We examine the impact of transnational terrorism diffusion on security and international trade. To counter the diffusion of transnational terrorism, targeted governments implement security measures against countries where terror could potentially diffuse. Since security measures raise trade...

This article challenges the view that a lack of competition and a high level of regulations are the main causes of Switzerland's high prices. First, we point out a number of stylized facts which are inconsistent with this popular view. Second, we econometrically asses the "competition-regulation...

We evaluate a randomized experiment of a statistical support system developed to assist caseworkers in Swiss employment offices in choosing appropriate active labour market programmes for their unemployed clients. The support system was piloted in several employment offices in which, randomly,...

We tested for the significance of macroeconomic variables that condition nonperforming loan (NPL) ratios. The hypothesis of procyclicality between economic activity and improving NPL ratio in the Baltic States was proved. The increased economic activity improved the NPL ratio. Due to a high...

This paper investigates the price setting behaviour of firms based on the individual price quotes underlying the Swiss consumer price index. The data set covers the years from 1993 to 2005. Six main findings emerge from the analysis. (i) Prices are sticky. (ii) The price setting behavior is...

Repurchase agreements (repos) are secured money market transactions. The cash taker provides collateral in the form of securities and in return receives money from the cash provider. To ensure the continuous covering of the cash amount, the definition of eligible collateral, its handling and...

Endowment with infrastructure, human and cultural capital is highly significant for regional economic performance. After clustering the regions, this hypothesis is tested for Austrian, German and Swiss NUTS 3 regions by applying a quantile regression analysis. First results confirm the...

In this paper a Taylor rule including the exchange rate gap is estimated for Switzerland under the assumption that the parameters depend on two states governed by a Markov switching process. The estimates suggest the presence of an ordinary and an aggressive regime. The former is characterized...

We estimate the marginal cost of life using age- and gender-specific health care expenditures and mortality rates of the 26 Swiss cantons for the period 1997 to 2006. We show triple the marginal cost of saving a life for women as compared to men, reflecting a lower marginal elasticity of medical...

This paper presents estimates of the aggregate net (welath) capital stock and of aggregate capital services for Switzerland. We derive these estimates in a consistent way using the perpetual inventory method. Due to changes in data availability, the time series cover the period 1970-2005 for the...