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.
Swiss Economics congratulates Lilia Habibulina, Nicolas Eschenbaum and Romain de Luze on their promotions. We thank them for their support to date and wish them continued success.
Lilia Habibulina has been promoted to Senior Economist. She specialises in applying quantitative methods to regulatory questions and has extensive experience in estimating the cost of capital and in econometric modelling. Prior to joining Swiss Economics, she was a PhD candidate and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich.
Nicolas Eschenbaum has been promoted to Managing Economist and has joined Swiss Economics’ executive board. He is responsible for the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI). His work focuses on competition policy as well as market regulation and market design—particularly in the context of algorithms and AI—across various sectors, including digital markets and energy. He is currently leading, among other assignments, a project for DG Comp.
Romain de Luze has also been promoted to Managing Economist and has joined Swiss Economics’ executive board. He additionally leads the Lausanne office and is responsible for business development in French-speaking Switzerland. His expertise focuses on the analysis of regulatory issues, financial modelling and strategic advisory work, particularly in the energy and transport sectors.
We would like to thank all participants and our colleague Michael Altorfer for his valuable contributions to the panel on the future of the Swiss financial market at the NextGen Impact Forum.
The forum brings together committed voices from academia, practice and politics to shape the change towards a more sustainable financial world.
Congratulations on the successful launch of the NextGen Impact Forum at the University of St. Gallen (HSG)!
You can find us at Rue du Liseron 7, 1006 Lausanne.
Since the beginning of April, you can find us at Rue du Liseron 7, in addition to our Zurich office.
This opening marks an important new milestone for us: getting closer to our partners in French-speaking Switzerland and strengthening our presence in the region. Being on site means having more opportunities to collaborate, to connect more frequently, and to support projects with even greater proximity and responsiveness.
We look forward to welcoming you there, to continuing to grow our collaborations… and to starting new ones!
Since the beginning of the year, Nina Schnyder has joined our team full-time as a Senior Economist and Michael Altorfer as an Economist. We would like to thank them for their support so far and wish them exciting projects for the future.
Michael Altorfer is joining Swiss Economics full-time after completing his studies. His focus is on energy economics, valuations and data analysis. In his Master's, he completed a double degree in economics and international management at the University of St. Gallen and the Stockholm School of Economics, with a focus on data science and climate economics.
Nina Schnyder has been with Swiss Economics since 2024 and has now been promoted to Senior Economist. Nina focuses on the areas of valuation, dispute resolution and regulatory economics, and she regularly advises and supports clients in arbitration and litigation cases and will continue working in these areas as Senior Economist. In addition, she is a CFA Level I candidate and is preparing to take her exam in February 2025.
Swiss Economics conducted a study on the federal government's ownership strategy regarding Swisscom on behalf of DETEC and the FDF.
Our report concludes that, at present, there is no sufficiently strong public interest in a federal majority stake in Swisscom—neither to ensure the provision of basic telecommunications services nor to expand a nationwide high-speed broadband network. These services are primarily provided in a competitive market or can be adequately regulated by the federal government through legislation. However, given the reassessment of the security implications of telecommunications and information infrastructure, there may be a public interest in federal government ownership of a stake in Swisscom. Since legislation and commercial contracts can only partially regulate the provision of the necessary services, having ultimate control through ownership in this sensitive sector may be advisable.
However, government activity in competitive markets generally leads to distortions of competition. Even a strict separation of the ownership role from supervisory and regulatory functions cannot fully resolve the fundamental conflict of objectives between the economic interest in effective competition and the fiscal interest in dividend income. The balance between the public interest in a majority stake and competitive neutrality is ultimately a political question that this report cannot definitively answer. With regard to the formulation of strategic objectives, we recommend explicitly mentioning the public interest in Swisscom’s security policy responsibilities.
In addition to a majority stake and a complete sale, we also examined alternative courses of action, such as the establishment of a state-owned network company or the retention of a blocking minority. However, no additional benefits were identified.
The evaluation was conducted in collaboration with Martina Arioli and Lukas Bruhin of Arioli Law.
