 Ralph Ossa, Was aus der WTO wird, wenn der Handelskrieg vorbei ist, In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, p. online, 13 July 2018. (Newspaper Article)
 
Die WTO hat eine realistische Chance, aus dem Handelskonflikt gestärkt hervorzugehen. Es ist die Geschichte, die uns lehrt, dass die internationale Handelskooperation letztlich im Interesse aller ist. |
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Hans-Joachim Voth, Falsch wahrgenommene Präferenzen, In: Finanz und Wirtschaft, p. online, 13 July 2018. (Newspaper Article)
Die pluralistische Ignoranz bezeichnet falsch wahrgenommene Präferenzen anderer. Sie beeinflusst auch das eigene Verhalten – mitunter negativ. |
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Stefan Holm, Oliver Thees, Renato Lemm, Roland Olschewski, Lorenz Hilty, An agent-based model of wood markets: Scenario analysis, Forest Policy and Economics, Vol. 95, 2018. (Journal Article)
We present an agent-based model of wood markets. The model covers softwood and hardwood markets for sawlogs, energy wood, and industrial wood. Our study region is a mountainous area in Switzerland that is close to the border, and therefore partially depends on the wood markets of the adjacent countries. The wood markets in this study region are characterized by many small-scale wood suppliers, and a mix of private and publicowned forests. The model was developed to investigate the availability of wood in the study region under different market conditions. We defined several scenarios that are relevant to policy makers and analyzed them with a focus on the two most important assortments of wood in the study region, namely, sawlogs softwood and energy wood softwood. The development of the prices and amounts sold in the scenarios are compared to a business-as-usual scenario. The scenarios were designed to investigate i) the influence of intermediaries, ii) the influence of the profit-orientation of forest owners, iii) the influence of the exchange rate, and iv) the consequences of set-asides in the study region. The presented model has a large potential to support the planning of policy measures as it allows capturing emergent phenomena, and thereby facilitates identifying potential consequences of policy measures planned prior to their implementation. This was demonstrated by discussing the scenario findings with respect to Switzerland's forestry policy objective of increasing the harvested amount of wood to the sustainable potential. We showed that a higher profit-orientation of forest owners would be beneficial for this objective, but also revealed potential conflicts of different economic goals. |
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Jack Gasser, Telemedicine in application: lessons learnt and their implications for the potential implementation of a remote healthcare solution at University Hospital Zurich , University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
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Irina Michelle Storrer, Lean Management im Spital. Eine Analyse am Beispiel des Universitätsspitals Zürich , University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
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Andrés Riera, The Reaction of European Banks to Supervisory Stress Tests, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
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Stephan Mannhart, Mitigation as a Service in a Cooperative Network Defense, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
The ever-growing Internet brings with it a multitude of connected devices that could either fall victim to large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or be part of the attack themselves. Defending against these attacks requires collaboration among different autonomous systems (ASes) to enable a swift mitigation of the threat directly at the source. This helps to save bandwidth as well as computing resources for the internet as a whole and the victims of these attacks in particular.
This thesis details the design and implementation of a modularized, network-agnostic and cooperative DDoS defense system consisting of multiple, decentralized instances working together to mitigate attacks targeted at any member of this alliance. The novel aspect of this multi-domain defense system is the use of the Ethereum blockchain as a signaling medium to inform all parties in the system about ongoing attacks.
The implementation is a re-engineering of the proof of concept Blockchain Signaling System (BloSS) developed by Rodrigues et al. with the goal to build a more flexible platform that can serve as the basis for future research toward realizing a fully automated Mitigation-as-a-Service (MaaS) offering. Together with the re-engineering of the BloSS, approaches to provide a Proof-of-Mitigation are presented, with the aim to enable payment-based incentive schemes to be integrated into the aforementioned MaaS.
