Since 2002 Avenir Suisse, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, and the Austrian Economic Chambers have been monitoring reform efforts in their respective countries and publishing the results jointly in the form of the “D A CH Reform Barometer”.
There has certainly been progress in all three neighbouring countries: Germany’s Agenda 2010 has resulted in significant economic reforms, Switzerland has drawn many of the right conclusions from years of stagnation in the 1990s, and Austria has survived the financial and currency crisis in surprisingly good shape. But politicians (and the people who elect them) have short memories, and the latest Reform Barometer suggests that the zeal for reform threatens to slacken or even lapse into gridlock.
