Thesis Assignments

Cities administrations are increasingly under pressure how to finance and realize important projects. Linked to neoliberal reforms and de-regulations, throughout the world an important role is given to private actors while the public sector remains with often little direct means to translate urban planning visions into reality. Local governments have to be increasingly inventive in organizing the required financial means.This research aims at analyzing recent advancement in financing urban development that often take place in partnership between governments, private sector and international investments.

Collaborating Partner: WISE

Format: Desktop; Master / Bachelor

Requirements: An interest in the topic, an econ. / finance / real estate background an advantage

Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Almost a billion people live in slums and many more are inadequately housed. Affordable Housing is one of the great development challenges of our time. Governments around the world increasingly acknowledge the scale of the problem and launch new interventions to remedy the situation. GIMLA advances its own research on the scientific analysis of slum upgrading and housing programs but also collaborates with very important knowledge stakeholders, such as the UHPH (Urban Housing Practitioners Hub) and Cities Alliance.

Specific topics are co-developed with interested students and may range from in-depth analysis of specific projects, the review of the experiences in a country to structural investigations of specific issues in the Latin American but also other world regions. 

Collaborating Partner: WISE, UHPH, Cities Alliance

Format: Onsite / Desktop; Master / Bachelor

Requirements: Portuguese, French, Spanish skills an asset

Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Unaffordable housing affects billions of people around the world. Housing is either too costly or inadequate for families. From a global perspective, increasing access to and the performativity of housing microfinance (HMF) is one of the most promising ways to ensure access to decent housing. We are currently involved in a research project on the supply-side, financing and regulation of HMF in Africa that can represent exciting spinoff thesis assignments. 

• Collaborating Partner: WISE
• Format: Desktop; Master and Bachelor students
• Requirements: An interest in the topic and French, Spanish, or Portuguese language skills an asset 
• Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Collaborating Partner: Linked to ongoing HSG project

Format: Desktop; Master / Bachelor

Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Collaborating Partner: An international Research Network

Format: Onsite / Desktop; Master / Bachelor

Requirements: Portuguese skills an asset

Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Real estate developers are central agents of change and influence urban development throughout the world. Despite the centrality of these stakeholders in steering urbanization processes and their spatial manifestation, the existing body of literature remains thin. The aim of this research project is to advance our understanding on the institutional dimension of the real estate ecosystem and highlight the interlinkages between the development industry and urban planning, policy making, as well as financial investment practices.

Collaborating Partner: WISE

Format: Desktop; Master / Bachelor

Requirements: An interest in the topic.

Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Smart cities are increasingly discussed in Latin America and seen as a new urban paradigm to answer the development challenges in the 21st century. The wilful alignment of governments with the private market in the pursuit of technological innovations brings new opportunities but also risks to the highly urbanized societies in Latin America. This research project seeks to produce knowledge on smart cities and its impact on participation/accountability/bottom-up initiative as well as on sustainability and inclusion. Theses based on literature reviews as well as in-depth case studies are possible. Depending on the particular interest and motivation of the student, other topics in relation to smart cities can be pursued.

Collaborating Partner: WISE

Format: Onsite / Desktop; Master / Bachelor

Requirements: Portuguese or Spanish skills an asset

Status: Ongoing, accepting requests

Master (12)

• Tatjana Bottiglieri, Master Thesis in Business Innovation: “Knowledge Management meets Digital Transformation - Business Model Innovation of Knowledge Management Information Systems for Organizations addressing Urban Informality”

• Alina Eichrodt, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Contribution of Urban Public Goods and Services Projects Towards More Inclusive Cities - Learning Globally from Local Best Practices”

• Emma Fulard, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Land Grabbing and violence in post-conflict countries”

• Lena Hilfiker Tomas, Master Thesis in Strategy and International Management: “Land Value Capture in Colombia - The potential of CEPACs in financing the Bogota metro line”, Double Degree Pro-gram with ESADE

• Diego Meuli, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Blue Peace for the Blue Nile –Sharing the Benefits of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Beyond”

• Leandro Neff, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Sustainable Urbanization and Organizational Learning – Best Practice Analyses in Latin America and the Caribbean with Focus on Colombia”

• Christina Pallikudiyil, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Classification and Evaluation of Covid-19 responses in informal settlements - A comparison across Latin America and the Caribbean”

• Kay Probst, Master Thesis in Accounting and Finance: “Real estate developers in the context of affordable housing in Brazil”

• Carla Reiss, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Financing Instruments for Urban Governments - Possibilities to Enhance the Provision of Affordable Housing in Latin America”

• Claudio Schärer, Master Thesis in International Affairs: “Slums Under Water – A Comparative Analysis of Flood Resilience Policies in Dhaka, Lagos and Rio de Janeiro”

• Stefan Schlatter, Master Thesis in Strategy and International Management: “Reconciling Citizen Participation and Environmental Justice in Urban Nature-Based Solutions: A Case Study Approach”, Double Degree Program with HEC

• Lynn Sara Tschirky, Master Thesis in Strategy and International Management: “The Potential of Blockchain Technology to Combat Illegal Logging in the Amazon Rainforest”

Bachelor (19)

• Lale Aleyna, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Smart city solutions in Colombia: Empirical research on Colombian smart city solutions based on the taxonomic method”

• Marie Clerc, Bachelor Thesis in International Affairs: “Fairness in the Cocoa Business: Assessing fair trade efforts using a scale based on cocoa farmers’ Views”

• Mahé Dubois, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Postcolonialism and the Governance of the Commons”

• Anastasia Paola Dunand, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “The Financial Framework of Slum Upgrading Projects - The Example of Brazil”

• Anna Germann, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Stakeholder Analysis of the Micro-finance Housing Ecosystem in francophone Sub-Saharan Africa”

• Lea Giannoni, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Leveraging Benefits from the Application of Smart Solutions for the Urban Poor - A Global Review of Best Practices”

• Valentin Goumaz, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “The Worldwide Challenge of Up-grading Slums – An Academic Review”

• Alexander Henrich, Bachelor Thesis in International Affairs: “How to provide infrastructure for urban development –An analysis of actual demand and best practices in local implementation”

• Felix Hotz, Bachelor Thesis in International Affairs: “The influence of the global sustainability discourse on the free trade agreement between Mercosur and EFTA and on the trade policy of Paraguay?”

• Lea Ligner, Bachelor Thesis in International Affairs: “Slum upgrading to reduce the vulnerability to climate change - A case study”

• Ann-Sophie Kahnau, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: „Regeneratives MethanolRegene-ratives - Methanol als Rückgrat der Stromversorgung und KraftstoffderMobilität von Morgen”

• Alessandro De Laurentiis, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Understanding the Tragedy of the Commons from an Interdisciplinary Perspective”

• Florian Oeschger, Bachelor Thesis: “Digesting the REPower Europe Plan for the European House-hold – with a focus on the European Solar Initiative”

• Martinez Romain, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “The Governance of Metropolitan Areas in Latin America – An analysis of available tools”

• Andrea Rutz Rodriguez, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) in the extractive sector: The case of Peru”

• Yannick Saladin, Bachelor Thesis in Economics: “Global infrastructure needs and investments an examination of projection methods and implications”

• Ruben De Sterlich, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Urban Development Challenges in Latin America Exploring the Strategic Value of Sustainable Solutions”

• Robin Weiss, Bachelor Thesis, Renewable energy potential in Latin America: How can decentralized renewable energy solutions improve electricity access in rural communities?

• Emma Zohar, Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration: “Opportunities and challenges of smart mobility solutions to address social inequality - A case study of Santiago de Chile”