Articles

Fiscal institutions in Germany

In 2009 Germany introduced a new fiscal rule in its Basic Law. It stipulates that the federal budget must be (structurally) close to balance from 2016 onwards and does not allow for (structural) budget deficit...

Authors: Heiko T. Burret and Lars P. Feld

The Swedish fiscal policy framework and intermediate fiscal policy targets

Sweden is a front-runner in defining intermediate targets for fiscal policy (fiscal rules) as well as in setting up an independent fiscal council to monitor and comment on developments. Swedish public finances...

Authors: Torben M. Andersen

Public debt and economic growth in advanced economies: A survey

This paper surveys the recent literature on the links between public debt and economic growth in advanced economies. We find that theoretical models yield ambiguous results. Whether high levels of public debt ...

Authors: Ugo Panizza and Andrea F. Presbitero

Fiscal institutions at the cantonal level in Switzerland

In this paper, institutions are described which are designed to reach sustainability of public finances in the Swiss cantons. These are on the one hand direct popular rights, the fiscal referendum in particula...

Authors: Gebhard Kirchgässner

The Swiss debt brake — has it been a success?

This paper describes how the Swiss fiscal rule at federal level has fared since it was introduced in 2003. Generally speaking, the rule has modified the budget process and led to a better implementation of fis...

Authors: Tobias Beljean and Alain Geier

Wealth effects on consumption in Switzerland

This paper studies the role of wealth fluctuations for aggregate consumption in Switzerland. In the long-run, wealth is found to have a significant effect on consumption. In the short-run, by contrast, the eff...

Authors: Frank Schmid

The value of a statistical injury: New evidence from the Swiss labor market

We study the monetary compensation for non-fatal accident risk in Switzerland using the number of accidents within cells defined over industry × skill-level of the job and capitalizing on the partial panel str...

Authors: Andreas Kuhn and Oliver Ruf

Spatial and temporal aggregation in racial profiling

In the last decade, models of rational choice have chimed into the discussion on racial profiling, the use of race in stop and search decisions of the police. The models describe the behavior of motorists and ...

Authors: Dragan Ilić

The weak rationality principle in economics

The weak rationality principle is not an empirical statement but a heuristic rule for how to proceed in social sciences. It is a necessary ingredient of any ‘understanding’ social science in the Weberian sense...

Authors: Gebhard Kirchgässner

The ‘new firm paradigm’ and the provision of training: The impact of ICT, workplace organization and human capital

The paper analyzes the relevance of the three constituent elements of the ‘new firm paradigm’, i.e. ICT, workplace organization and human capital, as determinants of a firm’s provision of training. We concentr...

Authors: Heinz Hollenstein and Tobias Stucki

Demand for reserves and the central bank’s management of interest rates

The implementation of monetary policy is prevalently done by interest rate targeting with a short term market rate serving as operational target. The instruments for achieving the operational target are the pr...

Authors: Sébastien Kraenzlin and Martin Schlegel

Free mobility with the EU and immigration of North American brains to Switzerland: What consequences?

In 2002, Switzerland started to implement free mobility with the European Union and simultaneously immigration rules for citizens from the rest of the world became more stringent. Only skilled workers could be...

Authors: Dominique M. Gross

R&D, competition and growth with human capital accumulation revisited

Authors: Dominique Bianco

Socialisation, trust and reciprocity among young people

This paper analyzes the contribution of youth’s different time allocations to positive behaviors in exchanges. Psychologists highlight that time spent within voluntary organizations fosters positive developmen...

Authors: Matteo Migheli

Is there a Swiss price puzzle?

This paper estimates the response of consumer prices to a monetary policy shock in Switzerland. We find that there is no evidence of a price puzzle at the aggregate level. This is because our factor-augmented ...

Authors: Daniel Kaufmann and Sarah Lein

Application of the Swiss fiscal rule to artificial data a Monte Carlo simulation

The Swiss fiscal rule or “debt brake” is applied to simulated data of economic output and fiscal revenues. The budget remains almost perfectly balanced and the debt ratio stable over the medium and long term: ...

