Articles

The SNB’s monetary policy framework ten years on: Concluding comments

Authors: Ulrich Kohli

The SNB’s new monetary policy framework ten years on: Panel discussion

Authors: Alexander Swoboda

Discussion of “Reaction of Swiss Term Premia to Monetary Policy Surprises” by Paul Söderlind

Authors: Carlos Lenz

Discussion of “The Swiss Franc Exchange Rate and Deviations from UIP: Global versus Domestic Factors” by Mathias Hoffmann and Rahel Suter

Authors: Tommaso Mancini Griffoli

The Swiss Franc exchange rate and deviations from uncovered interest parity: Global vs domestic factors

We examine the role of global and country-specific factors for the Swiss franc exchange rate in the period 1990–2009. Simple asset pricing theory would predict that exchange rates reflect relative movements in...

Authors: Mathias Hoffmann and Rahel Suter

Discussion of “Interest Rate Dynamics and Monetary Policy Implementation in Switzerland” by Puriya Abbassi, Dieter Nautz and Christian J. Offermanns

Authors: Antoine Martin

Interest rate dynamics and monetary policy implementation in Switzerland

The maturity of the operational target of monetary policy is a distinguishing feature of the SNB’s operational framework of monetary policy. While most central banks use targets for the overnight rate to signa...

Authors: Puriya Abbassi, Dieter Nautz and Christian J. Offermanns

Discussion of “Measuring the Natural Output Level by DSGE Models: An Empirical Investigation for Switzerland” by Stefan Leist and Klaus Neusser

Authors: Jean-Marc Natal

Measuring the natural output level by DSGE models: An empirical investigation for Switzerland

The output gap plays an important role in the assessment and conduct of monetary policy. Most of the current literature, however, relies on filtering procedures which use ad hoc smoothness arguments for identi...

Authors: Stefan Leist and Klaus Neusser

Discussion of “The Role of Monetary Aggregates in the Policy Analysis of the Swiss National Bank” by Gebhard Kirchgässner and Jürgen Wolters

Authors: Sylvia Kaufmann

The role of monetary aggregates in the policy analysis of the swiss national bank

Using Swiss data from 1983 to 2008, this paper investigates whether growth rates of the different measures of the quantity of money and or excess money can be used to forecast inflation. After a preliminary da...

Authors: Gebhard Kirchgässner and Jürgen Wolters

Discussion of “Unemployment and Monetary Policy in Switzerland” by Peter Kugler and George Sheldon

Authors: Attilio Zanetti

Unemployment and monetary policy in Switzerland

This paper investigates the impact of the monetary policy change of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in 1999 on the Swiss labor market on the basis of a Phillips relationship. Theoretical considerations as well a...

Authors: Peter Kugler and George Sheldon

Discussion of “Swiss Monetary Policy 2000–2009” by Hans Genberg and Stefan Gerlach

Authors: Marcel R. Savioz and Maja Ganarin

Swiss monetary policy 2000–2009

In January 2000 the Swiss National Bank adopted a new monetary policy framework incorporating a price stability objective defined as (any rate of) CPI inflation below 2 percent. We contrast this framework with...

Authors: Hans Genberg and Stefan Gerlach

Ten years’ experience with the Swiss National Bank’s monetary policy strategy

In December 1999 the Swiss National Bank (SNB) abandoned monetary targeting and introduced a new monetary policy strategy. The cornerstones of the new framework are an explicit definition of what the SNB consi...

Authors: Thomas J. Jordan, Michel Peytrignet and Enzo Rossi

How to Explain the High Prices in Switzerland?

This article challenges the view that a lack of competition and a high level of regulations are the main causes of Switzerland’s high prices. First, we point out a number of stylized facts which are inconsiste...

Authors: Christoph Sax and Rolf Weder

Trade and the Spillovers of Transnational Terrorism

We examine the impact of transnational terrorism diffusion on security and international trade. To counter the diffusion of transnational terrorism, targeted governments implement security measures against cou...

Authors: José de Sousa, Daniel Mirza and Thierry Verdier

The Role of Corporate Taxation in a Large Welfare State

In comparing the impact of corporate taxation and social insurance on foreign direct investment (FDI) and unemployment, the paper derives four main results: (i) the optimal size of the welfare state depends on...

