This paper provides a critical review of the competition policy implemented under the 1985 law.

This paper studies the profit distribution of the Swiss National Bank (SNB). It is shown that the legislator clearly wanted to create a "lean" central bank, which was supposed to pay out the majority of its profits to the cantons and the federal government. The SNB has systematically avoided its...

The Swiss authorities plan to reduce the currently excessively high taxes on bioethanol. We argue that a fair tax treatment of ecological fuels could lead to a rapid development in their use in the next few years. For this to be the case, Switzerland would however have to open up its market to...

The paper studies managerial compensation schemes for suituations, where the current management knows more about the company's expected profitability than the new employee. When a manager is offered a contract with only a low fixed salary but high profit participation, he will be afraid that the...

This paper critically examines the proposed new constitutional article for the Swiss National Bank. The following points are emphasised : a) The SNB distributes only a very small fraction of its profits (as compared to other national banks). b) The SNB holds an exceptionally important and...

This paper examines the effects the planned merger between UBS and SBC would have on competition in the Swiss banking market. It is shown that the merger would lead to a dangerous level of concentration in certain submarkets such as the (economically important) market for credits to small and...