In this paper we first discuss the conceptual problems concerning the identification and aggregation of poverty. We then describe the data collected in the framework of the National Poverty Study and present a selection of the main results. For example, our results indicate that poverty has...

A social policy pursuing sustainability has first to focus on the development of individuals. They have to be encouraged to develop the competencies, which will enable them to become autonomous. Such a policy strikes at the root of the problem. It comprises the promotion and the development of...

This study is an attempt to analyze the link between regional disparities in unemployment and the migration policy in Switzerland. The Beveridge curve has been used by many economists in order to study some aspects of the rise of unemployment in Europe: mainly long-term unememployment and...

A decade ago the Netherlands was considered the sick man of Europe. The number of working age beneficiaries per 100 workers was 43. About half of those beneficiaries were in receipt of a sickness benefit or an invalidity pension. In the eyes of many foreign observers the Netherlands now ist a...

In this paper we try to assess whether social policy represents an incentive or a disincentive to economic growth. In general, one may say that social policies, or the Welfare State, entail an increasing degree of redistribution from higher income earners or wealth holders to the lowest deciles...

More open goods and factor markets are the leading causes of the massive structural changes that can be observed nowadays. They accelerate the process of creative destruction which is the basis of our material wealth. However, currently the dominant outcome still appears to be the destruction of...

As the term structure of interest rates cannot be directly observed in most segments of the capital market, it has to be estimated from bond prices. It is not possible to estimate stable and plausible term structures for all maturities with the usual approaches. In this paper a two-stage...

This article presents a microeconometric model of the social contributions collected by the Swiss Old Age and Survivors Insurance scheme (AHV-AVS), as well as an application to the evaluation of the amount of contributions for the period 1995-2040. The model is made up of three main components....

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In the discussion on the costs of inflation, inflation variability and relative price variability are usually qualified as being more harmful than the size of the inflation rate per se. However, there are strong theoretical and empirical doubts in literature that inflation, its variability and...