Austria, Finland and Sweden - all small highly developed industrial and rich countries - entered the EU in 1995. Their macroeconomic performance since then was quite different. Real GDP in Finland und Sweden increased faster than in EU average, while those of Austria fell back. Austria lost its second rank in GDP per capita (at PPS) and is now the fourth richest EU country; Sweden fell back from the seventh to the eight rank, while Finland improved its position from rank 11 to nine. In a referendum in September 2003 Sweden refused to take over the Euro, whereas the other two countries are members of the Euro area. Ex post model simulations indicate that Finland appears to have profited most from EU membership (0.7 percentage point greater annual GDP growth since 1995), followed by Austria (+0.4 percent) and Sweden (+0.3 percent). / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

The paper analyses the relationship between succession and firm performance. Applying a non-parametric matching approach on a panel of roughly 4,000 Austrian family firms we evaluate the impact of past succession as well as future succession plans on employment growth. Analysing succession plans, we do not find a 'shadow of succession' effect. No significant difference in employment growth is found between firms that plan to transfer the firm in the next ten years and those who do not. In contrast, past succession exerts a significant and positive employment growth effect which becomes stronger over time. Thus, our findings provide support for the existence of a positive employment shadow after a transfer, whereas the shadow of succession hypothesis has to be rejected prior to transition. / Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination

The thesis entitled Life and Work of Fanny Neuda deals with a significant and almost forgotten writer from Lostice who lived between 1819-1894. It was Loštice that was the place of her writing, which is why the first chapter is devoted to them. This Jewish community was quite specific in its history, as discussed in the chapter. The second chapter deals with Fanny Neuda itself, her life and her "pioneering" writing activity. Since Fanny Neuda, née Schmiedl, was the world's first woman of Jewish descent, she did not write only prayers for women, but wrote a book for general opportunities / stimuli named Stunden der Andacht. Ein Gebet- und Erbauungsbuch für Israels Frauen und Jungfrauen, zur öffentlichen und häuslichen Andacht, sowie für alle Verhältnisse des weiblichen Lebens (Praha / Břeclav, 1855). She confidently compares her prayers with those written by men for women, for she is denied empathy with women's perception. But a woman can read in the hearts of her sisters.1 It is worthwhile to bring the character of Fanny Neuda and her work closer together, as well as the challenges she faced in writing in German. Pnina Navé Levinson characterized Fanny's literary work, a rabbi's rabbi, whose pious book for women can be regarded as a "classic" from the second half of the 19th century to our times....

This thesis analyses international state behaviour by countries that share a historic legacy, and examines the delicate relations between West Germany, Austria and Israel in the wake of the Second World War as a case study. In it I propose a model - 'diplomacy of memory' - for this currently untheorized form of diplomatic conduct in order to explain how countries use official memories of their past on the international stage. Linking the interdisciplinary concept of collective memory with International Relations, my study characterizes the practice of 'diplomacy with memory' as a distinct policy undertaking that shapes and broadcasts historical narratives internationally for strategic foreign policy objectives. To empirically test the diplomacy of memory model, this thesis investigates the two cases of West German-Israeli and Austrian-Israeli relations in the aftermath of World War II. Within these selected pairs, four core bilateral debates are analysed: first, reparation payments to Israel in 1951/52; second, the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1960/61; third, the Six-Day War in 1967 and fourth, the Yom Kippur War and oil crisis of 1973. While the first two cases explore how the memory of the Nazi past is leveraged as part of later diplomatic strategies, the latter two, which concern West Germany's and Austria's reaction to the Middle East conflict, reveal a more subtle connection between national memories and foreign policy choices around key international conflicts. This study engages in historical inquiry, based on archival documents and other primary sources in all three countries, to demonstrate how a country's collective memory is invented and deployed on the international stage. Combining the theoretical aim of specifying the link between national narratives and diplomacy with the qualitative analysis of two historic cases, this thesis rests at the intersection of International Relations and History.

The aim of this thesis was to analyse business environment in Austria and to evaluate the possibilities for Czech entrepreneurs and Czech job applicants on this market. The business environment in Austria was analysed on the basis of PESTLE analysis. I have carried out a questionnaire survey for comparison of business and working environment. I have conducted two interviews in order to gain information about possibilities of consultancy for Czech entrepreneurs entering Austrian market. This thesis is intended for future entrepreneurs, who would like to enter the Austrian market and for people, who would like to be employed in Austria.

The thesis is focused on presentation and evaluation of the development of foreign policy of the Habsburg Monarchy during the Crimean War in years 1853/4-1856. Its traditional position between Russia and the Western powers and complicated complex of internal problems prevented Austria from being involved with either side of the conflict. The policy of neutrality, adopted by Prussia and the German Confederation during the war, on the other hand, could not ensure sufficient protection of the Austrian interests concerning the Eastern Question. For this reason, the Habsburg Monarchy decided for its own independent policy, based on escalating pressure on Russia and attempts at restricting the war aims of Great Britain and France to an acceptable limit, and thus achieve a peace treaty as soon as possible to prevent the extension of the war and a potential wave of revolutions. The main instrument of this policy was the menace of Austrian military action against Russia and on the other side maintaining of hope of the Western powers for this action. German policy of Austria concentrated on defending its position within the German Confederation and using of German allies for demonstrations directed against Russia, which, however, were not very effective due to the reluctunce of the German states. The...

