This paper discusses the effects of a higher unemployment benefit replacement rate on unemployment durations, employment and earnings. A reform of the Swiss unemployment insurance in July 2003 increased the replacement rate by up to 5.88 ppt for individuals who earned between 3,536 and 4,340 CHF...

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the role of the Swiss electricity transmission system and the planned network extensions in the context of Central European electricity market developments and thereby the Swiss and European energy transitions. In addition, we conduct a sensitivity analysis...

We study the aggregate exposure of mortgage borrowers in Switzerland to interest rate and house price risks and examine how the households' choice of risky mortgages is related to individual interest rate expectations and regional house price variation. The analysis is based on a unique data set...

The put-call parity is free from distributional assumptions. It is tempting to assume that this parity also holds when an asset pricing model includes reflecting barriers. This paper shows that in the case of geometric Brownian motion with reflection such barriers cause the standard put-call...

In the framework of a Bayesian structural dynamic factor model, we analyze how aggregate shocks affect the full set of production sectors in the Swiss economy. Our approach proves to be useful to cope with the large data set and at the same time allows us to consistently identify fundamental...

The Swiss energy strategy until 2050 envisages ambitious CO2 emission reduction targets along with substantial cutbacks in electricity consumption to establish a low-carbon economy without nuclear energy. Our computable general equilibrium analysis finds that compliance with stringent CO2...

International efforts to lower emissions have largely failed, and many now believe we will fail to limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. In this extended abstract, I discuss whether a wholesale movement to renewable energy or Green Power could limit carbon emissions to meet a 2...

Long-run inflation expectations should not respond to economic news if the central bank is seen as credibly committed to stabilising inflation. In this paper we find that since the onset of the global financial crisis, medium and long-term inflation expectations implied by inflation swaps in the...

Based on a vector autoregressive model (VAR), this paper shows that time variation in monthly excess returns on Swiss government bonds and stocks is predominantly driven by news of inflation and dividends, respectively. This finding is in marked contrast to US evidence which points to a more...

Recent literature on private returns to education considers diversity in the population, heterogeneity in wage gains and self-selection into schooling. This research addresses these issues by analyzing to what extent returns associated with completing a university degree in Switzerland depend on...