The entire development effort is evaluated on a demonstration system based on single board compute nodes and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) hardware. The evaluation highlights the short delay in blocking multi-domain attacks and the minimal footprint of the implemented encryption scheme that provides confidentiality and integrity for the attack information published on the blockchain. |
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Marco Egli, The Bleeding Edge of Virtual Assistants: Exploratory Analysis of Behavioral Phenomena in Virtual, Speech-Based Assistant Use and Implications for Their Integration in Face-to-Face (Financial) Advisory Sessions, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
Virtual, speech-based assistants are becoming increasingly popular and relevant. While they are more and more finding their way into private households, their potential for supporting business services is also recognized. In a more extensive project, the Information Management Research Group of the University of Zurich started to investigate the integration of virtual assistants in collaborative advisory service encounters. However, due to the novelty of this technology, there are still many unanswered questions in the research of its general use. Accordingly, this master thesis embodies a preliminary study. With an exploratory, inductive research approach, the nature of private virtual assistant use and the phenomena occurring therein are investigated. Employing a mixed methods approach, semi-structured interviews with regular users, as well as Wizard of Oz experiments, were conducted. These allowed to take the perspective of the individual user and to offer grounds for comprehensive analyses of found phenomena. Through a subsequent workshop, conclusions were drawn about an embedment of virtual assistants in face-to-face (financial) advisory service encounters. Ultimately, future challenges for virtual assistants and their integration in the professional advisory domain are defined. Accordingly, this work not only contributes to the current research of virtual assistants but also serves as a comprehensive guide for future research and practice.
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Fabian Hegglin, Das Potential der Blockchain für „Self Sovereign Identity“ – Das Beispiel „Arztrezept“, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
The collection of personal data by companies, software providers and public authorities has taken on an immense scale in recent years. A solution in which the user has control over his data is more and more desired. One solution is known as self sovereign identity. The doctor's prescription on paper, as it is currently in use, involves numerous problems such as forgery and error, loss of risk and inefficiency. Initial attempts with digital pre-scriptions were unsuccessful in Switzerland. This is also due to the users who care about their data. In this work it is examined whether a complex use case like the prescription can be implemented with self sovereign identity on blockchain and whether the users would adopt this system. |
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Edin Hrustanovic, Strategie zur Vermeidung grundlegender Fehler bei Anlageentscheidungen, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
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Pablo Koch Medina, Cosimo Munari, Gregor Svindland, Which eligible assets are compatible with comonotonic capital requirements?, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Vol. 81, 2018. (Journal Article)
Within the context of capital adequacy, we study comonotonicity of risk measures in terms of the primitives of the theory: acceptance sets and eligible, or reference, assets. We show that comonotonicity cannot be characterized by the properties of the acceptance set alone and heavily depends on the choice of the eligible asset. In fact, in many important cases, comonotonicity is only compatible with risk-free eligible assets. The incompatibility with risky eligible assets is systematic whenever the acceptability criterion is based on Value-at-Risk or any convex distortion risk measure such as Expected Shortfall. These findings qualify and arguably call for a critical appraisal of the meaning and the role of comonotonicity within a capital adequacy context. |
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Reto Willi, The Term Structure of Risk Aversion in Foreign Exchange Markets - An Analysis of Foreign Exchange Option Data over Varying Time Horizons, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
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Céline Spillmann, Technologische, ethische und rechtliche Analyse der Nutzung von Wearable-Technologien durch Krankenversicherer, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
Wearable technologies are increasingly used by health insurers to analyse the risks of their policyholders. Based on the recorded fitness and health data, insurance companies grant premium reductions or completely exclude certain persons with high health risks from insurance cover. This thesis analyses the use of wearable technologies by health insurers and the resulting questions from a technological, ethical, and legal perspective. On the basis of a technology assessment, the chances and risks are examined, potential future scenarios are developed, and recommendations for action are outlined. It can be concluded that ensuring data security and maintaining the solidarity principle within the insurance community are two vital factors for a promising use of wearable technologies by health insurers. The thesis shall contribute to an innovative and responsible future use of wearable technologies by health insurers for the well-being of society. |
