News
On behalf of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Swiss Economics has updated its findings on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical measures to combat the pandemic.
Swiss Economics has examined the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions ("NPI") to contain the coronavirus (to the Swiss Economics study) for a second time. This is an update of the meta-analysis on this topic commissioned by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in June 2020. In addition to the question of the effectiveness of NPI, the study also evaluates the literature on the costs of particular measures and discusses the findings on factors such as the weather and the acceptance of NPI among the population. In the course of combating the pandemic, the question of the optimal level of intervention also arose in Switzerland. Another part of the study is devoted to this question.
Felix Wüthrich and Luca Apreda now Economist, Eva Zuberbühler und Nicolas Eschenbaum now Senior Economist
We are expanding our team:
Felix Wüthrich strengthens our team as an Economist in the areas of environmental economics, behavioural economics and data analysis. During his studies at ETH Zurich, Felix already completed an internship at Swiss Economics and subsequently supported our team as an Analyst.
Luca Apreda, now also Economist, has a focus on regulation and quantitative methods. After completing his Master's degree at the University of Bern, Luca joined Swiss Economics as an Analyst.
Dr. Eva Zuberbühler has been promoted to Senior Economist. Her expertise lies in the areas of regulation, competition, strategy and pricing. Prior to completing her PhD in industrial economics at the University of Bern, Eva worked as a corporate client advisor at a major bank
Dr. Nicolas Eschenbaum has also been promoted to Senior Economist. He focuses on competition economics and digital markets. Nicolas received his PhD in industrial economics from the University of St. Gallen and conducted postdoctoral research on the competitive impact of artificial intelligence, among other topics.
We congratulate all four and wish them much success and joy in their further work for Swiss Economics.
Michael Funk was asked about the consquences of the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) by SRF's daily podcast "Newsplus".
The EU is working to improve the current regulatory framework for digital products. The introduction of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) is intended to create a uniform set of rules valid throughout the EU.
Michael Funk was asked by SRF about the consequences of the extensive package for Switzerland.
To the podcast (in German): https://www.srf.ch/audio/news-plus/eine-neue-aera-fuer-internet-giganten?id=12166241
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Nicolas Eschenbaum as a new team member of Swiss Economics. He will strengthen our competences in competition economics and regulation.
Nicolas Eschenbaum is an experienced economist focusing on competition economics and economics of digitization.
He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Finance from the University of St. Gallen with a thesis in industrial organization with a focus on digital markets. Prior to joining Swiss Economics, Nicolas worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St. Gallen, where he continues to conduct research and teach. Currently, his research focuses on the intersection of game theory and artificial intelligence.
We are pleased to announce that Matteo Mattmann has been appointed Managing Economist as of January 1.
We welcome Matteo Mattmann among the shareholders of Swiss Economics. As a member of the Management Board, he will develop our activities in health and behavioural economics. We wish him every success in his new position and look forward to thee continuing collaboration.
Since January 2021, Swiss Economics is a carbon neutral company. Swiss Economics minimizes greenhouse gas emissions and offsets emissions that cannot be avoided.
The exact principles with which we try to contribute to the achievement of Switzerland's climate goals can be found here.
For the year 2021, our employees have decided to offset by means of a reforestation project in Nicaragua. The offset is certified by myclimate.
The modernisation of Swiss merger control is the core element of the partial revision of the Cartel Act (KG). With its 2017 study about the SIEC test, Swiss Economics made an important contribution to the revision.
The partial revision of the KG envisages adapting the Swiss test for merger control to international practice. The fundamental difference between the market dominance test applied in Switzerland so far and the newly envisaged SIEC test lies in the level of the intervention hurdle. Under the SIEC test, mergers can be prohibited or subject to appropriate conditions if they lead to a "significant" impediment to competition. In contrast, under the current standard of review, this is only possible if a merger "completely" eliminates effective competition. In addition, the planned revision also aims to strengthen private damages actions and provides for several procedural changes as well as a clarification with regard to inadmissible agreements.
The consultation period lasts until 11 March 2022. It can be assumed that the new provisions will not enter into force before 2023/24.
Malou and Valpuri had the opportunity to spend the "Future Day" at Swiss Economics.
Highlights of their day in our office were conducting interviews and editing them into a video, behavioural economics experiments with a chocolate reward and eating pizza in the park. The thoughts of the two primary school students of their fathers' work are in the video below.
Ann-Kathrin Crede participated in the SRF programme "Club" on the topic of National Immunisation Week and contributed with her behavioural economics expertise to the question of how to incentivize people to vaccinate themselves.
Quelle: srf.ch
Swiss Economics/cryptecon continue to support the CV Labs Incubation Program for start-ups using the Blockchain technology.
Recently, Juan Beccuti joined CV Labs as a mentor for the start-ups' incubation program. Together with Matthias Hafner (who joined CV Labs in 2019), he shares his expertise in platform and token economics. They present and discuss with the program's participants the main characteristics, considerations, and decisions to consider when designing token-based ecosystems.
Presentation of the interim report in the project to hedge terror and pandemic risks at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin.
Swiss Economics, presented together with Christian Hott (from Economic Advice) the first results in the project on hedging terror and pandemic risks at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin.
Lilia is a quantitative economist strengthening our competencies in analyzing panel and time-series data. Lilia is proficient in English and German with mother tongue Russian.
Dr. Lilia Ruslanova is a quantiative economist focusing on empirical methods, econometrics and DCF modelling. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich. During her work as a doctoral student as well as research associate at the University of Zurich, she accumulated years of proficient experience in processing and analyzing data using various quantitative methods and statistical tools. The main fields of her research interests are International Macroeconomics, International Trade, Financial Regulation, Financial and Real Estate Markets.
Juan is a microeconomist and industrial engineer with a focus on market design. He will support Swiss Economics in platform and crypto economics.
Juan is an experienced economist focusing on platform economics, contract theory, and auctions. Amongst others, he will support our team in the analysis of incentives in crypto markets and blockchain protocols. Juan's mother tongue is Spanish, extending our reach into the Hispanic region.
Juan holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid with a dissertation about mechanism design. He also has a degree in industrial engineering. Prior to joining Swiss Economics full-time, Juan supported Swiss Economics as a Senior Fellow and worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Bern.
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!