When evaluating long-term policies, economists usually suggest to maximize the sum of discounted utilities. On the one hand, discounted utilitarianism was given a solid axiomatic foundation by Koopmans (Econometrica 1960). On the other hand, this criterion has questionable implications when...

Using a cross-section of swiss households we test whether savings behavior is driven by a precautionary motive. Panel data would facilitate this task but are not available in the swiss context. We therefore propose estimators for key parameters such as household income risk. The permanent income...

A nonlinear differential game is developed with the industry and the government as two actors that act independently of each other with different objectives and different time preferences in the second best solution. The industry is concerned about the profit stream from the production of a...

This paper evaluates the effects of further training on the unemployment duration of different groups of persons representing individual characteristics and some aspects of the economic environment. The Micro Census Saxony enables us to include the employment history as a proxy for unobserved...

Models of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, particularly those with an explicit abatement technology, often involve that pollution becomes negative in the long run. This, of course, is a highly implausible prediction. The paper at hand examines the problem of negative pollution by, first,...

This paper analyzes the optimal behavior of farmers in the presence of direct payments and uncertainty. With the help of an empirical analysis for Switzerland, it confirms previously obtained theoretical results and determines the magnitude of the theoretically predicted effects. The results...

We test leverage predictions of the trade-off and pecking order models using Swiss data. At an aggregate level, leverage of Swiss firms is comparatively low, but the results depend crucially on the exact definition of leverage. Confirming the pecking order model but contradicting the trade-off...

The paper aims to describe the behavior of the Swiss Franc - Deutsch Mark exchange rate between January 1980 and December 1998. Contrary to research results provided for other currencies a random walk is not sufficient to describe the empirical characteristics of the Swiss Franc. A regime...

In the past decade, Switzerland has experienced a large increase in the number of individuals going into early retirement. This paper examines the determinants of such early retirement using data from the newly implemented social-security module of the 2002 Swiss Labor Force Survey. In the...

We investigate the performance of 95 board members of listed Swiss companies over 12 years. We identify quantitatively measurable characteristics of board members and test for a relationship between board member characteristics and firm performance. As a proxy for firm performance, we use the...