Authors: Christian Keuschnigg

Adjustment Dynamics of Bilateral Trade Flows: Theory and Evidence

In this paper, I introduce a trade-promoting ‘invisible asset’ into the standard Krugman (1980) model of international trade. It can be interpreted as trust that accumulates as an externality in proportion to suc...

Authors: Benjamin Jung

Armington Product Variety Growth in Small versus Large Countries

Authors: Peter Egger, Martin Gassebner and Andrea Lassmann

On the Political Substitutability between Tariffs and Subsidies

Authors: Daniel Brou and Michele Ruta

Taste Heterogeneity, Trade, and the Within-Industry Home Market Effect

Authors: Raphael Auer

The Global Crisis and the Answer of Economics

Authors: Gebhard Kirchgässner

Interest rate setting on the Swiss Franc repo market

Repurchase agreements (repos) are secured money market transactions. The cash taker provides collateral in the form of securities and in return receives money from the cash provider. To ensure the continuous c...

Authors: Sébastien Kraenzlin

Price-setting behaviour in Switzerland: Evidence from CPI micro data

This paper investigates price-setting behaviour of firms based on the individual price quotes underlying the Swiss consumer price index. The data set covers the years from 1993 to 2005. Six main findings emerg...

Authors: Daniel Kaufmann

The up-coming crisis and the banking sector in the Baltic States

Authors: Mejra Festić, Sebastijan Repina and Alenka Kavkler

Targeting labour market programmes — results from a randomized experiment

We evaluate a randomized experiment of a statistical support system developed to assist caseworkers in Swiss employment offices in choosing appropriate active labour market programmes for their unemployed clie...

Authors: Stefanie Behncke, Markus Frölich and Michael Lechner

Estimating a Taylor Rule with Markov Switching Regimes for Switzerland

In this paper a Taylor rule including the exchange rate gap is estimated for Switzerland under the assumption that the parameters depend on two states governed by a Markov switching process. The estimates from...

Authors: Alexander Perruchoud

Regional per Capita-Income — The Importance of Region-Specific Production Factors

Endowment with infrastructure, human and cultural capital is highly significant for regional economic performance. After clustering the regions, this hypothesis is tested for Austrian, German and Swiss NUTS 3 ...

Authors: Dirk Fornahl, Axel Schaffer and Jochen Siegele

The Marginal Cost of Saving a Life in Health Care: Age, Gender and Regional Differences in Switzerland

This paper estimates the marginal cost of saving a life using age- and gender-specific health care expenditures and mortality rates of the 26 Swiss cantons for the period 1997 to 2006. It shows almost triple t...

Authors: Stefan Felder and Andreas Werblow

Retrospective Price Indices and Substitution Bias

The consumer price index (CPI) is usually computed as a fixed-weighted Laspeyres price index, with the weights updated at discrete intervals only. It is well known that the Laspeyres functional form entails a ...

Authors: W. Erwin Diewert, Marco Huwiler and Ulrich Kohli

Liberalizing the Swiss Meat Market with the EU: Welfare Effects and Impacts on Third Countries

This article analyzes the welfare effects of multilateral versus bilateral trade liberalization between Switzerland and the EU in the meat sector. A multi-market multi-region partial equilibrium model is used....

Authors: Isabelle Schluep Campo and Robert Jörin

Measuring Capital Stocks and Capital Services in Switzerland

This paper presents estimates of the aggregate net (wealth) capital stock and aggregate capital services for Switzerland. We derive these estimates in a consistent manner using the perpetual inventory method. ...

Authors: Barbara Rudolf and Mathias Zurlinden

Biased Estimation in a Simple Extension of a Standard Error Correction Model

This paper considers an expectations augmented version of the Engle and Granger (1987) error correction model and shows that standard inference about the adjustment coefficients can be severely biased. This bias ...

Authors: Christian Müller

The Performance of Actively and Passively Managed Swiss Equity Funds

Using a Switzerland-specific Carhart model, we study the risk-adjusted performance of actively and passively managed mutual funds investing in Swiss stocks from 1989 to 2007. We also compare the performance of...

