Published Papers 2010
Paper 2010-I-7
"Unemployment and Monetary Policy in Switzerland"
Peter Kugler, George Sheldon
Abstract:This paper investigates the impact of the monetary policy change of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in 1999 on the Swiss labor market on the basis of a Phillips relationship. Theoretical considerations as well as previous empirical work suggest that the SNB's shift to a more inflation-targeted policy should have increased real-wage flexibility and lowered the NAIRU, the sacrifice ratio, and the level and persistence of inflation in Switzerland. Our results tend to confirm these expectations, although a number of the measured effects are not statistically significant.
Pages: 185-208
JEL classification: E24, E31, E50
Keywords: Inflation targeting, NAIRU, Phillips curve
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