This paper examines how family and non-family ownership affects the performance of Swiss listed firms from 2003 to 2010. We distinguish between these two types of controlling shareholders since they have different objectives. We hypothesise that only family shareholders have a real incentive to...

The objective of democratic decentralization is to enable institutions at the grassroots level to take decisions in matters related to the day to day life of the people. Transparency and accountability do not happen on their own: they have to be promoted and delivered by performing institutions....

Cet article a pour objectifs d'apprécier les risques d'une revalorisation du franc suisse pour l'économie du canton de Fribourg et de mener une analyse critique de l'extraversion internationale de cette dernière. Après avoir souligné les implications au niveau théorique d'une augmentation...

This paper extends the literature on the profitability of technical analysis in three directions. First, we investigate the performance of complex trading rules based on moving averages computed over longer periods than those usually considered. Different trading rules are simulated on daily...

On the 29 of June 2009, the Pope Benedict XVIth published Caritas in Veritate, his third encyclical letter. It was addressed to the clergy but also to “lay faithful and all people of good will”. In the two papers assembled here under one single title, the author enters in dialogue with the...

During the two decades preceding the 2007-8 financial crisis, both advanced and emerging market economies experienced larger credit growth and asset price fluctuations than in the more distant past. These phenomena were largely due to the establishment of credible inflation targeting regimes,...

Afin d’apprécier les risques d’une revalorisation du taux de change du franc suisse pour l’économie du canton du Tessin, cet article débute par une analyse critique de la structure de ses exportations, selon une méthodologie que nous avons développée dans un article connexe relatif...

Unsicherheit und Wandel sind heute beinahe Selbstverständlichkeiten. Trotzdem stellen sie die Unternehmen vor grosse Herausforderungen. Insbesondere die langfristige strategische Ausrichtung ist im Kontext von Unsicherheit und Wandel eine anspruchsvolle Aufgabenstellung. Das vorliegende Working...

This paper formalizes the new schemes of fiscal equalization that has been decided in 2009 and will be introduced at the local level in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 2011. It develops the political economy of the proposal with the aim of understanding the participative democratic...

In the past thirty years, local governments in most European countries have been granted at least limited access to borrowing. The rules in force include limitations on the amount of borrowing and/or debt service, restrictions on the purpose of debt and on borrowing from foreign institutions...