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Short-time work was frequently used in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic to minimize crisis-related layoffs. This paper focuses on the short-time work (STW) scheme in Austria by exploring the characteristic features of the Austrian Coronavirus STW model and examining how it was utilized. We first give a historical overview of how STW developed in Austria before focusing specifically on the country's STW scheme - one of the most generous among the EU27 - during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. By analyzing relevant data, we identified three key periods in which STW was reformed and slightly modified. We also aim to show how STW take-up rates differ according to gender and sector. Moreover, we consider STW payments alongside sectors and are able to identify those sectors that see a greater benefit from STW. We conclude that the pandemic offered learning effects, thus allowing STW to be used more efficiently in the future by employers in times of crisis.

Vor dem Hintergrund hoher und persistenter Arbeitslosigkeit wird die Idee staatlich finanzierter Arbeitsplätze sowohl theoretisch als auch empirisch vermehrt diskutiert (Atkinson 2015; Tcherneva 2018; Palley 2018; Picek 2019). Häufig wird kritisch auf die hohen fiskalischen Kosten solcher Programme hingewiesen (Palley 2018; Tymoigne 2013), wobei von Modellen ausgegangen wird, die Arbeitsplätze für alle arbeitssuchenden zur Verfügung stellen. Vor dem Hintergrund zunehmender und persistenter Langzeitbeschäftigungsarbeitslosigkeit in Österreich entwickeln wir einen Modellvorschlag für eine Jobgarantie für Menschen im Alter über 45 und einer Arbeitslosendauer von mindestens 2 Jahren und schätzen die zusätzlich notwendigen fiskalischen Investitionen zur Beseitigung von Langzeitbeschäftigungslosigkeit in Österreich. Wir identifizieren rund 40.000 Menschen, die den Kriterien entsprechen. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass durch den Tausch von Arbeitslosenversicherungsleistungen in staatlich finanzierte Arbeitsplätze, mit einem Bruttoeinkommen von 1928 € im Monat, Mehrkosten von lediglich 6.785 € pro Jahr und Person entstehen würden.

This paper studies the relationship between union power, unemployment and wages. We find many theoretically well-established links suggesting that unemployment negatively affects bargaining power. As an empirical strategy we use Austrian data from 1966 until 2015 on the development of collectively bargained minimum wages. Such data directly reflects the result of a bargaining process between unions and employer organizations, and enables to show the link between bargaining power and unemployment. Moreover, it allows for further discussion on the potential influence of other macroeconomic and institutional variables, such as trade openness and union density.

Unfettered market forces tend to violate basic universal concepts like justice, dignity or fairness. Therefore we suggest moving to a new concept of markets, which we label 'civilized markets'. A civilized market tries to ensure that free entrepreneurship and open markets are eventually compatible to these basic and universal values that also serve as moral cornerstones of the European project. We propose to establish a new European institution that should set and enforce minimum standards for goods sold on the European market in order to accomplish what we call a 'civilized market'.