Why do some countries join the EU earlier than others, why do others wait? In order to answer this question we apply the theory of investment under uncertainty (Dixit and Pindyck, 1994) to the decision on EU-membership. We develop a simplified model of two periods to study how the value of...

Klaus Armingeon criticizes our paper "Distribution Effects of Opening up an Economy and Voting Behaviour: An Analysis Based on the Example of the Swiss Vote on the EEA" published in this journal in 1998. In this reply we argue that his critique is mainly due to a misinterpretation of the goal of...

This paper investigates which variables determine the relative attractiveness of locations for mobile factors of production. The analysis is based on a survey of 1400 Swiss firms. It is found that the availability of human capital as well as the nature of regulations (especially of the procedure...