Growth in Switzerland: is the picture really that gloomy?

This paper presents and discusses a number of variables closely related to real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and applies them to a set of 23 countries to assess Switzerland's performance relative to that of other countrie s during the period 1970 – 2002. To what extent do these variables confirm Switzerland's poor economic performance, such as suggested by movements in real GDP? A partial anwer is provided in this simple, exploratory text, where the statistical and conceptual justification for choosing a variable rather than another is given priority over the investigation of the possible economic mechanisms explaining the pattern of the data presented. Results show that Switzerland's weak real GDP growth partly reflects statistical misspecifications. On the one hand, computing real GDP per unit of labour (i.e., per worker or per hour of work) barely changes the picture that emerges from movements in real GDP alone. On the other hand, the increase in purchasing power due to favourable movements in export and import prices, which is not taken into account by real GDP, reduces the growth gap between Switzerland, on one side, and the European Union and the United States, on the other. Moreover, the level of output produced by one unit of labour has been fairly high, on average over the last three decades, in Switzerland. Many countries, however, are catching up. Finally, Switzerland performs very well in the dollar value generated by one hour of work, that is, in the creation of the external purchasing power created by one unit of labour.growth; labour productivit; capital productivity

International-price and terms-of-trade effects on factor productivity: international comparisons

In this paper, we present a technique to decompose changes in factor prices into the contribution of major determinants, namely movements in domestic and international prices, changes in capital and labour quantities, and technological progress. This is done in an open-economy framework. While building on the same principles as GDP growth accounting, our technique considers the specific form of factor demand functions when these are derived from a GDP Translog function. We also break down the combined effect of changes in export and import (i.e. international) prices into a pure terms-of-trade effect and a residual international-price effect. This distinction is important, and is illustrated by the fact that an equiproportional change in international prices, while not affecting terms of trade, can trigger changes in factor productivity and therefore impact on workers' and capital owners' welfare. Decomposition of movements in factor productivity is implemented empirically using data from ten OECD countries.factor productivity, GDP functions, international prices, terms of trade

Growth in Switzerland: is the picture really that gloomy?

This paper presents and discusses a number of variables closely related to real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and applies them to a set of 23 countries to assess Switzerland's performance relative to that of other countrie s during the period 1970 – 2002. To what extent do these variables confirm Switzerland's poor economic performance, such as suggested by movements in real GDP? A partial anwer is provided in this simple, exploratory text, where the statistical and conceptual justification for choosing a variable rather than another is given priority over the investigation of the possible economic mechanisms explaining the pattern of the data presented. Results show that Switzerland's weak real GDP growth partly reflects statistical misspecifications. On the one hand, computing real GDP per unit of labour (i.e., per worker or per hour of work) barely changes the picture that emerges from movements in real GDP alone. On the other hand, the increase in purchasing power due to favourable movements in export and import prices, which is not taken into account by real GDP, reduces the growth gap between Switzerland, on one side, and the European Union and the United States, on the other. Moreover, the level of output produced by one unit of labour has been fairly high, on average over the last three decades, in Switzerland. Many countries, however, are catching up. Finally, Switzerland performs very well in the dollar value generated by one hour of work, that is, in the creation of the external purchasing power created by one unit of labour

Growth in Switzerland: is the picture really that gloomy?

This paper presents and discusses a number of variables closely related to real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and applies them to a set of 23 countries to assess Switzerland's performance relative to that of other countrie s during the period 1970 – 2002. To what extent do these variables confirm Switzerland's poor economic performance, such as suggested by movements in real GDP? A partial anwer is provided in this simple, exploratory text, where the statistical and conceptual justification for choosing a variable rather than another is given priority over the investigation of the possible economic mechanisms explaining the pattern of the data presented. Results show that Switzerland's weak real GDP growth partly reflects statistical misspecifications. On the one hand, computing real GDP per unit of labour (i.e., per worker or per hour of work) barely changes the picture that emerges from movements in real GDP alone. On the other hand, the increase in purchasing power due to favourable movements in export and import prices, which is not taken into account by real GDP, reduces the growth gap between Switzerland, on one side, and the European Union and the United States, on the other. Moreover, the level of output produced by one unit of labour has been fairly high, on average over the last three decades, in Switzerland. Many countries, however, are catching up. Finally, Switzerland performs very well in the dollar value generated by one hour of work, that is, in the creation of the external purchasing power created by one unit of labour

