Winfried Koeniger

Winfried Koeniger is Professor of Economics at the University of St.Gallen and Director of the Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research. Professor Koeniger has received several grants and awards during his academic career.

Expertise

Professor Koeniger is studying the mechanism by which monetary and fiscal policies are transmitted to housing markets. With regard to monetary policies, he finds that the passthrough of monetary policy shocks to newly originated mortgage rates is significantly stronger in Switzerland than in other European countries. And that accommodative monetary policy shocks cause large, immediate, and persistent increases in transitions of renting to owning, and also increase the price-to-rent ratio. With regard to fiscal policies, he shows that eliminating the tax-deductibility of mortgage interest payments increases the benefit of mortgage amortization, while potential increases in the cap on tax-deductible voluntary pension contributions would reduce incentives to lower household debt exposure. These examples of his research show that the future decisions of both the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Parliament will likely have a profound impact on both the real estate market and household debt.