Suchergebnisse

Die Entwicklung der schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft ist stark von der Zuwanderung ausländischer Arbeitskräfte geprägt. Strukturelle Veränderungen im Migrationsangebot und in der Migrationsnachfrage haben dazu geführt, daß die schweizerische Migrationspolitik vor großen Herausforderungen steht. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance, d.h. der Vergleich der Beschäftigungs- und Einkommenssituation von In- und Ausländern, ermöglicht eine umfassende Evaluation dieses Zusammenhangs. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance erfolgt über lineare sowie Probit Regressionen im Rahmen einer Querschnittsanalyse. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen dieser Überlegungen werden Vorschläge zur Neuorientierung der schweizerischen Migrationspolitik abgeleitet.

Die Entwicklung der schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft ist stark von der Zuwanderung ausländischer Arbeitskräfte geprägt. Strukturelle Veränderungen im Migrationsangebot und in der Migrationsnachfrage haben dazu geführt, daß die schweizerische Migrationspolitik vor großen Herausforderungen steht. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance, d.h. der Vergleich der Beschäftigungs- und Einkommenssituation von In- und Ausländern, ermöglicht eine umfassende Evaluation dieses Zusammenhangs. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance erfolgt über lineare sowie Probit Regressionen im Rahmen einer Querschnittsanalyse. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen dieser Überlegungen werden Vorschläge zur Neuorientierung der schweizerischen Migrationspolitik abgeleitet.

Die Entwicklung der schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft ist stark von der Zuwanderung ausländischer Arbeitskräfte geprägt. Strukturelle Veränderungen im Migrationsangebot und in der Migrationsnachfrage haben dazu geführt, daß die schweizerische Migrationspolitik vor großen Herausforderungen steht. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance, d.h. der Vergleich der Beschäftigungs- und Einkommenssituation von In- und Ausländern, ermöglicht eine umfassende Evaluation dieses Zusammenhangs. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance erfolgt über lineare sowie Probit Regressionen im Rahmen einer Querschnittsanalyse. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen dieser Überlegungen werden Vorschläge zur Neuorientierung der schweizerischen Migrationspolitik abgeleitet.

Recent studies have shown that there are significant earnings differentials between immigrants and natives in Switzerland. The goal of this paper is to determine whether these differences can be attributed to diverging socio-economic endowments or to discrimination. We use the well-known econometric technique, developed by Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973), to determine the extent of discrimination. As data on earnings are available only for employed, we adopt a two-stage Heckman procedure to correct for sample-selection bias. Our analysis is based on data from the 1995 wave of the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS). The decomposition of the earnings differential reveals that the discrimination effect plays a more important role in the explanation of the earnings differential than the endowment effect.

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This paper is concerned with the study of the labor market performance of immigrants. The unemployment rate is used as an indicator and natives as the reference group for the analysis. The analysis proceeds in two steps. In a first step, probit regressions on the unemployment probabilities are estimated for the pooled crosssection of 1991 and 1995, taking into account nationality- and gender-specific differences. In a second step, and based on the finding that unemployment rates usually differ significantly across sectors, the asymmetry in the sectoral distribution of immigrants with respect to natives is assessed. The empirical results indicate that Swiss and males exhibit significantly lower unemployment probabilities than immigrants and females. Furthermore, immigrants from Non-European countries have not only a higher unemployment probability than natives, but also the largest asymmetry in the employment structure.

