Joint paper with Harris Dellas, University of Bern, and Jean-Marc Natal, Swiss National Bank.

Presented at the Cleveland Fed, Fall 2004

Joint paper with Massimiliano Castelli, UBS. The recent decision by EU's finance ministers to suspend the Stability and Growth Pact has shown some weaknesses in EMU's economic policy framework. This is not surprising given the still short-lived EMU's history and the ongoing challenges posed by the European construction. While a new pact is badly needed, Switzerland's experience can provide some important insights in the current debate in Europe. Switzerland is per construction a small Europe. Like in the EU, Swiss states (cantons) are diverse in terms of income and industrial specialization. They operate in a monetary union with interest rates set out at a federal level and a flexible exchange rate determined in global financial markets. Like the euro area, Switzerland can hardly be defined as an optimal currency area. In addition, Switzerland is a multilingual country, which makes it more similar to the EU rather than to the US. Switzerland, however, differs from the euro area in terms of economic policy settings. Regarding monetary policy, the Swiss framework is relatively similar to the European one, but its fiscal policy strongly differs. The cleverly designed Helvetian fiscal policy framework is based on tax competition between cantons, full implementation of the subsidiarity principle, and a mechanism through which rich cantons transfer funds to poor ones. This perequation attenuates the negative side-effects of tax competition (e.g. no race to the bottom) by providing all cantons with sufficient resources to supply an adequate level of public goods. The mix of monetary integration, a credible monetary authority, and an effective fiscal setting makes the Swiss economic policy framework more stable and flexible than the European one. The European Central Bank's credibility is coupled with a fiscal policy framework based on clumsy tax harmonization and a rigid and arbitrary Stability and Growth Pact

Published in I.D. Salavrakos (ed.) Aspects of Globalisation, Regionalism and Business, ATINER, 2004, p. 257-270

Non-technical paper about the demographic effects on provision systems with Heinz Zimmermann and Andrea Bubb

Published in La Vie économique (Revue de politique économique), 75(3), 23-29, 2002. In French, Vieillissement démographique et systèmes de prévoyance: l'incidence sur le deuxième pilier
Published in Die Volkswirtschaft (Magazin für Wirtschaftspolitik), 75(3), 23-29, 2002. In German, Demographische Alterung und Vorsorgesysteme - Auswirkungen auf die Zweite Säule

Short description of a possible immigration policy for Switzerland following a point system in order to avoid a decrease in the population and to allow getting highly skilled immigrants

Unpublished, Fall 2001. In French, Pour une nouvelle politique d'immigration

Short non-technical paper based on the e-money paper (Electronic Money. Reality or Fiction) published in La Vie économique and Die Volkswirtschaft. Comments from Martin Herzog in order to answer the question

Published in Evolution (Forum der Inwo Schweiz), 31(5), 4/5/8, 2001. In German, Elektronisches Geld als Verwirklichung des Freigeldes?

Non-technical paper about forms, characteristics and consequences of electronic money

Published in La Vie économique (Revue de politique économique), 74(4), 49-53, 2001. In French, La monnaie électronique: réalité et fiction
Published in Die Volkswirtschaft (Magazin für Wirtschaftspolitik), 74(4), 49-53, 2001. In German, Elektronisches Geld: Wirklichkeit und Fiktion

We analyze several identification frameworks based on operating procedures to measure monetary policy in a small open economy. We use a two-stage nonrecursive VAR model to identify monetary shocks. We construct then various overall monetary policy indicators based on different residuals treatments and report them as weighted sums of monetary policy variables. Finally, we apply our framework to the Swiss National Bank. Our main indicator reveals that the exchange rate was the dominant variable at the end of the seventies. During the eighties, aggregates had their golden age, while in the nineties, the call rate showed up as an operating variable

Working paper 0012, Studienzentrum Gerzensee, 2000

We estimate monetary policy rules in Switzerland for 1981-1997. In addition to an inflation gap, we find that forward-looking rules with output and exchange rate gaps nicely fit monetary aggregates as well as the call rate. We split the sample in 1990 when the Swiss National Bank replaced annual targets by medium-term targets for its official policy instrument, the monetary base. We find then that our rule best describes M0 and M1 before 1990 and only the call rate after 1990. Moreover, such small open economy rules are robust with respect to different central bank information sets

Working paper 0010, Studienzentrum Gerzensee, 2000

Working paper (wp, August 1999) and non-technical overview (nto, September 1999) written with Martin K. Hess

Published in La Vie économique (Revue de politique économique), 72(9), 32-33, 1999. In French, Une série mensuelle pour le produit intérieur brut de la Suisse. Indicateur conjoncturel et outil de recherche
Published in Die Volkswirtschaft (Magazin für Wirtschaftspolitik), 72(9), 32-33, 1999. In German, Eine monatliche Datenreihe für das Bruttoinlandprodukt. Konjunkturindikator und Hilfsgrösse für die Forschung

Paper written with Martin K. Hess. In this paper, we estimate deseasonalized monthly series for Swiss gross domestic product at constant prices of 1990 for the period 1980-1998. They are consistent with the quarterly figures estimated by the Federal Office for Economic Development and Labour and are obtained by including information contained in related series. We present a general approach using the Kalman filter technique nesting a great variety of interpolation setups. We evaluate competing models and provide a time series that can be used by other researchers. (Working paper 9902, Studienzentrum Gerzensee, 1999)

Published in Economic and Financial Modelling, 7(4), 153-194, Winter 2000

Brief opinion about the excellent Ph.D. program in Gerzensee

Published in Friconomy, University of Freiburg, (2), 27, 1999. In French, Une excellente expérience humaine

B.A. Thesis University of St. Gallen

Unpublished, Fall 1992. In French: Politique régionale dans les pays européens: analyse comparative entre la France, l'Italie et l'Allemagne