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Alexander Eiselmayer, Touchstone 2: A Visual Programming Interface for Designing and Comparing Experiments, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
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Laura Wagner, Encouraging End-users to Provide Feedback: An Investigation and Evaluation of Motives and Incentives, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
There is little research on systematically identifying incentive solutions and motives encouraging users to provide non-public feedback to software systems. Goal of this thesis is to identify end-usersí motives, design incentive solutions, and evaluate the motive-incentive-fit this context. A set of 11 motives was created, based on a literature analysis. Existing commercial tools, research tools and the SUPERSEDE feedback tool were analyzed for their incentive solutions and matched to the motives. Based on that, a SWOT analysis was conducted and supported the notion of optimizing the SUPERSEDE feedback. During a workshop and a prioritization, 93 prioritized incentive solutions were created. After a selection process, 50 promising incentive solutions remained, whereof 31 could be conceptualized or implemented into the SUPERSEDE feedback tool. Finally, the features and concepts were evaluated by 10 users and 4 company representatives. For 80% of the users asked, the optimized SUPERSEDE feedback tool raised their willingness to provide feedback compared to the original SUPERSEDE feedback tool. |
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Lucy Liu, Is asset management in China a logical deduction of the opened economy introduced in the reform in 1978?, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
Until the 1978 reform, asset management services were unheard of in China. However, the
reform has placed the Chinese economy in the spotlight. This thesis analyses the role of the
reform in the evolution of asset management in China. The literature to date has concentrated
either on the reform or on asset management, although the latter is rare. To identify the essential
aspects of the industry, interviews were conducted with asset managers, and the factors were
then evaluated for China specifically. A positive relationship was expected between the reform
and the development of the asset management sector in China. |
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Selina Hartmann, Sortimentgrösse: Stand der Forschung und aktuelle Entwicklungen, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Master Thesis)
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Marko Barbic, Intra-day return modeling with the MGHyp distribution for portfolio optimization, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
This thesis contributes to the growing literature of modeling financial re-turns at the intra-day level by considering its ability to predict the daily structure for asset allocation purposes. We test, whether the VG-iid model calibrated on the 30min time scale is beneficial for daily portfolio optimiza-tion by minimizing the next day ES. The VG-iid model lowers portfolio turnover, fits the return data quite well and allows for an easy deriva-tion of daily parameter estimates based on intra-day returns (Podg´orski and Wallin (2016)). However, the assumption of iid returns is quite ques-tionable at the intra-day level (Voev and Lunde (2006)), which stresses our focus on the practical benefit of this approach. Without transaction costs, we present an outperformance of all our strategies using 30min data instead of daily returns. The benefits are quite stable and remain even under simplifying assumptions. One of the 30min strategies also reduces the turnover rate, which stresses the practical significance of our findings. |
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Laurent Florin, Interdependencies of Cryptocurrencies, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
Abstract
In this thesis I consider the implementation of a VAR-DCCGARCH based strategy on a cryptocurrency portfolio consisting of Bitcoin and six widely used Altcoins, to take advantage of possible spillover effects between the currencies in the portfolio. Furthermore, the use of a moving average crossover rule, based on the network value to transaction volume ratio, to improve the strategy is examined. As a benchmark a simple Buy and Hold portfolio strategy is used. To compare the the strategies the Sharpe ratio is used and a studentized bootstrap interference is implemented to test the hypotheses that there is no difference in the Sharpe ratios of the strategies. Strong evidence that the VAR-DCCGARCH strategy renders superior risk adjusted returns compared to the Buy and Hold benchmark is presented. Additionally evidence, that VAR-DCCGARCH is improved upon by combining it with the moving average crossover rule, is presented. |
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Pamela Castello Matias, How mobile payment affects Swiss banks, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2018. (Bachelor Thesis)
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