CENTRAL BANKERS PROGRAM 2018 - Gerzensee

1 Of the Swiss National BankCENTRAL BANKERS PROGRAM 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTSI ntroductory Message 3 Courses 3 Lecturers 10 Administration and Funding 15 Admission 15 Location 16 Photos: Corinne Conti Amb hl, Susanne Senn-GrafDesign: Gerber Druck AG, SteffisburgCentral BANKERS PROGRAM 20183 The Study Center Gerzensee , Foundation of the Swiss National Bank, opened its doors in 1986 to serve as an international training, re-search and conference center for economists and CENTRAL bank staff.

2 The Center is located in an old manor in the heart of Switzerland. High-ranking members of the Swiss National Bank, the government as well as the aca-demic and business community serve on its Foundation Council and Advisory Committee for Education and Training. The faculty is composed of the Study Center s teaching staff and external, internationally renowned INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE lecturers as well as specialists from the Swiss National Bank and other partner the last decades, CENTRAL bank staff representing more than one hundred and fifty monetary authorities has participated in the Center s CENTRAL BANKERS Courses. We appreciate the strong interest in our courses and are grateful for the long-standing coop- eration.

3 And we strive to continually offer pro-grams of the highest quality, covering topics of first-order importance for CENTRAL banks and emphasizing both theory and the coming year, the Study Center Ger-zensee offers six courses for CENTRAL bank economists. This brochure describes the courses and their lecturers and provides ad-ministrative hope that you find the PROGRAM attractive and are looking forward to welcoming inter-ested and motivated course participants from all over the world to Dirk NiepeltDirectorThe following courses are offeredin 2018 Inflation Forecasting and Monetary Policy,jointly with Swiss National BankFebruary 5 16 Monetary Policy, Exchange Rates, and Capital FlowsMarch 12 29 Financial Stability.

4 Jointly with Swiss National BankApril 9 20 Monetary Theory and PolicyMay 14 31 Advanced Topics in Monetary Economics August 20 31 Instruments of Financial MarketsSeptember 10 27 COURSESAll courses are offered free of charge. Par-ticipants must be fluent in English since no translation is provided. As several of the topics covered in the courses require formal analysis, proficiency in mathematics at least at the high school level is employ a variety of teaching methods, taking full advantage of the small class size and the infrastructure at the Cen-ter. Each topic is introduced in a classroom lecture. Group work, case studies, computer exercises, and discussions among the parti- cipants with their diverse backgrounds help to develop a deeper understanding of the various subjects.

5 Visits to the Swiss National Bank or the Bank for International Settle-ments typically complement the weekends, excursions to beautiful areas of Switzerland provide a welcome change to the course work. FORECASTING AND MONETARY POLICYFEBRUARY 5 16, 2018 This two-week course, organized in colla- boration with the Swiss National Bank, pro-vides an in-depth analysis of CENTRAL bank policies aimed at controlling inflation and stabilizing economic fluctuations. Special emphasis is given to the economic and econometric tools to forecast inflation. The first part of the course, taught by Pro-fessor Pierpaolo Benigno, is devoted to macroeconomic models.

6 Topics include the role of inflation targeting in New-Keynesian models, monetary policy with near zero in-terest rates, as well as models of small open economies and macro-prudential policies. The second part of the course provides an applied review of time series techniques such as vector autoregressions, vector- error-correction-models, and techniques to evaluate the forecasting ability of time se-ries models. The third part of the course, taught by Professor Carlo Favero, discusses the role of financial markets for forecasting purposes. This includes methods to extract investors inflation forecasts and expecta-tions from indicators and prices in financial markets.

7 The final part, taught by staff of the inflation forecasting and monetary po- licy analysis units of the Swiss National Bank, reviews the models used for inflation fore-casting in course is designed for staff members in research and policy analysis units focusing on inflation. The ideal age is between 30 and 40 years. Some years of professional experience in the CENTRAL bank are a precon-dition for attending the course. Candidates with a are preferred. Participants with a Master s degree may be BenignoLUISS Guido Carli, RomeCarlo FaveroUniversit Bocconi, MilanExperts from theSwiss National BankLecturers and staffof the Study CenterCentral BANKERS PROGRAM 20185 MONETARY POLICY, EXCHANGE RATES, AND CAPITAL FLOWSMARCH 12 29, 2018 This three-week course reviews monetary policy topics in open economies, focusing specifically on issues related to exchange rates and capital first part of the course covers topics in international macroeconomics such as the determinants of the current account, the link between exchange rates and prices, ex-change rates and interest rates.

8 The role of exchange rate regimes, international capital flows, implications of financial globaliza-tion, as well as fiscal and monetary policy in the open economy. The second part of the course focuses on financial and sovereign debt crises, dollarization, global financial imbalances, monetary stabilization in res- ponse to capital flows, and the performance of exchange rate sizable part of the course is dedicated to empirical methods that are applied to study questions related to the balance of payments, exchange rates, and monetary policy. This includes a review of statistical concepts and computational techniques, as well as an introduction to the software package EViews.

9 In addition, participants learn econometric methods ranging from ordinary least squares to more advanced techniques such as vector autoregression (VAR) from the Swiss National Bank provide an overview over the conduct of monetary policy in Switzerland, specifical-ly the monetary policy strategy, the role of the exchange rate, policy implementation, and the management of foreign exchange course is designed for staff members in middle management positions at CENTRAL banks. The ideal age is between 30 and 40 years. Some years of professional expe-rience in the CENTRAL bank are a precondi-tion for attending the course.

10 Applicants holding a university degree in economics are preferred. Participants must be familiar with elementary mathematics and BacchettaUniversity of LausanneGiancarlo CorsettiUniversity of CambridgePhilipp HarmsJohannes Gutenberg University MainzExperts from theSwiss National BankLecturers and staffof the Study STABILITYAPRIL 9 20, 2018 This two-week course is organized in colla- boration with the Swiss National Bank. It provides an introduction to financial stability, crisis prediction, prevention, and manage-ment. The course adopts the perspective of a CENTRAL banker who is interested in the stability of the financial system as a whole, rather than in the solvency of individual financial institutions.