Laufende Projekte am Lehrstuhl

2021-2026: UZH URPP «Equality of Opportunity»
Leitung: Matthieu Leimgruber (Zürich)
Team: Dr. Geoffroy Legentillhomme (2021-), Lukas Horrer (2021), Nicolas Bauer (2025-2028), NIclas Stark (2025-2026)

In the media: Yves Demuth: Geld-Eliten. Wer viel hat, hats von den Eltern, in: Beobachter 17/2023 (August) (PDF, 2 MB)

Our project explores the long-term dynamics of wealth concentration at the higher end of the social strata in various Swiss settings. Using historical tax registers as well as more recent rankings of wealthy individuals/families, we aim to analyze the changing and interconnected roles of inheritance, family and kinship networks, and entrepreneurship in the dynamics of wealth accumulation and concentration.
Starting with a detailed study of the Zurich 0.1% wealthiest taxpayers during the first half of the 20th century, this project will also address issues linked to tax competition within Switzerland and the country’s role as a platform for wealthy foreign individuals.
The project aims to both gather data on wealth concentration in long-term perspective and develop a quantitative/qualitative assessment of this data. As there has been yet very little research on high incomes/wealth in Switzerland using historical methods, we expect to contribute to a better understanding of the changing structure of the higher social echelons of one of the world’s wealthiest industrialized societies.
This research will be closely related to the SNF SINERGIA Project «Local power structures».

2016- , Universitäten Zürich, Lausanne, und Genf. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
Leitung: Prof. Dr. Matthieu Leimgruber, Prof. Dr. Thomas David (Lausanne)
Team: Dr. Joel Floris, (2020-), Joanna Haupt (2019-), Martin Kohler (Genf, 2016-18), Dr. Christian Stohr (2016-18)

https://hsso.ch/

Im Rahmen dieses Projekts wurde eine neue, revidierte, und erweiterte Webseite für die Historische Statistik der Schweiz vorbereitet.