Le débat sur la croissance économique en Suisse Quelles conclusions ? (text in French)

" Switzerland is the growth laggard in the industrial world " - this dismal view has become part and parcel of today's conventional wisdom in Switzerland and elsewhere. We show it to be but partially true : accurate when judged by the trend growth rate of officially recorded real GDPs in 1970-2003, but not when considering what we call "adjusted real gross national incomes" ; i.e. a better measure of the populations' material wellbeing than real GDPs, although less correlated with employment and unemployment. The adjustment has to do with how to deflate the balance of goods and services as well as the balance of factor income. More important, and perhaps novel, is that there appears to be no statistically significant difference between the estimated trend growth rate of Switzerland's corrected gross national income and that of most other European countries : almost all tend to grow at a rate of about 2% p.a. There is however a significant long-term growth differential between these European countries, including Switzerland, and overseas ones such as Australia, Canada and the USA. This is because most of Europe suffers from well-known and weighty structural problems, not necessarily the same everywhere, but which should be addressed urgently and efficiently everywhere. The paper also includes a "parable" on the economic impact of oil price shocks, which may be useful for didactical purposes.real GDP vs. material wellbeing; significantly different trend growth rates; Switzerland vs. other European and overseas economies; structural problems; oil price shocks

Besoins linguistiques et stratégie de recrutement des entreprises

Les travaux publiés depuis le milieu des années soixante dans le domaine de l’économie des langues recouvrent une large panoplie de relations mutuelles entre variables économiques et variables linguistiques, mais de nombreuses questions demeurent insuffisamment explorées. L’étude de ces questions requiert souvent le réexamen des modèles standard de l’analyse économique, afin d’y incorporer des variables linguistiques susceptibles d’expliquer certains processus économiques. Il est utile de se pencher sur la question des besoins des entreprises en matière de compétences en langues étrangères. Ces besoins sont souvent déduits, de manière relativement informelle, de données d’enquête où sont relevées des opinions qui ne sont pas nécessairement fondées sur une analyse de l’influence des compétences linguistiques sur la productivité, les coûts ou les profits. Il en découle deux conséquences : premièrement, il est difficile de fournir une explication économique au comportement des entreprises à l’égard de leur besoins en compétences linguistique ou de leur utilisation de ces compétences ; deuxièmement, les entreprises elles-mêmes ne sont pas forcément en mesure de formuler, à cet égard, des stratégies en cohérence avec leur objectif (supposé) d’optimisation en termes économiques. Dans l’article, on illustrera cette problématique générale en se référant aux stratégies de recrutement des entreprises. Les (relativement rares) données empiriques existantes indiquent en effet que les entreprises semblent sous-estimer l’utilité effective des compétences en langues étrangères pour leur personnel ; se pose donc la question de savoir s’il s’agit là, de la part des entreprises, d’un défaut d’information ou, au contraire, d’une stratégie économiquement rationnelle, compte tenu des conditions dans lesquelles s’opère le recrutement de nouveaux collaborateurs. Après avoir présenté les données, nous développons un modèle de recrutement dans lequel le coût de l’identification, sur le marché du travail, de la main-d’œuvre dotée des compétences linguistiques nécessaires explique des comportements en apparence non-économiques de la part des entreprises.Trotz der zahlreichen Literatur, die seit Mitte der 1960er Jahre zum Thema „Sprachenökonomie“ veröffentlicht wurde, bleiben viele Fragen über die wechsel-seitigen Beziehungen zwischen wirtschaftlichen und sprachlichen Variablen offen. Um dem nachzugehen, müssen nämlich sprachliche Aspekte in die Standardmodelle der Wirtschaftsanalyse integriert werden, um bestimmte ökonomische Phänomene zu erklären.Einen interessanten Fall stellt der Bedarf der Unternehmen an Sprachkompetenzen dar. Zu oft wird dieser Bedarf anhand unsystematisch gesammelter Daten eingeschätzt, die keinen Aufschluss geben über den Anteil, den Sprachkompetenzen an Produktivität, Kosten und Profit haben. Dies hat zweierlei Folgen : Erstens ist es schwer, den Sprachbedarf der Unternehmen wirtschaftstheoretisch zu fundieren. Zweitens sind die Unternehmen oftmals selbst nicht imstande, kohärente Strategien in diesem Bereich zu formulieren.In diesem Artikel soll die Rekrutierungsstrategie von Unternehmen untersucht werden. Anhand der spärlich verfügbaren Daten scheint es, als unterschätzten die Unternehmen den effektiven Nutzen sprachlicher Kompetenzen. Ist dies auf einen Informationsmangel oder auf eine wirtschaftlich-rationale Strategie zurückzuführen ? In dem Artikel wird ein Rekrutierungsmodell vorgestellt, das scheinbar nicht-ökonomische Verhaltensweisen von Unternehmen durch die mit der Suche nach sprachlichen Kompetenzen am Arbeitsmarkt verbundenen Kosten erklärt