Authors: Alain Geier

Semiparametric base-independent equivalence scales and the cost of children in Switzerland

How much additional income does a couple with two children need to be equally well-off as a childless couple? This question is important for public policy decisions on social benefits or child allowances. Sinc...

Authors: Aline Bütikofer

How migrant networks facilitate trade: Evidence from Swiss exports

This paper uses Swiss immigration data and two novel instrumental variables to test the channels through which migrants promote trade. Using the immigrant stock in France as well as Swiss visa restrictions as ...

Authors: Pierre-Louis Vézina

Did the Bundesbank target monetary expansion or inflation? Evidence from monetary base growth

Several empirical studies have suggested that the Bundesbank has pursued inflation targets rather than monetary targets. These studies have been criticized because they do not adequately measure the deviation ...

Authors: Galina Boeva and Roland Vaubel

Household money demand: The euro area case

In this paper we analyse household holdings of the broad monetary aggregate M3 in the euro area from 1991 until 2010. We develop a nominal model with satisfactory economic and statistical properties. The main ...

Authors: Franz Seitz and Julian von Landesberger

Exchange rates and import prices in Switzerland

For the case of Switzerland, this paper endeavours to estimate the empirical extent to which exchange rates are “passed-through” onto import prices. For data covering the 1999 to 2010 period, the results sugge...

Authors: Nils Herger

Assessment of Acceptable Swiss post-2012 Climate Policies

In the framework of the revision of the Swiss CO₂-Law and in the preparation of the international negotiations that place at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Cha...

Authors: André Sceia, Juan-Carlos Altamirano-Cabrera, Marc Vielle and Nicolas Weidmann

Swiss Energy Strategies under Global Climate Change and Nuclear Policy Uncertainty

Domestic strategies for the Swiss energy system are likely to be affected by a range of uncertain global challenges, such as natural resource availability and depletion, international climate change policies, ...

Authors: Adriana Marcucci and Hal Turton

Swiss Climate Change and Nuclear Policy: A Comparative Analysis Using an Energy System Approach and a Sectoral Electricity Model

Decisions on climate change and nuclear policies are likely to have major influences on the future evolution of the Swiss energy system. To understand the implications of selected future policy decisions, we a...

Authors: Nicolas Weidmann, Ramachandran Kannan and Hal Turton

Assessing the Future of Renewable and Smart Grid Technologies in Regional Energy Systems

In this paper we present the regional techno-economic model ETEM, designed for the analysis of regional energy/environment systems and we show how it can be used to explore the possible penetration of new tech...

Authors: F. Babonneau, A. Haurie, G. J. Tarel and J. Thénié

Fuel Exemptions, Revenue Recycling, Equity and Efficiency: Evaluating Post-Kyoto Policies for Switzerland

The Swiss CO₂ law runs out in 2012, together with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Currently, the Swiss parliament is deciding on the successor of the law that aims to achieve a 20% reduction of...

Authors: Jan Imhof

Linking the Swiss Emissions Trading System with the EU ETS: Economic Effects of Regulatory Design Alternatives

The Swiss government intends to link the Swiss Emissions Trading System to the EU ETS after 2012. Employing GENESwIS, a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Swiss economy, we investigate t...

Authors: Frank Vöhringer

Sectoral Growth Effects of Energy Policies in an Increasing-Varieties Model of the Swiss Economy

The paper applies a theoretical model with increasing capital varieties to study the impact of energy on growth. It translates a multisectoral framework version to a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model ...

Authors: Lucas Bretschger and Roger Ramer

Introduction to Energy Systems Modelling

The energy demand and supply projections of the Swiss government funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and carried out by a consortium of institutes and consulting companies are based on two types of en...

Authors: Andrea Herbst, Felipe Toro, Felix Reitze and Eberhard Jochem

Special Issue on Energy Modelling: Introductory Article

Authors: Nicole A. Mathys, Philippe Thalmann and Marc Vielle

The evolution of top incomes in Switzerland over the 20^th century

We study the income concentration in the Swiss federation over the course of the 20^th century using federal income tax statistics. The results suggest that top incomes in Switzerland evolved over time rather rema...

