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Monika Bütler
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Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.
Last Name
Bütler
First name
Monika
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+41 71 224 23 17
Twitter
@MonikaBuetler
Blog
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PublicationBuilding on a Pension: Second Pillar Wealth as a Way to Finance Real Estate?Home ownership is not only an important asset, but also provides an income stream in kind. If individuals use pension savings to purchase real estate, they face a trade-off between alleviating borrowing constraints when young and lower liquid retirement means when old. We study the decision to withdraw retirement assets for home purchase in advance by analyzing a recent reform. A change in down payment requirements made such early withdrawals less attractive, as borrowers are obliged to provide a larger amount of non-pension equity for a home purchase. Using individual-level data from a large Swiss occupational pension provider, we find that the share of individuals who withdrew in a given year dropped by one sixth. For the withdrawers, the average share of pension assets withdrawn decreased by percentage points, mainly driven by individuals with lower levels of pension wealth and of older age. Nonetheless, our analysis also shows that while limiting second pillar withdrawals can aggravate the borrowing constraint to some degree, they are not the only constraining factor when purchasing a home.Type: journal articleJournal: The Journal of the Economics of AgeingVolume: 17Issue: 100261
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PublicationTransparency in Parliamentary VotingHow does transparency affect voting behavior? To answer this question we exploit a switch from a show of hands to electronic voting in the Upper House of the Swiss Parliament. The change, which took place halfway through the 2011–2015 legislative period, also brought about the online publication of individual voting records. Using the Lower House as a control group, we compare individual voting decisions in a set of identical votes in both chambers. This unique framework makes it possible to estimate the causal effect of increased transparency on legislators' choices. Since the reform, members of the Upper House are less likely to deviate from the majority decision of their party. Legislators representing the same canton are also less likely to cast an aligned vote, suggesting that voters lose influence over their representatives in parliament.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of Public EconomicsVolume: 163
Scopus© Citations 11 -
PublicationComment on “Demographics and the current account” by Joschka Gerigk, Miriam Rinawi, and Adrien Wicht(Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economics Research, University of St. Gallen, 2018)Type: journal articleJournal: AussenwirtschaftVolume: 69Issue: 1
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PublicationType: journal articleJournal: Perspektiven der WirtschaftspolitikVolume: 18Issue: 4
Scopus© Citations 2 -
PublicationType: journal articleJournal: Perspektiven der WirtschaftspolitikVolume: 18Issue: 2
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PublicationReady to Reform: How Popular Initiatives Can Be SuccessfulWe study whether the number of signatures collected to qualify a popular initiative affects the probability of reforming the status quo. The initiative process is modeled as a sequential game under uncertainty: petitioners make an entry decision and collect signatures to qualify the initiative. Politicians decide about a political compromise - a counter proposal - after which petitioners have the option to withdraw the initiative before the vote. In equilibrium, politicians infer the initiative's popularity from the number of signatures and collection time. The more the initiative is perceived as a threat to the status quo, the more likely politicians come up with a counter proposal. Under certain conditions, petitioners have the incentive to collect more signatures than required for qualification to demonstrate high success probability. We test model predictions using the data set of all Swiss constitutional initiatives at the federal level between 1891 and 2010. Overall, we find supporting evidence for the model mechanisms. Fast signature collection is associated with a higher probability of reform. The effect is mediated through a higher probability of provoking a counter proposal. Ultimately, counter proposals are key to amending the status quo. Restricting the signature collection time reduces the informative mechanism of the signature collection process considerably.Type: journal articleJournal: European Journal of Political EconomyVolume: 48
Scopus© Citations 2 -
PublicationType: journal articleJournal: KVG - eine Schweizer Erfolgsstory
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PublicationIntroduction to the special issue on Redesigning the Welfare State for Aging SocietiesThe edited papers in this special issue of International Tax and Public Finance are drawn from the 70th Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance with a focus on Redesigning the Welfare State for Aging Societies. The challenges are manifold and analyses as well as possible solutions are offered by public economists. Population aging forces us to rethink how promises made to current generations can be kept in the future, without putting too much strain on the fiscal capacity of future generations. The key notes and a substantial portion of research presented at the Congress directly contributed to this important field in public economics. As is tradition of the IIPF congresses, other participants presented their research to broadly cover the entire field of public economics. The papers selected for this special issue reflect the focus of the Congress as well as variety of research in the field of public economics as it was presented and discussed at the Congress.Type: journal articleJournal: International Tax and Public FinanceVolume: 22Issue: 4
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PublicationHow Much Does Annuity Demand React to a Large Price Change?In this paper, we present new evidence for the effect of changes in annuity prices on the decision to annuitize. We exploit an unprecedented change in policy in several Swiss occupational pension plans. There is an implied 8 percent reduction in the rate at which retirement capital is translated into an annuity, and this represents a net present value loss of CHF 18,500 (around US$ 20,000). To estimate the impact of this change, we use data from companies that changed their prices and from one large company that did not. We find that the price change reduces the propensity to annuitize among affected individuals by 16.8 percentage points.Type: journal articleJournal: Scandinavian Journal of EconomicsVolume: 115Issue: 3DOI: 10.1111/sjoe.12022
Scopus© Citations 11 -
PublicationType: journal articleJournal: Perspektiven der WirtschaftspolitikVolume: 13Issue: 3