In July 2001, Switzerland has taken up further bilateral negotiations with the European Union. One goal of these negotiations, especially, is a bilateral agreement on cooperation in official statistics guaranteeing the dissemination of euro-compatible data on Switzerland. A domain of special...

In this paper we estimate a complete demand system for Switzerland, with emphasis on food demand, using a recent household expenditure survey. The Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) is employed in the analysis of six food commodity and a non-food groups. The quadratic terms in the...

The long run impact of adopting the Common Agricultural Policy for Switzerland is analyzed on the basis of a three-region applied general equilibrium model. Estimates suggest that, because of the present high protection of agriculture, integration generates important net welfare gains (about 1 %...

It is often claimed that economic science has to open up towards other disciplines in order to fully grasp the very nature of the concept of sustainable development. Economic sciences analyses this concept in three different approaches, which can be either seen as beeing complements or in...

This paper addresses the problems arising from the conduct of monetary policy in a lowinterest- rate environment. We examine a proposal advanced by Svensson for current Japanese monetary policy recommending first a devaluation of the Yen and a subsequent temporary exchange rate target coupled...

This paper gives a survey of the empirical results of the impact of direct popular rights on public finances which have been achieved in a project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Using panel data from the Swiss cantons from 1986 to 1997 and cross-section data from the Swiss...

So far economic analysis of unemployment has neglected social norms to a large extent. Here the empirical relevance of the social norm to live off one's own income is studied with regard to unemployed people's behaviour and subjective well-being. The strength of the social work norm is measured...

On the basis of empirical data for the Swiss market this paper confirms the hypothesis that the lower direct costs of online trading (brokerage) are cancelled out by higher indirect costs (in the form of information processing costs). In addition, the report provides evidence that during the...

This paper presents an application of evolutionary portfolio theory to stocks listed in the Swiss Market Index (SMI). We study numerically the long-run outcome of the competition of rebalancing rules for market shares in a stock market with actual dividends taken from firms listed in the SMI....

We study the evolution of earnings inequality in Switzerland during the recession of the 1990s. We compare the Lorenz curves of the 1992 and 1997 distributions, as well as the related generalised Lorenz curves, given the pay deterioration witnessed during this period. The Lorenz curve is shown...