News
Our latest Swiss Economics update elaborates on the opportunities virtual currencies present to the postal sector.
Virtual currencies like Bitcoin are progressively gaining in popularity. However, limited availability still preempts their broad usage. Postal operators with their spatially comprehensive physical presence could play a key role in providing easy, quick and nationwide access to these alternative currencies. The postal network thus constitutes a natural bridge between the virtual and the physical worlds.
Swiss Economics welcomes Dr. Christian Bach as a new staff member!
Christian Bach is a Project Manager with Swiss Economics and lectures at the EpiCenter, Maastricht University. He is an expert in game theory and works in network industries, regulation and on virtual currencies. After his studies of economics and philosophy, he received a Ph.D. in game theory from HEC Lausanne and Maastricht University. Christian Bach was a postdoctoral fellow at Maastricht University, and a visiting scholar at NYU Stern School of Business.
New publication on price regulation and the financing of Universal Service Obligations.
This article explores the complementary roles of price regulation and universal service regulation in network industries The analysis shows that current practices of costing and financing universal services may result in unintended market distortions. The article quantifies these effects and demonstrates how such distortions can be avoided.
Swiss Economics' update for May 2013.
E-commerce is an important growth area for postal operators. In its update, Swiss Economics analyzes and discusses the risks and opportunities associated with maintaining or even extending the regulation of e-commerce.
Three new publications on consumer preferences, termination charges, and social cost of regulation.
How to better measure consumer preferences in the postal market? How to set international parcel termination charges? What is the social cost of regulation in the postal sector? In the recently published book «Reforming the Postal Sector in the Face of Electronic Competition» by Prof. M. Crew and Prof. P. Kleindorfer, three papers by members of Swiss Economics have been included that address these questions.
Presentation at the 2nd European Postal Regulation Forum on the regulation of e-commerce.
Presentation at the 3rd IEEE Smart Grid World Forum on the regulation of smart grids.
Urs Trinkner was asked by the 3rd IEEE Smart Grid World Forum to address the regulation of smart grids in an introduction and a panel discussion.
A presentation by Sonia Strube Martins.
At the 5th Annual Competition and Regulation in Network Industries Conference in Brussels, Sonia Strube Martins presented a paper on Integrated timetables for railway passenger transport services.
A presentation by Christian Jaag.
At the 3rd Annual Trends in Innovation in the Postal Market Conference, Christian Jaag presented a new research paper on the interplay of universal service obligations and patents in network industries.
Swiss Economics contributed new research papers to the 20th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics.
Swiss Economics contributed the following new research papers to the 20th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics:
- Defining and Financing an Intermodal USO
- Competition and the Social Cost of Regulation in the Postal Sector
- Termination Charges in the International Parcel Market
- Measuring Consumer Preferences for Postal Services
All publications are available here.
Swiss Economics welcomes Dr. Sonia Strube Martins as a new staff member!
Swiss Economics' update for February 2012.
The convergence of physical letter mail and electronic substitutes challenges postal operators and the regulatory framework alike. In its update, Swiss Economics analyzes and discusses the economic context.
A presentation by Christian Jaag.
At the Post-Expo 2011, World Postal Business Forum Christian Jaag gave a presentation on «The role of the universal service obligation in postal competition».
The Review of Network Economics published a new article on the financing of universal service obligations.
The paper «What is an Unfair Burden? Compensating the Net Cost of Universal Service Provision» by Christian Jaag appeared in the Review of Network Economics. It discusses the net cost of universal service obligations and the potential burden they represent on the universal service provider. Specifically, it analyzes the situation in the postal sector after full liberalization.
The paper considers various interpretations of what an unfair burden might be and discusses the competitive impact of corresponding compensation scenarios by means of a stylized theoretical model with endogenous entry and coverage decisions.
Two new presentations on defending markets and adapting the USO in a future-oriented way.
«Defending Mail Markets against New Entrants»
To the slides
«Future of USO - Economic rationale for universal services and implications for a future-oriented definition of universal service obligations»
To the slides
Job opening: Swiss Economics is looking for a passionate and exceptional economist.
Swiss Economics is looking for a passionate and exceptional economist with the capability to apply the most recent microeconomic concepts and to find pragmatic and robust solutions to complex problems. You are aiming at earning a doctorate to deepen your knowledge in industrial and regulatory economics and looking for an exciting career start opportunity in economic consultancy.
We are looking forward to receiving your CV and cover letter.
We are delighted to welcome Nina Schnyder and Stephan Minger to the team and congratulate Andreas Stritt on his promotion.
