This paper contributes to the literature on safe haven assets, analyzing gold and the Swiss Franc's defensive properties inside various global stocks portfolios. The analysis relies on monthly data extending over the last two decades. Drawing on Multivariate Garch DCC models, the hedging...

This study investigates the temporal variation in the safe haven status of the Japanese yen, Swiss franc, and U.S. dollar. Investors prefer to purchase a safe haven currency (SHC) in times of high exchange rate volatility, parametrized herein with time-variant degrees of risk aversion. Until the...

This paper contributes to the literature on safe haven assets, analyzing gold and the Swiss Franc's defensive properties inside various global stocks portfolios. The analysis relies on monthly data extending over the last two decades. Drawing on Multivariate Garch DCC models, the hedging...

This paper investigates the residential integration of transnational regional economies, comparing them with the standard national setting studied in urban economics. For this purpose, we construct a theoretical model for residential location choices for a transnational economy with integrated...

A key issue for decentralised markets like FX is how the market responds to extreme situations. Using data on FX transactions with a precise identification of Algorithmic trading (AT), we find that AT, broadly defined, appears to have contributed to the deterioration of market quality following...

This paper examines the cross-sectional drivers of credit returns for Swiss franc corporate bonds in a comprehensive sample including transaction prices and effective bid-ask spreads from 2007 until 2022. Momentum, carry, value and defensive characteristics explain a significant part of the...

We study domestic and international drivers of long-term interest rates using newly compiled financial market data for Switzerland starting in 1852. We use a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model to estimate long-term trends in nominal interest rates, exchange rate growth, and...

This paper analyzes the exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices for 85 categories of goods and services in Switzerland. The pass-through estimates are computed using a synthetic difference-in-differences approach that exploits the large Swiss franc appreciation that followed the unexpected...

Since 2007 the Swiss franc had been getting stronger, but it was a decision by the Swiss National Bank to unpeg the Swiss franc from the Euro in 2015, which resulted in its significant appreciation and shocked FX markets. Many citizens in Central and Eastern Europe were directly affected because...

We dissect the impact of a large and sudden exchange rate appreciation on Swiss border import prices, retail prices, and consumer expenditures on domestic and imported non-durable goods, following the removal of the EUR/CHF floor in January 2015. Cross-sectional variation in border price changes...

In numerous Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the global financial crisis as well as the unpegging of the foreign exchange rate of the Swiss franc (CHF) against the euro amplified the repayment troubles of households with the outstanding CHF-linked debt. In Croatia, the CHF loans...

This paper examines the cross-dynamics of volatility term structures implied by foreign exchange options. The data used in the empirical analysis consist of daily observations of implied volatilities for OTC options on the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Swiss franc, and Canadian dollar,...

In this paper, we analyse the effect of unconventional monetary policies on the EUR/CHF exchange rate. We apply the synthetic control approach to four events defining a change in the Swiss National Bank's monetary policy during the 2009 to 2011 period before the introduction of the exchange rate...

Since the global financial crisis, the Swiss National Bank has been accumulating reserve assets amounting to the size of the Swiss GDP. Yet, the Swiss franc is still considered to be significantly over-valued. This paper analyzes the drivers behind the new situation and discusses challenges and...

Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview -- Chapter 2. Historical Background -- Chapter 3. Banks in the Old Confederation and in Geneva (Before 1848) -- Chapter 4. Free Banking and the Foundation of the Swiss National Bank (1826-1907) -- Chapter 5. Railway Boom, the Big Banks, and the Ascent of...

From September 2011 to January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) implemented a minimum exchange rate regime (i.e. a one-sided target zone) vis-a-vis the euro to fight deflationary pressures in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis. During this period of unconventional monetary policy,...

From September 2011 to January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) implemented a minimum exchange rate regime (i.e. a one-sided target zone) vis-à-vis the euro to fight deflationary pressures in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis. During this period of unconventional monetary policy,...

We examine the relation between disclosure quality and information asymmetry among market participants following an exogenous shock to macroeconomic risk. In 2015 the Swiss National Bank abruptly announced that it would abandon the longstanding minimum euro-Swiss franc exchange rate. We find...

From September 2011 to January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) implemented a minimum exchange rate regime (i.e. a one-sided target zone) vis- à-vis the euro to fight deflationary pressures in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis. During this period of unconventional monetary policy,...

From September 2011 to January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) implemented a minimum exchange rate regime (i.e. a one-sided target zone) vis-a-vis the euro to fight deflationary pressures in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis. During this period of unconventional monetary policy,...

This paper focuses on three "safe haven" assets (gold, oil, and the Swiss Franc) and examines the impact of recent financial crises and some macroeconomic variables on their return co-movements during the last two decades. All financial crises produced significant increases in conditional...

The Swiss National Bank's (SNB) elimination of the lower bound on the EUR/CHF exchange rate on January 15 2015 provides a unique setting to study how prices and quantities respond to changes in nominal exchange rates. In this paper, we complement the study of imports in Auer et al. (2020) by...

This paper sheds light on Swiss franc LIBOR futures, which are often used to derive interest rate expectations. We show that the differences between LIBOR futures and realized rates (excess returns) are, on average, positive over the last 25 years. Using interest rate surveys, we decompose...

We study the reaction of the CHF and JPY to macroeconomic surprises and changes in the broader market environment before and during the crisis using high-frequency data. Results show that the CHF and JPY are traditionally more sensitive to macroeconomic surprises than other currencies,...

Recent research recognize that two balance sheet constraints can be of particular concern for an independent central bank: central bank equity cannot turn negative without any political and credibility risk, and central banks should avoid going insolvent if they want to maintain control over...

The removal of the lower bound on the EUR/CHF exchange rate in January 2015 provides a unique setting to study the implications of a large and sudden appreciation in an otherwise stable macroeconomic environment. Using transaction-level data on non-durable goods purchases by Swiss consumers, we...

This paper sheds light on Swiss franc LIBOR futures, which are often used to derive interest rate expectations. We show that the differences between LIBOR futures and realized rates (excess returns) are, on average, positive over the last 25 years. Using interest rate surveys, we decompose...

We study the reaction of the CHF and JPY to macroeconomic surprises and changes in the broader market environment before and during the crisis using high-frequency data. Results show that the CHF and JPY are traditionally more sensitive to macroeconomic surprises than other currencies,...

We ask whether verbal interventions by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) affected market beliefs in the desired direction during the period from 2011 to 2015, when the SNB imposed a cap on the Swiss franc at 1.20 against the euro. A verbal intervention was a speech by a member of the SNB Governing...