Michael Wicki


Last Name

Wicki

First Name

Michael

ORCID

0000-0001-8972-8468

Organisational unit

09685 - Kaufmann, David / Kaufmann, David

Search Results

Publications 1 - 10 of 70
  • The Housing Situation in London
    Item type: Report
    Kauer, Fiona; Hofer, Katrin; Wicki, Michael; et al. (2021)
    As part of a research project, the Spatial Development and Urban Policy Research group collected data on the housing situation in six metropolises (Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York and Paris). This data brief provides an overview of the housing situation in London. It provides a general overview of the data and highlights some of the most interesting findings.
  • Transportation service bundling – for whose benefit?
    Item type: Journal Article
    Guidon, Sergio; Wicki, Michael; Bernauer, Thomas; et al. (2020)
    Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
  • Survey Data of the Housing Situation in Six Global Metropolises
    Item type: Report
    Kauer, Fiona; Hofer, Katrin; Wicki, Michael; et al. (2021)
    This data brief describes the data collection effort of a survey among 12611 citizens in six cities (Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York and Paris). The main purpose was to provide comparative research on the housing situation and acceptance of urban housing developments. It provides an overview on the survey methods, describes the data collection, and summarizes the response behavior.
  • Öffentliche Akzeptanz und Politik für eine grüne und bezahlbare Innenverdichtung
    Item type: Report
    Wicki, Michael; Wehr, Malte; Debrunner, Gabriela; et al. (2024)
    Die Stadt- und Agglomerationsgemeinden der Schweiz sind mit vielfältigen Herausforderungen konfrontiert, wie Innenverdichtung zur Schaffung von neuem Wohnraum beitragen kann. Zu diesen Herausforderungen gehören begrenztes Bauland, hohe Wohnungsnachfrage, steigenden Mieten und ein direktdemokratisches politisches System. In diesem Bericht analysieren wir die Perspektiven und Meinungen der Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner zu dieser Herausforderung im Schweizer Wohnungsbau. Die Daten stammen aus Entscheidungsexperimenten, die wir in einer im Jahr 2023 durchgeführten Panelbefragung generiert haben. Unser methodischer Ansatz misst die Akzeptanz der Innenverdichtung und analysiert die zeitlichen Veränderungen in den Einstellungen nach den intensiven Diskussionen um die Schweizer Wohnentwicklung zwischen Frühjahr und Herbst 2023. Die verstärkte öffentliche und mediale Debatte über den Wohnungsbau in der Schweiz zeigt, dass ein besser informierter und evidenzbasierter Ansatz bezüglich öffentlicher Meinung zur Wohnungsbaupolitik notwendig ist. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen auf, dass die öffentliche Akzeptanz eng damit zusammenhängt, wie und von wem die Verdichtung umgesetzt wird und wie sie mit umfassenderen ökologischen und sozialen Zielen in Einklang gebracht wird. Unsere Forschung unterstreicht, wie wichtig es ist, nicht einfach nur mehr zu bauen, sondern richtig zu bauen – indem Wohn(um)bauvorhaben gefördert werden, die mit den gesellschaftlichen Erwartungen (Bezahlbarkeit) und den ökologischen Erfordernissen (Grünflächen) in Einklang stehen. Innenverdichtung wird akzeptiert, wenn sie direkt zu bezahlbaren und umweltfreundlichen Städten für alle beiträgt. Wir leiten aus diesen Forschungsergebnissen konkrete politische Empfehlungen zur Förderung einer ökologisch-sozial nachhaltigen Verdichtung ab, die auf den Kontext von vier Schweizer Stadttypen ausgerichtet sind.
  • How to accelerate the uptake of electric cars? Insights from a choice experiment
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wicki, Michael; Brückmann, Gracia; Bernauer, Thomas (2022)
    Journal of Cleaner Production
    Battery electric vehicles (BEV) are widely regarded as crucial to decarbonising the transport sector and achieving the Paris Agreement goals. Yet, there is much political controversy over how to accelerate the uptake of BEVs, which is currently still rather slow in most countries. The most important controversy concerns the extent to which consumer-oriented policy measures, such as purchase price subsidies, tax breaks and subsidised charging infrastructure are needed. Based on a large-scale (n = 1′021) choice experiment, we examined the relevance of a broad set of potential obstacles and drivers of BEV uptake from a consumer perspective. Obstacles include purchase price, energy costs, maintenance costs, warranty, and range. Potential policy measures for overcoming such obstacles include, e.g., free public transportation tickets and car exchanges, government subsidies, warranty periods, and charging infrastructure. Our main finding is that current key obstacles to BEV uptake are primarily economic and technical. It implies that disruptive measures such as banning fossil-fuel cars as well as supply-side policy interventions could help push the car industry into rapid technological innovation, and that economies of scale in BEV production may be more effective than governmental measures aimed at incentivising BEV uptake.
  • Creating inequality in access to public transit? Densification, gentrification, and displacement
    Item type: Journal Article
    Lutz, Elena; Wicki, Michael; Kaufmann, David (2024)
    Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
    Densification is a key concept in contemporary urban planning. Yet, there are widespread concerns about densification causing displacement and gentrification. This paper examines densification around train stations-a prevalent form of transit-oriented development (TOD) in cities with established public transit systems-in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. We assess the effects of densification around train stations on the socioeconomic population composition in these areas and investigate three different potential displacement effects. Leveraging 1.8 million linked person-housing unit observations for all individuals within our study perimeter, we provide a more nuanced understanding of densification's effects on the population composition and displacement than prior research. Our findings reveal that even though densification increases the absolute number of low-income residents, it primarily benefits middle- and high-income households. Specifically, there is a decline in the share of low-income residents, attributed to the influx of younger high-income individuals. Moreover, incumbent low-income residents experience an increased risk of direct displacement due to housing demolitions. These outcomes highlight the limitations of TOD strategies in mitigating persistent socioeconomic disparities in public transit access, emphasizing the need for more comprehensive measures to address the challenges of equitable housing and public transit accessibility.
