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Christoph Basten

Division: Monetary Analysis
Current Position: Senior Lead Economist
Fields of interest: Financial Economics,Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
Email: Christoph.Basten@ecb.europa.eu

Biography

Education: 2019
Financial Risk Manager (FRM); 2008-11
PhD, Economics, European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy; 2010-11
Visiting Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard, USA; 2007-08
MRes, Economics, European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy; 2006-07
MSc, Economics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain; 2003-06
BA, Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), Oxford University, Oxford, UK
Professional experience: 2017-24
Assistant Professor of Banking, University of Zurich, Switzerland; 2021
Visiting Fellow, NYU Stern School of Business, New York City, USA; 2013-17
Head of Risk Monitor, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA, Berne, Switzerland; 2011-13
Postdoctoral Researcher, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Zurich, Switzerland
Awards: 2014
Peggy and Richard Musgrave Prize, International Institute of Public Finance
Teaching experience: 2020-24
PhD, Banking and Contract Economics, University of Zurich; 2018-23
Executive Education, Corporate Banking and Regulation, University of Zurich; 2018-23
BA, Banking, University of Zurich; 2019
MA, Financial Regulation, University of Zurich

ECB publications

28 October 2011

WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 1393

Abstract: We investigate the effect of Reformed Protestantism, relative to Catholicism, on preferences for leisure and for redistribution and intervention in the economy. With a Fuzzy Spatial Regression Discontinuity Design, we exploit a historical quasiexperiment in Western Switzerland, where in the 16th century a so far homogeneous region was split and one part assigned to convert to Protestantism. We find that Reformed Protestantism reduces the fraction of citizens voting for more leisure by 13, and that voting for more redistribution and government intervention by respectively 3 and 11 percentage points. These preferences are found to translate into greater income inequality, but we find no robust effect on average income.
JEL Code: Z12 : Other Special Topics→Cultural Economics, Economic Sociology, Economic Anthropology→Religion
D72 : Microeconomics→Analysis of Collective Decision-Making→Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
H23 : Public Economics→Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue→Externalities, Redistributive Effects, Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
N33 : Economic History→Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy→Europe: Pre-1913

External publications

2024

Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 24-38