Contributions in Merlin

The goal of this thesis is to analyze what the potential applications for human-drone collaboration in public entities are, which organizational and procedural consequences the police force is faced with in order to integrate autonomous drones and what challenges arise during a police operation with autonomous drone support. Literature research and interviews with test subjects and police representatives resulted in potential use cases such as assisting the police during police operations, arriving first at a crime scene and providing visual information, helping fire fighters find the source of a fire, enabling rescue teams locate missing people, and many more. Consequences for the police force are the implementation of novel technology, training officers to use it efficiently and having to maintain reputation. Managing communication is the most dominant challenge for the police when operating with an autonomous drone.

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Beantwortung der Frage, ob sich Momentumstrategien mit Währungen lohnen und welche Implikationen dies für die Effizienzmarkthypothese hat. Dazu wurden sechs Momentumstrategien und eine Buy-And-Hold-Strategie auf einen historischen Datensatz der wichtigsten Währungen angewendet und die Ergebnisse mit bestehenden Studien verglichen. Entgegen der Literatur konnten signifikante negative Gesamtrenditen bei allen Momentumstrategien nachgewiesen werden, was eine Erhöhung der Informationseffizienz im Devisenmarkt impliziert. Dabei schneiden Long-Short-Strategien besser ab als Long-Only-Strategien. Der Widerspruch zur Literatur begründet sich durch unterschiedliche Studienzeiträume und unterschiedlich komplexe Methoden. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen wird von einer erschwerten Existenz und Profitabilität des Momentum-Effekts ausgegangen.

5G mobile networks are intended to meet the increasing requirements placed on mobile communications. Producing and operating 5G infrastructure causes direct effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Meanwhile, 5G is expected to support applications that contribute to GHG abatement. We investigated (i) the GHG footprint of 5G infrastructure, and (ii) the GHG abatement potential of four 5G-supported use cases (i.e., flexible work, smart grids, automated driving and precision farming) for Switzerland in 2030. Our results show that 5G infrastructure is expected to cause 0.018 Mt CO2 e/year. Per unit of data transmitted, 5G is expected to cause 85% less GHG emissions in 2030 than today’s 2G/3G/4G network mix. The four 5G-supported use cases have the potential to avoid up to 2.1 Mt CO2 e/year; clearly more than the predicted GHG footprint of 5G infrastructure. The use cases benefit especially from ultra-low latency, the possibility to connect many devices, high reliability, mobility, availability and security provided by 5G. To put 5G at the service of climate protection, measures should be taken in two fields. First, the GHG footprint of 5G should be kept small, by installing only as much 5G infrastructure as required, running 5G with electricity from renewable energy sources, and decommissioning older network technologies once 5G is widely available. Second, the GHG abatements enabled by 5G-supported use cases should be unleashed by creating conditions that target GHG reductions and mitigate rebound effects. The final outcome depends largely on the political will to steer the development into the direction of a net GHG reduction.

In this thesis, a harmonized rating scale for a selection of green bond ratings is created using bond-specific external review data. The rating scale can be used to compare external green bond ratings with one another. The basis of the scale is a set of indicators derived from the Green Bond Principles (GBP). A final score is attributed to each rating and consists of its average conformity with the GBP. This is measured by the ratings’ average performance in each indicator. This way both positive and negative opinions voiced by external reviewers are integrated. I find that equally positioned ratings on average show the same conformity with the GBP. There is however a distinct difference in conformity noticeable between relatively good and relatively bad ratings. Moreover, a brief yield analysis is conducted using the harmonized rating scale. The analysis shows that the relative differences in conformity of ratings originating from the same external reviewer are mirrored in the relative difference in their yields. Also, the findings show that when corrected for unobserved bond characteristics, this relation can also be seen for ratings from different external reviewers.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) provide a good framework for shedding light on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities influence firms’ stock market performance. Using a large sample of US M&As, this study analyzes whether CSR created value for acquiring firms’ shareholders prior to and during the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. CSR scores are calculated using the MSCI ESG KLD Stats database. The results suggest that there is no effect of CSR on acquirer announcement returns. Additionally, no effect of CSR activities on acquirer announcement returns is found comparing the time period prior to the global financial crisis to the time period during the global financial crisis, suggesting that high CSR acquirers do not outperform during times of economic downturn. The empirical evidence, therefore, indicates that CSR has no impact on M&A performance and that therefore the performance must mainly be driven by other factors.

In this article we investigate the influence that information asymmetry may have on future volatility, liquidity, market toxicity, and returns within cryptocurrency markets. We use the adverse-selection component of the effective spread as a proxy for overall information asymmetry. Using order and trade data from the Bitfinex exchange, we first document statistically significant adverse-selection costs for major cryptocurrencies. Also, our results suggest that adverse-selection costs, on average, correspond to 10% of the estimated effective spread, indicating an economically significant impact of adverse-selection risk on transaction costs in cryptocurrency markets. Finally, we document that adverse-selection costs are important predictors of intraday volatility, liquidity, market toxicity, and returns.

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Relying on confidential supervisory data related to the 2016 EU-wide stress test, this paper presents novel empirical evidence that supervisory scrutiny associated to stress testing has a disciplining effect on bank risk. We find that banks that participated in the 2016 EU-wide stress test subsequently reduced their credit risk relative to banks that were not part of this exercise. Relying on new metrics for supervisory scrutiny that measure the quantity, potential impact, and duration of interactions between banks and supervisors during the stress test, we find that the disciplining effect is stronger for banks subject to more intrusive supervisory scrutiny during the exercise. We also find that a strong risk management culture is a prerequisite for the supervisory scrutiny to be effective. Finally, we show that a similar disciplining effect is not exerted neither by higher capital charges nor by more transparency and related market discipline induced by the stress test.

Using a sample of non-financial domestic firms in transition economies from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, we examine whether and how inter-industry spillover from FDI in the banking sector occurs. Our findings show that the innovation pursued by domestic firms benefits from foreign bank penetration. However, these positive inter-industry spillovers surprisingly do not seem to work through enhanced credit access. We further find these positive spillovers to occur mainly for foreign banks that use relationship lending, domestic firms that do not export, and host countries that are less open to the global market.