While Switzerland's recent growth of employment was high in historical and international perspective, the reasons for this "job miracle" were not well understood. As the "miracle" was not anticipated by economic forecasters, it consequently resulted in systematic and persistent forecast errors....

We study a reform that granted European cross-border workers free access to the Swiss labor market and had a stronger effect on regions close to the border. The greater availability of cross-border workers increased foreign employment substantially. Although many cross-border workers were highly...

Between 1999 and 2004 Switzerland fully opened its border region (BR) to cross-border workers (CBW), who are foreign residents commuting to Switzerland for work. In this paper, we exploit the timing of implementation and the fact that CBW commute almost exclusively to municipalities close to the...

This paper uses a panel of 7,617 individuals drawn from the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS) to study i) low-pay incidence, and ii) individual transition probabilities at the lower end of the wage distribution. In a first step, various raw transition probabilities are computed for the period...

1: Introduction -- 2: Selecting Foreigners for the Labour Market -- 3: Creating Attractive Places -- 4: Displacing Workers between Companies,- 5: Unequal Access to Support and Prvileges -- 6: Conclusion -- Bibliography

What is the effect of opening the labor market to foreign workers on the success of firms? We address this question by analyzing how firms in Switzerland were affected by the introduction of the free movement of persons with the European Union (EU) countries. This immigration reform granted all...

In this paper we study the effects of Switzerland implementing the Schengen agreement on cross-border commuting from regions of neighbouring countries. As vehicles are allowed to cross borders without stopping and residents in border areas are granted freedom to cross borders away from fixed...