Contributions in Merlin

We present the basic architectural elements of the Captive Portal integrating Shibboleth based Authentication, Authorization, Accounting and Auditing into Wireless Mesh Networks. The Captive Portal is built upon the SWITCHaai/Shibboleth architecture especially designed to protect web based services. The architecture is secure, eavesdropping protected and does not require any specialized software installation on the client side.

Doing scientific research involves creative and complex forms of thinking. This paper examines the effect that information and computer technology (ICT) has on research practice. I present a bibliographic study that examines the role of ICT as a research tool in the field of human–computer interaction (HCI) through an analysis of 79 CHI papers, identifying five themes in their references to ICT. Among recent ICT developments, the internet is found to have had the greatest effect on research methods.

This work considers the important aspects that arose over the last three decades in relationship to the phenomenon of systemic risk. Initially, this vague concept is defined and specified, as well as a review of cases which evolved, or could have evolved, into a concrete systemic crisis is illustrated. For this purpose, the literature on qualitative and quantitative aspects of this particular problematic is surveyed. The main part of the work consists of an analysis of the sources that allow systemic risk to spread out within the financial system, causing repercussions even on the rest of the economy, touching several countries. The way the analysis is conducted refers, in a first step, to a theoretical illustration of these drivers, such as institution size and financial interlinkages. Given that, in the second step, the sources are linked to the organizations via empirical studies aimed at identifying the systemically important institutions, which would require a special supervision from a hypothetical "systemic" regulator. The presented academic papers both decompose the aggregate quantum of system-wide risk, but they adopt two different allocation procedures. These are the participation and the contribution approach, which based on their own concept of systemic relevance, lead to substantial differences in the results. Abstract This work considers the important aspects that arose over the last three decades in relationship to the phenomenon of systemic risk. Initially, this vague concept is defined and specified, as well as a review of cases which evolved, or could have evolved, into a concrete systemic crisis is illustrated. For this purpose, the literature on qualitative and quantitative aspects of this particular problematic is surveyed. The main part of the work consists of an analysis of the sources that allow systemic risk to spread out within the financial system, causing repercussions even on the rest of the economy, touching several countries. The way the analysis is conducted refers, in a first step, to a theoretical illustration of these drivers, such as institution size and financial interlinkages. Given that, in the second step, the sources are linked to the organizations via empirical studies aimed at identifying the systemically important institutions, which would require a special supervision from a hypothetical "systemic" regulator. The presented academic papers both decompose the aggregate quantum of system-wide risk, but they adopt two different allocation procedures. These are the participation and the contribution approach, which based on their own concept of systemic relevance, lead to substantial differences in the results.

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Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit beschäftigt sowohl theoretisch als auch empirisch mit Exchange Traded Funds. Der theoretische Teil, der zu Beginn der Arbeit folgt, hat zum Ziel ETFs und den Tracking Error dem Leser bekannt zu machen und ihm die Basis für die nachfolgende empirische Untersuchung zu geben. Dort werden verschiedene Aktien-ETFs (Länder-, Regionen-, Size- und Sektor-ETFs) sowie einige Rohstoff-ETFs bezüglich effizienter Preisstellung und Replikationsgüte des Benchmark-Index anhand des Tracking Errors zwischen Mid-Preis und NAV sowie jenem zwischen NAV und Benchmark-Index analysiert. Das Überprüfen auf eine effiziente Preisstellung ist insofern relevant, weil ETFs mit dem Creation-/Redemption-Prozess über einen Mechanismus verfügen, der ihnen erlauben würde die an der Börse gestellten Handelspreise im Falle einer Abweichung vom effektiven Wert des ETFs, dem NAV, durch Arbitragegeschäfte wieder ins Lot zu bringen und so einen Tracking Error zu verhindern. Die Replikationsgüte spielt wiederum eine wichtige Rolle, weil es das Ziel eines ETFs wäre, dieselbe Performance wie der Benchmark-Index zu liefern und keinen Tracking Error zu zulassen. Die empirische Analyse zeigte nun, dass bei allen untersuchten ETF-Kategorien sowohl ein Tracking Error zwischen Mid-Preis und NAV als auch zwischen NAV und Benchmark-Index auftrat, wobei dieser im ersten Fall mit mittleren täglichen Abweichungen von 0.51% bis 0.88% stets höher ausfiel als im zweiten Fall mit 0.28% bis 0.38%. Dies lässt den Schluss zu, dass es für die untersuchten ETFs schwieriger ist, effiziente Preise zu stellen, als die Performance ihres Benchmark-Index abzubilden.

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IRF Communica!ons asked Prof. Dr. Alexander Wagner, Assistant Professor of Finance at Zurich University’s Department of Banking and Finance and Chairman of the “Value Reporting Jury” of the annual Swiss Annual Report Ra!ng, and Florian Eugster, Project Leader “Value Reporting” at the Department of Banking and Finance, University of Zurich, about their views of the current status and future prospects of value repor!ng by Swiss companies.

Does culture shape the demand for social insurance against risks to health and work? We study this issue across language groups in Switzerland where a language border sharply separates social groups at identical actual levels of publicly provided social insurance. We find substantially stronger support for expansions of social insurance among residents of French, Italian or Romansh-speaking language border municipalities compared with their German-speaking neighbours in adjacent municipalities. Informal insurance does not vary enough to explain stark differences in social insurance but differences in ideology and segmented media markets potentially contribute to the discrepancy in demand for social insurance.