direct democracy; fiscal federalism; tax competition; panel data; political economics
Bechtel Michael M., Hangartner Dominik, Schmid Lukas (2016), Does Compulsory Voting Increase Support for Leftist Policy?, in
American Journal of Political Science, 60(3), 149-161.
Clémenceau Maxime, Soguel Nils (2016), Does Personal Background Influence a Finance Minister to Cook the Books? An Investigation of Creative Accounting in Swiss Cantons, in
Applied Economics, 49(10), 941-953.
Jametti Mario, Joanis Marcelin (2016), Electoral Competition as a Determinant of Fiscal Decentralization, in
Fiscal Studies, 37(2), 285-300.
Egger Peter, Köthenbürger Marko (2016), Hosting Multinationals: Economic and Fiscal Implications, in
Aussenwirtschaft - Swiss Review of International Economic Relations, 67, 45-66.
Funk Patricia (2016), How Accurate are Surveyed Preferences for Public Policies? Evidence from a Unique Institutional Setup, in
Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(3), 442-454.
Bütler Monika (2016), Insights from Switzerland's Pension System, in Mitchell Olivia S. (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 247-273.
Di Giorgio Laura, Filippini Massimo, Masiero Giuliano (2016), Is Higher Nursing Home Quality More Costly?, in
European Journal of Health Economics, 17(8), 1011-1026.
Galletta Sergio (2016), On the Determinants of Happiness: A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) Approach, in
Applied Economics Letters, 23(2), 121-125.
Keuschnigg Christian, Loretz Simon, Winner Hannes (2016), Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union: A Survey, in Badinger Harald and Nitsch Volker (ed.), Routledge, London, 295-311.
Köthenbürger Marko, Stimmelmayr Michael (2016), Taxing Multinationals in the Presence of Internal Capital Markets, in
Journal of Public Economics, 138, 58-71.
Soguel Nils, Ecabert Christine (2015), Do Nasty and Pleasant Surprises Regarding Tax Revenue Explain Spending Drifts? The Case of Swiss Cantons, in
International Journal of Public Administration, 38(4), 282-296.
Athias Laure, Nunez Antonio (2015), Effects of Uncertainty and Opportunistic Renegotiations on Bidding Behaviour: Evidence from Toll Road Concessions, in Picot A. (ed.), MIT Press, Boston, 285-314.
Brülhart Marius, Schmidheiny Kurt (2015), Estimating the Rivalness of State-Level Inward FDI, in
Journal of Regional Science, 55(1), 139-148.
Chatagny Florian, Siliverstovs Boriss (2015), Evaluating Rationality of Level and Growth Rate Forecasts of Direct Tax Revenues Under Flexible Loss Function: Evidence from Swiss Cantons, in
Economics Letters, 134, 65-68.
Bütler Monika, Lechner Michael, Deuchert Eva, Staubli Stefan, Thiemann Petra (2015), Financial Work Incentives for Disability Benefit Recipients: Lessons from a Randomized Field Experiment, in
IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 4(1), 1-18.
Funk Patricia, Gathmann Christina (2015), Gender Gaps in Policy Making: Evidence from Direct Democracy, in
Economic Policy, 30(81), 141-181.
Galletta Sergio, Jametti Mario, Redonda Agustin (2015), Highway to Economic Growth? Competition in Public Works Tenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in
South African Journal of Economics, 83(2), 240-255.
Galletta Sergio, Jametti Mario (2015), How to Tame Two Leviathans? Revisiting the Effect of Direct Democracy on Local Public Expenditure, in
European Journal of Political Economy, 39, 82-93.
Chatagny Florian (2015), Incentive Effects of Fiscal Rules on the Finance Minister's Behaviour: Evidence from Revenue Projections in Swiss Cantons, in
European Journal of Political Economy, 39, 184-200.
Egger Peter, Keuschnigg Christian (2015), Innovation, Trade and Finance, in
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 7(2), 1-37.
Bütler Monika, Schneider Kerstin (2015), Introduction to the Special Issue on Redesigning the Welfare State for Aging Societies, in
International Tax and Public Finance, 22(4), 531-533.
Di Giorgio Laura, Filippini Massimo, Masiero Giuliano (2015), Structural and Managerial Cost Differences in Nonprofit Nursing Homes, in
Economic Modelling, 51, 289-298.
Brülhart Marius, Bucovetsky Sam, Schmidheiny Kurt (2015), Taxes in Cities, in
Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, 5, 139-148.