Language-based earnings differentials on the Swiss labour market: is Italian a liability?

Switzerland is often mentioned as an unusual “success story”, particularly in terms of its handling of linguistic and cultural diversity. Foreign observers tend to be more appreciative of Swiss pluralism (e.g. McRae, 1983; Laponce, 1992) than the Swiss themselves (e.g. Froidevaux, 1997). Switzerland has certainly been spared the acrimonious language debates characteristic of other multilingual states in the Western world, such as Belgium or Canada; however, very positive assessments of Swiss pluralism may in part reflect the fact that many of its aspects have not been explored before. Most of the work published to date, whether in Switzerland or abroad, focuses on institutional, historical and sociolinguistic issues, and the status of language minorities is studied almost exclusively in this light. Little is known about the relative socioeconomic status of language minorities, which restricts our ability to provide a full assessment of the treatment of these groups

Besoins linguistiques et stratégie de recrutement des entreprises

Il ne manque pas de travaux qui s'intéressent à tel ou tel aspect du multilinguisme dans l'entreprise, et l'on pourrait penser qu'il s'agit là d'un thème somme toute bien connu. Il suffit toutefois d'un rapide coup d'oeil à la littérature pour se rendre compte qu'elle présente, dans sa quasi-totalité, un trait marquant : c'est qu'elle n'est pas due à des économistes. Certes, il se trouve dans les auteurs de ces travaux quelques chercheurs issus d'une discipline connexe, à savoir les sciences de la gestion ou des affaires. Mais leurs approches sont souvent fort loin de celle qui caractérise l'analyse économique. Et ils sont par ailleurs assez marginaux dans une littérature qui reste largement dominée par les sciences du langage, et, dans une moindre de mesure, par la sociologie du travail. En revanche, on ne trouve pour ainsi dire rien, parmi ces travaux, sur la portée économique du multilinguisme : quel impact l'usage de différentes langues au sein de l'entreprise a-t-il sur la productivité, les coûts et les profits ? Quelles sont les chaînes causales précises par lesquels cheminent de tels effets ? Et quel est l'ordre de grandeur chiffré de ces derniers ? Étrangement, cette question n'a pratiquement jamais été abordée par les économistes ; et les linguistes (notamment ceux qui étudient l'interaction verbale sur le lieu de travail) ne mettent pratiquement jamais leurs observations en relation avec les variables qui comptent du point de vue économique