Introduction
Being a small open economy Switzerland is highly exposed to the girations of the world economy, both through international trade and financial flows. The country’s trade surplus for instance accounted for nearly half the GDP growth between 2000 and 2007.2 While the growth contribution from trade has slowed during the global crisis, the linkages with the world economy remain important for Switzerland. This key role of open economy considerations is reflected in the works of Ernst Baltensperger, covering for instance the international role of the Swiss franc (Baltensperger 2012, Baltensperger and Kugler 2016) or the usefulness of a flexible exchange rate regime for keeping an independent monetary policy

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