The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) of the University of Luxembourg has awarded a Young Academics grant to two FDEF doctoral candidates. This internal funding instrument aims to attract outstanding PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers who wish to undertake interdisciplinary research within a consortium of various entities from the University of Luxembourg. Each candidate is co-supervised by two professors.
DATART – DATA analytics for ART valuation
Roman Kräussl, Professor within the Department of Finance, specialising in alternative investment, will be supervising Alessandro Tugnetti along with co-supervisor Gilbert Fridgen, Full Professor in Digital Financial Services and Paypal-FNR PEARL Chair from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust.
Alessandro Tugnetti comes to the University of Luxembourg after having completed a B.Sc. in Economics and A M.Sc. in Quantitative Finance and Insurance at the University of Turin in Italy. His project aims to develop a model which can efficiently predict the price fluctuations of collectibles, such as artwork. Tugnetti and supervising professors will exploit the ways in which technology is changing the art market by applying supervised machine learning methods to artistic products. The objective will be to develop a pricing method that is on one hand more accurate, and on the other that maintains the level of interpretability of the models currently used in the industry.
After analysing existing data from the “physical” art framework, the researchers will extend their methodology to the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market. The goal being to understand the “value-creating factors” of NFTs, to compare them with those of classical works of art and discover points of synergy and detachment between these two worlds.
HARMONISE – China’s infrastructure development in Europe from a human rights perspective: The cases of Italy and Ukraine
Matthew Happold, Professor in international public law with the Department of Law will co-supervising doctoral candidate Stanislaw Gubenko for his project China’s infrastructure development in Europe from a human rights perspective: The cases of Italy and Ukraine (HARMONISE), along with Benteng Zou, Associate Professor from the FDEF Department of Economics and Management. Before joining the University of Luxembourg, Stanislaw Gubenko Completed a Bachelor’s degree in Oriental Studies at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” in Moscow, Russia and a Master’s degree in European and Global Studies at the University of Padua in Italy.
China is playing an increasingly significant role in global affairs: rebalancing the international political and economic order and promoting a “shift in global power to the East”. Together with China’s development reorientation, one of the most peculiar traits of this rebalancing has been China’s move from a human rights pariah state to an active participant and shaper of global human rights governance.
The research seeks to analyse the interplay between mega-infrastructure projects and human rights by looking at modern Chinese infrastructure development in Europe from the human rights perspective, focusing in particular on the transformation of the Chinese approaches to human rights in foreign policy. This will be done through case studies of Italy and Ukraine: two European countries actively involved in Chinese infrastructure development.
Both projects will begin in early 2022.
For more information about the IAS Young Academics funding instrument, visit the webpage.