Katja Rost
Biographic Data
| ID | 377529 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katja Rost |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katja |
| FAMILY NAME | Rost |
| SIGNATURE | ROST K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7752-7818 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 103 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Marriage as a resource
Marital sorting is commonly used by elites to prevent status erosion and maintain exclusivity. However, elites are affected by shifts in the socioeconomic environment, and their capacity to navigate such challenges determines their long-term success. We use genealogical data from early modern Switzerland to analyze 14,841 marriages in Basel between 1648 and 1848, a period marked by legislative reform, to examine how elites adjusted their marriage…
Qualified lotteries can neutralize conflicts of interest in the appointment of individuals to positions of power
The preferential treatment of relatives, friends, and peers is, and has always been, a problem in the appointment of individuals to positions of power, such as executive managerial positions, judgeships, professorships, or leadership roles in public administration and regulatory agencies. Are there viable institutional alternatives to today’s reliance on recusals and consensus-based selection? In this paper, we examine a historical regime in 18th…
Innovation Diffusion in Large, Heterogeneous Populations
Asymmetries in influence between subgroups and the radicalness of innovations predict innovation diffusion in large, heterogeneous populations. Using 35 491 job ads and data on 522 978 managerial appointments to 739 092 firms, we study the diffusion of two organizational practices across the Swiss labor market. Gender-neutral language use spread widely from core to periphery, while “almost-full-time” employment schemes originated in the periphery…
From Financing Production to Producing Finance
This paper studies the evolution of banking elites and banking strategy of the largest Swiss banks since 1945. Between 1985 and 2000, an elite transformation occurred within the large Swiss banks. A Swiss-oriented business and political elite was replaced by a US-socialized financial elite. The displacement Swiss-oriented business and political elite closely preceded the decline of retail banking and the shift of loan volumes from production to f…
Competition for students in the digital era
Competition between universities has become more intense and multilevel in recent years. Whereas previous studies have mainly looked at multilevel competition in research, this paper investigates competition among universities in academic teaching related to digital transformation. We use a database of study programs on digitalization offered by Swiss universities between 2017 and 2023 to examine the levels at which competition for students occur…
Legitimating digital media in religious institutions
This study investigates how tradition-laden religious institutions negotiate the legitimation of digital media by exploring the intersection of digital media and religious practice in Benedictine monasteries. Studying monasteries as reclusive communities of religious virtuosos can shed light on legitimation patterns balancing tradition and technology, which all modern institutions need to navigate. Through ethnographic investigation and 28 semi-s…
Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations. A response to the comment by Nieva
We appreciate Ricardo Nieva's thoughtful engagement with our paper and his proposal to interpret our case study through the lens of his theoretical framework. Indeed, we noted the potential of such a connection in the original paper, and thank Professor Nieva for taking up our suggestion. This response aims to identify points of overlap between our accounts, clarify key conceptual distinctions, and explore the implications of each approach for un…
Lottery-Based Elections, Power Monopolization, and Urban Development
Early modern urban parliaments suffered an increasing monopolization of political power that hampered urban development. To combat power monopolization, some Swiss city-states reformed their election systems by randomly selecting political representatives from a pre-elected pool of candidates. We implement a difference-in-differences design and find that lottery-based election systems improved the equality of distribution of political seats withi…
Digitalisation as Distinction? Identity Articulation and Tacit Competition in the Swiss University Field, 2010–2020
This article examines how digitalisation is used for organisational distinction in the field of Swiss universities for the period 2010–2020. It shows that digitalisation does not fundamentally challenge the order of the Swiss university field but triggers competitive dynamics that are accompanied by different forms of identity articulation. The article concludes that the interplay of competition and identity articulation of actors is complex and …
Introduction to the Special Issue
Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations
Mobilization for revolts poses a significant challenge for rational choice theory because revolts are vulnerable to free-riding, which disincentivizes rational actors from mobilizing. Strong, informal relations such as kinship ties have been identified as factors that can shift the rational calculations of individuals and lead to mobilization for revolts. In social networks that are polarized by the presence of mobilized individuals, such as rebe…
Aleatoric governance
Michels' iron law of oligarchy states that political organizations tend inexorably towards oligarchy, to the likely detriment of the organizations themselves and, by extension, to the detriment of society more broadly. We suggest focal randomization as a historically proven countermeasure: a lottery decides who wins promotion from a preselected pool of highly qualified candidates. We draw on a historical case to assess the efficacy of focal rando…
Hostile-emotional excess of zeal in public social media
Caused by perceived norm violations, online firestorms confront organizations with large volumes of hostile-emotional comments on public social media leading to a damage to reputation or the cancellation of products and projects. Relying on social norm theory we analyze how people express perceived norm violations in their online comments and how this relates to their use of hostile-emotional online sanctions. We distinguish negative externalitie…
