This paper compares four forms of inter-regional financial risk sharing: (i) segmentation, (ii) integration trough the secured interbank market, (iii) integration trough the unsecured interbank market, (iv) integration of retail markets. The secured interbank market is an optimal risk-sharing...

In the work of the Basel Committee there has been a tradition of distinguishing market from credit risk and to treat both categories independently in the calculation of risk capital. In practice positions in a portfolio depend simultaneously on both market and credit risk factors. In this case,...

During the next decades the populations of most developed countries will grow older as a result of the low level of birth rates since the 1970s and/or the continuously increasing life expectancy. We show within a Generational Accounting framework how unsustainable the public finances of France,...

This paper uses the findings of a very recent major international research collaboration on the impact of federal arrangements on the development of the welfare state to explore the possibilities of progress beyond Europe's present diversity of nation-state welfare standards. These findings -...

This paper analyses the relationship between past innovation output, competition, and future innovation input in a dynamic econometric setting. We distinguish two dimensions of competition that correspond to the concepts of product substitutability and entry barriers due to fixed costs. Based on...

The size premium, defined as the outperformance of equities of small and medium-sized companies compared with the shares of large companies, is subject to strong cyclical fluctuations over time. This study examines the predictability of this premium for the Swiss stock market. The forecasts used...

Um die fiskalische Nachhaltigkeit der Politik bzw. einzelner Reformmaßnahmen zu messen, hat die Wirtschaftswissenschaft in den letzten Jahren mehrere Instrumente eingeführt. Hierzu zählt auch die Generationenbilanz, die Anfang der 1990er-Jahre in den USA entwickelt wurde. Der vorliegende...