Raphaël Parchet

Raphaël Parchet is a Full Professor of Microeconomics at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), affiliated with the Institute of Political Economy (IdEP) and the Institute for Economic Research (IRE). He also serves as Director of the Center for Federalism (CF), a research hub promoting fiscal federalism and public economics. His work bridges theoretical and empirical analysis in decentralized economic systems.

• PhD in Economics, University of Lausanne (2012)
• Postdoctoral Research, University of Basel and University of Lausanne (2012–2013)
• Joined USI in 2013

Raphaël Parchet’s research focuses on fiscal federalism, tax competition, regional economics, and public economics. He investigates how decentralized tax systems affect household behavior, firm location, and intergovernmental competition. His work combines spatial economic models with rich empirical datasets to assess the redistributive effects of local taxation, the role of culture in tax policy, and the impact of infrastructure on regional development. He has made significant contributions to understanding how tax competition shapes public finance in federal systems like Switzerland.

His recent publications span topics such as local tax incidence, corporate tax competition, spatial sorting, and the capitalization of public policies into housing markets. The articles show a strong trend toward interdisciplinary empirical economics, integrating insights from urban economics, cultural economics, and labor economics. He frequently collaborates with leading scholars such as Marius Brülhart, Kurt Schmidheiny, and Frédéric Robert-Nicoud.

His research has been recognized with several international awards, particularly for his work on tax competition. Notable honors include:

• Multiple international awards for research on tax competition

Parchet has secured major research funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), including multiple Sinergia projects and NRP 77 grants. He has advised or collaborated on projects related to industrialization, financialization, digital transformation, and fiscal decentralization. As Director of the Center for Federalism, he leads a broad research network that organizes workshops and disseminates findings to both academic and policy audiences. The center benefits from support by the Swiss National Bank.

He is actively involved in research leadership, directing large collaborative projects and mentoring junior researchers. His lab, the Center for Federalism, fosters interdisciplinary research on fiscal decentralization and maintains an international network of scholars.