Alexander K. Swoboda

The relative importance of foreign and domestic disturbances for aggregate fluctuations in the open economy : Switzerland, 1964-1981

Abstract This paper studies whether the advent of floating exchange rates served to insulate Switzerland from economic shocks of foreign origin. It estimates a vector autoregression comprising four Swiss and three world aggregate time series and interprets the results in terms of the properties of the vector moving average representation implied by the estimates. The chief finding is that foreign shocks explain most of the systematic variation of the Swiss variables in both regimes.

Equilibrium, Quasi-Equilibrium, and Macroeconomic Policy under Fixed Exchange Rates

I. Introduction, 162. — II. Full and quasi-equilibrium points, 163. — III. Comparative statics of full equilibrium positions, 164. — IV. Comparative statics of quasi-equilibrium positions, 169. — V. Conclusions, 171.

Saving, Investment and the Current Account

In this review of recent work on the relationship between saving, investment and the current account, it is shown that focusing on national saving and investment behavior and modeling these in a modern intertemporal optimization framework will modify some conventional results regarding the relationship between the current account and the terms of trade, the exchange rate and fiscal policy. It is also shown that such a framework can explain the close empirical correlation between national saving and investment rates without relying on limited international capital mobility. It is conjectured that a better empirical understanding of current account developments could be gained if modern theories of investment and saving behavior were used more systematically in applied studies. Copyright 1992 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.

Competitiveness in banking

I: Competitiveness in Banking.- Competitiveness in Banking: Selected Recent Contributions and Research Priorities.- Comment:.- Comment:.- II: The Swiss Banking Sector.- The Swiss Banking Sector: Development and Outlook.- Comment:.- III: Determinants of Trade in Banking Services.- Regulation and Technology as Determinants of International Trade in Banking Services.- Comment:.- IV: International Bank Deposits.- The Swiss Position in the International Market for Non-Bank Deposits.- Explaining the Cross-Country Distribution of International Bank Deposits.- Comment:.- Comment:.- Comment:.- V: International Financial Centres.- On the Attractiveness of International Financial Centres.- Comment:.- VI: Monopoly Power.- Monopoly Power in Swiss Financial Markets.- Comment:.- List of Authors.- List of Participants.

Policy and Current Account Determination under Floating Exchange Rates

The determinants of current account imbalances under floating exchange rates are analyzed. The analysis provides a framework within which the sources of, and the remedies for, the current account imbalances between the United States, Japan, and the Federal Republic of Germany can be discussed. The effects of various government policies are emphasized, in particular the differences between expenditure-changing and expenditure-switching policies. Short-run and long-run considerations are investigated, as well as the role played by expectations and price-level dynamics.

Banking in Switzerland

I: Performance, Costs and Efficiency of Banking in Switzerland.- Measuring the Performance of Banks: Conceptual Problems and Results for Switzerland (1987 - 1991).- Comment: Klaus Spremann.- Comment: Beat C. Philipp.- Explaining the Performance of Swiss Banks from 1987 to 1990.- Comment: Gunter Franke.- Comment: Peter Zweifel.- Economies of Scale and Scope and Inefficiencies in Swiss Banking.- Comment: Thomas Gehrig.- Comment: Werner Hermann.- II: The Attractiveness of Switzerland for Foreign Banks.- Explaining the Presence of Foreign Financial Intermediaries in Switzerland.- Comment: Claudio Generali.- III: The Swiss Stock Markets.- The Effects of Foreign Competition on Stock Markets: SEAQ International vs. Switzerland.- Comment: Richard T. Meier.- Comment: Peter Aerni.- IV: The International Market for Bank Deposits and Bonds.- The Swiss Share in International Markets for Bank Deposits and Bonds.- Comment: Pascal Bridel.- V: The Swiss Financial Sector at the Turn of the Century.- Banking Policy and Regulation in Switzerland: Summary and Implications of Two Years of Research.- Comment: Aloys Schwietert.- List of Authors.- List of Participants.

Causes and Origins of the Current Worldwide Inflation

Inflation as a worldwide phenomenon is a popular topic for discussion and lament, even in the daily press, weeklies, and bar-rooms. Yet its origins and causes, the topic assigned to us for this conference, are the subject of much debate especially in those bar-rooms where economists meet. The reader should be warned at the outset that this paper does not pretend to settle the issue. It only sketches one answer, but we believe a largely correct one, to the ambitious questions assigned to us.

International banking: Current issues in perspective

Abstract Recent developments in international banking have raised new problems and policy issues as well as new opportunities for banks. To put these developments in perspective and analyze a number of policy issues of current concern is the purpose of the paper. In particular it sets out to explain three important aspects: the dollars pre-eminence in spite of the ‘multinationalization’ of international banking, the more rapid growth of the international compared with the domestic banking sector, and the dominant role of banks in the expansion of international finance rather than other financial intermediaries or direct lending.

Banking Policy and Regulation in Switzerland: Summary and Implications of Two Years of Research

The issues that are dealt with in the contributions to this volume can be aptly illustrated by two headlines: the most recent publication of the OECD Committee on Financial Markets carries the title ‘Banks under Stress’ (OECD, 1992), and The Economist’s ‘A Survey of World Banking’ (May 2, 1992) is summarised on its cover by a dark painting of lost bankers on their way out through a revolving door, the whole piece of art entitled ‘Time to Leave’.

Fixed Exchange Rates, Flexible Exchange Rates, or the Middle of the Road: a Re-Examination of the Arguments in View of Recent Experience

Dissatisfaction with the workings of flexible exchange rates has recently become rather widespread, in Europe at least. Concern with exchange rate movements is no longer confined to the business world and to economic journalists but is also increasingly expressed by academic economists. Two features of the post-Bretton Woods era have, in particular, been the source of much disenchantment with flexible exchange rates: wide (‘excessive’?) movements and high short-run variability in both nominal and real exchange rates, and apparently strong transmission of economic disturbances across countries, especially from the United States to the rest of the world.