Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

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Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020
Fig. 1-21: Percentage of 25- to 64-year-olds with tertiary education, 2018
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
IRL
GBR
FIN
LU
X
SW
E
LT
U*
*
ES
T
BE
L
NL
D
DN
K
ES
P
FR
A
Ø E
U-2
8
LV
A
AU
T
SV
N
GRC
POL
DEU
HU
N
PR
T*
*
SV
K
CZ
E
ITA
CA
N***
US
A
AU
S
CH
E
BR
A
ZA
F***
EU Member States
Reference countries
in
%
Short-cycle tertiary education
Bachelor’s or equivalent qualification
Master’s or equivalent qualification 
Doctoral or equivalent qualification
* Country data not available for the reference year: CYP, HRV, MLT, ROU, BGR, CHN.
** Country data not available for the reference year (short-cycle tertiary education).
*** Country data not available for the reference year (doctoral or equivalent education).
Source: OECD (2019b). Graphic: iit.
and content that jobs involve as well as the qualifica-
tions and skills they require. This would suggest that 
the demand for workers with a scientific and/or 
technical education will also increase in the future. 
With this in mind, Fig. 1-22 shows the percentage of 
graduates with a tertiary-level STEM or ICT degree. 
Austria enjoys a leading position amongst the coun-
tries included here and, with 34% of its graduates 
holding degrees in STEM and ICT subjects, is in sec-
ond place behind Germany (35%).
Excursus: social mobility, human capital and 
innovation capability
The stock of human capital available to a society is 
linked to the opportunities it affords for social mobil-
ity. A high degree of social mobility allows a country 
to harness the full potential of its human capital: giv-
ing all citizens equal access to education, healthcare, 
public services and the labour market prevents tal-
ented individuals from slipping through the cracks 
because they are socially disadvantaged. In turn, this 
human capital increases the country’s capability to 
produce innovations.
Conversely, innovations can also influence social 
mobility. They can empower “newcomers” to enter 
markets, generate economic and technological ben-
efits and squeeze out established companies as 
well as helping to propagate a culture of innovation 
that permits more “newcomers” to challenge com-
petitors that have been around for some time. This 
can trigger social mobility. In addition to increasing 
their inventors’ opportunities for advancement, 
however, innovations also bring social benefits to 
the rest of society by increasing productivity and 
economic growth and thus promoting employment 
opportunities and fostering prosperity. Neverthe-
less, the relevant literature also contains arguments 
in favour of a link between capability to innovate 
and income inequality. For instance, it can be ar-
gued that innovations lead to a high level of in-

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