Authors: Manuel Ammann and Michael Steiner

Do Foreigners Pay Higher Rents for the Same Quality of Housing in Geneva and Zurich?

The Geneva and Zurich housing markets are characterised by high proportions of foreigners and a large share of rental housing. This provides ideal conditions for testing whether foreigners pay more for the sam...

Authors: Andrea Baranzini, Caroline Schaerer, José V. Ramirez and Philippe Thalmann

Estimation of Hedonic Models Using a Multilevel Approach: An Application for the Swiss Rental Market

This paper is an empirical application of a hedonic model to determine rents in Switzerland. Unlike traditional hedonic models, we take account of the fact that data are clustered at different levels. The resu...

Authors: Dragana Djurdjevic, Christine Eugster and Ronny Haase

The Impact of Housing Market Segmentation between Tourists and Residents on the Hedonic Price for Landscape Quality

Market segmentation is an important issue when estimating the implicit price for an environmental amenity from a surrogate market like property. This paper tests the hypothesis of a segmentation of the housing...

Authors: Nils Soguel, Marc-Jean Martin and Alexandre Tangerini

Valuation of Environmental Goods in Profit and Non-Profit Housing Sectors: Evidence from the Rental Market in the City of Zurich

This paper analyses the impact of electromagnetic pollution, noise and air pollution on the rent level for the aggregated and disaggregated market in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Although there is no concl...

Authors: Silvia Banfi, Massimo Filippini and Andrea Horehájová

Indirect Construction of Hedonic Price Indexes for Private Properties

This paper analyzes the construction of price indexes for condominiums and single family houses in Switzerland over the period 1985 to 2004 using the indirect method. We find, that the pooling of the data, i.e...

Authors: Stefan S. Fahrländer

Spatial Estimation of the Impact of Airport Noise on Residential Housing Prices

The paper applies spatial econometric techniques to measure the impact of airport noise on the price of single-family homes in the Zurich Airport area. We exploit a large database of geo-referenced noise measu...

Authors: Marco Salvi

Constant-Quality House Price Indexes for Switzerland

The measurement of house price movements is a vital topic from both academic and practical perspectives and hence has been the focus of much research. There is almost unanimous consensus in the literature that...

Authors: Steven C. Bourassa, Martin Hoesli, Donato Scognamiglio and Philippe Sormani

Introduction to this Volume: Applying Hedonics in the Swiss Housing Markets

Authors: Andrea Baranzini, José V. Ramirez, Caroline Schaerer and Philippe Thalmann

How Do the Determinants of Demand for GP Visits Respond to Higher Supply? An Analysis of Grouped Counts

Although there is a substantial literature on the determinants of demand for primary care, few studies have been able to examine how these determinants respond to higher supply. Some demand studies include sup...

Authors: Paulos Teckle and Matt Sutton

Regional Quantity, Productivity and Efficiency Measures of the Swiss Health Care System

In Switzerland, there are substantial cantonal differences in per capita cost of the mandatory health care system. The present paper breaks these differences down into price and quantity effects revealing both...

Authors: Reto Schleiniger

What Drives Individual Health Expenditure in Switzerland?

The explanatory factors of individual healthcare consumption are studied by means of healthcare expenditures from the 2000–2005 Swiss Household Income and Expenditure Survey (SHIES). In order to tackle the iss...

Authors: Marcel Bilger and Jean-Paul Chaze

Health Shocks and the Hazard Rate of Early Retirement in the ECHP

In this paper we use discrete-time proportional hazard models with internationally comparable longitudinal data from the full eight waves of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to study the relations...

Authors: Ronald Hagan, Andrew M. Jones and Nigel Rice

Swiss DRGs: Patient Heterogeneity and Hospital Payments

In this paper, we analyze the prospective method of paying hospitals when the within-DRG variance is high. To avoid patients dumping, an outlier payment system is implemented. In the APDRG Swiss System, it con...

Authors: Michel Mougeot and Florence Naegelen

Consumer-Directed Health Care: Can Consumers Look After Themselves?

In health care systems today, including those of Switzerland and the United States, participants do not necessarily see the big picture of lifetime health costs and quality of life, and in many systems consume...

Authors: Daniel McFadden, Joachim Winter and Florian Heiss