Daniel Vrankar

1. What is the title of your dissertation? How did the idea emerge to deal with this particular topic in your doctorate?

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The title of my submitted exposé was "Satellite Data in Economics", but in the meantime the topic of my cumulative PhD project can be better summarized as "The Economics of Space". The analysis of satellite data now represents only a part of the thesis.

I have always been fascinated by aeronautics and aerospace which is why I also focused on aerospace technology during my studies of industrial engineering and management. Since 2020, I have been working a student assistant at the chair of Prof. Hornuf and noticed more and more that business issues also appealed to me. When it came to decide about the PhD topic, I was particularly drawn to the paper "An empirical investigation of forward-looking retailer performance using parking lot traffic data derived from satellite imagery" by Cong Feng and Scott Fay in the Journal of Retailing. This paper inspired me to combine my enthusiasm for aerospace and business in my dissertation. Furthermore, there is the rise of so-called new space companies like SpaceX in the last 10-15 years. These companies have brought a lot of movement to the industry with innovations such as reusable rockets. The economic impact, but also the public support for this new branch of the aerospace industry are nevertheless little explored so far and thus also offer an interesting field for my thesis.

2. What are the central research questions you ask yourself in the dissertation and what methods do you use to try to answer these questions?

The three central questions of my dissertation are:

• How innovative is the aerospace industry, especially the new space industry?
• What factors determine the public opinion about government grants for aerospace?
• How can satellite data be used in the capital market?

For the first research question, we examine over 35,000 patent applications from the aerospace industry. Using a network analysis, we first analyze which sectors benefit from innovations. We then use statistical hypothesis to test whether new aerospace companies (such as Blue Origin) are more innovative than established aerospace companies (such as Airbus or Boeing).

To answer our second research question, we conducted a global survey experiment in the nine largest spacefaring nations. The citizens of the different nations were confronted with different scenarios and then asked for their opinion on government aerospace funding. We are currently in the process of evaluating the results.

Last but not least, we have already extracted some satellite data from the Sentinel-2A and 2B satellites. We intend to investigate whether the data can give us an information advantage in commodity markets. We are currently searching the literature for the best model on which we can base our estimation for the supply quantity of certain commodities.

3. What do you think are the most exciting results of your research so far?

By analyzing patent data, we found that innovations from aerospace also promote advances in 3D printing, as well as solar cells and batteries (spillover effects). In addition, often more privately held New Space companies seem to develop innovations that have a higher benefit for other industries compared to traditional aerospace companies.

The first analyses of our survey experiment have shown that citizens a) massively overestimate the amount of government space funding and b) at least in the US and Germany, thinking patterns familiar from the Cold War are again shown. The citizens surveyed are particularly influenced in their approval of government space funding by how high the budget is from the nations they previously classified as opponents.

4. You have been working at the faculty as a research assistant since July 1st, 2023 and moved from the University of Bremen to the TU Dresden to continue your PhD project with Prof. Hornhuf. What are you particularly looking forward to here in Dresden and what will you remember most positively from your time in Bremen?

From Bremen, I particularly remember the close connection to aerospace. For example, it was only a few hundred meters from our office at the university to the production halls of one of Europe's largest space companies (OHB). Of course, this also had an impact on research. We had a very good research network there. This interdisciplinary research approach has distinguished Bremen in many projects.

In Dresden, I am especially looking forward to the new input from research projects of my colleagues, but also PhD candidates from other chairs of the faculty. I have already been shown several lecture series where PhD candidates present their current research, which I would definitely like to attend. Last but not least, I am looking forward to teaching again. In Bremen, I was responsible for the exercises in the modules "Game Theory" as well as "Financial Derivatives and Options", which I enjoyed a lot.