This paper examines costs in the Swiss nursing home industry, an issue of concern to Swiss policy makers because of the explosion of elderly care costs and the aging of the population. The paper considers estimation of a translog cost function employing panel data for a sample of 36 nonprofit nursing homes operating in Ticino, a canton of Switzerland, over the period 1993-1995. Using a set of dummy variables quality differences are considered. The results of this analysis indicate the existence of economies of scale for most output levels.
This paper analyzes economic fluctuations in an overlapping generations economy with productive capital in which random shocks in aggregate productivity are present. Under specific assumptions we obtain an explicit solution of the model. Applying random dynamical systems theory, we can prove that the long-run behavior of the economy is uniquely described by an asymptotically stable random fixed point. The statistical properties of the aggregates output, consumption, capital stock, and real wage are investigated numerically. We find that our artificial economy displays several real world business cycle phenomena.nn
This present paper analyzes an energy tax reform that exempts the energy-intensive export sector from paying the energy tax and uses the additional revenue to cut existing taxes in all sectors. To that end, a two sector two factor model of an open economy that is small on the import side but not on the export side is applied. Within this model, an equivalence between a tax reform with and without exemption of the export sector is derived. The equivalence occurs because in both tax schemes the tax burden is shifted through an increasing producer price of labor from the domestic to the foreign household.
According to the widely used Managerial Power Model, a higher hierarchical position with associated higher power leads to higher compensation. In contrast, the Compensating Wage Differentials Model argues that there is a non-positive relationship between positional power and total compensation. Both power and income yield utility and in equilibrium managers are prepared to trade-off the two elements. The two opposing propositions are tested using a large survey data set from Switzerland. The results suggest that power positions do not yield higher compensation. Rather, there is a non-positive relationship between power position and compensation, if one takes into account all relevant factors influencing total compensation.
"Employees are motivated intrinsically as well as extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation is crucial when tacit knowledge in and between teams must be transferred. Organizational forms enable different kinds of motivation and have different capacities to generate and transfer tacit knowledge. Since knowledge generation and transfer are essential for a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage, we ask specifically what kinds of motivation are needed to generate and transfer tacit knowledge, as opposed to explicit knowledge."
Based on survey data for Switzerland, new empirical findings on direct democracy are presented. In the first part, we show that, on average, public employees receive lower financial compensation under more direct democratic institutions. However, top bureaucrats are more constrained in direct democracies and have to be compensated by higher wages for that loss of power. In the second part, we demonstrate that reported subjective well-being of the population is much higher in jurisdictions with stronger direct democratic rights. This is not only the case because people value political outcomes higher but they derive utility from the political process itself.
"Due to its formality and highly analytic thinking, economics is often attributed a leading role among the social sciences and a prominent position as contributor to economic or social issues in the real world. Fact is, however, that the empirical proof for such a claim is either missing or anecdotal. This paper aims to outline the ""economics of economics”. It surveys and compares approaches of impact measurement such as a production function of economics or the demand and supply of trained economists. It furthermore discriminates between the impact of economicnideas versus that of economists as scientists or politicians."
Die direkte Demokratie ist in den Kantonen der Schweiz unterschiedlich stark ausgeprägt. Die Beteiligung der Bürger im politischen Prozess via Verfassungs- und Gesetzesinitiative, Gesetzesreferendum und Finanzreferendum ist durch verschieden hohe Hürden eingeschränkt. Unterschiede bestehen beispielsweise bei der Anzahl Unterschriften, die verlangt werden, um ein Instrument zu ergreifen, der Zeit, welche für die Sammlung der Unterschriften zur Verfügung steht, oder der Ausgabenhöhe, ab welcher ein Finanzreferendum möglich ist. Diese Unterschiede werden verwendet, um Indizes für die direktdemokratischen Beteiligungsmöglichkeiten der Bürger zu berechnen. Die Indizes öffnen ein weites Feld für die institutionell vergleichende Forschung in der Schweiz.
"The measurement of individual happiness challenges the notion that revealed preferences only reliably reflect individual utility. Reported subjective well-being is a broader concept than traditional decision utility; it also includes concepts like experience and procedural utility. Micro- and macroeconometric happiness functions offer new insights on determinants of life satisfaction. However, one should not leap to the conclusion that happiness should be maximized in the sense of social welfare function maximization. In contrast, happiness research strengthens the validity of an institutional approach such as reflected in the theory of democratic economic policy."
"This manual explains the use of z-Tree, the ""Zurich Toolbox for Readymade Economic Experiments"". No programming knowledge is necessary to use z-Tree. This software allows to program and to conduct a wide range of experiments. This includes simultaneous and sequential games as well as market experiments and posted offer markets or double auctions. Because many features needed in an experimental software are built into z-Tree (as data saving, time and period display, profit calculation, group matching, provisions in case of losses and bankruptcy), new experiments can be developed quickly and easily."
