Der Wettbewerb zwischen Firmen und Produkten ist im Zuge der Globalisierung und Internationalisierung immer mehr zum Wettbewerb der Standorte geworden. Massgebend für Beschäftigung und Wohlstand ist die internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, also die Attraktivität des Standortes für wertschöpfungsstarke Aktivitäten im Rahmen globaler Wertschöpfungsketten. Eine Volkswirtschaft ist dann wettbewerbsfähig, wenn sie ihrer Bevölkerung dauerhaft interessante Arbeit bei gutem Einkommen zu geben vermag. Im Falle einer hochentwickelten Volkswirtschaft wie der Schweiz mit einem hohen Einkommensniveau und einer harten Währung kann dies im Wesentlichen nur über einen Qualitäts- und Neuerungswettbewerb erreicht werden – also über Innovation.
We introduce a general testing procedure inmodels with possible identification failure that has exactasymptotic rejection probability under the null hypothesis. The procedure iswidely applicable and in this paper we apply it to tests of arbitrary linear parameter hypotheses as well as to tests of overidentification in time series models given by unconditional moment conditions. The main idea is to subsample classical tests, like for example theWald or the J test.More precisely, instead of using critical values based on asymptotic theory,we compute data-dependent critical values based on the subsampling technique.
We show that under full identification the resulting tests are consistent against fixed alternatives and that they have exact asymptotic rejection probabilities under the null hypothesis independent of identification failure. Furthermore, the subsampling tests of parameter hypotheses are shown to have the same local power as the original tests under full identification. An algorithm is provided that automates the block size choice needed to implement the subsampling testing procedure. A Monte Carlo study shows that the tests have reasonable size properties and often outperform other robust tests in terms of power.
This paper introduces a new method for deriving covariance matrix estimators that are decision-theoretically optimal within a class of nonlinear shrinkage estimators. The key is to employ large-dimensional asymptotics: the matrix dimension and the sample size go to infinity together, with their ratio converging to a finite, nonzero limit. As the main focus, we apply this method to Stein’s loss. Compared to the estimator of Stein (1975, 1986), ours has five theoretical advantages: (1) it asymptotically minimizes the loss itself, instead of an estimator of the expected loss; (2) it does not necessitate post-processing via an ad hoc algorithm (called “isotonization”) to restore the positivity or the ordering of the covariance matrix eigenvalues; (3) it does not ignore any terms in the function to be minimized; (4) it does not require normality; and (5) it is not limited to applications where the sample size exceeds the dimension. In addition to these theoretical advantages, our estimator also improves upon Stein’s estimator in terms of finite-sample performance, as evidenced via extensive Monte Carlo simulations. To further demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, we show that some previously suggested estimators of the covariance matrix and its inverse are decision-theoretically optimal in the large-dimensional asymptotic limit with respect to the Frobenius loss function.
Der Artikel präsentiert eine zusammenfassende Auswertung einer Unternehmensbefragung vom September 2011 in der MEM-Industrie der Schweiz. Dabei ging es darum, in 11 ausgewählten Technologiegebieten im Energiebereich mit Schwergewicht von den Anbietern zu erfahren, wie diese die Marktpotenziale für diese Technologien in der Schweiz und auf dem Weltmarkt einschätzen, wie gross ihre bisherigen und geplanten Forschung- und Entwicklungsanstrengungen darin sind und welche Fachkräfte sie für die Realisierung der vermuteten Chancen benötigen inklusive bei deren Rekrutierung festgestellte Engpässe nach Disziplinen und Qualifikationsniveau. Die Befunde der Umfrage werden im Hinblick auf den möglichen Beitrag der Industrie zur Realisierung der Energiestrategie 2050 des Bundesrates beurteilt und kommentiert.
This paper examines under which conditions religious denomination affects public spending on schooling and educational performance. We employ a unique data
set which covers, inter alia, information on numerous measures of public school inputs in 169 Swiss districts for the years 1871/72, 1881/82 and 1894/95, marks from
pedagogical examinations of conscripts (1875-1903), and results from political referenda to capture conservative or progressive values. Although Catholic districts show on average significantly lower educational performance and spend less on primary schooling than Protestant districts, Catholicism is harmful only in a conservative milieu. We also exploit information on absenteeism of pupils from school to separate provision of schooling from use of schooling.
This paper carries out an empirical investigation of the impact on bond spreads of the announcement, purchases and exit from the SNB’s bond purchase program in 2009-2010. We find evidence in favor of a narrowing yield spread of covered bonds as a result of the program. The effect materialized in the days following the announcement of the SNB’s intention to buy bonds issued by private sector borrowers, as markets learned that the SNB was buying covered bonds. The specification of the bond spreads used allows us to identify this effect as a discounted portfolio balance effect of the expected purchases, as distinct from policy signalling. In contrast, we find no evidence of a further effect of the actual purchases and subsequent sales on bond spreads.
Mathias Hoffmann, Professor für International Trade and Finance an der Universität Zürich, erklärt im Interview mit «Finanz und Wirtschaft», weshalb es eine Bankenunion braucht, um die Eurokrise zu lösen.
The UNESCO World Heritage List is designed to protect the global heritage. We show that, with respect to countries and continents, the existing World Heritage List is highly imbalanced. Major econometric determinants of this imbalance are historical GDP, historical population, area in square kilometers of a country, and number of years of high civilization. Surprisingly, economic and political factors, such as membership on the UN Security Council, which should be unrelated to the value of a country’s heritage and therefore should have no impact, are shown to have a systematic impact on the composition of the World Heritage List.
