bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An analysis of technical efficiency and efficiency factors for Austrian and Swiss non-profit theatres
Authors: Zieba Marta 
Published: January 2018

SummaryThis article explores the measurement of the production technology and efficiency of the performing arts sector. The stochastic frontier analysis has been used to estimate the technical efficiency scores for 20 Austrian and 30 Swiss non-profit theatres over 36 and 26 years, respectively. The number of visitors and tickets on offer are considered as two alternative measures of artistic output. The results indicate that individual efficiency estimates are very sensitive to the econometric specification of the unobserved heterogeneity of theatres. In particular, econometric techniques which do not account for this heterogeneity produce much lower efficiency levels. The indefinable dimension of artistic output such as theatre-specific quality may also have an important influence on efficiency estimates. The empirical analysis also delivers the first insights into the impact of exogenous factors on technical efficiency such as the number of theatres in the local area, regional differences and the level of public subsidies.
Did the CDS market push up risk premia for sovereign credit?
Authors: Andenmatten Sergio , Brill Felix 
Published: January 2018

SummaryWe examine the empirical relationship between credit default swap (CDS) premia and government bond spreads for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (the ‘PIIGS’ countries). We find some evidence for a long-run relationship in the sense of cointegration for the two markets. In most cases (five out of seven), only CDS premia contribute to the price discovery process. In the other cases, both markets make a more or less equal contribution. All in all, this suggests that bond spreads react only sluggishly to long-term imbalances, as measured by the cointegrating relationship. In light of this, we can conclude that, in most cases, CDS markets are leading markets if there is a long-run relationship between the CDS and government bond spread markets. This may partly be due to liquidity effects.
Financial market integration in late medieval Europe: Results from a threshold error correction model for the Rhinegulden and Basle Pound 1365–1429
Authors: Kugler Peter 
Published: January 2018

SummaryThis paper analyzes the integration of the foreign exchange market for the Basle Pound and the Rhinegulden and the market for gold and silver bullion for the period 1365–1429. The application of a threshold error correction model indicates that transaction costs prevent arbitrage when the difference between the gold-silver ratio and the exchange rate is within a 7.4% band, whereas larger deviation exchange rate movements close this gap within one year.
The real-time predictive content of the KOF Economic Barometer
Authors: Siliverstovs Boriss 
Published: January 2018

SummaryWe investigate whether the KOF Economic Barometer – a leading indicator released by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute – is useful for short-term prediction of quarterly year-on-year real GDP growth in Switzerland. Using a real-time data set consisting of historical vintages of GDP data and the leading indicator we find that the model augemented with the KOF Barometer produces more accurate forecasts of the Swiss GDP than purely autoregressive models and consensus forecasts.
Sectoral Growth Effects of Energy Policies in an Increasing-Varieties Model of the Swiss Economy
Authors: Bretschger Lucas , Ramer Roger 
Published: January 2018

Summary
The paper applies a theoretical model with increasing capital varieties to study the impact of energy on growth. It translates a multisectoral framework version to a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Swiss economy. We study the impacts of a policy aiming at enabling the economy to reach the longterm target of a 2000-Watt-society, implying a substantial reduction of the energy input in the future. We find that (i) the aggregate effects of an ambitious energy efficiency policy turn out to be moderate, (ii) all sectors in the economy continue to grow at robust positive rates (although growth rates decrease in some sectors compared to business-as-usual), and (iii) some industries experience substantially higher growth under regulation. We focus on the different sectoral growth effects to simulate future structural change.
Linking the Swiss Emissions Trading System with the EU ETS: Economic Effects of Regulatory Design Alternatives
Authors: Vöhringer Frank 
Published: January 2018

Summary
The Swiss government intends to link the Swiss Emissions Trading System to the EU ETS after 2012. Employing GENESwIS, a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Swiss economy, we investigate the macroeconomic and sectoral effects of a post-2012 Swiss ETS with linking to the EU ETS. It is the first such CGE analysis for Switzerland with disaggregated sectors according to magnitude of CO2 emissions from installations, which allows distinguishing ETS installations from non-ETS installations in the same sector. The reference scenario represents the announced post-2012 Swiss climate policy without ETS, implying a GHG emissions target for 2020 of −20% with respect to 1990. In the ETS policy scenarios, regulatory issues include participation thresholds and the share of auctioned permits. We show that the Swiss ETS reduction targets are not ambitious when declining baseline emissions are assumed. Thus, most ETS installations profit from an ETS, while non-ETS sectors have to reduce more emissions (and pay a higher CO2 tax). In the context of the simulated Swiss ETS scenarios, we find that distributional consequences of regulatory choices are far more important than efficiency considerations.
Assessing the Future of Renewable and Smart Grid Technologies in Regional Energy Systems
Authors: Babonneau F. , Haurie A. , Tarel G. J. , Thénié J. 
Published: January 2018