This doctoral project explores the ways in which European small states' approaches to peacekeeping have been affected by the changing nature of peace missions. The central objective is to explain the choices made by small states' governments to participate in missions which no longer fit traditional peacekeeping models. The increasing need for comprehensive and robust responses to international crises characterised by intra-state violence has challenged small states whose elites and publics have been accustomed to deploying troops to low intensity missions tasked to separate parties. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, traditional peacekeeping developed along the norms of non-use of force, impartiality and consent. Identifying positively with the objectives and normative underpinnings of traditional peacekeeping, small states have actively committed their armed forces based on a perception of themselves as international norm entrepreneurs. This thesis challenges the notion that small states' governments commit material and human resources to new types of peace operations motivated by such self-images. Transformations in the practice of peacekeeping are forcing foreign policy agents in small states to rethink the function(s) that their states should play in the international system towards peacekeeping. Three questions are considered: I) what new or existing roles are small states adopting in this evolving peacekeeping system? II) through what political processes do these roles emerge? and III) how do these roles affect decision-making on peacekeeping deployments? Small state research cannot effectively answer these questions nor comprehensively explain what small states do in international affairs because it lacks analytical tools to link structure and agency. A theoretical approach grounded in role theory is better suited to understand the foreign policies of small states and re-evaluate their peacekeeping credentials. A model depicting the interaction between role socialisation and domestic role processes is constructed to guide four empirical analyses of recent peacekeeping decisions taken by Austrian and Belgian governments. This theoretical foundation allows the contention that small states' changing self-perceptions do not necessarily originate from internal ideational factors, as the norm entrepreneur argument suggests. Each case study traces how the interplay between external role demands and domestically conceived ideas about the state's position in an evolving peacekeeping system informs Austria's and Belgium's adjustment to new peace missions. Austria's decisions to withdraw from UNDOF in 2013, and to participate in EUFOR Chad 2007-2008, are telling cases of a small state adapting to new forms of peacekeeping through a reconfiguration of roles. This thesis also investigates the roles that have motivated the contributions made by two Belgian governments towards the Malian crisis, 2012-2013 and the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war. This project contributes to small state research by showing that these actors fulfil a broad range of functions in the international system. It also improves the way we explain small states' foreign policy actions by providing a dynamic framework capturing the relationship between structure and agency, and by delving into the decision-making processes of small states. Additionally, it adds to the peacekeeping literature by providing an original account as to why states, and in particular small states, contribute troops to missions operating under evolving conditions. Finally, inputs are made to the scholarship on role theory by exploring how state size influences role conceptions and investigating how role socialisation and domestic role dynamics interact to affect the roles and decisions of an under-studied category of states.

While the de-politicization of public sector management was a core objective of past reform initiatives, more recent debates urge the state to act as a strong principal when it comes to public sector unity and policy coherence - and consequently make a case for reinvigorating links between the political and managerial sphere. Using data from Austrian public sector organizations, we test and confirm the causal relationship of political connectedness of board members and executive compensation. Differentiating between value-based and interest-based in-groups, we suggest that only value-based political connectedness has the potential to restore patronage as a control instrument and governance tool. Self-interested and reward-driven patronage, on the other hand, indicated by a strong association of political connectedness and executive pay, refers to the type of politicization that previous public sector reforms promised to abolish.

This is an analysis of how fin-de-siècle Vienna and its mayor, Karl Lueger, influenced the development of Adolf Hitler’s worldview. The works of many authors were consulted in conjunction with newspapers and memoirs of the period in order to gain a better understanding of what the environment of the Austrian capital was like in the fin-de-siècle period. Several of Vienna’s political, social, and artistic facets are analyzed in an attempt to prove that the general atmosphere of the city influenced Adolf Hitler greatly during his formative years. It is concluded that while Adolf Hitler’s Weltanschauung did not completely crystallize until after World War I, much of what contributed to his personal and political ideology resulted from his personal experiences in Vienna.

This paper provides evidence on (1) refugees' subjective well-being, (2) their access and barriers to health care utilization and (3) their perception of health care provision in Austria, one of the countries most heavily affected by the European "refugee crisis". It is based on primary data from the Refugee Health and Integration Survey (ReHIS), a cross-sectional survey of roughly five hundred Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees. Results indicate that refugees' self-rated health falls below the resident population's, in particular for female and Afghan refugees. Whereas respondents state overall high satisfaction with the Austrian health system, two in ten male and four in ten female refugees report unmet health needs. Most frequently cited barriers include scheduling conflicts, long waiting lists, lack of knowledge about doctors, and language. Although treatment costs were not frequently considered as barriers, consultation of specialist medical services frequently associated with co-payment by patients, in particular dental care, are significantly less often consulted by refugees than by Austrians. Refugees reported comparably high utilization of hospital services, with daycare treatment more common than inpatient stays. We recommend to improve refugees' access to health care in Austria by a) improving the information flow about available treatment, in particular specialists, b) fostering dental health care for refugees, and c) addressing language barriers by providing (web-based) interpretation services.