Research

Abstract: To promote early detection of diabetes and ameliorate the negative consequences of diabetes, some governments provide diabetes screenings. This paper contributes to the literature by being the first to investigate whether an issued warning affects the individual’s employment status. Additionally, our analysis also explores health effects, stratified by gender, age, and education , in order to receive indications for potential pathways of the employment effects. By doing so, we present the first results in the literature for individuals under 40. Using a multidimensional regression discontinuity design, we investigate the short- and long-run effects of a diabetes risk warning issued by Lifelines, a Dutch cohort study. In particular, low-educated individuals below 40 increase their labour market activities after a warning, which is generally more pronounced and also persistent for women. Surprisingly, this is not matched by similar strong effects on health outcomes by either gender. Health effects are very heterogeneous by gender, age and educational group. Older, highly educated women seem to benefit particularly strongly from a warning, as a significant reduction in the 4-year mortality rate indicates. 

Noncognitive Abilities and Gender Differences in the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Policies, with Annette Bergemann and Zahra Siddique

Abstract: Evaluations of Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) tend to find that women benefit more than men in terms of labour market outcomes. We examine the underlying mechanisms driving these gendered results by focusing on non-cognitive abilities, broadly defined as personality traits. We investigate two potential channels: (1) whether accounting for personality traits differentially mitigates selection bias by gender since women's productivity might be more difficult to measure, given that they experience prolonged labour market detachment; and (2) whether women derive greater non-cognitive benefits from ALMP participation, which translate into improved labour market outcomes. Using survey data from Germany matched to administrative data, we replicate the commonly found empirical result that ALMP effectiveness is higher for women than men. Furthermore, we find evidence in support of our hypothesised second channel, as women who receive short-term training exhibit significantly lower neuroticism levels in both the short and long term compared to untreated women, while men who receive long-term training present a significant increase in neuroticism compared to untreated men.