Research

Research Statement

I use applied econometrics to better understand the causes of social and spatial inequalities.  The markets that I consider key for inequality are education, labour, and real estate. All of my work speaks to contemporaneous public debates and policy.

Labour supply (and the role of gender)

• Separate Housework Spheres, with Jonas Jessen (European University Viadrina, DIW, IZA), Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch (HU Berlin), and Jan Berkes (Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs), IZA Discussion Paper DP17134, July 2024.

• Immigration, Female Labour Supply and Local Cultural Norms, with Jonas Jessen (IZA) and Sophia Schmitz (BiB), November 2023. The Economic Journal 2024, vol. 134 (659): 1146–1172. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead097.
  Winning paper of the Lluís Fina Award (XII edition).

Peer effects in schools

• Class Rank and Long-Run Outcomes, with Jeffrey T. Denning (University of Notre Dame) and Richard Murphy (UT Austin). Review of Economics and Statistics 2023, vol. 105 (6): 1426–1441.   https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01125. Check out this video and animation.

• The Implications of Pupil Rank for Achievement, with Richard Murphy (UT Austin). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, 18 October 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190625979.013.845.

• Top of the Class: the Importance of Ordinal Rank, with Richard Murphy (UT Austin). The Review of Economic Studies 2020, vol. 87(6), pp. 2777–2826.  https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdaa020.
  Winning paper of the UniCredit & Universities Best Paper Award on Gender Economics - 6th Ed (2016). 
  Check out this video!

• The Good, The Bad and The Average: Evidence on Ability Peer Effects in Schools, with Victor Lavy (Warwick) and Olmo Silva (LSE). Journal of Labor Economics 2012, vol. 20(2): pp. 367-414. https://doi.org/10.1086/663592.

Human capital (and policy)

• "Autonomous Schools, Achievement and Segregation", with Natalie Irmert, Jan Bietenbeck (both at Lund University) and Linn Mattisson (Socialstyrelsen, Sweden), CEP/LSE- Discussion Paper 1968, 18 December 2023.

• "Home Broadband and Human Capital Formation", with José Montalbán (Sofi) and Rosa Sanchis-Guarner (University of Barcelona). CESifo Working Paper No. 8846, 2021.  R&R Management Science.
  Earlier resting work that this paper builds on: "ICT and Education: Evidence from Student Home Addresses", with Ben Faber (UC Berkeley) and Rosa Sanchis-Guarner (then: Queen Mary), published as: NBER Working Paper No 21306 and CEP Discussion Paper 1359.

• Working Life and Human Capital Investment: Causal Evidence from Pension Reform, with Niklas Gohl, Elisabeth Kurz and Peter Haan (all DIW). Labour Economics 2023, vol. 84(October). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102426.

• Tuition Fees and Educational Attainment, with Jan Bietenbeck (Lund University), Andreas Leibing (DIW Berlin) and Jan Marcus (FU Berlin). European Economic Review 2023, vol. 154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104431.

• Who teaches the teachers? A RCT of peer-to-peer observation and feedback in 181 schools, with Richard Murphy (UT Austin) and Gill Wyness (UCL).  The Economics of Education Review 2021, vol. 82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102091.

Neighbourhood effects

• Neighbourhood Turnover and Teenage Attainment, with Steve Gibbons (LSE) and Olmo Silva (LSE). Journal of the European Economic Association 2017, vol. 15(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvw018. Check out this research cartoon!

• Social Housing, Neighborhood Quality and Student Performance, Journal of Urban Economics 2014, vol. 82: pp.12-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2014.06.001. 

• Everybody Needs Good Neighbours? Evidence from Students' Outcomes in England, with Steve Gibbons (LSE) and Olmo Silva (LSE). The Economic Journal 2013, vol. 123(571): pp. 831-874. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12025. 

Information, expectations, and economic decisions

• How to Measure Long-Run Expectations, with Chen Sun, Georg Weizsäcker (both Humboldt-University Berlin), and Peter Haan (DIW Berlin), ongoing.

• House Prices Expectations, with Niklas Gohl (Potsdam), Claus Michelsen, and Peter Haan (both DIW Berlin). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 2024, vol. 218: pp. 379-398 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.12.015 

• Information Provision and Postgraduate Studies, with Jan Berkes, Frauke Peter, and C. Katharina Spieß (all DIW). Economica 2022, vol. 89(355), 627-646. http://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12416 

• Long-run Expectations of Households, with Christoph Breunig (Emory University), Iuliia Grabova (HU and DIW Berlin), Peter Haan (FU and DIW Berlin) and Georg Weizsäcker (Humboldt-University Berlin). Journal of Behavioural and Experimental Finance 2021, vol. 31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2021.100535.

• Deutschland: ein Land der Mieter? Die Rolle von Erwartungen über zukünftige Immobilienpreisentwicklungen, mit Niklas Gohl (University of Potsdam), Peter Haan und Claus Michelsen (both DIW). Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie, 2019, vol. 5(1), 95-109. https://doi.org/10.1365/s41056-019-00036-x.  

 RIP/misc

• "Local Rankings in Global Markets"

• The importance of time zone assignment: evidence from residential electricity consumption, LSE-Spatial Economics Research Centre Discussion Paper 126, LSE, 2013.