I am a Professor of Applied Macroeconomics at the University of Neuchâtel and Research Fellow at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich. I also held part-time teaching positions at the Graduate Institute Geneva, the University of Bern and the Study Center Gerzensee. Before turning to academia, I worked as a Senior Economist at the Swiss National Bank. My research focuses on inflation and exchange rate dynamics, the causal effects of monetary policy and nominal frictions, as well as the role of different monetary regimes since the 19th century.
News:
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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.
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27 January 2022: I am very happy to announce that my papers on the allocative effects of wage rigidity and the financial market effects of central bank bills have been accepted at Economica and the European Economic Review, respectively. Moreover, a paper on the interaction between downward rigid base wages and flexible bonuses will soon appear in the AEA Papers & Proceedings.
Research interests
Monetary economics, monetary history, forecasting
Selected projects
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]