The aim of this case study was to conduct a participatory approach to socioeconomic scenario development in the city of Lienz (East Tyrol) and to suggest this process-oriented approach as an element of an integrated guiding and decision support tool for local resilience and risk management to policy makers, business leaders, and civil society. The paper takes a socio-economic perspective and describes the settings of the case study, the process, and approach taken for co-creating two distinct normative socio-economic scenario narratives for the city of Lienz: a desirable or resilient future and an undesirable or stagnant future. Results are presented as sector-specific scenario narratives. Matching the local scenario narratives with the global shared socioeconomic pathways, it derives that local peculiarities such as population decline due to outmigration trends or decentralised manufacturing industry and educational institutions were judged to be critical factors in securing local resilience for a prospering future.

The empirical literature on mergers, market power and cooperation in differentiated markets has mainly focused on methods relying on output and/or panel data. In contrast to this literature we propose an approach to analyse cooperative behaviour among a group of firms only by making use of information on the spatial structure of a horizontally differentiated market. Using spatial econometrics techniques we focus on differences in the pricing behaviour between different groups of firms, i.e., alliance and stand-alone firms. We apply this method to the market for ski lift tickets using a unique data set on ticket prices and detailed resort-specific characteristics covering all ski resorts in Austria. We show that prices of ski resorts forming alliances are higher and increase with the size and towards the spatial center of an alliance. Interaction in pricing is higher within than outside alliances. All results are in line with the findings of theoretical models on non-competitive pricing behaviour in horizontally differentiated markets.

Recent projections of long-term care costs across Western societies show a significant rise in the upcoming decades. This is mainly due to demographic developments, but also due to a reduction of families' capacities to deliver informal care. Thus, an expansion of both mobile and in-patient care is inevitable. As the increasing demand alters both public and private expenditures, it is worth taking a look beyond the conventional cost-based evaluation of long-term care developments and to evaluate the economic effects induced by this growing sector. In that demand for care services increases, this poses chances for, but also puts demands on other sectors of the economy, which go beyond the immediate effects and costs of the care institutions. Against this background this paper presents a first analysis of the macroeconomic linkages of the long-term care sector for the case of Austria.

Wir gehen der Frage nach, inwiefern die unterschiedlichen makroökonomischen Wachstumsraten in den EU-Ländern durch Nachfragemuster gespiegelt werden. Wir nutzen die Dichotomie von handelbaren und nicht handelbaren Gütern, um die Diskussion zu strukturieren. Es zeigt sich ein leichter Nachfragetrend hin zu nicht handelbaren Gütern. Innerhalb der Produktion von handelbaren Gütern ist eine Verlagerung von der inländischen Produktion hin zum internationalen Handel zu beobachten. Insbesondere unter den CEE-Ländern gewannen Handelspartner innerhalb der EU an Bedeutung, wodurch es zu einer tieferen Integration in den Binnenmarkt kam. In den EU-Kernländern erweitern die Unternehmen ihre geographische Reichweite und konzentrieren sich zunehmend auf Märkte außerhalb der EU. Die Volkswirtschaften an der Peripherie blieben konstant schlecht integriert. Für die EU insgesamt bedeutet das, dass sowohl die Intra- als auch die Extra-EU-Exporte zugenommen haben. Aus diesen Ergebnissen lassen sich schließlich einige grobe wirtschaftspolitische Schlussfolgerungen ableiten.