How Does Economic Development in Eastern Europe Affect Austria's Regions? A Multiregional General Equilibrium Framework

The paper quantifies regional welfare effects arising from the increasing trade flows between Austria and its Eastern neighbors after the opening up of Eastern Europe. We calibrate a static multiregional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model with benchmark data from 1994 for Austria, subdivided into nine Federal Provinces. The regions are linked by trade flows with the four Eastern neighboring countries and with the rest of the world. We simulate the effects of the increase of trade interpenetration as observed between 1989 and 1999 in a comparative static analysis. Regional welfare effects under fixed and flexible wages are presented. We also compare national CGE results with estimates obtained in a simple partial equilibrium approach.