Research

I am a Research Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, a Visiting Associate Professor affiliated to TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research at the Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, and an Affiliated Researcher at the Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics.  I am also a Research Fellow in the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), a Network Member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS) and at the Socioeconomic Inequalities Initiative at the Becker Friedman Institute (BFI) for Economics at the University of Chicago. 

Human capital embodies the skills, knowledge, and health of individuals. Human capital comprises the bulk of the wealth of nations. Understanding the origins of human capital inequality is thus key to understanding income and wealth inequality. In my research, I quantify how incentives and circumstances interact with endowments and information in shaping human capital. This enables a deeper and broader understanding of the causes and consequences of individual human capital investments. I highlight important aspects of heterogeneity in human capital and its interaction with institutions and public policies; such as financial aid, choice sets, curricula, and grading. I show how financial and non-financial incentives can have very different impacts on individual behavior and success; depending on socioeconomic environment, skills, and gender.

I combine microeconometric methods, structural dynamic models, administrative panel data, quasi-experiments, longitudinal survey data, and randomized field experiments to answer my empirical research questions.

The papers I am currently working on revolve around three broad research questions:  (1) How does financial aid design affect student behavior and outcomes? What if merit aid or graduation bonuses are included in financial aid packages? What if more weight is placed on grants relative to loans? What if loan repayment conditions are changed? Are there important policy interactions? Does public financial aid crowd out private family transfers? How does financial aid affect inequality and social mobility?  (2) How do school curricula and choice sets affect (gender differences in) skill formation and outcomes? Particularly, what are the economic and social causes and consequences of advanced skills in mathematics and science? How do institutions, the family, and peers interact in forming these skills?  (3) Which factors are important in explaining human capital and income inequality? Which, when, and for whom are human capital investments most influential? How do policy interventions change skill formation? How do individuals form expectations about their own abilities and future returns to abilities and skills? What is the role of the family and peers? The answers to these questions are crucial for assessing the long-term effectiveness of alternative policy interventions to foster skill formation over the life-cycle, provide remediation of human disadvantages, and enable each individual to achieve their full potential. 

My research statement provides more background and details on each paper. You can also find links to my published papers and my active working papers below. Please send me an email if you would like a copy of one of the working papers without a link or a non-listed hibernating paper.

In terms of general research interests, I am broadly interested in education, health, labor, and public economics.  I serve as an Editor at the Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics (JPE Micro) and hope to create, inspire, and share economic knowledge in these fields. Our Lead Editor eloquently states our goals in the introduction to the inaugural issue.

Working Papers and Work-in-Progress


Working Papers

“Student Aid Design, Academic Achievement, and Labor Market Behavior: Grants or Loans?” (with Elena Mattana)   [Online Appendix]   Revision requested by the Journal of Political Economy

“Using a Field Experiment to Understand Skill Formation During Adolescence” (with John A. List, Anya Samek, and Haruka Uchida)   [AFE2020 short presentation video]

“Complementarities in High School and College Investments” (with John Eric Humphries and Gregory F. Veramendi) 

“College Major Choice: Sorting and Differential Returns to Skills” (with John Eric Humphries and Gregory F. Veramendi)

“The Labor Market Returns to Delaying Pregnancy” (with Yana Gallen, Eva Rye Johansen, and Gregory F. Veramendi)   [BFI Working Paper No. 2023-113]   Dissemination: [BFI Research Brief]

“Gender Convergence in Education Choice: The Role of Institutions and Peers” (with Helena Skyt Nielsen)

“Rethinking Education Choice: The Effect of Surveys” (with Luca Facchinello and Gregory F. Veramendi)


Work-in-Progress

“Academic and Labor Market Success: The Impact of Student Employment, Abilities, and Preferences” (with Elena Mattana)

“Timing and Incentives: Impacts of Student Aid on Academic Achievement” (with Elena Mattana)

“The Effects of Study Aid on College Major Choice” (with Elena Mattana)

“Study Aid and Equality of Opportunity: Does Aid Increase Social Mobility?” (with Emma Heikensten and Elena Mattana)

“Peers and the Evolution of Skills during Adolescence” (with Lenka Fiala, John A. List, and Haruka Uchida)

“The Economics of Deadlines” (with Mette Trier Damgaard)

Research Grants and Ongoing Projects


Swedish data

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) January 2013 - June 2017, “Incentives and Institutions: Impacts of Student Aid on Academic Achievement and Labor Market Behavior” (Principal Investigator (PI); co-investigator Elena Mattana) SEK 4.2mill ≈ $660,000 

The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond) January 2013 - June 2016, “Effects of Education on Labor Market, Health, and Social Outcomes” (Principal Investigator (PI); co-investigator Gregory F. Veramendi) grant P12-0968, SEK 3mill ≈ $470,000. Extending this project, we are currently working on “The Causes and Consequences of Gender Differences in Skill Specialization” (Principal Investigator (PI); co-investigators John Eric Humphries and Gregory F. Veramendi) supported by the BFI Initiative for the Study of Gender in the Economy and “The Labor Market Returns to Delaying Pregnancy” (Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI); Co-PI Yana Gallen and Gregory F. Veramendi) supported by the BFI Initiative for the Study of Gender in the Economy and by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Gender in the Economy Study Group's grant on "Economic Shocks and Gender" by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

I am an Affiliated Researcher at the Department of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics who is hosting these research projects using Swedish administrative and survey data. 

