The World Economic Forum’s «Global Competitiveness Report» has for years ranked Switzerland as the most competitive country on earth. But even Switzerland resounds with all manner of gripes, including excessive red tape, inadequate productivity growth, misguided fiscal incentives, or too much «Dichtestress» (a virtually untranslateable word in German signifying the stress caused by living in too great proximity to others and having insufficient privacy, or, more succinctly, if ungrammatically, «density stress» ed).
How are these − and other − complaints about business conditions in Switzerland to be seen compared to the country’s excellent positioning – whether in terms of competitiveness or for example its high level of affluence, record for innovation, quality of life – even ifs overall level of national contentment? Where does Switzerland really stand? How are factors like growth, income distribution, education or living space, let alone the political system, in inter-temporal, and international terms?
Rather than a special report, Avenir Suisse has got to grips with these and other questions through views and insights in the form of a calendar with 24 charts. Most are based on the refinement of earlier studies and articles. The calendar illustrates, for example, that living space has over recent decades become cheaper (measured by purchasing power), that the small and medium sized business sector has grown, not shrunk, and that Switzerland has better universities than the US.