In an era where the primary policy instrument is the level of short-term interest rates, comparing the level of such a rate relative to some equilibrium value can be a useful guide for policy and a convenient method to measure the stance of monetary policy. The real interest rate gap, the...

In this paper we attempt to identify a set of criteria that an economy has to fulfil to fall into a deflationary trap. We argue that these conditions are not met to a sufficient degree by Switzerland and, accordingly, the risk of falling into such a trap is rather small. If an economy finds...

This paper revisits the puzzle of low returns on Swiss Franc assets using a new data set of portfolio holdings of residents and non residents at Swiss banks. The main findings are as follows. First, we find that the return anomaly is present only for fixed income assets and not for equity....

We try to detect contagion effects within the Swiss banking sector by examining the impact of the Russian debt moratorium on Swiss banks' stock prices. In a first step, using event study methodology, we compute Swiss banks' stock returns for a number of events related to the Russian moratorium....

We first give a brief sketch of the economic tasks the government has to perform, before three issues are discussed in more detail: public production, competition policy, and government interventions in Corporate Governance. These three issues are of particular political relevance in...

This paper analyzes the impact of contract-related risk factors on inward foreign direct investment. We presume that risk related determinants enter directly the cost function of multinationals. For a sample of 50 developed and less developed countries and the time period 1985-1997 we find a...

This paper analyzes the impact of formal training on worker mobility. Using data from the Swiss Labor Force Survey, we find that both general and specific training significantly affects on-the-job search activities. The effect of training on actual job mobility differs between searchers and...

This paper investigates the economic impacts of two policy proposals, "Strom ohne Atom" (SOA) and "Moratorium Plus" (MOP), both of which contain a premature phase-out of nuclear power in Switzerland. Based on simulations with an intertemporal multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE)...

A fundamental issue for policy-oriented business cycle research is access to leading - or at least coincident - and reliable indicators of economic activity in manufacturing industry. Therefore, we analyse how the quickly disposable, qualitative information of the business tendency survey...

Politico-economic analyses of democratic governance neglect the influence of independent audit institutions. While it is almost impossible to investigate their effect in a crosscountry design, we focus at the Swiss local level where audit courts play an important role. We collect cross-cantonal...