The literature on the internationalisation of firms has paid little attention to SMEs. SME-oriented studies are predominantly descriptive or illustrating theoretical arguments, and those dealing with services are mostly confined to specific industries. The paper aims at correcting some of these...

Macroeconometric policy simulation models allow for an analysis, and, above all, for a quantification of the effects different economic policies have on the various variables that represent the economy. Despite the seminal "Lucas critique" levelled against them, these models are still widely...

We develop a general equilibrium model of trade with multiple countries and industries in the spirit of Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Bernard, Eaton, Jensen, and Kortum (2003). We structurally estimate the parameters of the model and calibrate it to data on 33 OECD countries and one country that...

This paper documents nominal stability in Switzerland from 1805 to 2013 using a data set on annual price, wage and nominal GDP changes. The trends of these indicators are estimated by an unobserved-components stochastic-volatility model in order to control for short-term fluctuations and...

For some time now, Swiss trade unions have been demanding a substantial increase of the wages in the lowest income segments, especially in the retail and catering service industries. At present, increases for the sales personell in the retail industry stand in the forefront of trade union...

This study investigates the impacts of a palette of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) activities (general information, educational and research activities, activities related with technical infrastructure, and consulting) (a) on several innovation indicators (a1) in the framework of an...

What is the effect of opening the labor market to foreign workers on the success of firms? We address this question by analyzing how firms in Switzerland were affected by the introduction of the free movement of persons with the European Union (EU) countries. This immigration reform granted all...

Using firm-level data for up to 707 Swiss hotels and restaurants we evaluate the economic impact of the EURO 2008 soccer championship. Although aggregated macro data reveal no economic impact, we report an overall negative effect based on the surveyed companies. Notably the reported effects of...

What determines small businesses' recourse to public support measures during the Covid-19 crisis? We analyse this question using a survey of 1,011 self-employed workers and small business owners in Switzerland, linked to information pre-dating the crisis. We find that "objective" measures of...