Internationalization of Industry: An Assessment in the Light of a Small Open Economy (Switzerland)

About 10 years ago, the first very small steps towards this book were taken. The starting point was marked by the deep and sudden slump of the Swiss economy in the mid-seventies: a crisis wiping out about 10 percentage points of GNP and employment within just two years. To this writer, it was clear from the beginning that neither the exogenous shocks nor the struc­ tural changes were in fact exogenous or structural. They were given and sha­ ped by global forces. They were part and parcel of capitalist development. There is no other highly developed country in the world which is so ex­ tremely and integrally exposed to world-wide currents of financial and economic changes as Switzerland. The degree and dimensions of open­ ness ofthe Swiss economy led to the formulation of our research approach for studying the internationalization of the economy, a topic theoretically and politically developed in this book. Empirical evidence relates to our study of Swiss experience. A well-known Swiss-American economist offered the following com­ ment on our previous work on the internationalization of industry: "You are very good in raising interesting questions ..." What was undoubtedly meant as a criticism was received as a compliment. Too much talent and too many research efforts are, in my opinion, wasted by research programs which place technique over substance. This unfortunate development in our profession has already greatly reduced the social utility of economists.