Wake‑Up Call for Switzerland: New Study Explores Innovation Slowdown
Switzerland still has strong innovation centres and globally competitive sectors. However, signs of fatigue and fragmentation are visible. This is shown by a new study conducted by FHNW, the KOF Institute, EPFL (Prof. Dominique Foray) and the University of St. Gallen. It examines how Swiss innovation models are changing and where they are stagnating. Politics and business must respond in order to enable a new wave of transformative innovations that create new companies, industries and markets. Read more...
Innovation has a price tag — and patents help sustain it
A new study co-authored by Prof. Gaétan de Rassenfosse, published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, provides the first direct evidence that patent protection enables firms to charge supra-competitive prices for consumer products — and puts a concrete number on the premium: 8 to 10%. Read more...
Robust Timing for Medical Screening
Medical tests are only valuable to the extent that they change what clinicians do next, and that value depends critically on how fast risk accumulates between “wait” and “act.” Recent research by Prof. Thomas A. Weber, analyzes medical screening decisions when prevalence dynamics are misspecified. The work proposes a simple, robust rule with a relative performance guarantee, illustrated on post-exposure tuberculosis infection screening where timing choices span weeks to years and speed ambiguity is clinically consequential. Read more...
