In 2004 the Swiss Competition Commission (ComCo) opened an investigation concerning multilateral agreed interchange fees in the Swiss credit card market which ended with an amicable settlement. The most important element of this amicable settlement consists in the limitation of the interchange...

Nordhaus (2008) has developed a testing strategy for what he calls "Baumol's diseases", by which name he designates a number of by-products of structural change that are unwanted from an economic policy perspective. He finds that the U.S. economy is strongly affected by the "diseases". This...

The size premium, defined as the return differential between shares of small and large companies, is subject to cyclical fluctuations. This study examines the predictability of this premium for the Swiss stock market applying a new and flexible forecasting approach. Our strategies provide...

In this paper, we analyse the sources of economic growth in Switzerland during the period 1991-2006. The results suggest that labour input and capital input contribute 0.52 pp and 0.57 pp, respectively, to the average annual GDP growth of 1.44%. The remaining 0.35 pp represent growth in...

This paper analyzes the development of housing market imbalances, housing prices and residential investment in Switzerland within a stock-flow framework. In the long run, the desired level of residential capital stock and the existing residential capital stock revert. Empirical results indicate,...

This paper reviews the existing literature on the impact of migrants networks on the patterns of international migration. It covers the theoretical channels at stake in the global effect of the networks. It identifies the key issues, namely the impact on size, selection and concentration of the...

This paper looks at the integration of regions and nations through the prism of the merger of populations. The paper employs a particular index of social dismay. It presents examples of two of the main results arising from the study of the merger of two populations: that the social dismay of an...

We study in this paper both theoretically and empirically the influence of trade union rights in origin countries on bilateral migration flows. Theoretically, trade union rights are supposed to increase the bargaining power of workers. Alternatively, it may benefit only to formal workers if...

This paper investigates how recent immigration inflows from 2002 to 2008 have affected wages in Switzerland. This period is of particular interest as it marks the time during which the bilateral agreement with the EU on the free crossborder movement of workers has been effective. Since different...