Based on a representative sample of Swiss firms we empirically investigated strategies for knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities between business firms and universities as well as other public research institutions. Based on a cluster analysis of 19 different forms for KTT, three...

This article describes important determinants of the current financial crisis. In particular, the text focuses on the bounded rationality of banks which contributes to the credit cycle. The credit cycle is the mechanism that links the present financial crisis with earlier crisis. Shortcomings on...

At less than 34%, Switzerland has the lowest home ownership rate in Western Europe. This may seem odd given the economic strength of the country. We use household survey data for five Swiss cantons to explore some possible reasons for this. We estimate a tenure choice equation that allows us to...

Given its constitutional framework and political culture, Switzerland offers an example for the gradual inclusion of minorities resulting in a distinctive model of power sharing in a multiethnic society. However, global migration with its “new minorities” entails a fundamentally different...

In recent years, self-employment has risen in several Western countries including Switzerland. The controversial discussion of this rise is attributable to shortcomings of empirical research, namely, to the lack of systematically considering, both at the macro - and the micro-level, the push and...

The article presents a case of successful constitutional change in Switzerland, the “re-assignment of responsibilities between the federal government and the cantons and the new fiscal equalization scheme,” which was adopted in 2004 by referendum. By starting from the general assumption that...

This article analyses the relationship between decentralization and the extent of fiscal discipline in the Swiss cantons between 1984 and 2000. From a theoretical point of view, decentralization and federalism can be associated with both an expansive and a dampening effect on government debt. On...

The aim of this article is to estimate the impact of various factors related to role conflict theory and preference theory on the reduction of women's labour force participation after their transition to parenthood. Objective and subjective dimensions of women's labour force participation are...

Interest in politics is a prerequisite for political participation and political engagement. The promotion of political engagement and the education of citizens to become politically mature were basic concerns of educational reforms in the 1960s. This article examines whether educational...

Achievement careers are regarded as a distinctive element of the post-war period in occidental societies. Such a career was at once a modal trajectory of the modern parts of middleclass men and a social emblem for progress and success. However, if the achievement career came to be a biographical...