News

I am awarded the ETH Medal for outstanding academic achievement in my doctoral research.

ETH Zurich
January 2025

I received a two-year grant for my research at Stockholm University and Columbia University.

Swiss National Science Foundation
Postdoc.Mobility (2024-2026)

I have successfully completed my doctorate.

ETH Zurich
April 2024

Update: "Immigration and Nationalism in the Long ​Run"

New Working Paper Version
June 2024

Welcome to my webpage! Here you find information about me and my work.

Dr. Stephan A. Schneider
Postdoctoral Researcher

Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University
Funded by a two-year Postdoc.Mobility grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation
CESifo Research Network Affiliate
KOF Research Fellow, ETH Zurich

My research covers political and environmental economics. I am particularly interested in approaches that integrate economic research with related subjects such as politics, geography, and the environment. I develop empirical analyses with a focus on causal relationships, often using quasi-experiments with a spatial dimension derived from historical and natural events. 

A major part of my work focuses on explaining the decision-making behavior of politicians and voters in the face of unforeseen situations and changing conditions. My research addresses current real-world problems such as the allocation of scarce resources, natural disaster management, renewable energy, migration, and nationalism. I have published in leading journals such as The Review of Economics and Statistics, the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and the Journal of Public Economics

What motivates me is to help understand this interesting world just a little more.

In the big picture

My recent and current projects contribute to explaining…

  • political favoritism and biased decision-making.
  • the rise of separatist and nationalist parties.
  • interactions of natural events, politics, and economics.

As a sports fan, in which situations would you be most afraid of a biased referee? Probably when it’s neck and neck and the right decision is not obvious.
There is an analogy with political decision-making. In Disastrous Discretion, we show that political favoritism in disaster relief provision is prevalent in ambiguous situations. Medium disaster intensities provide the best opportunities for politicians to exert biased allocations – the fairness of their decisions is less obvious for the public to judge than for very strong or very weak disaster impact.

Vertriebene Sudetendeutsche warten mit Handgepäck auf ihren Abtransport“ (upper picture) by Sudetendeutsche Stiftung is licensed under CC BY-SA 1.0. „Refugees crossing into Poland, 7 March 2022“ (lower picture) from the website or social media of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Displacement and immigration have immediate consequences for societies and can shake up the political landscape. But do we still see traces of that generations later? In a current project, we use a quasi-experiment from Germany to examine how past and present interact.

News

I am awarded the ETH Medal for outstanding academic achievement in my doctoral research.

ETH Zurich
January 2025

I received a two-year grant for my research at Stockholm University and Columbia University.

Swiss National Science Foundation
Postdoc.Mobility (2024-2026)

I have successfully completed my doctorate.

ETH Zurich
January 2024

Update: "Immigration and Nationalism in the Long ​Run"

New Working Paper Version
June 2024