Since the early 1990s, Switzerland has been confronted with a growing fiscal management problem which stems only in part from sluggish growth: it is primarily rooted in insufficient control over public expenditure which has triggered a sharp rise in taxation, as well as a rise in deficits and debt. The causes for the expansion of the public sector, which has been very pronounced, are many. They include the high income elasticity of demand for numerous public programmes, such as health care or education (“Wagner’s law”), whereas there are scant productivity gains in the production of those services (“Baumol’s law”).