Andreas Stritt has been with Swiss Economics since 2022 and has been promoted to Economist. He focuses on energy, transport and competition economics. He earned a Master's degree in economics from the University of Berne, with a focus on data analysis and industrial economics.
Nina Schnyder also joins the team as an Economist. She holds a Master's degree in Environmental Economics from the London School of Economics. After graduating, she worked as an energy and environmental consultant in London and Berlin and will continue to specialize in these areas at Swiss Economics.
Stephan Minger joins Swiss Economics as an Analyst. He holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen with a focus on financial economics and data analysis. During his studies, he worked as a reasearch assistant in the areas of financial market econometrics, derivatives and monetary policy.
We are confident that their skills and experience will be a valuable addition to our team.
We warmly welcome Winand Emons to our team as a consultant!
We are pleased to welcome Prof. emer. Dr. Winand Emons as a counsel to the Swiss Economics team. He strengthens our team especially in the area of competition economics. Winand Emons has not only distinguished himself in research and teaching at the University of Bern, but has also held important positions as a member of the Competition Commission, Dean and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences and a member of the Research Commission of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). His work in his main research focus in the areas of law and economics, microeconomics and competition economics led to numerous publications in renowned journals.
We warmly welcome Winand Emons and wish him success and pleasure in his new activities for Swiss Economics.
Swiss Economics has supported the AZ Regionalfernsehen AG and CH Media in their applications for broadcasting licenses for the years 2025 to 2034.
AZ Regionalfernsehen AG successfully applied with Tele M1 and TeleBärn for the broadcasting licenses in the Aargau/Solothurn and Bern regions. An expert opinion from Swiss Economics was submitted as part of the application. Swiss Economics prepared a second report for CH Media too, that led to a similar success. CH Media has acquired with Radio Central the local radio broadcasting license for the Central-Switzerland region.
Our reports examined in particular the influence of the award of the license on the diversity of offerings and opinions. The focus was on the conflict of objectives between the strict structural independence of broadcasters and their possibility of offering a diverse program. The positive externality of media content for democratic decision-making, which justifies state support for public service, only exists if viewers are truly interested in the broadcasted content. Very small, but structurally independent media providers are usually unable to build up the necessary reach with their limited financial resources, e.g. due to the lack of economies of scale. In addition, there are strong incentives to provide a diverse program, particularly in concentrated media markets.
Swiss Economics concludes in its reports that the synergy benefits and the strengthening of regional media in journalistic competition outweigh any concerns regarding structural independence.
Click here for the project entry on our website.
We welcome Maida Sabotic and Elena Zarkovic to our team and congratulate Seline Spillman and Leah Meyer de Stadelhofen on their promotions.
Seline Spillmann joins our team as Economist. Her focus is on data analysis in various topics as well as labor economics. Among other things, she is active in the fields of competition economics and health. In her master she studied economics at the University of Zurich with a focus on econometrics. During her studies, she worked as a Research Assistant in the area of globalization and labor markets at the University of Zurich.
Elena Zarković joins us as an analyst. She studied economics and business administration in her bachelor's at the University of St. Gallen, where she also earned an additional certificate in Data Science Fundamentals. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research at the University of St. Gallen.
Maida Sabotic joins the Swiss Economics team as an Economist. Her areas of expertise include economic policy and data analysis. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics, Politics and History from the University of Zurich as well as Master's degree in Economics and Data Science. During her studies she worked at the Institute of Economics at the University of Zurich. After her Master's degree, she completed an internship in economic development cooperation at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
Leah Meyer de Stadelhofen joins our team as an Economist, focusing on behavioral economics, industrial economics and data analysis. Her areas of expertise include regulation, environmental economics, and energy. In addition, Leah joins our Romandie department and is thus involved in the development of Swiss Economics in French-speaking Switzerland and France. She holds a Master in Economics from the University of Lausanne with a specialization in Behavior, Economics, and Evolution. During her studies, she worked as a Teaching Assistant in Microeconomics.
We congratulate all of them and wish them much success and joy in their new activities for Swiss Economics.
We warmly congratulate our staff member, Nicolals Greber, on receiving the ACCL Award for his Master's thesis! The award ceremony took place on 19 September at the Atelier de la Concurrence in Bern.
