Services in Switzerland : Structure, Performance, and Implications of European Economic Integration

This book is a journey in largely uncharted territory. It derives from a concerted effort, commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for Foreign Economic Affairs, to gather comparable information on eight service industries of a country where statistical information about the services sector is particularly scarce. The book is also unique in that it provides the international reader with detailed descriptions of the regulatory framework governing these service industries and relating them totheir current and future expected performance. Special attention is paid to the issue of returns to scale, which are considered crucial in the enlarged market created by the "EC 92" initiative. Applying the tool of DataEnvelopment Analysis where the data permit, it is found however that large service firms seem to have already exploited existing returns to scale. In all, this book constitutes a valuable reference to anyone attempting to asses the future outlook of services in a small open economy that for some time in the future is likely to remain outside the European Community