Urban attraction policies for international academic talent: Munich and Vienna in comparison

This paper compares attraction policies for academic talent of two highly developed Central European metropolitan cities. We develop a heuristic framework in order to analyse political actions that aim at attracting international academic talents. It is shown that the two examined cities differ substantially in this respect despite their similarities in economic structure and framework conditions. While Vienna has set a number of policy actions to attract foreign researchers, Munich faces constraints because of its subordinate position within the federal system. Nevertheless, the superordinate federal state of Bavaria engages in a number of active policies to attract foreign students which also benefit the city of Munich. Despite their popularity in policy circles, attraction policies may result in adverse welfare outcomes for some segments of the urban society.