@florianscheuer.bsky.social, head of our department, had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Isabel Schnabel.
The event was organized by ECON Alumni UZH and Econ Club at UZH.

"The @ecb.europa.eu has to be agile and vigilant, but there is no need to rush into action," said Isabel Schnabel, member of the Executive Board of the ECB, regarding the economic shock the world is facing with the situation in Iran. However, "If inflation becomes permanent, we will need to act."

We are immensely grateful for the support of the Zürcher Kantonalbank. Their generous donation enables us to continue our mission: attracting outstanding researchers to @econ.uzh.ch and educating the next generation of economists.

We look forward to many more years in this great partnership!

There’s no easy way to achieve fair taxation. It takes a bundle of pragmatic measures to close loopholes, minimize false incentives, and tax work and capital evenly.

www.ubscenter.uzh.ch/en/news_even...

#EconomicsForSociety #UZH #shareUBS
@econ.uzh.ch @florianscheuer.bsky.social

I'm happy to share that Bernardo Silveira (UCLA) will join our department @econ.uzh.ch as Professor of Economics this summer. He will be a fantastic addition to our applied micro group.

www.bernardosilveira.net

Monetary Policy at Times of Geopolitical Fragmentation with Prof. Dr. Isabel Schnabel Guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

📣 Don't miss this upcoming guest lecture and Q&A with Prof. Dr. Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB). 🇪🇺
The event will be moderated by @florianscheuer.bsky.social Scheuer.

www.econalumni.ch/events/monet...

@florianscheuer.bsky.social has been featured in a @sfchronicle.com investigation into California's proposed "billionaire tax" — a ballot initiative that would impose a one-time 5% wealth levy on the state's roughly 200 billionaires

www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

#EconomicsForSociety

Final call for papers for ESEM 2026!
@florianscheuer.bsky.social and I are the Scientific Program Chairs for Econometric Society European Summer Meetings (ESEM), which will take place in Dublin, August 17–21, 2026. Hope to see you in Dublin!
More info: www.econometricsociety.org/regional-act...

Could the California ‘billionaire tax’ really devastate Silicon Valley? We look at the case Technologists say the tax could cause much more damage than gouging a few plutocrats. In the second of our three-part series on the proposal, we look at the merits of that claim.

The state of California 🇺🇸 🐻 has been considering introducing a new wealth tax. What can this US state learn from Switzerland 🇨🇭? 👉 A few answers from @florianscheuer.bsky.social
in @sfchronicle.com

www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

Florian Scheuer

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of hosting @florianscheuer.bsky.social from @econ.uzh.ch in our seminar series.

He presented “Dilution vs. Risk Taking: Capital Gains Taxes and Entrepreneurship.”

Do you know a leader in public finance? 

Nominations are officially OPEN for the 2026 Daniel M. Holland Medal! Help NTA recognize lifetime achievement in our field.
🔹 Open to all sectors 
🔹 Deadline is March 31

Nominate here: www.cognitoforms.com/NTA1/_2026DanielMHolland...

Papers on all aspects of macroeconomic policy (monetary, fiscal, growth, financial) will be considered.

Submit here by March 31: szgerzensee.ch/programs/con...

There will be a special issue of the JME in the fall of 2027, more details here: szgerzensee.ch/news/article...

2/2

I'm happy to serve on the Scientific Committee of next fall's Swiss National Bank/Gerzensee/JME Conference on Macroeconomic Policy, together with Marios Angeletos, Harris Dellas and Silvana Tenreyro.

Taking place on October 30-31, 2026, it will be held in honor of Robert Barro.

1/2

Dirk Krueger, @s-stantcheva.bsky.social, Aleh Tsyvinski and I again organize the Macro Public Finance session at @nber.org Summer Institute, taking place on July 23, 2026.

Submit here by March 26: conference.nber.org/confsubmit/b...

@hcbjornland.bsky.social and I are the Scientific Program Chairs for the @econometric.bsky.social European Summer meetings, on August 17-21, 2026 in Dublin.

Keynotes by Nava Ashraf, Raj Chetty, Nobu Kiyotaki and Rohini Pande.

Submit here by February 23:

www.econometricsociety.org/regional-act...

