Bernadette Kamleitner, WU Vice-Rector for Research and Third Mission, opened the evening, emphasizing how important this event was for WU’s third mission activities. Judith Derndorfer (Vienna Chamber of Labor) moderated the event. The discussion featured contributions by Federal Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection Johannes Rauch, Barbara Blaha (head of the Momentum Institut), and WU professor emeritus Christoph Badelt (president of the Austrian Fiscal Advisory Council and chair of the Austrian Productivity Board).

Karin Heitzmann (INEQ, WU) and Hannah Quinz (University of Vienna) presented the 2024 Social Report chapter on the poverty-resistant welfare state of the future. They presented poverty as a multidimensional problem with many facets that we can only combat by taking a broad range of preventive and curative measures. In particular, the researchers focused on the role of the job market and opportunities for labor market integration. They also highlighted ways of ensuring sufficient wage levels in the future and possible steps for protecting workers in precarious employment relationships. Wilfried Altzinger (INEQ, WU) then presented the chapter on private wealth and access to resources, authored by Pirmin Fessler and Martin Schürz (both from the OeNB). This presentation focused on the concept of excess wealth and the three tax policy recommendations set out in the chapter: a tax on increases in the value of land resulting from public spending, an inheritance tax to promote equal opportunities, and a general wealth tax for extremely wealthy individuals (starting at €50 million) to curb excess wealth that poses a threat to democracy.

In the following panel discussion, Federal Minister Johannes Rauch highlighted the strong role of the welfare state in Austria and emphasized that providing basic welfare benefits for children was one of his main priorities. Christoph Badelt, president of the Fiscal Advisory Council, stressed the need for continuous monitoring of the costs of government measures. Barbara Blaha applauded the 2024 Social Report for addressing poverty and wealth in combination. She argued that these topics are two sides of the same coin, albeit distributed very differently, not only with regard to resources but also with respect to asymmetries of power.

The strong attendance of the event confirms that there is great interest in academic and socio-political discussions of inequality issues among the members of the audience, which included many students. This also underlines the importance of WU’s third mission activities, which have long since been an important part of the work of the Research Institute for the Economics of Inequality.

Pictures: https://www.wu.ac.at/ineq/outreach/events/archiv/sozialbericht-2024-armut-vermoegen