Authors: Christoph A. Schaltegger and Christoph Gorgas

Taxing expats — instrumental versus expressive voting compared

Authors: Charles B. Blankart and Simon Margraf

The cycle of development in Africa: A story about the power of economic ideas

During the last 60 years development in Sub-Sahara Africa has had three main phases — P1, P2 and P3 — divided by kinks in 1972 and in 1994. P1 and P3 had fairly satisfactory growth, but P2 had negative growth....

Authors: Martin Paldam

Copyright for the digital age — A call for legislative reversibility

Policymakers tend to adopt too narrow a view of the creative industries when determining the desirability of copyright protection. In these industries, authors will often create new works despite weak protecti...

Authors: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Subjective well-being, politics and political economy

Authors: Bruno S. Frey

Zusammenwirken von Politik und Wirtschaft

Authors: Kaspar Villiger

Political Economy

Authors: Gebhard Kirchgässner

The real-time predictive content of the KOF Economic Barometer

We investigate whether the KOF Economic Barometer – a leading indicator released by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute – is useful for short-term prediction of quarterly year-on-year real GDP growth in Switzerla...

Authors: Boriss Siliverstovs

Financial market integration in late medieval Europe: Results from a threshold error correction model for the Rhinegulden and Basle Pound 1365–1429

This paper analyzes the integration of the foreign exchange market for the Basle Pound and the Rhinegulden and the market for gold and silver bullion for the period 1365–1429. The application of a threshold er...

Authors: Peter Kugler

International price differences in ski lift tickets

This paper provides empirical evidence on international price differences in ski lift tickets based on 214 ski areas in Austria, France, and Switzerland for the winter season 2010/2011. We find that French and...

Authors: Martin Falk

Did the CDS market push up risk premia for sovereign credit?

We examine the empirical relationship between credit default swap (CDS) premia and government bond spreads for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (the ‘PIIGS’ countries). We find some evidence for a l...

Authors: Sergio Andenmatten and Felix Brill

An analysis of technical efficiency and efficiency factors for Austrian and Swiss non-profit theatres

This article explores the measurement of the production technology and efficiency of the performing arts sector. The stochastic frontier analysis has been used to estimate the technical efficiency scores for 2...

Authors: Marta Zieba

Aging and the financing of social security in Switzerland

The gains in life expectancy are expected to double the dependency ratio and increase population by 10% in Switzerland until 2050. To quantify the effects on social security and public finances, we use an over...

Authors: Christian Keuschnigg, Mirela Keuschnigg and Christian Jaag

The effect of parental background on track choices and wages

Intergenerational links are often investigated by computing educational attainment correlations between parents and children, even though parental background may influence outcomes at earlier stages of the edu...

Authors: Jean-Marc Falter, Giovanni Ferro Luzzi and Federica Sbergami

Redistribution in Switzerland: Social cohesion or simple smoothing of lifetime incomes?

Using the example of Switzerland, this paper examines the extent to which the state and the social security institutions change the income distribution. Two sets of questions are examined: (1) Who benefits fro...

Authors: Monika Engler

Improving Prevention Compliance through Appropriate Incentives: Theoretical Modelling and Empirical Evidence

This paper explores the effects of insurance parameters and complementary information environment on the patient’s primary prevention activity. The theoretical model is based on a principal-agent setting in wh...

Authors: Udo Schneider and Jürgen Zerth

Variety Gains from Trade in Switzerland

Since the seminal work of Krugman (1979), variety gains from trade are recognized as an important channel of welfare gains. In this paper, the gains from variety are estimated for Switzerland. It is found that de...

Authors: Lukas Mohler

The Similar Faces of Swiss Working Poor

Authors: Fabio B. Losa and Emiliano Soldini

Should Marginal Cost of Public Funds Include the Revenue Effect?

It is an important difference in different measures of the marginal cost of public funds whether to take into account the “revenue effect” emphasized by Atkinson and Stern (1974). This paper tries to reconcile tw...

Authors: Ming Chung Chang and Shufen Wu

International immigration: Theory, evidence and policy

Authors: Jean-Daniel Gerber