The former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt holds that despite the huge transfers from West to East Germany the East German economy does not take off as it was widely expected. We argue it is not despite these transfers but because of them. Building on the common features of the extension of the...

Macroeconometric policy simulation models allow for an analysis, and, above all, for a quantification of the effects different economic policies have on the various variables that represent the economy. Despite the seminal "Lucas critique" levelled against them, these models are still widely...

Volk und Stände der Schweiz beschlossen 2001, den absoluten Schuldenstand des Staates im Konjunkturverlauf zu begrenzen. Damit hat die Eidgenossenschaft einen Weg eingeschlagen, der sich von dem der Mitglieder des europäischen Stabilitätspaktes unterscheidet. Diese halten eine positive...

This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of an oil price shock in a small open industrial economy without oil resources, namely, Switzerland. First, we test whether oil price shocks Granger-cause Swiss macroeconomic variables, and use a medium-scale macroeconometric model to track the...

This paper describes the approach applied and the results of an evaluation of the effects of the Swiss government programme to promote the diffusion of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) from 1990 to 1996. The method used is based on specifying and econometrically estimating with firm...

In earlier work we analyzed empirically the innovative behaviour of Swiss manufacturing firms building on the wide consent in economic literature that demand prospects, type and intensity of competition, market structure, factors governing the production of knowledge (appropriability,...