Made in Frankfurt? The Monetary Policy of the Swiss National Bank Since 1973

Alexander Rathke () and Tobias Straumann
Additional contact information
Alexander Rathke: ETH Zurich

Comparative Economic Studies, 2024, vol. 66, issue 3, No 7, 619 pages

Abstract: Abstract The paper investigates the monetary policy of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in the post-Bretton Woods era, shedding light on the dynamics between the SNB and the Bundesbank and its successor, the European Central Bank, respectively. Our econometric analysis shows a high degree of synchronisation between the SNB’s interest rate changes and the decisions made in Frankfurt. The results also suggest a strong tendency toward direct exchange rate targeting before 1999, which coincides with a period of lower demand shock synchronization. This finding is supported by our analysis of the minutes of the Governing Board of the SNB for the period between 1982 and 1993. The discussions and decisions of the board show that Swiss monetary policy was largely guided by policy rate changes of the Bundesbank. The SNB routinely set the policy rate below the policy rate of the Bundesbank to enforce an implicit exchange rate target.

Keywords: Monetary policy; Bretton Woods; Exchange rate; Shock transmission; Policy dependence; Swiss National Bank (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 E43 E52 E58 F31 N14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41294-024-00242-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:compes:v:66:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1057_s41294-024-00242-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/41294/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41294-024-00242-0

Access Statistics for this article

Comparative Economic Studies is currently edited by Nauro Campos

More articles in Comparative Economic Studies from Palgrave Macmillan, Association for Comparative Economic Studies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().