Working Papers/Reports
Recent Submissions
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Multimode strong coupling in cavity optomechanics
(2018)arXivOptomechanical systems show great potential as quantum transducers and information storage devices for use in future hybrid quantum networks and offer novel strategies for quantum state preparation to explore macroscopic quantum phenomena. Towards these goals, deterministic control of optomechanical interactions in the strong coupling regime represents an important strategy for efficient utilization of quantum degrees of freedom in ...Working Paper -
Fighting Violence Against Women: The Role of Female Political Representation
(2022)Center for Law & Economics Working Paper SeriesWe investigate the effect of women’s political leadership in local government on homicide and violence against women. Using a regression discontinuity design we compare Brazilian municipalities where a female candidate barely won to those where a female candidate barely lost mayoral elections. Having a female mayor reduces homicide rate of women by 20% and violence (physical, psychological, sexual) by 40%. These results are not due to ...Working Paper -
Diffraction imaging of light induced dynamics in xenon-doped helium nanodroplets
(2022)arXivWe have explored the light induced dynamics in superfluid helium nanodroplets with wide-angle scattering in a pump-probe measurement scheme. The droplets are doped with xenon atoms to facilitate the ignition of a nanoplasma through irradiation with near-infrared laser pulses. After a variable time delay of up to 800 ps, we image the subsequent dynamics using intense extreme ultraviolet pulses from the FERMI free-electron laser. The recorded ...Working Paper -
The Scatman: an approximate method for fast wide-angle scattering simulations
(2022)arXivSingle-shot Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI) is a powerful approach to characterize the structure and dynamics of isolated nanoscale objects such as single viruses, aerosols, nanocrystals or droplets. Using X-ray wavelengths, the diffraction images in CDI experiments usually cover only small scattering angles of few degrees. These small-angle patterns repre sent the magnitude of the Fourier transform of the two-dimensional projec ...Working Paper -
Disastrous Discretion: Ambiguous Decision Situations Foster Political Favoritism
(2022)CESifo Working PapersAllocation decisions are vulnerable to political influence, but it is unclear in which situations politicians use their discretionary power in a partisan manner. We analyze the allocation of presidential disaster declarations in the United States, exploiting the spatiotemporal randomness of hurricane strikes from 1965–2018 along with changes in political alignment. We show that decisions are not biased when disasters are unambiguously ...Working Paper -
Power Shifts, Emigration, and Population Sorting
(2022)KOF Working PapersWe investigate the consequences of a peaceful shift of power from one social group to another. Theoretically, we show that an individual’s decision to stay put or migrate depends on the difference between the political preferences of groups and the change in tax. Empirically, we use the case of the unexpected creation of the Canton of Jura in Switzerland, which witnessed a power shift from German to French speakers in the 1970s. We find ...Working Paper -
Modelling life cycle costs for edge beams of three Norwegian bridges
(2022)NPRA ReportsFor the planning of cost-effective infrastructure maintenance, it is important to assess the condition of structures and to estimate the optimum time, the extent and the type of repair needed to continue operating the structures safely. In this study, a novel approach is presented, which combines data from condition assessment of reinforced concrete structures (e.g. chloride profiles), predictive modelling (future chloride ingress) and ...Report -
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Dynamic Factor Trees and Forests - A Theory-led Machine Learning Framework for Non-Linear and State-Dependent Short-Term U.S. GDP Growth Predictions
(2022)KOF Working PapersMachine Learning models are often considered to be “black boxes” that provide only little room for the incorporation of theory (cf. e.g. Mukherjee, 2017; Veltri, 2017). This article proposes so-called Dynamic Factor Trees (DFT) and Dynamic Factor Forests (DFF) for macroeconomic forecasting, which synthesize the recent machine learning, dynamic factor model and business cycle literature within a unified statistical machine learning framework ...Working Paper -
The Incidence of the U.S.–China Solar Trade War
(2022)Economics Working Paper SeriesThis paper investigates the distributional welfare effects of the recent trade war in the solar manufacturing sector resulting from the U.S. government-initiated trade tariffs against Chinese solar manufacturers. Our structural econometric model incorporates the vertical structure between upstream solar manufacturers and downstream solar installers. Counterfactual simulations show the tariffs had a small positive impact on U.S. manufacturers ...Working Paper -
Activity-oriented analysis of induced travel demand
(2022)Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und RaumplanungThis guideline was approved on February 15, 2013 by the board of the Swiss Association of Traffic Engineers (SVI) and has been released for publication.Working Paper -
Digital twins and hybrid modelling for simulation of physiological variables and stroke risk
(2022)bioRxivOne of the more interesting ideas for achieving personalized, preventive, and participatory medicine is the concept of a digital twin. A digital twin is a personalized computer model of a patient. So far, digital twins have been constructed using either mechanistic models, which can simulate the trajectory of physiological and biochemical processes in a person, or using machine learning models, which for example can be used to estimate ...Working Paper -
Designing, developing, evaluating, and Implementing a Smartphone-delivered, rule-based COnVERsational agent (DISCOVER): a conceptual framework
(2022)JMIR PreprintsBackground: Conversational agents (CAs), also known as chatbots are computer programs that simulate human conversations using predetermined rule-based responses or employing artificial intelligent algorithms. They are increasingly used in healthcare, particularly via smartphones. There is, at present no conceptual framework guiding the development of smartphone rule-based CAs in healthcare. To fill this gap we propose structured and ...Working Paper -
The Effect of Dynamic Lockdowns on Public Transport Demand in Times of COVID-19: Evidence from Smartcard Data
(2021)SSRN Electronic JournalGovernments around the globe have taken different measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The city of Santiago, Chile, followed a dynamic lockdown strategy in which its municipalities were temporarily restricted depending on the degree of advance of the pandemic. We use this variation over time to study the effect of lockdowns on public transport demand, by analysing a 2019-2020 database of smartcard data of trips. These data allow us ...Working Paper -
Smart sealants for prevention and monitoring of gastrointestinal anastomotic leaks using portable smartphone-controlled ultrasound transducers
(2022)bioRxivMillions of patients every year undergo gastrointestinal surgery. While often lifesaving, sutured and stapled reconnections leak in around 10% of the cases. Penetration of digestive fluids into the peritoneal cavity may lead to dreadful complications, including sepsis and premature death. Modern suture supports and tissue adhesives only insufficiently address the issue. Due to the scarcity of alternatives, surgeons rely on monitoring ...Working Paper -
What Makes Firms Stop Doing R&D in Switzerland? – Project Commissioned by SERI
(2022)KOF StudiesReport -
Expect the worst, hope for the best: The valuation of climate risks and opportunities in sovereign bonds
(2022)Economics Working Paper SeriesHow climate aspects affect sovereign bonds is still a new field of research. I differentiate between transition, physical, and innovation aspects of climate risks and climate performance and estimate the pricing-in of these climate aspects in sovereign bond yields for a sample of 29 countries, for the time 2008-2021. The results show that the effects differ between countries with higher and lower credit rating, long- and short term ...Working Paper -
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