Summary
In this paper we present the regional techno-economic model ETEM, designed for the analysis of regional energy/environment systems and we show how it can be used to explore the possible penetration of new technologies in a region corresponding roughly to the canton of Geneva. We investigate three scenarios with different constraints on CO2 emissions and electricity imports and show the essential role played by new technologies, linked through a smart grid, in the effort toward a sustainable energy system. We strengthen our conclusion with a stochastic approach dealing with uncertainty in future electricity prices and electric car technology penetration.
Assessment of Acceptable Swiss post-2012 Climate Policies
Authors: Sceia André , Altamirano-Cabrera Juan-Carlos , Vielle Marc , Weidmann Nicolas 
Published: January 2018

SummaryIn the framework of the revision of the Swiss CO2-Law and in the preparation of the international negotiations that place at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Swiss Government has proposed a set of instruments and two levels of abatement to define the Swiss climate policy for the post-2012 period. By 2030, Switzerland would recuce its GHG emission by 30% or 45%, depending on whether or not the rest of the world world would commit to strong emissions reductions. The proposed policies are the result of consultation procedures take into account the views of major stakeholders and lobbies and allow for differienciated carbon prices in different sectors of the Swiss economy. Linking a Cumputable General Equilibrium (CGE) and two sectoral energy models, we evaluate the policies for the two scenarios. We find important disparities in the prices of carbon faced by the different economic sectors and higher welfare costs than those that would be triggered by a uniform carbon tax.
Wealth effects on consumption in Switzerland
Authors: Schmid Frank 
Published: January 2018

Summary
This paper studies the role of wealth fluctuations for aggregate consumption in Switzerland. In the long-run, wealth is found to have a significant effect on consumption. In the short-run, by contrast, the effects are less clear as consumption and wealth sometimes deviate persistently from equilibrium. Such deviations from equilibrium can have a duration of up to 3 years. If these equilibrium deviations are due to rapid wealth growth, Swiss consumers expand their consumption spending less than they could because they perceive large parts of these wealth gains as merely transitory. While they do not adapt to transitory wealth changes, they eventually react to the permanent wealth changes. On average, 80% of the variation in Swiss wealth that lasts for at least 24 quarters is permanent and it is exactly to those permanent lasting shocks that Swiss consumers react. Because consumption and wealth both react to the same permanent shocks, these results can be interpreted as evidence that consumers react less to changes in wealth per se than to changes in the business cycle.
Monetary policy and asset prices: When cleaning up hits the zero lower bound
Authors: Berger Wolfram , Kissmer Friedrich 
Published: January 2018

SummaryRecently, convincing evidence has been presented that the recession in the wake of the recent financial crisis resulted primarily from an overly levered housing sector that was forced to deleverage and cut consumption spending when faced with collapsing housing prices. Following this interpretation it is argued that, as opposed to the consensus view on monetary policy in the vicinity of the ZLB, optimal monetary policy may involve an interest rateincreaseif the ZLB threatens to become a binding constraint in the aftermath of an asset price bust. This result delivers arguments to advocate a— in the previous literature less favored— pre-emptive tightening policy in an asset price boom.
Multinational financial structure and tax competition
Authors: Wrede Matthias 
Published: January 2018

SummaryThis paper analyzes tax competition when welfare maximizing jurisdictions levy source-based corporate taxes and multinational enterprises choose tax-efficient capital-to-debt ratios. Under separate accounting, multinationals shift debt from low-tax to high-tax countries. The Nash equilibrium of the tax competition game is characterized by underprovision of publicly provided goods. Under formula apportionment, the country-specific capital-to-debt ratio of a multinational’s affiliate is independent of the jurisdiction’s tax rate. Public good provision is either too large or too small. However, there is clearly underprovision under formula apportionment if the debt externality is not negative.
Driving forces of the Swiss output gap
Authors: Leist Stefan 
Published: January 2018

SummaryWhat drives the output gap? Contrary to standard agnostic statistical approaches, New Keynesian small open economy models allow decomposing the output gap into its shocks and confirm the conventional wisdom that most of the variation is due to foreign shocks. However, the risk premium shock also plays an important role. It has a procyclical effect on the output gap except for the most recent recession, where the economic agents demanded a higher risk premium probably due to the large Swiss financial sector. This helped to dampen the recession because of the depreciation of the domestic currency due to this shock.
Environmental tax reforms in Switzerland a computable general Equilibrium impact analysis
Authors: Böhringer Christoph , Müller André 
Published: January 2018

