Austrian Economics Center

Austrian Economics Center
founded in the year	2006
acronym	AEC
City	Vienna
Country	Austria
Website	http://www.austriancenter.com/
address	Jasomirgottstr. 3/11, A-1010 Vienna
founder	Barbara Kolm
number of employees	9
Networks	Atlas Network (Europe), Stockholm Network, New Direction Foundation
Virtual Networks A "Virtual Network" is a group of Think Tanks identified by certain semantic and normative (ideological) commonalities (e.g. climate change scepticism). Such a virtual network constitutes a research field that differs from the study of formal networks. Formal networks are real in the sense of officially acknowledged and immediately open to empirical validation. Virtual networks on the other hand display shared ideas. Social network analysis tools can be applied to find out if or to what extent virtual networks are real networks that display linkages (membership in networks, personnel, resources etc.). Unconnected think tanks in turn can be considered special cases in need of explanation independent from network structures (unless we have to assume invisible, hidden or covered ties).	Austerity politics
Last revision	24.09.2016
Presence of Think Tank affiliates in the various fieldsWe try to capture where people affiliated with a Think Tank - affiliates are employees, members of the advisory and supervisory board etc. - are present: if they write in the media, teach in universities or work for another Think Tank. The chart down below shows in which fields the affiliates are present. Every presence is counted once.
People n = 10
Presences n = 132
<pPie size=330x200 Legend> Think Tank,5 Business,19 Media,18 Politics,17 Academia,68 NGO,5 </pPie>
Kind of activities of Think Tank affiliatesWe try to capture where people affiliated with a Think Tank - affiliates are employees, members of the advisory and supervisory board etc. - are present: if they write in the media, teach in universities or work for another Think Tank. The chart down below shows which kind of activities the affiliates conduct. Every presence is counted once.
<pPie size=330x200 Legend> Author,3 Leader (CEO etc.),21 Consultant,11 Editor,14 Interviewee,15 Member,32 Participant,3 Lecturer,7 Employee,26 </pPie>

The following coordinate was not recognized: 48.20901;16.37178.The following coordinate was not recognized: 48.20901;16.37178. It promotes the ideas of the Austrian School of Economics, not only by the means of a public think tank, but sees itself also as an academic Institute.

Organizational Structure and Funding

The AEC has four leading managers, five supervisory board members and five senior fellows. The Austrian Economics Center holds the accounting status of a scientific organisation, therefore, any donations to the AEC are tax deductable.

Address

Jasomirgottstr. 3/11, A-1010 Vienna

People

Executive board

People leading the Think Tank in the day to day business (CEOs, directorates etc.).

• Hannes Oberrauch, Board member

• Georg Mustafa, Deputy director

• Richard Zundritsch, Board member

• Barbara Kolm, Director

Advisory board

People advising the Think Tank (mainly in scientific questions)

• Franz Wohlfahrt

• Nigel Lawson

• Gary S. Becker, (former)

• Vernon L. Smith

• Georg Winckler

• Edmund Phelps

Experts

Experts are not permanently employed at the Think Tank. They are paid for contract research when their expertise is needed. Some Think Tanks call a database of hundred or even more experts their own.

• Markus Tomaschitz, Senior fellow

• David Pistrui, Senior fellow

• Matt Kibbe, Senior fellow

• Daniel Mitchell, Senior fellow

• Emil Hierhold, Senior fellow

Barbara Kolm is member of the Mont Pelerin Society, Generalsekretärin des Hayek Institute und Präsidentin der European Coalition of Economic Growth.

Working mode, goals

The Center publishes academic studies, press releases, policy papers and videos and contributes opinions. Being a member of the European Coalition for Economic Growth (ECEG), it closely cooperates with similar institutions and organizes international conferences, e.g. the Free Market Road Show®. The Austrian Economics Center is politically independent. All Blog articles online are very short. Some of them are only a few sentences long. Nevertheless these blog articles, the Free Market Road Show and the 'Dictionary of Economic Terms' (here counted as book) seem to be the only output of the AEC. Everything else is referring to other institutions, newspapers, TV-channels and so on. The 'Free Market Road Show', here counted as 'Conferences' (every single stop one conference) is mainly and increasingly held in Eastern European Countries. While in 2009 4 (Vaduz, Paris, London, Vienna) out of 8 stops were in Western/Central European cities, in 2012 there was only one (Vienna) out of 15. In 2012 the FMR expanded to cities like Kiev, Tiblis and Baku. While the FMR 2009 folder included a foreword by the Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs (then Dr. Michael Spindelegger) the folders of the subsequent FMRs did not contain any foreword of an Austrian minister. Additionally the FMR 2012 - though the website contains the logo of the Austrian economics ministry - seems not to be co-sponsored by the Austrian government.

Cooperations with Think Tanks

• New Direction - The Foundation for European Reform
• Mont Pelerin Society
• Hayek Institute
• European Coalition of Economic Growth
• Free Economy Institute

Think Tanks that claim to cooperate with the Austrian Economics Center

While the section above shows Think Tanks the Austrian Economics Center claims to cooperate with, the list below shows Think Tanks that claim to cooperate with the Austrian Economics Center.

• Conservative Institute of M. R. Stefanik
• Hayek Institute
• New Direction - The Foundation for European Reform

Cooperations with Non-Think Tanks

• www.hk-schweiz.at/
• http://www.andreas-unterberger.at/
• http://www.ortneronline.at/

Topics

We used the DGs of the EU to generate a basic list of topics. This list is going to be steadily extended. However we try to preserve a persistent list of topics.

• Foreign and Security Policy
• Institutional Reform/Public Services
• Justice and fundamental rights
• Enterprise and Industry
• Health and Consumer Policy
• International Trade/Globalization
• Environment/Climate Action
• Economic and Monetary Affairs

The AEC pursues trade liberalization (globalization), fiscal and social policy as well as deregulation considering state austerity and the market subject's liberation from governmental limitations. Following categories can be found:

• Economic Growth and Institutional Reform (105)
• Rule of Law(49)
• Environmental Policy(41)
• Health (45)
• Business(74)
• International Affairs (96)

Semantic Fields

What we call here a semantic field is the idea to categorize think tanks in a two level system. The first levels are so called 'Virtual Networks' and the second are the semantic fields. Accordingly every semantic field entered here has to be attached to a virtual network. If you would like to follow a special phenomenon among think tanks please contact us and we are going to add a new virtual network. Semantic fields are topics that promote a virtual network. Lets take climate change as an example: 'climate change skeptics' is the virtual network and 'adaption instead of mitigation' would be one possible semantic field.

• Promoting deregulation and austerity measures (Austerity Politics): The Center coorganized the Free Market Roadshow in Paris as a conference with panels on "Lowering public expenses, the redefinition of the functionality of the state, local communities, pensions, insurance, and unemployment insurance" and "Freeing the growth". The second panel, to which Barbara Kolm contributed, argued for the softening of "fiscal constraints" for enterprises and private investors.