IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lau/crdeep/9715.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Ein neuer Verfassungsartikel für die Schweizerische Nationalbank

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas VON UNGERN-STERNBERG

Abstract

This paper critically examines the proposed new constitutional article for the Swiss National Bank. The following points are emphasised : a) The SNB distributes only a very small fraction of its profits (as compared to other national banks). b) The SNB holds an exceptionally important and undiversified portfolio of foreign exchange reserves. It clearly wants to pursue this strategy of accumulating foreign government debt, at the expense of the tax- payer. c) In the past it has earned only a very low rate of return on its assets. d) A substantial part of the assets held by the SNB are not required for the purposes of monetary policy, and should be managed by professional asset managers. e) It would be an error to allow the SNB to concentrate itself solely on controlling inflation.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas VON UNGERN-STERNBERG, 1997. "Ein neuer Verfassungsartikel für die Schweizerische Nationalbank," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 9715, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    • Handle: RePEc:lau:crdeep:9715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hec.unil.ch/deep/textes/9715.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas VON UNGERN-STERNBERG, 1997. "Entscheidungsgrundlagen für ein neues Nationalbankgesetz," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 9701, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    2. Hans Genberg & Ulrich Kohli & Georg Rich, 1997. "Recent Developments in Swiss Monetary Policy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Philippe Bacchetta & Walter Wasserfallen (ed.), Economic Policy in Switzerland, chapter 2, pages 8-34, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Philippe Bacchetta & Walter Wasserfallen (ed.), 1997. "Economic Policy in Switzerland," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-25875-8, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Assenmacher-Wesche, Katrin & Gerlach, Stefan, 2008. "Money growth, output gaps and inflation at low and high frequency: Spectral estimates for Switzerland," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 411-435, February.
    2. International Monetary Fund, 1999. "Switzerland: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix," IMF Staff Country Reports 1999/030, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Georg Rich, 2007. "Swiss Monetary Targeting 1974-1996: The Role of Internal Policy Analysis," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(III), pages 283-329, September.
    4. Rikard Forslid & Jonas Häckner & Astri Muren, 2011. "Trade costs and the timing of competition policy adoption," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(1), pages 171-200, February.
    5. Enrico Bolzani & Ramses H. Abul Naga, 2002. "La Distribution des Salaires en Suisse: Quelques Observations sur la Récession des Années 90," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 138(II), pages 115-136, June.
    6. Peter Kugler & George Sheldon, 2010. "Unemployment and Monetary Policy in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 146(I), pages 185-208, March.
    7. Gebhard Kirchgässner & Ulrich Müller & Marcel Savioz, 1998. "Ecological Tax Reform and Involuntary Unemployment: Simulation Results for Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 134(III), pages 329-353, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Swiss National Bank; asset accumulation; asset management; profit distribution; gold reserves; the role of monetary policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • E59 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lau:crdeep:9715. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christina Seld (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deelsch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.