In his Master's thesis, Nicolas Greber examined the behaviour of self-learning pricing algorithms. Recent studies have shown that certain AI pricing algorithms are able to learn tacit collusion in oligopoly models. Nicolas picked up there with his master's thesis, analysing the behaviour of two more recent AI pricing algorithms. The first algorithm, known as the "deep deterministic policy gradient", failed to achieve constant convergence. In contrast, the second algorithm, the "multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient", achieved consistent results in a Nash equilibrium. These findings were confirmed by various robustness tests.
We wish Nicolas all the best and success in his PhD at the University of Zürich and in his work for Swiss Economics.
Last weekend we celebrated our 15th anniversary with a visit to the power station, dinner and an overnight stay at the Grimsel Hospiz!
Last weekend we spent an unforgettable time together at the Grimsel Hospiz, surrounded by the breathtaking scenery of the Grimsel region.
Highlights included exciting excursions to the hydroelectric power plant and the impressive Aare Gorge, and a delicious 5-course meal. These experiences deepen our appreciation for 15 years of successful projects.
As passionate economists, we are proud of our continuous growth. This journey would not have been possible without our dedicated team and inspiring projects.
Here's to the next exciting chapters full of success and exciting projects!
In a recent presentation at the Blockchance conference in Hamburg, Matthias Hafner explored the factors that influence the stability of stablecoins and discussed how they relate to recent developments in CBDCs and the tokenization of real-world assets.
Drawing from recent literature, including his own research conducted at the University of Zurich, Matthias Hafner emphasized that the construction and management of collateral are key determinants of stablecoin stability. While externally derived collateral value may compromise the independence of the stablecoin ecosystem, collateral value derived from within the ecosystem carries the risk of death spirals, as observed with TerraUSD. Additionally, centralized management may offer cost-effectiveness but exposes the stablecoin ecosystem to the risk of bank runs, as exemplified by the recent USDC depeg incident.
Further, Matthias Hafner argued that the advent of CBDCs and tokenized real-world assets could potentially put pressure on the demand for stablecoins in the future. This could, for example, result in the need to introduce solutions for stablecoins that offer interest payments based on their underlying collateral.
More detailed information can be found here:
Blockchance presentation slides
Matthias Hafner's research on stablecoins
We are happy to announce that Matthias Hafner has been promoted to Principal. Nicolas Oderbolz has been supporting our team as an Economist since the beginning of this year.
Matthias Hafner supports our team with immediate effect as a Principal and remains the Director of the Center for Cryptoeconomics.
His areas of expertise include financial services, blockchains and cryptoassets.
With his expertise and many years of experience, he will continue to make an indispensable contribution to the further development of these areas. Matthias regularly advises large companies and public authorities and supports start-ups in the implementation of their projects. In addition, he is writing his dissertation and teaches at the University of Zurich on various crypto topics. Before joining Swiss Economics in 2016, he worked at the Competition Commission.
Nicolas Oderbolz has joined Swiss Economics as an Economist with a focus on regulation, health and blockchain. He is involved in various projects in the fields of energy, data analytics and cryptoassets.
Nicolas completed his Bachelor and Master studies in Economics at the University of Zurich, with a focus on empirical methods and data analysis. During his studies, he worked as a research assistant at the University of Zurich in the field of labour and development economics. He has been a valuable part of the Swiss Economics team since the summer of 2022.
We congratulate both of them and wish them much success and joy in their new activities for Swiss Economics.
The article "Blockchain und ihre Anwendungen" by Matthias Hafner and Dr. Christian Jaag was recently published in the quarterly issue of the zsis) Centre for Swiss and International Tax Law.
In their contribution, they explain how blockchain works through illustrative examples and use cases. In addition, they explain the legal classification of crypto-assets and show the limits of the technology.
The publication can be accessed here.
Matthias Hafner presented his research on stablecoins at the Wolfram ChainScience conference in Boston, USA.
The article, "The Four Types of Stablecoins: A Comparative Analysis" (jointly with Marco Henriques Pereira, Prof. Dr. Helmut Dietl, and Juan Beccuti) discusses the conditions under which stablecoins may lose their value. Among others, they explore the crash of Terra and the de- and re-peg of the USDC stablecoin.
Link to the slides: The Four Types of Stablecoins (swiss-economics.ch)
In less than a week, the Shanghai-update is going to be realized on the Ethereum Beacon Chain. This long-anticipated event in the blockchain community motivated us to discuss and compare staking designs of different blockchains in a series of blog post.
In our second blog post of this series, we analyze and compare the staking designs of different blockchains from an economic perspective. To make the information more accessible and compact, we also created a table which can serve as a quick reference.
You can find the whole publication and our new Company Profile on Medium.
Don't hesitate to follow us there to stay updated on our upcoming publications!