This paper studies the state building insurance monopoly in Spain, the Consorcio the Compensacion de Seguros. It is shown that, just like its Swiss counterparts, the Consorcio operates with exceptionally low transactions costs. Furthermore it allows the supply of a very low cost insurance cover...

We argue that there is a natural trade-off between the independence and the accountability of a central bank. Economist's emphasis on the independence aspect has contributed to creating situations, where the central banks' accountability is largely deficient. Attempts to resolve this issue by...

In a previous paper we have shown that the UBS-SBC merger would lead to an excessive concentration in the credit market for small and medium companies. The UBS has reacted to this paper in a series of letters to the Swiss competition authorities. We critically examine the content of these...

The Swiss law for the protection of tenants does not distinguish between nominal and real interest rates. As a result, rents are massively overindexed in periodes of high inflation. In the period 1990-1996, the structural faults in the swiss law have cost the tenants roughly 9 bio. Fr. The...

We study, what Switzerland can learn from the disappearance of the property insurance monopolies in Germany. We show that the German insurance monopolies did not fight hard enough to defend their interests. a) Most of them knew that they would be bought up by another public insurance company....

This paper critically analyses the proposed law for regulating the rental housing market. The swiss tenants have made mostly negative experiences with the rate of return regulation practiced in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, the new law does not address these problems. If the new proposed law...

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu untersuchen, inwiefern es der Wettbewerbskommission (Weko) gelungen ist mit ihren Auflagen im UBS-Fall den Wettbewerb im Schweizer Bankengeschäft zu stärken. Wir kommen zum Schluss, dass die Weko ihre Auflagen so lange den Vorstellungen der UBS angepasst hat, bis...

We investigate whether it is likely that the Swiss competition authority (WEKO) will approve the acquisition of Denner (the number 3 retailer in Switzerland) by Migros (the number 1 retailer). We argue that the decisions made by the European competition authorities are helpful guidelines in this...

The Swiss authorities plan to reduce the currently excessively high taxes on bioethanol. We argue that a fair tax treatment of ecological fuels could lead to a rapid development in their use in the next few years. For this to be the case, Switzerland would however have to open up its market to...

This paper critically examines the proposed new constitutional article for the Swiss National Bank. The following points are emphasised : a) The SNB distributes only a very small fraction of its profits (as compared to other national banks). b) The SNB holds an exceptionally important and...