infonet-economy

In 1997, the Swiss government introduced active labor market programs on a large scale to improve the job chances of unemployed workers. This paper evaluates the effect of these programs on the duration of unemployment. Our evaluation methodology allows for selectivity affecting the inflow into programs. We find that in most cases the programs do not reduce the duration of...

Though the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) has failed, the original draft is likely to serve as a basis for future negotiations. This article gives a critical assessment of the draft from an industrial economics point of view. First, I summarize the contents of the agreement which is relevant for market structure and competition. Then I develop the industrial economics...

Wie in allen hoch entwickelten Volkswirtschaften ist die Sicherung von Wohlstand und Lebensqualität in der Schweiz nur möglich, sofern die Unternehmen im globalen Innovationswettbewerb erfolgreich sind. Bildung, Forschung und Technologie kommt deshalb eine überragende Bedeutung zu. Ebenso wichtig sind die Wechselwirkungen an den Schnittstellen von Wissenschaft, Technik, Berufsbildung...

Le but de cet article est de comprendre pourquoi le taux de chômage à Genève est plus élevé que dans le reste de la Suisse. Pour expliquer les différences de taux de chômage cantonales, nous utilisons une approche basée sur l'analyse des entrées et de sorties dans et taux de chômage et la durée du chômage individuelle des sorts entre les cantons. Nous trouvons d'abord que...

Through a pooled cross-section time-series analysis of the determinants of wage inequality in sixteen OECD countries from 1973 to 1995, we explore how political-institutional variables affect the upper and lower halves of the wage distribution. Our regression results indicate that unionization, centralization of wage bargaining and public-sector employment primarily affect the...

Insurers traditionally use risk-specific characteristics of insureds to classify them according to risk. In this article, the practical relevance of information about multiple risks is demonstrated for the case of content insurance of a Swiss company. Two types of such information prove important: information about "spillover moral hazard" caused by mandated prevention...

This paper analyzes the effects of intermediate goods trade on the development of real wages in Central and Eastern European manufacturing. The empirical findings show that world exports in intermediate goods of the CEEC exhibit a negative impact on wages, and imports a positive one. Since 1993, intermediate goods trade between the EU and the CEEC accounted for an increase in wages...

This paper analyzes the distributional effects of international outsourcing in a two sector Heckscher-Ohlin type model if both sectors get economical access to cost-saving international outsourcing. Thereby, it is shown that if both sectors are engaged in international outsourcing in equilibrium, the cost-saving effects of outsourcing as well as the factor contents of the outsourced...