1 This paper studies different functions and relations between 45 agglomerated municipalities in southern Switzerland (Ticino), using a territorial agent-based model. Our research adopts a bottom-up approach to urban systems, considering the agglomeration mechanism and effects of different regional and urban policies, and simulates the individual actions of diverse agents on a real city using an Agent-based model (ABM). Simulating the individual actions of diverse agents on a real city and measuring the resulting system behaviour and outcomes over time, they effectively provide a good test bed for evaluating the impact of different policies. The database is created merging the Swiss official secondary data for one reference year (2011) with Eurostat and OECD-Regpat. The results highlight that the understanding of municipalities' functions on the territory appears to be essential for designing a solid institutional agglomeration (or city). From a methodo-

This study evaluates the impact of the second home restriction (Lex Weber) on construction investments in Switzerland. Different specifications and variations are defined, and the changes in investment behaviour are analysed. A first basic model considers the variation in investments through a discrete event study analysis, while a second model includes a continuous treatment variable to account for the different strong impacts of the law in various municipalities. In the second step, these two basic models are developed in a way that allows to include controls for the different cantonal legislation. The results show that with a delay of three years (due to the expiration of permits), the law had the desired impact on new construction investments. Additionally, the importance of the changes on different outcomes in the local economy and tourism industry are discussed.

This paper examines the impact of the fourth partial revision of the law of unemployment insurance (AVIG) on unemployment dynamics in Switzerland at a cantonal level. The authors apply the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), a matching method for comparative case studies. A counterfactual analysis of the cases studied is performed by combining a control group of several untreated units, which provides a better comparison to the treatment group than a single unit. The control unit is designed as a weighted average of the available cantons in the donor pool, taking into account the similarities between the chosen controls and the treated unit. Once policy changes are controlled, the results suggest a significant effect on the unemployment rate at a cantonal level: the reform had a discernible impact on lowering the unemployment rate in the Italian- and French-speaking cantons in Switzerland.

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