Putting research to the real-world test

Hangartner is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at ETH. He says that a healthy mixture of patience and impatience characterises his personality and way of working, but it’s the impatience that drives him forward: he wants answers to his research questions, and he wants them now. “Scientific quality is something that needs time, however,” says Hangartner. “Basic research is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Challenges in migration

Hangartner is not the type of academic who issues bold theories from the ivory tower. Rather, his approach to research often involves collaborations with governments, international organizations, and immigrant service providers. He analyses hard real-​world data to shed new light on topics such as the economic and political impact of migration, asylum procedures and integration, and public attitudes towards immigration.

In just the past three years, he has authored various publications showing, for example, that lengthy asylum procedures and employment bans for refugees lead to higher social costs and a reduction in tax revenues.

Together with colleagues from Stanford, Hangartner developed a broadly applicable, data-​driven algorithm for improving the geographic allocation of refugees. This algorithmic approach makes use of existing data to harness the synergies between refugees’ characteristics and host communities. This allows for refugees to be settled in regions where they have the best chances of finding employment.

The State Secretariat of Migration (SEM) is currently running a pilot study to test the effectiveness of this data-​driven approach, and policymakers from the Benelux countries and Scandinavia have also shown interest in the method.

Hangartner’s research also caught the attention of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), which has just awarded him the National Latsis Prize. The SNSF’s award recognises the exceptional quality of Hangartner’s research on migration and its translation into policymaking. The National Latsis Prize is one of the most prestigious science prizes in Switzerland and is awarded to researchers aged 40 and below.

For Hangartner, the prize serves as a form of appreciation for his team and an acknowledgement of his approach to research. “I already felt early on in my academic career that an empirical approach based on data and statistics was the right way to find answers for the hard questions in migration research and to design better solutions,” he says.