How to prevent leadership hubris? Comparing competitive selections, lotteries, and their combination
Introduction to the Corporate Governance of Religion
Stationed at the border between the past and the present, the corporate governance of religion is concerned with the governance mechanisms by which religious organizations are controlled and directed. Building on similarities between contemporary organizations and their predecessors in Roman Catholic monasticism, this essay illustrates that studying the past can be of enormous benefit. It allows us to see familiar problems in a new light: for exa…
Meta‐analysis of Economics Research Reporting Guidelines
Meta‐regression analysis (MRA) can provide objective and comprehensive summaries of economics research. Their use has grown rapidly over the last few decades. To improve transparency and to raise the quality of MRA, the meta‐analysis of economics research‐network (MAER‐Net) has created the below reporting guidelines. Future meta‐analyses in economics will be expected to follow these guidelines or give valid reasons why a meta‐analysis must deviat…
Monastic Governance
To overcome agency problems, public sector reforms started to introduce businesslike incentive structures to motivate public officials. By neglecting internal behavioral incentives, however, these reforms often do not reach their stated goals. This research analyzes the governance structure of Benedictine monasteries to gain new insights into solving agency problems in public institutions. A comparison is useful because members of both organizati…
Pay for Performance in the Public Sector--Benefits and (Hidden) Costs
Current reforms in the public sector are characterized by the introduction of businesslike incentive structures, in particular the introduction of “pay for performance” schemes in public institutions. However, the public sector has some specific characteristics, which might restrict the naive adoption of pay for performance. Our article analyzes whether the impact of pay for performance on performance is bound to conditions, and if this is the ca…
Pay for Performance in the Public Sector--Benefits and (Hidden) Costs
Current reforms in the public sector are characterized by the introduction of businesslike incentive structures, in particular the introduction of “pay for performance” schemes in public institutions. However, the public sector has some specific characteristics, which might restrict the naive adoption of pay for performance. Our article analyzes whether the impact of pay for performance on performance is bound to conditions, and if this is the ca…
Monastic Governance
To overcome agency problems, public sector reforms started to introduce businesslike incentive structures to motivate public officials. By neglecting internal behavioral incentives, however, these reforms often do not reach their stated goals. This research analyzes the governance structure of Benedictine monasteries to gain new insights into solving agency problems in public institutions. A comparison is useful because members of both organizati…
Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations
Mobilization for revolts poses a significant challenge for rational choice theory because revolts are vulnerable to free-riding, which disincentivizes rational actors from mobilizing. Strong, informal relations such as kinship ties have been identified as factors that can shift the rational calculations of individuals and lead to mobilization for revolts. In social networks that are polarized by the presence of mobilized individuals, such as rebe…
Aleatoric governance
Michels' iron law of oligarchy states that political organizations tend inexorably towards oligarchy, to the likely detriment of the organizations themselves and, by extension, to the detriment of society more broadly. We suggest focal randomization as a historically proven countermeasure: a lottery decides who wins promotion from a preselected pool of highly qualified candidates. We draw on a historical case to assess the efficacy of focal rando…
Monastic Governance
To overcome agency problems, public sector reforms started to introduce businesslike incentive structures to motivate public officials. By neglecting internal behavioral incentives, however, these reforms often do not reach their stated goals. This research analyzes the governance structure of Benedictine monasteries to gain new insights into solving agency problems in public institutions. A comparison is useful because members of both organizati…
Pay for Performance in the Public Sector--Benefits and (Hidden) Costs
Current reforms in the public sector are characterized by the introduction of businesslike incentive structures, in particular the introduction of “pay for performance” schemes in public institutions. However, the public sector has some specific characteristics, which might restrict the naive adoption of pay for performance. Our article analyzes whether the impact of pay for performance on performance is bound to conditions, and if this is the ca…
Meta‐analysis of Economics Research Reporting Guidelines
Meta‐regression analysis (MRA) can provide objective and comprehensive summaries of economics research. Their use has grown rapidly over the last few decades. To improve transparency and to raise the quality of MRA, the meta‐analysis of economics research‐network (MAER‐Net) has created the below reporting guidelines. Future meta‐analyses in economics will be expected to follow these guidelines or give valid reasons why a meta‐analysis must deviat…
Introduction to the Corporate Governance of Religion
Stationed at the border between the past and the present, the corporate governance of religion is concerned with the governance mechanisms by which religious organizations are controlled and directed. Building on similarities between contemporary organizations and their predecessors in Roman Catholic monasticism, this essay illustrates that studying the past can be of enormous benefit. It allows us to see familiar problems in a new light: for exa…
How to prevent leadership hubris? Comparing competitive selections, lotteries, and their combination
Hostile-emotional excess of zeal in public social media
