No. 121, September

The 2018 Summer Institute organized by the Center on the Economics and Management of Education and Training Systems (CEMETS) brought teams from Benin, Chile, Costa Rica, Nepal, Serbia, South Africa, and the United States (Colorado and California) to Zurich to participate in a 10-day intensive course on vocational education and training (VET) as part of the CEMETS reform lab.

Most Swiss people rent their home rather than buy an apartment or house during their lifetime. Only 38% of Swiss households are homeowners – the lowest homeownership ratio in Europe. Furthermore, only a fifth of the housing stock are single family dwellings – with a declining trend. The reasons behind these low figures are both structural and cyclical.

In August, the KOF Business Situation Indicator for the Swiss private economy climbed very slightly again, falling into line with the previous month’s positive trend. Despite uncertainty in the international environment, the Swiss upswing remains robust.

Do we work more when it pays off? Not necessarily, as a new study by Isabel Martìnez, Michael Siegenthaler and Emmanuel Saez shows. On the basis of Swiss data, the authors demonstrate that a temporary total exemption from income tax has not really resulted in increased labor input.

The financial crisis is approaching its tenth anniversary. While Switzerland got off rather lightly, economic distortions at the global level were pronounced. At the KOF Forecast Conference on 3 October, Aymo Brunetti, Oswald Grübel and KOF Director Jan-Egbert Sturm will take stock of the past and cast an eye on the future of the Swiss economy.