We organized a workshop on Human Capital and Public Policy in Stockholm to bring together researchers working on these topics. Co-organizers: Evelina Bonnier, John Eric Humphries, Elena Mattana, and Gregory Veramendi.


Danish data

Currently, I am also a co-investigator (Co-I) on two larger projects related to above-mentioned research questions: (1) “The Life-Cycle Effects of Student Debt” (PI Elena Mattana) funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark | Learning and Quality in Education in which we investigate the life-cycle and intergenerational effects of student debt  and  (2) “The Development of Math Skills: The Role of Parents and Early Skills” (PI Helena Skyt Nielsen) funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark | Social Sciences and Business in which we investigate the intergenerational effects of math skills.

I am a Visiting Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Department of Economics and Business Economics, who is hosting these research projects using Danish administrative data.


U.S. data

I am also working on a large-scale field experiment in three South Chicago school districts (with John List and his research team) where we try to better understand human capital formation during adolescence. Are skills, information, or other costs embedded in the environment the main barriers to human capital investments for disadvantaged adolescents? Are skills malleable during the adolescent years? Which skills are most malleable and which interventions are most influential? How do interventions change the skill formation process? What is the role of peers in skill formation, which peers are most influential, and how does this affect the effectiveness of interventions? The answers to these questions are crucial to know which policies most effectively spur skill formation during adolescence such that each individual can reach their full potential. 

 Publications

“The Gender Wage Gap: Skills, Sorting, and Returns” (with John Eric Humphries and Gregory F. Veramendi)  Forthcoming in the American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings, May 2024.

“How Early Adolescent Skills and Preferences Shape Economics Education Choices” (with Lenka Fiala, John Eric Humphries, Uditi Karna, John A. List, and Gregory F. Veramendi)  American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings, May 2022, 112, 609-613.  [Online Appendix]

“Studying and Working: Your Student Job Affects Your Future Labor Market Outcomes” (with Elena Mattana)  Samfundsøkonomen, August 2022, 3, 19-37.  [Online Appendix]

“Spillovers in Education Choice” (with Helena Skyt Nielsen)  Journal of Public Economics, January 2018, 157, 158-183.  This paper was previously titled: “Peer Effects in Math and Science”. 

“Mathematics and Gender: Heterogeneity in Causes and Consequences” (with Helena Skyt Nielsen)  Economic Journal, June 2016, 126, 1129-1163.  This paper was previously titled “Math and Gender: What if Girls do Math?” and “Math and Gender: Is Math a route to a High-Powered Career?”  Final WP version on SSRN.  Robustness of main results Table.  Dissemination: [Microeconomic Insights]  [LSE Business Review]

“Grades and Rank: Impacts of Non-Financial Incentives on Test Performance” (with Nina Jalava and Elin M. Pellas)  Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, July 2015, 115, 161-196  [IZA Discussion Paper No.8412]  [Online Appendix]  Dissemination: [IZA Newsroom]

“Understanding the Effects of Marriage and Divorce on Financial Investments: The Role of Background Risk Sharing” (with Charlotte Christiansen and Jesper Rangvid)  Economic Inquiry, January 2015, 53(1), 431-447

“Is there a Causal Effect of High School Math on Labor Market Outcomes?” (with Helena Skyt Nielsen)  Journal of Human Resources, February 2009, 44(1), 171-198  [IZA Discussion Paper No.2357]

“Are Economists More Likely to Hold Stocks?” (with Charlotte Christiansen and Jesper Rangvid)  Review of Finance, August 2008, 12(3), 465-496  [Online Appendix]

“The Risk-Return Trade-off in Human Capital Investment” (with Charlotte Christiansen and Helena Skyt Nielsen)  Labour Economics, December 2007, 14(6), 971-986  [IZA Discussion Paper No.1962]

Books

“Which Countries (Do not) Become Tax Havens?” A comparative investigation of the (non)tax haven strategies in the Faroe Islands, the Cook Islands, and the Netherlands Antilles (with Leonard Seabrooke, Jason C. Sharman, and Guðrið Weihe) CBS Press 2014. Includes the short working paper “Governance, Trust, and Taxes: On the Determinants of Tax Havens“, CBS DBP No.81, 2013 (with Guðrið Weihe)

My dissertation “Determinants and Consequences of Human Capital Investments” (ISBN 87-90117-50-6) was awarded the Jyske Bank’s Fund Prize for best PhD dissertation in the two-year period 2006/2007 at the School of Economics and Management, Aarhus University, and the Aarhus University Research Foundation PhD Prize 2008 “for promising young researchers who finished their PhD in 2007 with especially outstanding results” for best PhD dissertation at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

In relation to my dissertation work, I was part of a larger research project group working on the topic: “Education as a Risky Asset” 

Other  Publications

If you would like more readily accessible versions of my early research, then here are some shorter publications and dissemination:

Press and Dissemination

Some background and news articles regarding my research: