Subsidies in times of crisis. The potential for improvement in financial aid and compensation

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult to implement sustainable fiscal policy and has increased the pressure on governments worldwide to use public funds more efficiently and effectively. Also in Switzerland, spending must be reduced so that the federal budget once again meets the requirements of the debt brake. In particular, the steadily growing federal subsidies must be reviewed, and unnecessary and uneconomical subsidies must be reduced. This is the background to the following article, which highlights the biggest challenges in the administration of subsidies.