Whether democracy or capitalism should have normative priority depends on the philosophi- cal point of view but also how both are defined. The more rele vant perspective is, however, the positive one. Formally, politics dominate, bu t the economy often dominates de facto be- cause political...

Whether democracy or capitalism should have normative priority depends on the philosophi- cal point of view but also how both are defined. The more rele vant perspective is, however, the positive one. Formally, politics dominate, bu t the economy often dominates de facto be- cause political...

After a short sketch of the history of modern business schools in the German speaking countries, their four major activity fields are considered: (i) academic teaching, (ii) scientific research, (iii) consulting and (iv) executive education. While teaching was traditionally dominant, research...

After some theoretical considerations, fiscal institutions called ?debt brakes? designed to prevent public deficit and debt from going off course, are discussed. We first present some models applied in some Swiss cantons, especially in the canton of St. Gallen, then the respective institution...

Whenever the economic model of behaviour is to be applied, the utility function has at least somewhat to be specified. Buchanan generally prefers to apply a rather narrow version. However, he acknowledges that it is hardly possible to explain actual behaviour of individuals with such a version,...

Provided that the literature on th e deterrent effect of capital punishment is overall inconclu- sive, the fact that individual au thors persistently claim to have found solid evidence in one or the other direction raises two questions. Firstly, what are the causes for these different results?...

First the assumption of self-interest as applied in Economics is presented. Here we also discuss areas in which (many) people behave less self- but more other-regarding than traditional economic models assume. Then, greedy behaviour is considered as existing in the political and economic world....

First, the points of view of economists regarding falsificationism, scientific revolutions and scientific research programmes are discussed. Next, hardly debatable scientific progress regarding empirical economic research in recent decades is described. Then it is asked whether there have been...

In 2007, the Wall Street Journal published an article claiming that each execution saves more than 70 lives. This example is used to show how easy it is, using simple or advanced econometric techniques, to produce results that do or do not support the deterrence hypothesis. Moreover, we also...

In Switzerland, political concordance or direct popular rights and the resulting consociational democracy are often held responsible for delay or even cancellation of necessary political reforms. Switzerland is, however, not the only country with such a system, and direct democracy is just one...