REFEREED PUBLICATIONS

Occupational Recognition and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes
with Herbert Brücker, Albrecht Glitz, Agnese Romiti
Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 39, no. 2, 2021

We analyze how the formal recognition of foreign qualifications affects immigrants’ labor market outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on a novel German data set that links respondents’ survey information to their administrative records, allowing us to observe immigrants at monthly intervals before, during, and after their application for occupational recognition. We find that 3 years after obtaining recognition, immigrants earn 19.8% higher wages and are 24.5 percentage points more likely to be employed than immigrants in the control group. We further document that occupational recognition leads to full convergence of immigrants’ earnings to those of their native counterparts.

Social Inequality in the Homeschooling Efforts of German High School Students during a School Closing Period
with Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina
European Societies, vol. 23, sup1, 2021

School closings have been a key policy measure worldwide for reducing the spread of corona-virus disease (COVID-19). In Germany, federal states closed schools in mid-March and started to reopen them in late April. This policy potentially increased parental obligations for supervision and support during homeschooling and, thus, might reinforce social inequality in educational opportunities. Therefore, this research note investigates social inequality in students’ homeschooling efforts. Moreover, it asks whether social disparities in home learning environments, social support, teacher support, and cost–benefit-related considerations account for the social differences in homeschooling efforts during the school closing period in Germany. To that end, we use data from an ongoing research project on high school students in their final years that were collected during the school closing period. Our results show pronounced differences in home schooling efforts by social background. Thus far, the mechanisms under study can explain only a moderate part of the social origin effect. In summary, the results show that school closings have the potential to exacerbate social inequality in educational opportunities. Therefore, future research should scrutinise the extent to which school closings reinforce inequality in educational opportunities.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Investment Tax Credits and the Response of Firms
IZA Discussion Paper, IAB Discussion Paper
Best Paper Award at Oxford Centre for Business Taxation Doctoral Conference 2019
IIPF Young Economists Award 2019

Revise & Resubmit American Economic Review (2nd round)

This paper estimates the direct effects of investment tax credits on firms’ production behavior and the additional indirect effects arising from agglomeration economies. Exploiting a change in tax credit rates by firm size in Germany, I find that manufacturing firms increase capital and employment, with labor demand in information and communication technology-intensive industries shifting towards college-educated workers. Using geolocation data, I show that agglomeration benefits lead to a sizable further firm production expansion with these benefits materializing within distances of 5 kilometers. Worker flows from the service sector and from non-employment, rather than between manufacturing firms, explain the employment effects.

Technological Change, Firm Heterogeneity and Wage Inequality
with Matias Cortes, Uta Schönberg, Jeanne Tschopp
IZA Discussion Paper

Revise & Resubmit Economic Journal

We argue that skill-biased technological change not only affects wage gaps between skill groups, but also increases wage inequality within skill groups, across workers in different workplaces. Building on a heterogeneous firm framework with labor market frictions, we show that an industry-wide skill-biased technological change shock will increase between-firm wage inequality within the industry through four main channels: changes in the skill wage premium (as in traditional models of technological change); increased employment concentration in more productive firms; increased wage dispersion between firms for workers of the same skill type; and increased dispersion in the skill mix that firms employ, due to more sorting of skilled workers to more productive firms. Using rich administrative matched employer-employee data from Germany, we provide empirical evidence of establishment-level patterns that are in line with the predictions of the model. We further document that industries with more technological adoption exhibit particularly pronounced patterns along the dimensions highlighted by the model.

Espionage-Based Knowledge Flows and Firm Outcomes
with Albrecht Glitz, Lukas Mergele

Economic espionage is a pervasive global phenomenon. We study how espionage-based knowledge flows alter the production structure and performance of firms in the perpetrating country. Exploiting a historical East German database that traces the flows of scientific-technical information from their sources in the West to their destinations in the East, we show that economic espionage during the Cold War increased firms' output and productivity. This positive impact is driven by intelligence reports internally assessed as valuable. We also show that a higher inflow of information in the past is associated with a higher likelihood of successful privatization following German reunification.

Helping High-School Students in Choosing Their Career: Experimental Evidence from a Large-Scale School Policy
with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina, Malte Sandner, Carina Toussaint
AEA RCT Registry AEARCTR-0004587

The Preference for College Education: The Role of Parents
with Shihang Hou, Malte Sandner

Firms’ Internet Access, ICT and Occupational Outcomes
with Sarra Ben Yahmed

POLICY PUBLICATIONS

Welche Erwartungen Abiturient*innen mit einem Studium oder einer Berufsausbildung verbinden
with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina, Malte Sandner, Carina Toussaint
IAB-Forum, 2024

Berufseinstieg als Wachstumsfaktor – wie wir Kompetenzen für die Zukunft aufbauen können: Berufsorientierung und Berufsberatung am Gymnasium
with Silke Anger, Malte Sandner
ifo-Schnelldienst, 12/2023

Berufsberatung: In der Corona-Krise konnten nicht alle Themenwünsche junger Menschen ausreichend besprochen werden
with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina, Malte Sandner, Carina Toussaint
IAB-Forum, 2023

Abiturjahrgang 2020: Ohne Abiball zum Studium - allein am Bildschirm bricht die Lebenszufriedenheit ein
with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina, Malte Sandner, Carina Toussaint
IAB-Kurzbericht, 19/2021

Der Abiturjahrgang 2021 in Zeiten von Corona: Zukunftssorgen und psychische Belastungen nehmen zu
with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina, Malte Sandner, Carina Toussaint
IAB-Forum, 2021

Integration von Migrantinnen und Migranten in Deutschland: Anerkennung ausländischer Berufsabschlüsse hat positive Arbeitsmarkteffekte
with Herbert Brücker, Albrecht Glitz, Agnese Romiti
(based on refereed publication 'Occupational Recognition and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes')
IAB-Kurzbericht, 02/2021

School Closings during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Findings from German High School Students
with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Alexander Patzina, Malte Sandner, Carina Toussaint
IAB-Forum, 2020

TEACHING

2024
Intermediate Public Finance (Finanzwissenschaften 2 - Das öffentliche Budget, LMU Munich)
Technological Change, Labor Markets and Public Policy (LMU Munich)

2022/23
Technological Change and Labor Markets (LMU Munich)
The Labor Market Effects of New Technology (LMU Munich)

2021/22
Introductory Econometrics (Data Science: Ökonometrie, FAU Nuremberg)

2018/19
Current Policy Issues in Europe (University of Bamberg)