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KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Leonhardstrasse 21, LEE G301, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland, siegenthaler@kof.ethz.ch, Tel. +41 44 633 93 67

Here is my personal KOF Webpage and my Google Scholar profile.

About me

I am head of the research division Swiss labor market and tenured professor (adjunct professor) at KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich. I am an associate editor at the Journal of Labor Economics, a Research Affiliate of the Immigration Policy Lab at ETH, a Research Fellow of the Institute of Labor Economics IZA and the Rockwool Foundation Berlin, and member of the executive committee of the European Association of Labor Economists. I received a PhD from ETH Zurich, a Master of Science in Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Bern.

My research interests are in the areas of labor economics and migration. A recurring topic is the factors and policies that shape firms' demand for workers. Using innovative data sources and rigorous empirical methods, I have studied the effects of minimum wages, immigration restrictions, short-time work, and exchange rates on labor demand. My position entails policy advising, forecasting, and media work.

News

In a new working paper, we study how much job seekers value wages and job benefits, and how well they know what different employers offer. In a field experiment with 265,000 users of Swiss job boards, we randomly displayed wage and benefit information on job ads. Job seekers underestimate wage differences across jobs by half and know little about differences in benefits. Taking these information gaps into account, our estimates suggest that a 1% higher wage raises applications by about 2.5–2.9%. Among the benefits we study, job seekers value a company car (worth 10% of wages), working from home (8%), firm-sponsored childcare (6%), and a parking spot (4%). Because higher-paying jobs also tend to offer more benefits, inequality in total compensation exceeds wage inequality.

Our Swiss Job Tracker provides weekly indices of unique online job postings for Switzerland, covering the full Swiss job market. http://swissjobtracker.ch/#/

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