IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/b/wfo/wstudy/34223.html
   My bibliography  Save this book

Trade Barriers in Services and Competitive Strengths in the Austrian Service Sector. An Analysis at the Detailed Sector Level

Author

Listed:
  • Yvonne Wolfmayr

Abstract

This study provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the competitiveness of the Austrian services sectors. It combines several industry classifications reflecting different structural features and international regulatory regimes that might be relevant for a sector's export potential and international competitiveness. These features are the skill and factor intensity, the intrinsic tradability and different regulatory regimes in international trade. For the first time this study applies a newly developed taxonomy of services which represents the different degrees of openness to services trade as reflected by the willingness of countries to submit full or partial commitments under the GATS. The analysis found a clear dominance of activities characterised by unfavourable sector characteristics in terms of skills and factor inputs. Furthermore, the structural change towards high-skilled labour intensive and knowledge intensive service sectors was found to be rather slow. At the detailed sector level, the analysis highlighted "consultancy, legal, accounting, book-keeping and market research services", the "renting of machinery and equipment sector", as well as "engineering, architectural activities and technical testing and analysis" as the most promising fields of activity in the group of high-skilled sectors already facing a relatively liberal international trade regime. The results were less favourable for the group of computer services. Within the group of sectors facing medium regulated trade regimes the R&D sector exhibited a very dynamic development paired with a good, but deteriorating competitive position. Insurance services were found to hold a weak and strongly deteriorating competitive advantage in terms of relative unit labour costs. At the same time the productivity gap to some of the European countries was found to be extremely wide. The growth performance of financial services which face the most regulated international trade regime was weak as was the competitive position.

