Regional Business Cycles in the Austrian Economy

An ex-post analysis of the development of business cycles in the Austrian Länder for 1996 to 2011 found that their patterns tended to differ considerably not just in an interregional comparison but also in terms of the overall economy. This newly gathered empirical evidence confirms that in Austria too "regional" (i.e., disaggregated) business cycles do not move concurrently within the national (i.e., aggregated) economy. Regional specifics – such as the sectoral composition (industrial versus service-oriented) – strongly impact on the course of the business cycle as much as on its characteristics.