The objectives guiding health care reforms in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands were to increase efficiency and consumer satisfaction in the provision of health care services. This paper sums up incentives and instruments of competition for consumers, sickness funds and health care...

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...

This paper uses regional variation in labor markets, the industry structure and the education system to explain the training decisions of firms. Using a representative firmlevel data set, the results show that firms are less likely to provide training if the number of competing firms situated in...

The NRP70 project "The Future of Swiss Hydropower: An Integrated Economic Assessment of Chances, Threats and Solutions" (HP Future) has been initiated in 2014 with the objective to identify options for Swiss hydropower (HP) to adopt to the ongoing and expected electricity system changes. The...

To address the relationship between innovation and competition we jointly estimate the opportunity, production, and impact functions of innovation in a simultaneous system. Based on Swiss micro-data, we apply a 3-SLS system estimation. The findings confirm a robust inverted-U relationship, in...

Ziel dieser Studie ist die Entwicklung einer thematischen Auslegeordnung zu strategischen Herausforderungen und politischen Handlungsfeldern aus Perspektive der Krankenversicherer. Zu diesem Zweck werden ausgehend von so‐ genannten Megatrends zentrale strategische Herausforderungen...

In diesem Papier wird diskutiert, ob die Einführung wählbarer Selbstbehalte in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung einen sinnvollen Weg zur Kosteneinsparung im Gesundheitswesen darstellt. Ausgehend von Befunden aus dem schweizerischen Gesundheitssystem, das solche wählbaren Selbstbehalte in...