Caused by perceived norm violations, online firestorms confront organizations with large volumes of hostile-emotional comments on public social media leading to a damage to reputation or the cancellation of products and projects. Relying on social norm theory we analyze how people express perceived norm violations in their online comments and how this relates to their use of hostile-emotional online sanctions. We distinguish negative externalitie…
Aleatoric governance
Michels' iron law of oligarchy states that political organizations tend inexorably towards oligarchy, to the likely detriment of the organizations themselves and, by extension, to the detriment of society more broadly. We suggest focal randomization as a historically proven countermeasure: a lottery decides who wins promotion from a preselected pool of highly qualified candidates. We draw on a historical case to assess the efficacy of focal rando…
Digitalisation as Distinction? Identity Articulation and Tacit Competition in the Swiss University Field, 2010–2020
This article examines how digitalisation is used for organisational distinction in the field of Swiss universities for the period 2010–2020. It shows that digitalisation does not fundamentally challenge the order of the Swiss university field but triggers competitive dynamics that are accompanied by different forms of identity articulation. The article concludes that the interplay of competition and identity articulation of actors is complex and …
Introduction to the Special Issue
Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations
Mobilization for revolts poses a significant challenge for rational choice theory because revolts are vulnerable to free-riding, which disincentivizes rational actors from mobilizing. Strong, informal relations such as kinship ties have been identified as factors that can shift the rational calculations of individuals and lead to mobilization for revolts. In social networks that are polarized by the presence of mobilized individuals, such as rebe…
From Financing Production to Producing Finance
This paper studies the evolution of banking elites and banking strategy of the largest Swiss banks since 1945. Between 1985 and 2000, an elite transformation occurred within the large Swiss banks. A Swiss-oriented business and political elite was replaced by a US-socialized financial elite. The displacement Swiss-oriented business and political elite closely preceded the decline of retail banking and the shift of loan volumes from production to f…
Competition for students in the digital era
Competition between universities has become more intense and multilevel in recent years. Whereas previous studies have mainly looked at multilevel competition in research, this paper investigates competition among universities in academic teaching related to digital transformation. We use a database of study programs on digitalization offered by Swiss universities between 2017 and 2023 to examine the levels at which competition for students occur…
Legitimating digital media in religious institutions
This study investigates how tradition-laden religious institutions negotiate the legitimation of digital media by exploring the intersection of digital media and religious practice in Benedictine monasteries. Studying monasteries as reclusive communities of religious virtuosos can shed light on legitimation patterns balancing tradition and technology, which all modern institutions need to navigate. Through ethnographic investigation and 28 semi-s…
Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations. A response to the comment by Nieva
We appreciate Ricardo Nieva's thoughtful engagement with our paper and his proposal to interpret our case study through the lens of his theoretical framework. Indeed, we noted the potential of such a connection in the original paper, and thank Professor Nieva for taking up our suggestion. This response aims to identify points of overlap between our accounts, clarify key conceptual distinctions, and explore the implications of each approach for un…
Lottery-Based Elections, Power Monopolization, and Urban Development
Early modern urban parliaments suffered an increasing monopolization of political power that hampered urban development. To combat power monopolization, some Swiss city-states reformed their election systems by randomly selecting political representatives from a pre-elected pool of candidates. We implement a difference-in-differences design and find that lottery-based election systems improved the equality of distribution of political seats withi…
Marriage as a resource
Marital sorting is commonly used by elites to prevent status erosion and maintain exclusivity. However, elites are affected by shifts in the socioeconomic environment, and their capacity to navigate such challenges determines their long-term success. We use genealogical data from early modern Switzerland to analyze 14,841 marriages in Basel between 1648 and 1848, a period marked by legislative reform, to examine how elites adjusted their marriage…
Qualified lotteries can neutralize conflicts of interest in the appointment of individuals to positions of power
The preferential treatment of relatives, friends, and peers is, and has always been, a problem in the appointment of individuals to positions of power, such as executive managerial positions, judgeships, professorships, or leadership roles in public administration and regulatory agencies. Are there viable institutional alternatives to today’s reliance on recusals and consensus-based selection? In this paper, we examine a historical regime in 18th…
Innovation Diffusion in Large, Heterogeneous Populations
Asymmetries in influence between subgroups and the radicalness of innovations predict innovation diffusion in large, heterogeneous populations. Using 35 491 job ads and data on 522 978 managerial appointments to 739 092 firms, we study the diffusion of two organizational practices across the Swiss labor market. Gender-neutral language use spread widely from core to periphery, while “almost-full-time” employment schemes originated in the periphery…
Political science (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Corporate governance (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (4 works) · Elite (4 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (4 works)