Publications
The Termination of Publicly Funded Private School Contracts: Supply and Demand Side Effects (Journal of School Choice, 2023) with João Firmino, André Guilherme, and Luís Catela Nunes
The effect of a specialized versus a general upper-secondary school curriculum on students’ performance and inequality (Applied Economics, 2020), with Josep-Oriol Escardíbul, Luís Catela Nunes, Ana Balcão Reis, and Carmo Seabra
Working Papers
Too young to quit school? Increasing the Compulsory Schooling Leaving age and students' educational paths (AMSE Working paper series WP 2024 - Nr 36.)
Pupil Well-being in Danish Primary and Lower Secondary Schools (Economics Working Papers 2020-13, Aarhus University), with Anna Folke Larsen, and Marianne Simonsen
Selected Work in Progress
Labour Market Effects of Declining Teen Employment, with Filipe B. Caires (Draft available upon request)
Teen employment has fallen sharply across advanced economies, reducing firms’ access to a traditionally flexible and low-cost source of labour, yet little is known about how they adapt to this shift. This paper studies how firms and labour markets adjust to an exogenous contraction in teen labour supply, exploiting Portugal’s 2009 compulsory schooling reform, which raised the minimum school-leaving age to 18. Using matched employer–employee data covering all private-sector firms between 2002 and 2016, we construct local labour market exposure measures capturing both the intensity and persistence of pre-reform reliance on teen workers and estimate event-study models comparing more and less exposed units. The reform led to a sharp and lasting reduction in teen employment and on-the-job training. Firms compensated primarily by hiring slightly older workers, without upgrading skills or wages, suggesting adjustment along cost rather than productivity margins. Ongoing work explores implications for productivity, capital expenditures, and technology adoption.
The Infrafamily Labour Market Impact of Extended Schooling, with Betül Turkum
The Costs of Limited School Track Supply, with Matthjis Oosterveen