The Swiss authorities plan to reduce the currently excessively high taxes on bioethanol. We argue that a fair tax treatment of ecological fuels could lead to a rapid development in their use in the next few years. For this to be the case, Switzerland would however have to open up its market to...

This paper critically examines the proposed new constitutional article for the Swiss National Bank. The following points are emphasised : a) The SNB distributes only a very small fraction of its profits (as compared to other national banks). b) The SNB holds an exceptionally important and...

This paper examines the effects the planned merger between UBS and SBC would have on competition in the Swiss banking market. It is shown that the merger would lead to a dangerous level of concentration in certain submarkets such as the (economically important) market for credits to small and...

We examine the effect of Amnesty Plus and Penalty Plus on firms' initial selfreporting decision, in one market, by altering their whistle-blowing incentives in another market. Amnesty Plus and Penalty Plus are proactive US strategies which aim at triggering multiple confessions by increasing the...

This short paper reviews the recent anti-trust analysis of banking mergers as well as recent decisions by the Department of Justice and the Bundeskartellamt (in the last few months). We analyse the proposed merger between UBS and SBC in light of this evidence and focus on the domestic retail...

This paper studies under what circumstances an incumbent has an incentive to over-invest in a "commitment variable" such as advertising or R&D expenditures. It is sometimes argued that the answer crucially depends on the question, wether the "second stage variables" are strategic complements or...

The proposed new law for the Swiss National Bank attempts to establish the SNB as an entity, which is practically uncontrolled by the democratic institutions of our country. The proposal has to be fundamentally remodelled, taking into account the following principles: The more independence the...

The purpose of this paper is to compare the cost efficiency of private and public property insurance providers in Switzerland. The most commonly used measure for this kind of exercise is the Claims / Premium ratio. We argue that this measure may give strongly biased results. We develop a simple...

This paper studies the state building insurance monopoly in Spain, the Consorcio the Compensacion de Seguros. It is shown that, just like its Swiss counterparts, the Consorcio operates with exceptionally low transactions costs. Furthermore it allows the supply of a very low cost insurance cover...

We argue that there is a natural trade-off between the independence and the accountability of a central bank. Economist's emphasis on the independence aspect has contributed to creating situations, where the central banks' accountability is largely deficient. Attempts to resolve this issue by...