No. 103, January

In December, the KOF Business Situation Indicator for the Swiss private economy went down slightly for the second consecutive time. According to the responses of the Swiss companies, the business trend was somewhat slow-moving towards the end of the year.

Companies are increasingly asking for a certain amount of work experience in job advertisements. How can graduates gain such experience and which type of experience will actually help them get the job? A recent KOF study shows that work placements abroad and voluntary work, in particular, seem to have little prospect of success.

Why do companies decide in favour or against the application of new energy technologies? And which political measures are considered decisive by companies? These are the questions an international team of researchers investigated in the context of the national “Managing Energy Consumption” research project.

In mid-February, Swiss citizens will vote on the third corporate tax reform (CTR III). To mitigate the effect of lower tax revenues, the Swiss parliament decided in favour of an increase in taxes on dividends but against the introduction of a capital gains tax. KOF researchers have investigated which impacts an additional taxation on capital gains on gross domestic product, investment, employment, consumption and tax revenue could have.