I hold the Chair of Applied Macroeconomics at the University of Neuchâtel, and am director of the MSc in Applied Economics, as well as Research Fellow at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich. Moreover, I am co-editor of the Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics and regularly write studies on policy-relevant macroeconomic questions, for example, for the State Secretariate for Economic Affairs (SECO).
My research focuses on inflation, output, interest rate, and exchange rate dynamics over long historical episodes. I am also interested in the role of monetary policy and nominal rigidities. My recent work provides econometric tools and novel data to analyze Swiss business cycle fluctuations since the 19th century.
News:
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1 August 2023: I have been appointed full professor of applied macroeconomics at the University of Neuchâtel.
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31 May 2022: Jointly with Anne Kathrin Funk of the SNB I published an article on the interaction of bonuses and downward rigid base wages. The article is open access.
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8 April 2022: We received the 2020 best paper award of the Society for Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics. for the paper “Constrained interest rates and changing dynamics at the zero lower bound” with Gregor Bäurle, Sylvia Kaufmann and Rodney Strachan
Research interests
Macroeconomics, Monetary economics, monetary history, forecasting
Selected projects and publications
What drives long-term interest rates? Evidence from the entire Swiss franc history 1852-2020, 2022, IRENE Working Paper No. 22-03, Institute of Economic Research, University of Neuchâtel
with Niko Hauzenberger, Rebecca Stuart, and Cédric Tille
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We construct novel monthly interest rate and exchange rate data for Switzerland and analyse the most important driving forces.
Do sticky wages matter? New evidence from matched firm-survey and register data, 2022, Economica, doi: 10.1111/ecca.12412
with Anne Kathrin Funk
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We examine the role of wage rigidities after the Swiss National Bank removed an exchange rate floor leading to a 1% decline in the price level. We find that sticky wages caused a 0.3% decline in income, 0.9% decline in employment income, and a 0.05 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate.
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In the news: [Tages Anzeiger]
Overnight rate and signalling effects of central bank bills, 2022, European Economic Review, 143, doi: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2022.104060
with Fabio Canetg
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We identify the causal effect of surprise changes in an interest rate floor exploiting regular auctions of SNB Bills (Swiss central bank debt securities). We find that a restrictive interest rate floor shock causes a higher money market rate, an appreciation of the Swiss franc, and a decline in stock prices.
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A previous version was titled 'Shocking interest rate floors'.
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[publication open access, online appendix, replication files, working paper]