Responding to Key Well-being Challenges in Austria

Abstract

Important challenges for the future of Austrian well-being arise from demographic and environmental trends. The ageing of the population calls for a fair balance between life-time pension contributions and entitlements, drawing on the recent pension reform. Such progress will allow Austrians to make more informed choices between the length of their work and contribution periods and retirement length and income according to their preferences, without threatening fiscal sustainability. With female labour force participation rising, family policies should help reconcile equality of opportunity within families by promoting the availability, affordability and quality of support services. A growing share of immigrant groups with low human capital calls for remedial policies to preserve social cohesion. Environmental pressures arise from urban sprawl and the strong expansion of road transport. Turning around these trends will require more appropriate pricing of the externalities and better regional development policies to foster denser settlements that are well connected to public transport. This entails a need to strengthen coordination between different government layers and better integration of regional development with transport and housing policies. This Working Paper relates to the 2013 OECD Economic Survey of Austria (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/austria-2013.htm). Bien-etre en Autriche: les grands defis Le bien-etre des Autrichiens va se heurter a l’avenir a des defis importants lies aux tendances demographiques et environnementales. Le vieillissement de la population necessite un juste equilibre entre les cotisations et les droits a pension, sur la base de la reforme recente du regime de retraite. Ces progres vont permettre aux Autrichiens de faire des choix plus eclaires entre la duree de leur vie active et de leurs cotisations et celle de leur retraite ainsi que leurs revenus en fonction de leurs preferences, sans pour autant peser sur la viabilite des finances publiques. Face a l’augmentation du taux d’activite des femmes, les politiques familiales devraient contribuer a l’egalite des chances au sein des familles et favoriser des services de soutien accessibles, abordables et efficaces. La proportion grandissante des groupes immigres ayant un faible niveau de capital humain exige la mise en place de mesures correctives afin de preserver la cohesion sociale. Les pressions pesant sur l’environnement sont causees par l’etalement urbain et l’expansion rapide du transport routier. Pour contrer ces evolutions, il faudra mettre en place une tarification plus appropriee des externalites et de meilleures politiques de developpement regional afin de promouvoir des habitats plus denses et bien desservis par les transports publics. Il faut pour cela renforcer la coordination entre les differents niveaux d’administration et mieux integrer les politiques de developpement regional, de transport et de logement. Ce Document de travail se rapporte a l’Etude economique de l’OCDE de l’Autriche, 2013 (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/austria-2013.htm).

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k42210gg9g5-en

• https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/responding-to-key-well-being-challenges-in-austria_5k42210gg9g5.pdf?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fpaper%2F5k42210gg9g5-en&mimeType=pdf

• https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/responding-to-key-well-being-challenges-in-austria_5k42210gg9g5-en,

https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/ecoaaa/1080-en.html,

https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1080-en,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/1867155374