Michael Funk, Urs Trinkner, Lukas Bruhin, Martina Arioli, Nicolas Oderbolz, Nina Schnyder
To the Federal Council’s press release
We are delighted to welcome Dr Marco Salvi and Bastian Seiler as new members of staff. They will strengthen the Swiss Economics team in the area of economic policy and energy.
Bastian Seiler joins the Swiss Economics team as Senior Economist. He studied political science, economics and economic and social history at the University of Zurich. After his studies, he gained over 10 years of professional experience in different roles across the energy and infrastructure industry. At Swiss Economics, he will primarily work as a consultant and project manager in the areas of energy, finance and insurance, as well as regulation and risk management.
Dr. Marco Salvi joins Swiss Economics as Managing Economist. He holds a PhD from EPFL and brings over 10 years of experience in economic policy analysis. As a Senior Fellow at Avenir Suisse, he was responsible for labor market, social, and housing policy and played a key role in shaping the think tank’s strategic direction. Previously, he served as a project leader focusing on tax and fiscal policy. Before joining Avenir Suisse in 2011, he led three specialist teams at Zürcher Kantonalbank, where he developed innovative risk models for the real estate and mortgage markets. He is an Adjunct Fellow at Avenir Suisse and lectures on Real Estate Finance at the University of Zurich.
At Swiss Economics, he will be responsible for topics such as real estate economics, regional economics, and labor market issues.
Swiss Economics examined the role of temporary work from an economic perspective and assessed the potential impact of current regulatory proposals on the labor market for swissstaffing.
Several proposals for additional regulation of temporary agency work are currently under discussion. Our study, conducted on behalf of swissstaffing, concludes that these proposals do not bring any added value. The analysis, which was carried out using the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) method, shows that temporary work plays an important role in the labour market. It reduces market frictions and enables efficient and rapid placement between companies and employees.
Temporary agency work thus provides flexibility, but at the same time is in tension with employment security. Without temporary agency work, an increase in less regulated forms of work such as temporary employment, self-employment or on-demand work could be expected. Unemployment and undeclared work could also increase. Moreover, temporary agency workers in Switzerland already benefit from comprehensive protection through a collective labour agreement.
Swiss Economics supported UBS in its merger with CS in the FINMA control procedure.
On June 19, 2024, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA announced that it had concluded the antitrust review procedure for the merger between UBS and Credit Suisse without imposing any conditions or obligations. Following an extensive review, it concluded that the merger would not eliminate effective competition in any market segment.
Swiss Economics supported UBS in these proceedings with two economic expert opinions and the compilation of market data. The first report contained a comprehensive analysis of the competitive situation on all relevant banking markets. The second report provided a more in-depth analysis of individual segments that were the focus of the Competition Commission's statement to FINMA. The Swiss Economics team, consisting of Dr. Michael Funk, Dr. Samuel Rutz, Dr. Eva Zuberbühler and Seline Spillmann, worked closely with the antitrust team of Bär & Karrer, represented by Dr. Mani Reinert and Dr. Christine Schweikard.
Supporting low-income households directly or providing subsidized housing? Swiss Economics analyses the affordability of housing costs and housing policy instruments to relieve the burden on households in Switzerland.
Our latest study, which we carried out on behalf of the Verband Immobilien Schweiz (VIS), shows which households may have financial problems with housing costs. The salient features of these households are:
single - settled in a moderately populated region - tend to consume a lot of living space per person - low-income.
In order to relieve the burden on households, the state has two social policy instruments at its disposal: supply-side and demand-side subsidies. The former subsidises housing directly, while the latter supports households with housing allowances. Supply-side subsidy is mainly realised through the housing stock of cities and municipalities, while demand-side subsidy support is primarily provided via social welfare and AHV/IV supplementary benefits. Our calculations show that the public sector currently spends roughly the same amount per supported household on subsidised housing as on housing allowances: on average around CHF 5,000 per year. However, housing allowances are more targeted, as it almost exclusively benefits households in need.
Based on the demand-side subsidy systems currently in place in Switzerland, we estimate the costs of extending these systems to all overburdened households. This shows that in an expanded system of demand-side support, around 50 per cent more low-income households could be supported with the funds currently used for supply-side support than is currently the case.