Abstract
Switzerland has one of the most highly developed economies in the world, but there are appreciable differences in the level of development as between one canton and another. This may seem astonishing in so small a country; the explanation lies in natural and human divisions. Factors of production do not easily move between cantons, and there is no large-scale federal expenditure to equalise opportunities between unequally well-endowed regions. Yet a poor canton does not compare with a rich canton in the same terms that a depressed area compares with an advanced one, and this is one reason why the case of backward regions in Switzerland is of special interest.
Translated from the French by Elizabeth Henderson.
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Notes
The Backward Region of Fribourg in Switzerland1
Switzerland has one of the most highly developed economies in the world, but there are appreciable differences in the level of development as between one canton and another. This may seem astonishing in so small a country; the explanation lies in natural and human divisions. Factors of production do not easily move between cantons, and there is no large-scale federal expenditure to equalise opportunities between unequally well-endowed regions. Yet a poor canton does not compare with a rich canton in the same terms that a depressed area compares with an advanced one, and this is one reason why the case of backward regions in Switzerland is of special interest.
See J. Valarché, ‘Le Problème de la parité des revenus’, Rivista internazionale di scienze economiche e commerciali no. 11 (1963).
Federal population census, 1963.
See H. B. Chenery and T. Watanabe, ‘International Comparisons of the Structure of Production’, Econometrica, Oct 1958.
It is difficult to know what a top-ranking employee actually earns, but definitely a good deal less in Fribourg than he could earn elsewhere in Switzerland for the same job. Civil service salaries may be taken as an example. A university professor in Fribourg earns 15% less than the Swiss average.
According to the Swiss Tourist Federation, 3 1/2 is the multiplier for the tourist industry.
J. Valarché, ‘Innovation in Stock Farming: Information Flow from the Agricultural and Animal Food Industries’. Paper prepared for the International Economic Association’sConference on Economic Problems of Agriculture in Industrial Societies and Repercussions in Developing Countries, Rome, 1–8 September 1965.
R. Livet, L’Avenir des régions agricoles, Ed. Économie et Humanisme (Paris 1965) p. 28.
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© 1969 International Economic Association
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Valarché, J. (1969). The Backward Region of Fribourg in Switzerland. In: Robinson, E.A.G. (eds) Backward Areas in Advanced Countries. International Economic Association Conference Volumes, Numbers 1–50. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15315-2_7
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