Schmidheiny Kurt, Suedekum Jens (2015), The Pan-European Population Distribution Acrosss Consistently Defined Functional Urban Areas, in
Economics Letters, 133, 10-13.
Brülhart Marius, Parchet Raphael (2014), Alleged Tax Competition: The Mysterious Death of Bequest Taxes in Switzerland, in
Journal of Public Economics, 111, 63-78.
Auriol Emmanuelle, Brilon Stefanie (2014), Anti-Social Behavior in Profit and Nonprofit Organizations, in
Journal of Public Economics, 117, 149-161.
Brilon Stefanie (2014), Job Assignment with Multivariate Skills and the Peter Principle, in
Labour Economics, 32, 112-121.
Eeckhout Jan, Pinheiro Roberto, Schmidheiny Kurt (2014), Spatial Sorting, in
Journal of Political Economy, 122(3), 554-620.
Luthi Eva, Schmidheiny Kurt (2014), The Effect of Agglomeration Size on Local Taxes, in
Journal of Economic Geography, 14(2), 265-287.
Galletta Sergio, Redonda Agustin, Corporate Flat Tax Reforms and Businesses’ Investment Decisions. Evidence from Switzerland, in
International Tax and Public Finance.
Schmidheiny Kurt, Emerging Lessons from Half a Century of Fiscal Federalism in Switzerland, in
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics.
Clémenceau Maxime, Soguel Nils, How Does Depreciations Management Affect Subsequent Fiscal Performance? The Case of the Swiss Cantons, in
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics.
Bütler Monika, Peijnenburg Kim, Staubli Stefan, How Much Do Means-Tested Benefits Reduce the Demand for Annuities?, in
Journal of Pension Economics and Finance.
Brülhart Marius, Dupertuis Didier, Moreau Elodie, Inheritance Flows in Switzerland, 1911-2011, in
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics.
Chatagny Florian, Köthenbürger Marko, Stimmelmayr Michael, Introducing an IP-Licence Box in Switzerland: Quantifying the Effects, in
International Tax and Public Finance.
Hofer Katharina, Partisan Campaigning and Initiative Petition Signing in Direct Democracies, in
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics.
Bütler Monika, Hofer Katharina E., Marti Christian, Ready to Reform: How Popular Initiatives Can Be Successful, in
European Journal of Political Economy.
Foellmi Reto, Martinez Isabel, Volatile Top Income Shares in Switzerland? Reassessing the Evolution Between 1981 and 2010, in
Review of Economics and Statistics.
Switzerland represents a unique laboratory for the study of decentralized decision making and financing of public goods. The experience of the Swiss Confederation since 1848 can be seen as a real-world large-scale experiment. While the empirical public finance and political economics literatures have exploited Swiss data with considerable success for some time and produced evidence that has proven to be of interest far beyond the national context, the Swiss laboratory in its long-term historical dimension and its small-scale spatial dimension has as yet remained largely unexploited due to a lack of readily available data.This project therefore pursues three central aims.First, we shall continue our data collection effort aiming to assemble the most comprehensive longitudinal dataset on fiscal and political decentralization in Switzerland to date. In a precursor project, we concentrated our efforts on canton-level and municipality-level data from the early 1970s onward, in order to complement individual-level data on tax bases from federal income tax statistics. In the current project, we aim (a) to extend this database further into the past, and (b) to complement it with some variables that we did not have the resources to collect in the precursor project.Second, we aim to produce a number of high-level scientific papers, building on the longitudinal dataset collected through the precursor and the current Sinergia projects, on complementary data resources also compiled within the project, and on the collective expertise of the project collaborators. In addition to the shared data collection effort and the associated analysis, we foresee 16 subprojects. All of these subprojects are collaborative in nature. The common denominator is to analyze issues in public finance and political economics affecting federations. The majority of projects will use Swiss sub-federal data for empirical analyses and will therefore benefit directly from the centralized data collection effort. Publications in international peer-reviewed publications represent the principal target output for all subprojects, but we also aim to continue to contribute actively to Swiss public debate.Third, we aim to provide research and research-management experience for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows, as well as for a number of student assistants. The longitudinal dataset and the 16 research subprojects will offer a rich source of interesting material for doctoral and post-doctoral research. Where possible, we shall strive to involve doctoral students in the project research sufficiently deeply for them to deserve coauthorship.We are organized around four research groups based respectively in Lausanne, Basel/Barcelona, Lugano/ETHZ and St.Gallen.