  • Public Acceptance and Policy for Green and Affordable Densification
    Item type: Report
    Wicki, Michael; Wehr, Malte; Debrunner, Gabriela; et al. (2024)
    Switzerland’s urban and agglomeration settlements are facing multifaceted challenges of housing densification against the backdrop of limited land for development, high housing demand, rising rents, and a strong direct democratic political system. This white paper dissects the nuances of the Swiss housing dilemma by focusing on the perspectives and opinions of residents based on survey experiments from a panel study conducted in 2023. Our methodological approach gauges housing densification acceptance and analyzes temporal shifts in attitudes following intensified discussions around Swiss housing development between spring and fall 2023. The intensified Swiss public and media debate about housing point to the need for a more informed and evidence-based approach about public opinion of and policy for housing development. Initial findings indicate that public acceptance is intricately linked to how and by whom densification is implemented as well as its alignment with broader environmental and social outcomes. Our research underscores the importance of not just building more but building right—promoting housing (re)developments that resonate with societal aspirations (affordability) and environmental imperatives (presence of green spaces). The research thus demonstrates that densification is accepted when it directly contributes to affordable and environmentally friendly cities, meaning that the process helps to achieve green and affordable cities. We then integrate these research findings in policy recommendations promoting eco-socially sustainable densification that are targeted to the contexts of four types of Swiss cities.
  • Can policy-packaging increase public support for costly policies? Insights from a choice experiment on policies against vehicle emissions
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wicki, Michael; Huber, Robert A.; Bernauer, Thomas (2020)
    Journal of Public Policy
    Public support is usually a precondition for the adoption and successful implementation of costly policies. We argue that such support is easier to achieve with policy-packages that incorporate primary and ancillary measures. We specifically distinguish command-and-control and market-based measures as primary measures and argue that the former will usually garner more public support than the latter given the low-visibility tendency of costs associated with command-and-control measures. Nevertheless, if included in a policy-package, ancillary measures are likely to increase public support by reducing negative effects of primary measures. Based on a choice experiment with a representative sample of 2,034 Swiss citizens, we assessed these arguments with respect to political efforts to reduce vehicle emissions. The empirical analysis supported the argument that policy-packaging affects public support positively, particularly generating more support when ancillary measures are added. Lastly, we ultimately observe that command-and-control measures obtain more public support than market-based instruments.
  • How does Acceptance of Densification Differ among Neighborhood Types?
    Item type: Working Paper
    Wicki, Michael; Kaufmann, David (2021)
    Around the world, centrally-located land is scarce, making the sustainable use of available land a necessity. As a consequence, policymakers worldwide pursue strategies that aim to densify existing settlements. However, concrete densification projects tend to provoke (local) opposition. We examine how individuals assess general and local densification in Switzerland. The Swiss case is particularly interesting due to its high population density and recent spatial planning policy shifts towards densification. We base our analysis on a choice experiment that relies on a representative sample of 3003 residents. The results indicate that residents support general densification but reject such projects within their neighborhoods, leading to substantial shifts in support for densification. However, opposition to densification differs depending on the neighborbood type individuals live in and on project-related factors. These differences point to possible opportunities for increasing the acceptance of densifying our settlements.
  • Beyond a transport node? What residents want from transforming railway stations
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wicki, Michael; Hauller, Sophie; Bernauer, Thomas; et al. (2024)
    European Planning Studies
    Transport planning authorities and operators in various countries are planning far-reaching transformations of secondary railway stations into so-called mobility hubs with the aim to foster rail-based and intermodal mobility. The transformations of railway stations do not only affect the transportation network, but also the urban fabric surrounding railway stations. Projects of this nature, therefore, require a deeper understanding of the preferences of local residents, the key users of such hubs. We developed a three-stage adaptive survey experiment with a random sample of 2,028 adult residents in the perimeter of three secondary railway stations in Switzerland to identify preferences towards four potential railway station functions: public transport provision, access to multimodality, retail and services, and stations as a public space. The main findings are that the transportation function is the top priority, followed by the public space function. Other functions, such as retail, services, and multimodal mobility, are less preferred by residents. The findings reveal the importance of also considering non-commercial functions of these hubs and that residents are viewing railway station as more than merely transport hubs or shopping centres; they are considered key neighbourhood components that shape local identities through their role as public spaces.
Publications 1 - 10 of 70