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...

We examine the effect of Amnesty Plus and Penalty Plus on firms' initial selfreporting decision, in one market, by altering their whistle-blowing incentives in another market. Amnesty Plus and Penalty Plus are proactive US strategies which aim at triggering multiple confessions by increasing the...

The paper studies property insurance in Britain. It emphasises the following points. In the case of terrorism insurance the government decided to provide cost free stop loss insurance, to prevent the market from breaking down. When the country was hit by subsidence damages, the premiums and...

Le marché de l'assurance immobilière en France se caractérise par une forte intervention de l'Etat. La volonté du législateur est claire : certains types d'assurances (en particulier l'assurance des catastrophes naturelles) doivent être disponibles dans tout le pays à des prix identiques....

The paper studies the profit distribution and portfolio management of the Swiss National Bank in comparison with the behavior of other European central banks.It is shown that the SNB's behavior is unique in a number of respects : Relatively to the countries size, it holds the largest gold...