This paper analyzes card payments to the retail sector in Switzerland during the COVID-19 crisis. We provide evidence on aggregate effects and regional shifts. Pronounced shifts-which persisted post-lockdown-can be observed from urban to suburban and rural areas and among cantons. Data allow us...

This paper studies money demand in Switzerland under free banking before the establishment of the Swiss National Bank. We find that, in addition to income, the banks' balance-sheet-to-GDP ratio and the number of banks were important determinants of long-run money demand. The former variable also...

This paper explores the impact of contactless payment on consumers' demand for cash at an early stage of diffusion. The specific devices that are investigated are debit and credit cards, in which the feature is embedded. A novel balanced panel dataset drawn from representative surveys on...

Die WES-Sonderfragen für das vierte Quartal 2019 befassen sich mit dem Ausmaß und den Wirkungen der Schattenwirtschaft. Die Teilnehmer wurden gebeten, Fragen zum Ausmaß der Schattenwirtschaft in den einzelnen Ländern, zu den Gründen für Schattenwirtschaft und zu den Sektoren, die...

This paper evaluates the effects of a fall in payroll taxes on employment and wages in the presence of high labor informality. For that purpose, the paper examines a recently approved tax reform in Colombia especially targeted to promote labor formality. The model suggests that the reform would...