Research

Start: January 2021

We propose to explore the relationship between ISP ownership and internet disruptions at times of political contestation in sub-Sahara and North Africa from 2016 until today, where countries show varying degrees of authoritarianism, economic development, and internet penetration. We develop a tool that allows to infer variance in ISP behavior at times of political contestation based on abnormal trends in the use popular circumvention services. To the end, we collaborate with Psiphon, one of the worldwide most-used free and open-source virtual private network (VPN) providers. VPN real-time usage data can shed light on the day-to-day contestation over access to internet services by indicating when users sought out uncensored content and censors adapted new methods to prevent this; it is still underutilized source for research thought. This novel approach to assess internet disruptions across ISPs and over time addresses current shortcomings in political science and computer science approaches to measure internet shutdowns both of which fails to provide systematic and reliable information at the level of ISPs.

Start: March 2021, HSG International Postdoctoral Fellowship

In this research project I analyze the role of policy signals and feedback effects at the case of the energy transition in Switzerland. I will build a new dataset by scraping the online archive of the Swiss commercial registry. With this data I can track firm entries, mutations and exits from 1883 until today and explore them in light of national and regional policy-making. In three work packages I study (1) the role of credible policy signaling to influence entrepreneurs’ expectations, (2) the relationship between historic agglomeration of firms and policymaking and (3) how ownership patterns of firms drive the energy transition.

Research questions

SNSF Sinergia project, accepted for funding in June 2022

Summary

In the last two centuries, Switzerland has transformed from a relatively under-developed, with a mostly closed, agricultural economy to a country with highly export-oriented, high-tech industries. This project analyzes the institutional foundations for the Swiss economic success story. We explore how shifts in taxation, regulation, and ownership structure have propelled the evolution in industrialization, financialization, and globalization. To pursue these substantive goals, we produce a new historical dataset describing 140 years of Swiss business activity.

Based on daily publications recording granular business events -- foundings, relocations, incorporations, acquisitions, bankruptcies, etc. -- since 1883 we build histories of specific firms (corporate entities) and people (human entities) by matching them across events over time. The data collection is motivated by three substantive questions in which economics, law, and political science share a common interest. First, we analyze variation in the tax systems across municipalities and over time to understand how these local taxes influenced firm location decisions and firm outcomes. Second, we use the differences across cantons in commercial laws and regulations to see what legal rules led to more or less industrialization and financialization. Third, we explore structures of ownership in Swiss firms across sectors and over time -- including the public-private aspect, family relationships, cultural factors, and politics.

The project is conducted by an interdisciplinary consortium of computer scientists, economists, lawyers, and political scientists. Yet and beyond this project, the new dataset of Swiss economic history will be available for scholars across multiple disciplines. Alongside the statistical data, we build a searchable data platform usable by qualitative researchers, policymakers, journalists, and the wider public.


Project Information

Research team

• UniSG: Tina Freyburg and Anna Stünzi
• ETH Zurich: Elliot Ash
• Università Svizzera Italiana: Raphael Parchet and Marco d’Ambros
• University of Liège: Malka Guillot

Start date: September 2022
Duration of funding: 4 years