The liberalization of capital accounts and the integration of financial markets in recent years have helped to spur growth in many emerging markets and have allowed global investors to diversify risks internationally. Furthermore, increased capita! mobility has helped to tame governments in their fiscal and monetary policies. Nevertheless, the Asian currency and financial crisis and its aftermath have revealed structural problems on the national as well as on the international level and have imposed significant costs on emerging markets as well as on the world economy. • Triggered by these developments, a broad international consensus has emerged to support reforms to strengthen the international financial system. The aim of these reforms will be to create an international financial system that captures the benefits of open and integrated financial markets, and at the same time minimizes the risk of financial crises to emerge and spread to other countries. While the former refers to the need for greater transparency, accountability and prudential regulation, the latter is concerned with the improvement of existing and the creation of new mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of financial crises. International institutions such as the IMF can contribute to the stability of the international financial system. A prominent proposal initially raised by the Clinton administration in fall 1998 designs the creation of a new crisis facility of the IMF to prevent contagion in financial markets. On its recent meeting of April 23, the IMF's Executive Board agreed to provide Contingent Credit Lines for its member countries. The goal of such a facility is to provide preventive credit lines to countries whose economies are fundamentally sound, but which are threatened by financial market contagion and which may lose access to capital markets. In the absence of contagion, these countries should therefore be able to rely on a sustained flow of capital from abroad. The new facility gives rise to a number of questions. First, the distinction between countries in need of ex ante policy adjustments and countries that follow sound economic policies, i.e., the eligibility for the new facility, must be resolved in advance. Second, projections about the likely financial requirements of such a facility and the consequences for the Fund's liquidity position are needed. Another issue relates to the question whether and how private and bilateral creditors should be involved in this new facility. Finally, there is a need for clear guidelines about the terms and conditions that would apply to this new facility. However, as shown in the paper, it will prove difficult to fulfill these criteria and to avoid additional problems related to a precautionary credit line. Based on this skeptical judgment, the paper explores a number of alternative means to foster the stability of the international financial system through a better involvement of private sector creditors. This could be achieved through the introduction of option-type mechanisms that would allow debtors to trigger liquidity support in the case of a crisis. A more radical approach would involve limits to creditors in cases when they would like to reduce their short-term exposure. Another avenue would comprise a reorganization of private claims, either by modifying bond contracts or by adapting bankruptcy procedures. The main task for policy makers, however, remains to increase transparency and improve supervision in financial markets and to pursue sound economic policies.

Die Entwicklung der schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft ist stark von der Zuwanderung ausländischer Arbeitskräfte geprägt. Strukturelle Veränderungen im Migrationsangebot und in der Migrationsnachfrage haben dazu geführt, daß die schweizerische Migrationspolitik vor großen Herausforderungen steht. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance, d.h. der Vergleich der Beschäftigungs- und Einkommenssituation von In- und Ausländern, ermöglicht eine umfassende Evaluation dieses Zusammenhangs. Die Analyse der Arbeitsmarktperformance erfolgt über lineare sowie Probit Regressionen im Rahmen einer Querschnittsanalyse. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen dieser Überlegungen werden Vorschläge zur Neuorientierung der schweizerischen Migrationspolitik abgeleitet.

Switzerland has experienced a substantial influx of immigrants over the last 50 years after World War II, which has led Switzerland to have among the highest share of foreigners in population among all OECD countries. This paper analyses the migration experience of Switzerland. The analysis centres around two main issues: the economic effects of migration and the labour market performance of immigrants. Two main results emerge from our study. First, as a result of the shortcomings of the Swiss migration policy, immigrants tend to have a negative impact on the Swiss economy. Second, the analysis of the labour market performance shows that there are substantial discrepancies in the performance between immigrants from different countries of origin. Immigrants from Northern European countries largely outperform immigrants from Southern European and Non-European countries. On the basis of the empirical analysis, this study finally outlines some reform options for the Swiss migration policy.

The German banking market is notorious for its low degree of market penetration by foreign financial institutions, suggesting that markets serviced by domestic and foreign banks are segmented. This paper employs a number of tests to determine whether activities of domestic and foreign banks are related. Using data for the years 1986-1999, we fail to find evidence for similarities in the activities of domestic and foreign banks. This holds across the two types of domestic banks (large and savings banks) and across four different activities (loans and deposits of banks and non-banks) considered.

The German financial system is characterized by lower degrees of penetration by foreign commercial banks and of (bank) disintermedation than, for instance, that of the United States. These differences between the two countries could be attributed to the fact that universal banking in Germany creates implicit barriers to entry. Yet, regulatory and informational differences which are unrelated to universal banking could be responsible for the observed difference as well. This paper provides a stylized theoretical model of the banking industry, which suggests that market segmentation and limited market entry can be due to a number of factors, including information costs. Preliminary empirical evidence does not provide clear evidence for the hypothesis that universal banking is the reason for the observed differences in financial systems.