Nach dem Nein zur Erbschaftssteuer-Initiative: Wie gross ist der Schaden für die "Steueroase Schweiz"? Die Schweiz hat eine Erbschaftssteuer für Superreiche deutlich verworfen. Was das für ihr Image und ihre fiskalische Zukunft bedeutet.

🇨🇭Mit einem Nein-Anteil von 78 Prozent sprach sich die Bevölkerung gegen die Erbschaftssteuer Initiative. "Eine moderate Erbschaftssteuer – ohne Zweckbindung an den Klimaschutz – hätte hier durchaus einen Beitrag leisten können." so @florianscheuer.bsky.social mehr 👇

www.swissinfo.ch/ger/schweize...

Taxing inheritance: What can we learn from the Swiss experience? – Marius Brülhart YouTube video by Economics. For Society.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about #inheritance and its #taxation in #Switzerland, but here you go.🤓
Thanks to @florianscheuer.bsky.social and @ubscenter.uzh.ch for hosting me, and to all the viewers for their questions and real-time voting!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAZ7...

More and more wealth is passed down across generations. Yet, many countries have reduced inheritance taxes. What drove this trend? What are the consequences of reversing it?

Don't miss my conversation later today with @mariusbrulhart.bsky.social who knows more about this than anyone else!

Dilution vs. Risk Taking: Capital Gains Taxes and Entrepreneurship Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

We’ve worked on this paper for a long time, so I’m thrilled to finally share it! Here’s the link:

nber.org/papers/w34512

Ungated version: econ.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:27d6...

10/10

However, in the absence of tax credits in case of losses (as would be the case with a wealth tax), there is no such insurance. We're only left with the dilution effect, which is unambiguously bad for founders.

9/10

This provides downside insurance: the share of founders who receive any positive exit payoff increases from 16% to 47%. This insurance is actuarially unfair but still potentially attractive for risk-averse founders.

8/10

The second effect depends on the treatment of capital losses. Most startups see their valuations rise but ultimately fail, so losses are common even when interim gains occur. Taxing unrealized gains makes founders cash out early in return for tax credits in case of losses.

7/10

What happens if you tax unrealized gains?

First, it dilutes the successful founders. On average, founder ownership at exit falls by 25%. At the top, payoffs fall by a factor of three.

6/10

While entrepreneurship is very attractive to risk-neutral founders (equivalent to an annual salary of about $460k), risk-averse founders value it at a steep discount.

5/10

We collect new data on the payoff distribution of founders of VC-backed startups in the US.

It’s extremely skewed: 84% end up with zero exit value, the top 2% get 80% of the total value, and the distribution has a very thick Pareto tail.

4/10

This year’s Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion recently warned against a wealth tax in France: ”Mistral AI [a leading French AI startup] will have to find financiers to pay its taxes instead of being able to fund innovation.”

But we lack both theory and evidence on these effects!

3/10

This question took center stage in the debate over the “Zucman tax” in France and during the last US presidential election (Kamala Harris’s proposal to tax unrealized gains, which was met with strong opposition from the VC community).

2/10

What would taxing unrealized capital gains — or wealth — do to entrepreneurship? If illiquid founders must sell shares to pay such taxes, how does this extra dilution affect incentives?

🧵 on my new paper with Eduardo Azevedo, Kent Smetters & Min Yang

1/10

Join us with @mariusbrulhart.bsky.social and @florianscheuer.bsky.social to learn more about taxing inheritance, highlighting what data and policy experience can tell us about the role of inheritance in modern economies like Switzerland.

www.ubscenter.uzh.ch/en/news_even...

#EconomicsForSociety

Trump provoziert einen Braindrain aus den USA: Wie kann die Schweiz profitieren? Der amerikanische Braindrain könnte zur Chance für Europa werden, auch für die Hochschulen hierzulande. Trotzdem bleiben die meisten von ihnen seltsam still.

Brain drain made in 🇺🇸 und wie🇨🇭davon profitieren könnte.
«An den besten Hochschulen der Ivy League Leute zu rekrutieren, war bisher schwierig», sagt @florianscheuer.bsky.social.
Das habe sich geändert:«Das Interesse, zu uns zu kommen, ist viel grösser geworden.» 👇

www.nzz.ch/nzz-am-sonnt...