In diesem Aufsatz blicken wir auf einige Formen und Aspekte lenkender Finanzpolitik und beschäftigen uns vorrangig mit Wirkungen von lenkenden CO2-Steuern bzw. von CO2-Abgaben, mit ihrer Eignung zur allokativen Lenkung und der geeigneten Form ihrer Institutionalisierung. Dabei prüfen wir vor...

An important source of conflict surrounding nuclear energy is that with a very small probability, a large-scale nuclear accident may occur. One way to internalize the associated financial risks is through mandating nuclear operators to have liability insurance. This paper presents estimates of...

This contribution seeks to answer two related questions. First, what is the purpose of social health insurance? Or put in slightly different terms, what are the reasons for social (or public) health insurance to exist, even to dominate private health insurance in most developed countries? And...

Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt verschiedene Möglichkeiten auf, um repräsentative Renditen für die Anlageklasse Immobilien berechnen zu können. Betrachtet werden Indizes auf der Basis (i) von regelmäßig bewerteter Immobilienportefeuilles, (ii) auf Basis von Markttransaktionen in Immobilien...

This paper focuses on the observed empirical relationship between fiscal rules and budget deficits, and examines whether this correlation is driven by an omitted variable, namely voter preferences. We make use of two different estimation methods to capture voter preferences in a panel of Swiss...

The discussion about the long-run evolution of labor productivity in Switzerland is flawed because the available data on the input of labor is incoherent and incomplete. It is the aim of this paper to establish a consistent aggregate series of total hours worked covering 1950-2010. The new data...

Forecasting real economic activity poses a considerable challenge not only due to hard-to-predict events like the current financial crisis but also due to the fact that targeted variables often undergo significant revisions after their first publication. In this paper we report the results of a...

In a pioneering attempt we present the R(ecession)-word index for Switzerland. We evaluate its predictive ability of GDP growth using real-time vintages of GDP data, closely simulating flow of information in the past. We find that inclusion of the R-word index led to statistically significant...

We evaluate nowcasts and one- to four-quarter-ahead forecasts of Swiss full time equivalent jobs from 1998-2011, comparing forecasts of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute and of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs with the outcome of the reference series. Both forecasts are biased downward,...