The Austrian Economics Center (AEC) is a politically independent research institute committed to disseminating the ideas of the Austrian School of Economics. The AEC considers public policies, identifies economic alternatives, and attempts to realize them based on rigorous analysis and academic research.

The AEC’s mission is to promote a free, responsible and prosperous society. To achieve this fundamental goal, it considers economic and socio-political questions, prepares studies, and recommends solutions. In carrying out its work, the AEC addresses a broad audience – from entrepreneurs and business leaders to economic thinkers and policy-makers to scholars and students, both domestically and abroad. Through education and improving public understanding of key economic questions, the AEC promotes the idea of a free market economy and the ideal of a free society.

The AEC is committed to the Austrian School of Economics: It not only aims to make the main ideas of its leading economic thinkers and social philosophers better understood and more competitive in the marketplace of ideas but strives to ensure that these ideas become historically dominant. The AEC’s main duty is therefore to further the Austrian School’s position in society and in the world.

The Austrian Economics Center is a recognized scientific organization and all donations in support of its work are tax deductible.

Key Projects

To further its goals and objectives, every year the AEC carries out several key projects. These include:

  • Tax Freedom Day: The AEC calculates how much of the average citizen’s income and wealth is paid to the state. Consequently, we can determine the date from which the citizen is actually able to freely dispose of his income and wealth. AEC provides data and figures for tax rates and the overall taxes paid by citizens and compares them internationally, showing the consequences of – and alternatives to – excessive taxation.

  • Free Market Road Show: A series of conferences and panel discussions that tours all over Europe. Hundreds of experts participate, presenting aspects of key economic questions in dozens of cities every year, involving the audience in a vital discussion of economic and public policy questions. The Free Market Road Show has also taken place in the USA, Latin America, and Israel.
  • European Resource Bank Meeting: The European Resource Bank (ERB) is an annual meeting, bringing together classical liberal and conservative intellectuals, entrepreneurs, institutes, foundations, and think tanks from all over Europe. ERB meetings attempt to build a ‘bank’ of human capital – the ultimate resource in the enterprise of freedom – and to create and renew the ties between the participating organizations. While topics of the meeting are wide-ranging, from issues of European economic integration to financial and monetary questions, the primary mission of the European Resource Bank Meetings is to improve the organizational strategy for those promoting freedom throughout Europe, and to serve as a meeting forum for organizations, experts, partners and friends to develop new ideas and share experiences.

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