Summary
The Swiss energy strategy until 2050 envisages ambitious CO2 emission reduction targets along with substantial cutbacks in electricity consumption to establish a low-carbon economy without nuclear energy. Our computable general equilibrium analysis finds that compliance with stringent CO2 constraints requires high CO2 taxes on economic activities which are not eligible for international emissions trading; likewise, electricity consumers are burdened with substantial electricity taxes. Environmental tax reforms are not likely to generate welfare gains without accounting for the benefits of improved environmental quality. However, economic adjustment costs to a low carbon economy without nuclear energy remain modest and can be markedly reduced through revenue-neutral cuts of initial distortionary taxes. On the other hand, alternative recycling strategies pose a trade-off between efficiency and distributional justice which has to be resolved on normative grounds.
Inflation expectations, central bank credibility and the global financial crisis
Authors: Gerlach-Kristen Petra , Moessner Richhild 
Published: January 2018

Summary
Long-run inflation expectations should not respond to economic news if the central bank is seen as credibly committed to stabilising inflation. In this paper we find that since the onset of the global financial crisis, medium and long-term inflation expectations implied by inflation swaps in the euro area, United Kingdom and United States have become less responsive to actual inflation and changes in oil and food prices. This suggests that the credibility of the central banks in these economies remains intact, despite large increases in their balance sheets due to unconventional monetary policy measures and the introduction of explicit forward guidance at the zero lower bound. We also find an increase in autocorrelation of inflation expectations, which suggests that shocks have a longer-lasting impact than before the financial crisis.
Effects of a Higher Replacement Rate on Unemployment Durations, Employment, and Earnings
Authors: Eugster Beatrix 
Published: January 2018

Summary
This paper discusses the effects of a higher unemployment benefit replacement rate on unemployment durations, employment, and earnings. A reform of the Swiss unemployment insurance in July 2003 increased the replacement rate by up to 5.88 ppt for individuals who earned between 3,536 and 4,340 CHF and have no children, while it did not change the replacement rate for all other unemployed persons. This allows to study the effects of a higher replacement rate adopting a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach. The change in the replacement rate increased unemployment durations by 3.1 % — or roughly one week — for the treatment group. Women tend to react stronger than men. There is no effect of the level of the replacement rate on employment probabilities or earnings after the unemployment spell is finished.
Capital Flow Waves to and from Switzerland before and after the Financial Crisis
Authors: Yeşin Pinar 
Published: January 2018

Summary
This paper first shows that capital inflows to and outflows from financial centers were disproportionately affected by the global financial crisis. Switzerland was no exception. The paper then identifies waves of capital flows to and from Switzerland from 2000:Q1 to 2014:Q2 by using a simple statistical method. The analysis shows that private capital inflows to and outflows from Switzerland have become exceptionally muted and less volatile since the crisis. Further, strong and long-lasting ‘home bias’ behavior can be observed for both Swiss and foreign investors. By contrast, net private capital flows have shown significantly higher volatility since the financial crisis, frequently registering extreme movements driven by extreme movements in bank lending flows. These findings suggest that the financial crisis generated a breaking point for capital flows to and from Switzerland.
How do Individual Sectors Respond to Macroeconomic Shocks? A Structural Dynamic Factor Approach Applied to Swiss Data
Authors: Bäurle Gregor , Steiner Elizabeth 
Published: January 2018

SummaryThis paper quantifies the impact of monetary policy, exchange rates and external demand on the production sectors of the Swiss economy. As the model covers the full set of production sectors it is possible through aggregation to estimate the impact of a given shock on total GDP. We conduct the analysis in the framework of a Bayesian structural dynamic factor model. Our approach proves to be useful to cope with the large data set and at the same time allows us to consistently identify fundamental aggregate shocks. We find that monetary variables, such as interest rates and exchange rates, mainly influence the financial sectors. Variations in value added in the manufacturing sectors or business services, on the other hand, are markedly influenced by changes in external demand, but show a weaker and slower reaction to monetary variables.
Measuring the Invisible: An Overview of and Outlook for Tax Non-Compliance Estimates and Measurement Methods for Switzerland
Authors: Schmutz Felix 
Published: January 2018

SummaryThis paper gives an overview of tax non-compliance estimates and evaluates the suitability of various tax non-compliance measurement methods for Switzerland. The existing estimates for Switzerland focus strongly on non-declared assets and are based on a limited number of measurement methods. Nevertheless, the estimates range widely, between CHF 106 to over 500 billion for non-declared assets and 12.6 to 35.1 percent for income, for the time period 1970 to today. These estimates could be taken as a starting point for further tax non-compliance research. They should however be verified and supplemented by estimates resulting from other methods as a solid measurement of tax non-compliance requires a comprehensive approach including several methods. Further, the focus should shift from non-declared assets towards non-declared income.
On the Regressivity of Gambling Taxes in Switzerland
Authors: Kohler Dimitri 
Published: January 2018

