Rico Maggi

Efficiency and regulation in the case of the Swiss Private Railways

This paper discusses the efficiency of the Swiss Private Railways in an economic and regulatory context. For this purpose, scale efficiency and overall cost efficiency for 48 Swiss private railway companies are investigated. A translog cost function for a four-year panel is estimated and measures of economies of scale and density are derived. A compound indicator for network size and structure is introduced. The estimation results allow for a discussion of efficiency in terms of optimal scale and density. Overall cost efficiency is estimated by means of a frontier cost function. The findings on efficiency are discussed in the Swiss political and regulatory context. More specifically, a regression on the influence of ownership and subsidy structure on the efficiency is performed. The findings are that most of the Swiss private railway companies operate at an inappropriately low scale and density. While the companies are rather homogenous in terms of overall cost efficiency, evidence is found for a significant influence of regulation in terms of the subsidy structure.

VIDEOCONFERENCING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSPORT: AN ANGLO-SWISS PERSPECTIVE

Videoconferencing provides an alternative means to actual face‐to‐face contact of ‘transporting’ business information. This paper develops a simple economic model to examine the comparative costs of using videoconferencing as opposed to making journeys for face‐to‐face meetings. It explores, looking at developments in both the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the actual use of videoconferencing to‐date and the factors influencing its adoption. In particular, it looks at the nature of substitutability and complementarity of videoconferencing and travel focusing on the importance of influences such as the nature of the firms involved and their internal managerial structure. There is, finally, a consideration of longer term influences on the up‐take of such telecommunications technology.

MISSING NETWORKS IN EUROPEAN TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS

The paper reports on missing networks in Europes transport and communication infrastructure. Starting from the keyrole of infrastructure for economic development, it is argued that unless urgent action is taken to fill the gaps they threaten to reduce seriously the competitive advantages that will be gained from the single European market. Six examples of missing networks are presented in this study. They relate to combined freight transport, the European airline system, highspeed rail networks, European common carriage, inland waterways and telecommunication. The logic behind these missing networks is discussed and it is concluded that the problems can only be solved if one has a pentagon of concerns, rather than just a one‐ or two‐dimensional infrastructure planning policy.

Context Specific Media Choice and Barriers to Communication in Universities

Despite the research conducted in recent years in the field of information and communication economics, there is relatively little understanding of the impact of new electronic media on communication behaviour. The paper presents a methodology and empirical results on communication behaviour in a university setting. A general framework for communication behaviour is developed where (tele)communication media choice plays an important role. The media choice component of the conceptual framework is analysed in more detail. Special attention is given to the possible existence of barriers to communication. Testing of the media choice segment of the conceptual framework is being achieved by means of the stated preference approach using experimental design theory. The target population is composed of all academics associated with an Austrian university. The survey population is restricted to the academics associated with the University of Vienna, the Technical University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. The sample design used relies on exogenous stratification. Empirical results are presented using multinomial logit models for a series of communication contexts.

Ethnic Concentration, Cultural Identity and Immigrant Self-Employment in Switzerland

During the last few decades the world has experienced an unprecedented level of cross-border migration. While this has generated significant socio-economic gains for host countries, as well as sometimes for the countries of origin, the costs and benefits involved are unevenly distributed. Consequently, growing global population mobility is a hotly debated topic, both in the political arena and by the general public. Amidst a plethora of facts, opinions and emotions, the assessment of migration impacts must be grounded in a solid scientific evidence base. This analytical book outlines and applies a range of the scientific methods that are currently available in migration impact assessment (MIA). The book provides various North American and European case studies that quantify socio-economic consequences of migration for host societies and for immigrants themselves.

Higher tourism education in English – where and why?

Purpose – The future growth of international tourism is challenged by concerns of political instability, safety, socio‐economics and environmental impact. Furthermore, globalization has increased competition in tourism markets, and destinations are exposed to tough price competition on homogenized products by rivals worldwide. Given these challenges and the desire by locales for sustainable tourism development, human resource development is critical to the success of tourism in many markets. As countries and regions invest more in higher education for tourism, many of them seem to be launching these programs in English to broaden their market appeal. However, the market for higher tourism education in English (HTEE) is highly competitive and progressively global, so launching a program in English opens a school to greater competition as a price for reaching a wider audience. The purpose of this paper is to look at how tourism, wealth and higher education are linked, and how the location of HTEE is related...

TEFI Values in Tourism Education: A Comparative Analysis

This article brings empirical evidence to the conceptual framework of tourism values developed by the Tourism Education Future Initiative by exploring the content of the mission statements of 85 graduate programs in tourism around the world as well as the content of 156 posts in international job search engines advertising for positions in tourism related industries. Finally a survey conducted in several international universities, with an in-depth case study applied at the University of Lugano, Switzerland revealed interesting results concerning the values students in tourism programs believe are important for themselves, their universities and the industry.

Swiss transport policy for Europe? Federalism and the dominance of local issues

This paper argues that as a function of the federalist structure of Switzerland, policy projects are treated as if they were local public goods. In case of transport policy proposals with important spatial externalities, this may prove to be fatal for the integration of Swiss transport infrastructure into the European transport networks. Empirical evidence for the relevance of local issues is given in this paper for five votes on road-transport issues with a European impact in Switzerland in 1984 and 1990. It is concluded that European transport infrastructure networks risk to be incomplete if federalist elements in national decision-making lead to a dominance of local issues.

Acceptance of Life-Threatening Hazards among Young Tourists A Stated Choice Experiment

This work analyzes the impact of potential life-threatening events at destination on the decision to undertake a leisure trip, and points out the trade-offs between such events and the attributes of a trip. Life-threatening events are a phenomenon of contemporary tourism. Even though, if they do happen, such improbable events have massive consequences, they seem to be implicitly accepted and taken into account by tourists visiting potentially risky destinations. To evaluate the acceptance of such life-threatening events, we apply a stated choice experiment and adopt an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable model. Our research framework considers four types of hazards—terrorist acts, political insurrections, natural catastrophes, and epidemics—focusing on Southeast Asia. A questionnaire was administered to university students currently living and studying in Switzerland. Results show how different hazards, their potential magnitude, and respondents’ risk perception influence decisions.

Environmental implications of missing transport networks in Europe

In view of increasing spatial interaction in Europe, missing transport networks represent a serious problem. In this paper, strategies of coping with the problem of missing networks are discussed from an economic policy perspective. It is argued that instead of the traditional approach of investments in transport infrastructure, software-oriented strategies and organizational measures should be envisaged to increase the performance of the transport networks. The implications of such measures for transport and the environment are discussed in the context of welfare economics. It is concluded that introducing useful policy strategies will have to overcome the resistance of the actual winners of national regulations.