Flying Geese and Supply Chain Trade

Working PaperThis paper analyzes how division of labor has evolved in the ASEAN+3 countries and proposes an indicator of the level of integration of production in order to investigate the degree to which these countries are affected by the fragmentation of production. It is shown that while product fragmentation and supply chain trade have so far been mostly beneficial to the region, the speed at which the process is taking place may put enormous pressure on ASEAN economies in the future

Banking Sector Reform and Interest Rates in Transition Economies: Bank-Level Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

We examine the impact of banking sector reforms on interest rates using bank-level data from Kyrgyzstan for 1998-2005. We find that increased confidence in the banking sector has contributed significantly to lowering interest rate levels, while the impact of lower intermediation costs, credit risk, and capital costs are negligible. Our results further suggest that the liberalization of the Kyrgyz financial sector has reduced both deposit and lending rates. Finally, we find that despite considerable restructuring, the Kyrgyz banking sector has not become more competitive. As a consequence, banks' interest rates have not fully responded to lower market rates following macroeconomic stabilization.Transition, Financial Sector Development, Interest Rates

Migration and wages in Switzerland

This paper examines the impact of skilled and unskilled immigration on labour market outcomes. Using data on immigration to Switzerland from the EU/EFTA region and from the rest of the world in the period 2003-2015, the paper finds that high skill immigration from the EU/EFTA region has resulted in an expansion in the demand for high skilled labour that has benefited the majority of Swiss workers. Unskilled immigration, by contrast, has displaced some native workers especially those employed in the least skilled occupations. Regarding revenues the paper finds, like others before, that immigration has a small but positive impact of real revenues of all workers in the country

Das Freihandelsabkommen Schweiz-China : eine grosse Chance für den Schweizer Finanzsektor

Am 1. Juli trat das Schweizer Freihandelsabkommen mit China in Kraft. Für die Schweiz wird der Zugang zum chinesischen Markt einen Wachstumsimpuls ermöglichen, und zwar einerseits wegen der neuen Handels- und Investitionsmöglichkeiten, aber andererseits – und oft übersehen – auch wegen seinen potenziell grossen Auswirkungen auf den hiesigen Finanzsektor. Auch Investoren sind betroffen: Langfristige Anleger mögen sich überlegen, ob sie nicht Titel von Firmen mit einem potenziellen Chinageschäft favorisieren möchten

Supply chain trade and technological transfer in the ASEAN + 3 region

This paper analyses how economic integration and the international division of labour have evolved among the ASEAN + 3 countries in the last 20 years. The paper proposes an indicator of the level of technological sophistication based on revealed comparative advantages and uses it to investigate the relation between technological advance, factor endowments and supply chain trade. It is shown that supply chain-trade does not facilitate technological transfer. On the contrary: FDI appears to have significant and negative spill-over effects on technological change. Positive spill-overs from FDI materialize only when host countries have sufficiently high levels of education

China : eine neue Chance für Schweizer KMU

Mehr als 900 000 Multimillionäre, etwa 55 000 Milliardäre und ein sich etablierender Mittelstand: China ist ein spannender Zukunftsmarkt und bereits heute der sechstwichtigste Absatzmarkt der Schweizer Ausfuhren. Bislang profitieren vor allem Grossunternehmen davon. Mit dem Freihandelsabkommen wachsen auch für KMU die Chancen teilzuhaben

Schwerpunktthema: die Schweizer Wirtschaft in einem schwierigen Währungsumfeld

This paper studies the relationship between exchange rate movements and the average export quality using disaggregated Swiss product-level data between 1996 and 2015. We find evidence at different levels of aggregation that the average export quality increases in response to a currency appreciation. This exchange rate effect on quality is more pronounces for differentiated goods and in sectory with a greater scope for quality differentiation. We also find empirical support for a compositional effect: Currency appreciations shift market chares towards goods that are more expensive and of higher quality. From a policy perspective, this reallocation effect points to the importance of facilitating structural changes in the export composition to increase the resilience of the export sector to exchange rate shocks. Our results also suggest a positive relationship between the average export quality and aggregate export sales. Form a methodological point of view, the findings imply that exchange rate pass-through estimations without quality controls tend to be biased regardless of aggregation level or type of data

Aufwertung steigert Exportqualität

Die Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandten Wissenschaften (ZHAW) hat im Auftrag des Staatssekretariats für Wirtschaft (Seco) den Zusammenhang zwischen Frankenaufwertung und Qualität der Exportprodukte analysiert. Für die Jahre 1996 bis 2015 zeigt sich: Die Aufwertungen führten zu einer höheren Qualität der Exportgüter – was die Widerstandsfähigkeit der Exporte stärkte. Besonders ausgeprägt sind die Qualitätsverbesserungen in forschungs- und werbeintensiven Exportbranchen wie beispielsweise in der Maschinen- und Uhrenindustrie. Für die ebenfalls forschungs- und werbeintensive Pharmabranche war die steigende Nachfrage hingegen wohl bedeutender als Währungseffekte. Insgesamt unterstreichen die Ergebnisse die Bedeutung einer Wirtschaftspolitik, die eine flexible Reaktion der Unternehmen auf Marktveränderungen und einen schnellen Strukturwandel der Exportwirtschaft ermöglicht

The impact of banking sector reform in a transition economy: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

We examine the impact of financial sector reform on interest rate levels and spreads using Kyrgyz bank-level data from 1998 to 2005. We find that, in addition to macroeconomic stabilization, structural reforms to the banking sector significantly contributed to lower interest rates. In particular, our results suggest that foreign bank entry and regulatory efforts to increase average bank size were important in reducing deposit rates. In contrast, we find little evidence that banking sector reform or macroeconomic stabilization has impacted interest rate spreads.Transition Financial sector reform Interest rates Spreads