Thank you for visiting! I’m an applied economist and actuary working at Helvetia Insurance. I received my Ph.D. in 2024 from the Department of Economics at the University of Bern. From September 2023 to March 2024, I had the privilege of being a visiting researcher at the Wharton School at UPenn. In my research, I focus on public and health economics.
You can download my CV here.
Publications
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics 161, 9 [ Abstract | Journal Link ]
Cross-border shopping expands product variety and lowers prices for consumers in high-price countries, but it diminishes domestic tax revenues, reduces sales, and shifts demand away from local retailers. Exploiting Switzerland’s COVID-19-induced border closure as a natural experiment, I investigate the socioeconomic implications of cross-border shopping. Linking detailed grocery transaction records for 710,000 households to administrative data, I find that the border closure raises domestic grocery expenditures in border areas by an additional 10.4%. The benefits of cross-border shopping, however, are heterogeneous, and larger and lower-income households exhibit a particularly strong propensity to shop abroad. Based on these patterns, I estimate an annual loss of 1.5 billion Swiss francs in domestic grocery sales, equivalent to 3.8% of the total market.
Working Papers
The Apple Does Not Fall Far From the Tree: Intergenerational Persistence of Dietary Habits
[ Download ] with Martina Pons (Revise & Resubmit (resubmitted), The Review of Economics and Statistics)
Inadequate diets harm individual health, generate substantial healthcare costs, and reduce labor market income. Yet, the determinants of unhealthy eating remain poorly understood. This paper provides novel evidence on the intergenerational transmission of dietary choices from parents to children by exploiting unique grocery transaction records matched with administrative data. We document a strong intergenerational persistence of diet that exceeds income transmission across all measures we consider. At the same time, substantial heterogeneities in the persistence of diet indicate that the socioeconomic background and location of children may be crucial to fostering beneficial eating habits and breaking unhealthy ones. We discuss potential mechanisms and show in a counterfactual analysis that only 10% of the intergenerational persistence in diet can be explained by the transmission of income and education. In line with these results, we introduce a habit formation model and argue that the formation of dietary habits during childhood and their slow alteration are key drivers of our findings.
Who Shops Online? The Role of Policy, Household Characteristics, and Family Networks
[ Abstract | Download ] with Maximilian von Ehrlich (Revise & Resubmit (resubmitted), Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics)
This paper examines the unintended effects of public policy measures and social dynamics on e-commerce adoption, using a comprehensive dataset of household-level transactions at Switzerland’s largest retailer matched to administrative registers. First, we study how the COVID-19 pandemic and temporary policy measures impacted the adoption of online grocery shopping in Switzerland and we document a substantial increase in online expenditures. This shift is heterogeneous: younger, larger, and richer households, as well as those with limited local store access, are particularly responsive. Moreover, we find that stricter mitigation policies intensify online usage. Second, we analyze the role of social networks in accelerating e-commerce diffusion. We highlight strong peer effects: within multi-generational families and among neighbors, the adoption of online shopping by one household significantly raises the likelihood of adoption by others. These findings underscore the impact of policy measures and the importance of social networks in shaping digital consumption behavior.
Spatial Frictions in Retail Consumption
[ Abstract | Download ] with Maximilian von Ehrlich and Tobias Seidel (Working Paper)
This paper analyzes spatial consumption frictions by estimating the causal effect of store openings on individual shopping behavior. To this end, we combine unique household-store-linked transaction data with administrative data on income and other socio-demographics. Our findings reveal that spatial frictions significantly influence shopping behavior, with the distance elasticity of expenditures and number of visits being approximately 0.15. Our estimates suggests that consumption areas extend to about 10-20 minutes of travel time, depending on household type. Traditional gravity estimates are shown to be considerably biased due to the endogenous nature of store locations. By combining distance elasticities with a simple model of shopping behavior, we derive store-specific attraction parameters and compute a measure of local grocery market access. Market access varies significantly across different locations, and consistent with spatial equilibrium theory, this variation is reflected in local rents. Consumption frictions are more pronounced for older and smaller households and vary with income, primarily in non-urban areas. Overall, spatial variations in market access are more significant than spatial dispersion in income. Combined with the positive correlation between income and market access, this suggests an important role for real income disparities.
Does new housing supply benefit the poor? Evidence from moving chains
with Lukas Hauck (Working Paper)
Other Writing
Food for Thought - Consumer Mobility and Nutritional Choices (Thesis)
[ Abstract | Link ]
This thesis includes three papers investigating different dimensions of consumer behavior in Switzerland within the fields of urban and health economics: eating patterns within families across generations, consumer mobility and grocery market access within cities, and shopping trips across national borders. Chapter One, titled The Apple Does Not Fall Far From the Tree: Intergenerational Persistence of Dietary Habits, studies the intergenerational persistence of healthy eating patterns. Chapter Two, titled Cross-Border Shopping: Evidence from Household Transaction Records, analyzes the consumers’ response to the COVID-19-induced national border closure in Switzerland. Chapter Three, titled Spatial Frictions in Retail Consumption, exploits supermarket openings to estimate distance decay functions and incorporates them into a simple framework of spatial shopping. Addressing these topics contributes to (i) the design of effective public health interventions and (ii) land-use restrictions and urban planning that account for the complexities of spatial consumer behavior.
Arbeit und Kapital in Zeiten der Wissensgesellschaft (in German)
[ Link ] with Guido Baldi
Firmenersparnisse und der Arbeitsanteil am Einkommen (in German)
[ Link ] with Guido Baldi
