Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

1. Current Trends
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equality at the upper end of the income distribution 
scale in that they enable inventors to build up huge 
profits by having a technological edge and saving 
on costs while needing fewer staff.
50
All in all, there 
is no clear consensus in the literature regarding the 
precise causal mechanisms underlying the connec-
tion between social mobility and innovation capa-
bility. Nonetheless, this section presents and com-
pares the degree of social mobility in Austria based 
on the assumption that social mobility unlocks po-
tential for innovations in society.
Social mobility is measured using the World Eco-
nomic Forum’s multi-dimensional Global Social Mobil-
ity Index.
51
This index is based on indicators from ten 
key areas (health, access to education, quality of ed-
ucation system and educational inequality, life-long 
learning, access to technologies, employment oppor-
tunities, income distribution, employment conditions, 
50 See Aghion et al. (2019).
51 See World Economic Forum (2020b).
52 See OECD (2010), OECD (2018b).
social protection, inclusive institutions) and ranges 
from 0 to 100.
Fig. 1-23 shows the scores of EU countries and the 
seven non-European reference countries included for 
comparison purposes. Austria is fifth in the European 
rankings behind the Scandinavian countries and the 
Netherlands. With a score of 80.1, Austria is well 
ahead of the European average of 73.4 and is only 
bettered by Switzerland amongst the non-EU mem-
ber states.
Austria’s overall position suggests that the coun-
try is essentially well placed to form human capital. 
Its rather mediocre showing in terms of tertiary edu-
cation must be seen in the context of the Austrian 
education system and its unique features, particular-
ly the strong role played by vocational education. 
This is not necessarily a weakness – in fact, it is often 
seen as one of the country’s specific strengths.
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