In this paper we analyzed the violations of UIP for the Swiss Franc against the Dollar, the Euro, the Yen, thePound and the Canadian Dollar using recent data up to fall 2008. This exercise provides the following mainresults : first the Swiss interest rate puzzle disappeared, i.e. mean returns on...

Economic theory and case study evidence have long suggested that institutional factors, such as well-defined property and contract rights, may be crucial in explaining differences in economic performance across countries. Much of the recent discussion about"governance"has, for example, focused...

Building reliable institutions that support a market system is widely believed to be critical to a successful economic transition. The authors present indicators on the predictability of the institutional framework across twenty transition economies -including indicators of the predictability of...

This paper contributes to the debate about the puzzle of the Swiss Interest Rate Island. It starts out by establishing some stylized facts about the nature of the puzzle. First it shows that long run real returns on Swiss Euro Deposits have been significantly lower than in any other major...