Dirk Niepelt

I supervise theses that focus on macroeconomic questions, use models to answer them, and are written in English or German. If you are interested in writing your thesis with me please follow these steps: Contact me by e-mail to check whether I can act as your thesis supervisor. Attach your grade sheet and sketch very briefly what type of questions you are interested in.  Once we have agreed that I act as supervisor prepare a one- or two-page proposal outlining as concisely and precisely as...

In a speech, the ECB’s Fabio Panetta argues that a digital Euro is necessary because [i]n the digital age … banknotes could lose their role as a reference value in payments, undermining the integrity of the monetary system. Central banks must therefore consider how to ensure that their money can remain a payments anchor in a digital world. He argues that outsourcing the provision of central bank money [to stable coin providers] … would endanger monetary sovereignty [as would the absence...

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 17, 2022. PDF. The federal council’s digital finance strategy focuses on regulation. There are limits to this strategy when financial markets operate globally and virtually. Preserving monetary sovereignty requires an attractive national currency. Carrots, not only sticks. An attractive currency is not only stable but also usable in digital form.

CEPR and SUERF webinar moderated by me. Markus Brunnermeier and Jean-Pierre Landau present their report for the European Parliament. Youtube.

Goodreads rating 4.19. A sweeping novel of 950 pages (!) which starts on page 960. The Nobel laureate describes hundreds of characters, with even more names; immerses in countless locations, languages, and creeds. Her protagonists always remain strangers. There is something wonderful in being a stranger, in being foreign, something to be relished, something as alluring as candy. It is good not to be able to understand a language, not to know the customs, to glide like a spirit among...

The new edition features an interview with Javier Bianchi. PDF. It is “my” last Newsletter since I left the Center yesterday.

On the question whether the Fed should seriously consider retail CBDC, the FT sides with the pro camp. While elsewhere such central bank digital currencies can appear “a solution in search of a problem”, America’s lacklustre retail banking system and the importance of the dollar in cross-border money flows make an obvious case for reform. Compare the contributions by Darrell Duffie and Chris Waller in the CEPR eBook.

CEPR Discussion Paper 16906, January 2022, with Martin Gonzalez-Eiras. PDF (local copy). We investigate how politico-economic factors shaped government responses to the spread of COVID-19. Our simple framework uses epidemiological, economic and politico-economic arguments. Confronting the theory with US state level data we find strong evidence for partisanship even when we control for fundamentals including the electorate’s political views. Moreover, we detect an important role for the...

Wirtschaft Regional, January 7, 2022. PDF. Interview on private and public money, digital payments, Bitcoin, cash.

Wirtschaft Regional, January 7, 2022. PDF. Interview on private and public money, digital payments, Bitcoin, cash.