Summary
In this study, the author assesses whether the gambling tax in Switzerland is regressive using a large, representative sample of the population and the reported gambling expenditures of the Swiss Health Survey 2007 (SHS 07). To analyze the tax incidence, the Suits index was constructed. This result is supported by a regression analysis, which highlights the income elasticity of gambling expenditures The two measures provide converging results and demonstrate the regressive pattern of the gambling tax in Switzerland As such, this taxation structure contributes to increased income inequality in Switzerland.
Impact of Annual Weather Fluctuations on Wine Production in Germany
Authors: Niklas Britta 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis paper analyzes the impact of annual weather fluctuations on the total output of wine and on the share of output of different wine-quality categories in Germany, using a set of wine data from all thirteen German wine regions and daily weather data taken from regional weather stations. The empirical analysis suggests that rising average temperatures have a significantly positive impact on the total output of wine as well as on the output shares of wine in higher-quality categories. The number of freezing days appears to be detrimental to overall production; precipitation during the growing season impairs higher-quality wines in particular. (JEL Classifications: Q21, Q13)
Fairtrade Wine Price Dispersion in the United Kingdom
Authors: Niklas Britta , Storchmann Karl , Vink Nick 
Published: January 2018

AbstractThis paper analyzes wine price dispersion in the United Kingdom. In particular, we are interested in examining whether Fairtrade wines are different from non-Fairtrade wines. Because Fairtrade wines serve an additional social purpose, one may think that consumers search less aggressively for the outlet with the lowest price, thus allowing for a larger price dispersion than for regular wines. We draw on data for about seven thousand wines from South Africa, Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade, sold in the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2012. In a first step, we run a hedonic regression model explaining the wine prices using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) Instrumental Variable (IV) approaches. In the next step, we regress the squared residuals from the first step on a Fairtrade 0-1 dummy-variable. When using the squared residuals from the OLS model, we find that Fairtrade is a negative determinant of price dispersion. Therefore, Fairtrade wines exhibit a significant lower price dispersion than the comparison group. When using the squared residuals from the IV model, we find mixed results and suspect the presence of a substantial bias due to weak instruments. Finally, in order to avoid IV pitfalls, we ran Fairtrade and Non-Fairtrade wines in separate equations. We find support for the OLS results, i.e., Fairtrade wines appear to exhibit lower price dispersion than their non-Fairtrade counterparts. Whether this is due to consumer search is aprioriunclear. (JEL Classifications: L31, L81, Q11)
Older adults and violence: an analysis of Domestic Homicide Reviews in England involving adults over 60 years of age
Authors: BENBOW SUSAN MARY , BHATTACHARYYA SARMISHTHA , KINGSTON PAUL 
Published: January 2018

ABSTRACTDomestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) are conducted when an individual aged 16 or over appears to have died from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they are related or with whom they are in an intimate relationship or who is a member of the same household. DHRs aim to identify lessons to be learned, to improve service responses to domestic abuse and to contribute to prevention of domestic abuse/homicide. We submitted Freedom of Information requests to English Local Authorities to identify DHRs where victim, perpetrator or both were aged over 60. Collected Reports and/or Executive Summaries were thematically analysed. Analysis identified four key themes in the context of the key relationship and caring: major mental illness of the perpetrator; drug and/or alcohol abuse; financial issues; and a history of domestic abuse in key or family relationships. We analysed 14 adult family homicides, 16 intimate partner homicides and five homicide–suicides. Age per se did not emerge as a significant factor in our analysis. Terminology needs to be standardised, and training/education regarding risk assessment needs to be improved in relation to age, myths around ageing/dementia and stresses of caring. Management of mental illness is a key factor. A central repository of DHR Reports accessible for research and subject to regular review would contribute to maximising learning and improving practice.
The Effect of Dry Matter Content of A Straw/Sugar Beet Pulp Mixture Used As A Buffer Feed When Fed to Dairy Cows at Different Stages of Lactation
Authors: Hameleers A , Bronda T , Roberts D J 
Published: January 2018

Buffer feeding is a widely used strategy to improve DM intakes from dairy cows at grass. A very wide range of products have been used as buffer feeds resulting in a wide range of responses. Less well understood are which factors are important in explaining these responses. In this experiment the buffer feed characteristic “dry matter content” and the animal factor “stage of lactation” were used as variables in order to gain a better understanding of responses to buffer feeding.Forty Friesian cows, of which 20 were spring calving and 20 autumn calving were used in a continuous design experiment lasting 5 weeks from 3 May until 7 June 1993. The animals were allocated to four treatments on basis of milk yield, liveweight and stage of lactation. The treatments were grazing only (C), grazing and a buffer feed at 30% DM (B30), 50% DM (B50) and 80% DM (B80) and for each treatment half the cows were spring calving (S) or autumn calving (A). The grazing consisted of a 8 ha field of predominantly perennial ryegrass which was split into 4 equal paddocks which were grazed on a daily rotational basis.