No. 105, March

The KOF Business Situation Indicator for the Swiss private sector improved in February 2017 for the first time in three months. Although, considered from a long-term perspective, the current business situation can be classified as rather less favourable, businesses were able to catch their breath a little bit in February in structural terms.

A new KOF Working Paper analyses how adaptive learning can be implemented into macroeconomic modelling.

As skills mismatch and youth unemployment are high, vocational education and training (VET) systems in many countries are undergoing reforms in order to meet skills demand. Employer engagement is a known component of strong VET programs, but what should employer engagement look like during reform processes?

Since 2015, KOF analyses, in cooperation with the Swiss Wine Market Observatory (OSMV), have made it possible to set up a tool for analysing price elasticities on the Swiss wine market. As new results show, rosé wines have, compared to white or red wines, the highest price elasticity in Switzerland. This indicates that consumers should lower their purchases of rosé wine faster when the prices increase.

A large number of entrepreneurs in Switzerland say that free movement of persons is a key element in the success of their business. But has free movement of persons really made businesses larger, more productive and more innovative? A new KOF study shows that it has: businesses have indeed become larger and more innovative. In fact, due to free movement of persons, they are increasingly deciding to produce in Switzerland.

In the past year, macroeconomic production in the eurozone expanded by 1.7%, giving Europe a growth edge over the USA for the first time since 2008.