). Basil Blackwell.
  14. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2012), "A Systemic Industrial Policy to Pave a New Growth Path for Europe" (PDF), WIFO Working Papers (421), Austrian Institute of Economic Research
  15. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Schratzenstaller, Margit (2011), "Consolidating the Budget under Difficult Conditions, Ten Guidelines Viewed Against Europe's Beginning Consolidation Programmes", Intereconomics, 46 (1): 36–42, doi:10.1007/s10272-011-0363-x, hdl:10419/68317, S2CID 55739963
  16. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2010). "The Great Recession versus the Great Depression: Stylized Facts on Siblings That Were Given Different Foster Parents". Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment e-Journal. 4 (8): 1. doi:10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2010-18. hdl:10419/30024.
  17. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2010). "Das sozioökonomische System der USA: Vorteile, Probleme, Entwicklung" (PDF). Neue Gesellschaft, Frankfurter Hefte. 10 (10). Retrieved 25 August 2016..
  18. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Firgo, Matthias (2017), Chapter 7: Regional competitiveness: connecting an old concept with new goals, Elgaronline, doi:10.4337/9781783475018.00013, ISBN 9781783475001
  19. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Vogel, Johanna (2015), "Competitiveness: From a Misleading Concept to a Strategy Supporting Beyond GDP Goals", Competitiveness Review, 20 (5): 497–523, doi:10.1108/CR-06-2015-0052
  20. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2020), "Europe's Mission to Take the Lead in Fighting Climate Change" (PDF), Querdenkerplattform: Wien Europa Policy Papers (3), retrieved 24 August 2020
  21. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Handler, Heinz (2018), "Fostering a Dynamic and Stable Neighborhood for Europe", Review of Economics and Finance, 14 (4): 39–54, SSRN 3270874, retrieved 24 August 2020
  22. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2018), "Education: Key to Welfare and External European Partnerships" (PDF), Querdenkerplattform: Wien Europa Policy Papers (2), retrieved 24 August 2020
  23. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Schratzenstaller, Margit (2016), "New Dynamics for Europe: Reaping the Benefits of Socio-Ecological Transition. Part I: Synthesis - Executive Summary", WWW Policy Brief, retrieved 24 August 2020
  24. ^ "WWWforEurope". Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  25. ^ The research work leading to these results were supported pursuant to the financial aid agreement no. 290647 in the course of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research of the European Union FP7/2007-2013.
  26. ^ "Seventh Framework Programme for Research". Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  27. ^ "Europe 2020 strategy". Retrieved September 4, 2016. the EU's growth strategy for the coming decade. In a changing world, the EU wants to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.
  28. ^ See website of the Europe 2020 strategy for further details.
  29. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2016). "New Dynamics for Europe: Reaping the Benefits of Socio-ecological Transition. Synthesis WWWforEurope Synthesis Report, Vienna, Brussels".[permanent dead link‍]
  30. ^ "Kenneth Arrow's welcome address" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  31. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Tichy, Gunter; Walterskirchen, Walter. "WIFO-Weißbuch: Mehr Beschäftigung durch Wachstum auf Basis von Innovation und Qualifikation, Studie des Österreichischen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung im Auftrag von Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Bundesarbeitskammer, Österreichischem Gewerkschaftsbund und Landwirtschaftskammer Österreich". Austrian Institute of Economic Research. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  32. ^ Aiginger, Karl; Rodrik, Dani (2020), "Rebirth of Industrial Policy and an Agendafor the Twenty-First Century" (PDF), Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 20 (2): 89–207, doi:10.1007/s10842-019-00322-3, retrieved 24 August 2020
  33. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2016). "Making ambitious green goals compatible with economic, dynamics by a strategic approach" (PDF). WWWforEurope Policy Paper (30). Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  34. ^ Aiginger, Karl (2015). Industrial policy for a sustainable growth path: Policy paper number 13 (PDF). WWWforEurope Policy Paper series. Oxford University Press. pp. 365–394. ISBN 9780198706205. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  35. ^ "European Economic and Social Committee". - A consultative body of the European Union
  36. ^ "Welfare, Wealth and Work for Europe". - A Seventh Framework Programme for Research project funded by the EU
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