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.

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)!

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!

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.

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

View the report (German)

To the Federal Council’s press release

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.

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.

The study can be downloaded in German or French.

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.

Press release and FINMA ruling.

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.