Tag Archives: Reform

The NZZ argues that Switzerland is stuck (presumably when compared with first best, not relative to other countries), and it features evidence in a series of columns.

Economic Journal, February 2021, with Harris Dellas. PDF. We study the optimal debt and investment decisions of a sovereign with private information. The separating equilibrium is characterised by a cap on the current account. A sovereign repays debt amount due that exceeds default costs in order to signal creditworthiness and smooth consumption. Accepting funding conditional on investment/reforms relaxes borrowing constraints, even when investment does not create collateral, but it...

Economic Journal, forthcoming, with Harris Dellas. PDF. We study the optimal debt and investment decisions of a sovereign with private information. The separating equilibrium is characterized by a cap on the current account. A sovereign repays debt amount due that exceeds default costs in order to signal creditworthiness and smooth consumption. Accepting funding conditional on investment/reforms relaxes borrowing constraints, even when investment does not create collateral, but it...

Heil oder Übel? Protest gegen Macrons Arbeiterreform im September 2017. (Foto: Keystone/Francois Mori) Vor gut fünf Jahren löste eine Studie ein mittelgrosses Beben unter Politikberatern in Europa aus. Ökonomen wiesen wissenschaftlich nach, dass Wirtschaftsreformen in den hoch verschuldeten und stagnierenden Ländern Südeuropas nichts bringen. Dabei pochten doch Regierungsvertreter und Mainstream-Ökonomen seit langem darauf, dass Länder wie Italien, Griechenland und Spanien...

It seems many were disappointed by the speech delivered by Xi Jinping. China’s supreme leader spoke at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing today on the 40th anniversary of his country’s first embrace of economic reform. Commentators had been expecting Xi to use the occasion to recommit to liberalization, further opening China to free market forces. Some others, as we’ve noted, were hoping China’s President would go...

China’s Communist Party concluded the Third Plenum of its 18th Congress in November 2013. It was the much-discussed reform mandate that many in the West took to mean another positive step toward neo-liberal reform. At its center was supposed to be a greater role for markets particularly in the central task of resource allocation. In some places, the Party’s General Secretary Xi Jinping was hailed as the great Chinese...

Kleine Schritte, bitte: Die Schweiz tut sich schwer mit grossen Reformpaketen. (Bild: Keystone/Ennio Leanza) Das Gezerre um die Unternehmenssteuerreform und die Altersvorsorge macht deutlich: Die Schweiz tut sich schwer mit grossen Reformpaketen. In der Gesundheitspolitik ist die Lage vollends verfahren. Es gilt das Mikado-Prinzip: Wer sich zuerst bewegt, hat verloren. Die grosse Frage ist, ob die Blockade systembedingt ist oder mit dem Zeitgeist zu tun hat. Wenn Letzteres der Fall ist,...

On his blog, J P Koning discusses Kenneth Rogoff’s proposal to abolish high denomination notes (discussed earlier). Koning concludes: I agree with Rogoff’s general point that it makes sense to burden cash users with ever more work since this burden disproportionately falls on heavy users like criminals. But Rogoff hasn’t yet convinced me that the status quo policy of gradually increasing the workload involved in cash usage (via inflation) needs to be sped up by a sudden removal of every...