Suggested Citation

  • Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2008. "Trade Barriers in Services and Competitive Strengths in the Austrian Service Sector. An Analysis at the Detailed Sector Level," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 34223.
    • Handle: RePEc:wfo:wstudy:34223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wifo.ac.at/wwa/pubid/34223
    File Function: abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Peneder, 2003. "Industry Classifications: Aim, Scope and Techniques," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 109-129, March.
    2. Philippa Dee & Kevin Hanslow, 2013. "Multilateral Liberalization of Services Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Services Trade Reform Making Sense of It, chapter 4, pages 69-95, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Yvonne Wolfmayr & Michael Peneder & Marianne Schoeberl, 2005. "Trade in Services: Protection Levels and Performance. Creating a New Taxonomy of Industries on the Basis of Barriers to Trade in Services," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 59299.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Silvia Ardagna & Giuseppe Nicoletti & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2005. "Regulation And Investment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(4), pages 791-825, June.
    5. Yvonne Wolfmayr & Kurt Kratena & Peter Mayerhofer & Jan Stankovsky, 2006. "Teilstudie 13: Exporte von Waren und Dienstleistungen stärken die Nachfrage," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 27452.
    6. Stephen S. Golub, 2003. "Measures of Restrictions on Inward Foreign Direct Investment for OECD Countries," OECD Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2003(1), pages 85-116.
    7. Peter Huber, 2001. "Teilprojekt 10: Migration und Pendeln infolge der EU-Erweiterung," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 19840, August.
    8. Bernhard Dachs & Hannes Leo, 1999. "Die Innovationsaktivitäten der österreichischen Wirtschaft. Band 2: Dienstleistungssektor," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 19770, August.
    9. Giuseppe Nicoletti & Stephen S. Golub & Dana Hajkova & Daniel Mirza & Kwang-Yeol Yoo, 2003. "Policies and International Integration: Influences on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 359, OECD Publishing.
    10. Paul Conway & Véronique Janod & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2005. "Product Market Regulation in OECD Countries: 1998 to 2003," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 419, OECD Publishing.
    11. Gernot Hutschenreiter & Michael Peneder, 1997. "Austria's "Technology Gap" in Foreign Trade," Austrian Economic Quarterly, WIFO, vol. 2(2), pages 75-86, April.
    12. Peter Mayerhofer & Gerhard Palme, 2001. "Teilprojekt 6/1: Sachgüterproduktion und Dienstleistungen: Sektorale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und regionale Integrationsfolgen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 20441.
    13. Michael Peneder, 2001. "Entrepreneurial Competition and Industrial Location," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2174.
    14. Peneder, Michael, 2003. "Industrial structure and aggregate growth," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 427-448, December.
    15. Adlung, Rudolf & Roy, Martin, 2005. "Turning hills into mountains? Current commitments under the GATS and prospects for change," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2005-01, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    16. Michael Peneder, 2005. "Creating Industry Classifications by Statistical Cluster Analysis," WIFO Working Papers 257, WIFO.
    17. Gernot Hutschenreiter & Michael Peneder, 1997. "Österreichs "Technologielücke" im Außenhandel," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 70(2), pages 103-114, February.
    18. Nora Dihel & Blanka Kalinova, 2004. "Services Barriers and their Economic Impact: Examples of Banking and Telecommunications Services in Selected Transition Economies," OECD Trade Policy Papers 7, OECD Publishing.
    19. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, 1984. "Splintering and Disembodiment of Services and Developing Nations," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 133-144, June.
    20. Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2001. "Regulation in Services: OECD Patterns and Economic Implications," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 287, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vakulchuk Roman & Irnazarov Farrukh & Alexander Libman, 2012. "Liberalization of Trade in Services in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Analysis of Formal and Informal Barriers," EERC Working Paper Series 12/06e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    2. Stefan Ederer & Jürgen Janger, 2010. "Wachstums- und Beschäftigungspolitik in Österreich unter europäischen Rahmenbedingungen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41042.
    3. Michael Böheim, 2010. "Competition Policy in the Wake of the Economic Crisis," Austrian Economic Quarterly, WIFO, vol. 15(4), pages 349-363, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:wsr:ecbook:2008:i:i-007 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Yvonne Wolfmayr & Kurt Kratena & Peter Mayerhofer & Jan Stankovsky, 2006. "Teilstudie 13: Exporte von Waren und Dienstleistungen stärken die Nachfrage," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 27452.
    3. Valkonen, Laura, 2006. "Deregulation as a Means to Increase Competition and Productivity," Discussion Papers 1014, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    4. Gunther Tichy, 2016. "Persistente Strukturprobleme trotz zutreffender Strukturprognosen," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 89(8), pages 553-571, August.
    5. Michael Peneder, 2003. "Industry Classifications: Aim, Scope and Techniques," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 109-129, March.
    6. Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2008. "Producer Services and Competitiveness of Manufacturing Exports," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 34225.
    7. Michael Peneder & Karl Aiginger & Gernot Hutschenreiter & Markus Marterbauer, 2001. "Structural Change and Economic Growth," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 20668.
    8. Peter Mayerhofer, 2007. "De-Industrialisierung in Wien(?) Zur abnehmenden Bedeutung der Sachgütererzeugung für das Wiener Beschäftigungssystem: Umfang, Gründe, Wirkungsmechanismen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 33120.
    9. Jan Stankovsky & Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2004. "Interessante Absatzmärkte und Exportpotentiale für die österreichische Industrie," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 77(6), pages 473-490, June.
    10. Michael Peneder, 2008. "Firm entry and turnover: the nexus with profitability and growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 327-344, April.
    11. Henk Kox & Arjan Lejour & Raymond Montizaan, 2004. "The free movement of services within the EU," CPB Document 69, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. Henk Kox & Arjan Lejour, 2005. "Liberalisation of the European services market and its impact on Switzerland," CPB Memorandum 130.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    13. Arjan Lejour & Henk Kox & Roland de Bruijn, 2006. "The trade-induced effects of the Services Directive and the country of origin principle," CPB Document 108, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Henk Kox & Arjan Lejour, 2005. "Liberalisation of the European services market and its impact on Switzerland," CPB Memorandum 130, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    15. Peter Huber & Peter Mayerhofer, 2006. "Wandel der Sektorstruktur in der Wirtschaftsregion "Centrope Europaregion Mitte"," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 26623.
    16. Marino, Marianna & Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Valletta, Giacomo, 2019. "Electricity (de)regulation and innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 748-758.
    17. Clovis Kerdrain & Isabell Koske & Isabelle Wanner, 2011. "Current Account Imbalances: can Structural Reforms Help to Reduce Them?," OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2011(1), pages 1-44.
    18. Balázs Égert, 2021. "Investment in OECD Countries: a Primer," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(2), pages 200-223, June.
    19. Adriana D. Kugler & Giovanni Pica, 2006. "The Effects of Employment Protection and Product Market Regulations on the Italian Labour Market," Chapters, in: Julián Messina & Claudio Michelacci & Jarkko Turunen & Gylfi Zoega (ed.), Labour Market Adjustments in Europe, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Michele Cincera, 2004. "Impact of market entry and exit on EU productivity and growth performance," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/921, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    21. Alexandra Ferreira-Lopes & Ccndida Sousa & Helena Carvalho & Nuno Crespo, 2017. "Trade Protectionism and Intra-industry Trade: A USA - EU Comparison," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(2), pages 88-102, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    FIW Trade in Services;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wfo:wstudy:34223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Florian Mayr (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wifooat.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.