Research Projects

Notes: This figure shows the dynamic difference-in-differences estimates for the IHS-transformed earnings response to unemployment split by gender and migration status. Each line represents a separate regression and compares unemployed individuals with non-yet-unemployed individuals from the same subgroup using a stacked difference-in-differences approach. "No migration" represents Swiss citizens with at least one native Swiss parent. "Migration" represents Swiss citizens where both parents are non-natives. "Foreign" represents individuals without Swiss citizenship. All regressions include individual(-stack)-, year(-stack)-, and age-FE. Error bars indicate the estimated 95% confidence interval based on clustered standard errors at the individual(-stack) level. Individuals in the treatment group entered unemployment in 2011-2014 and were observed between 2010 and 2019.

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Intersecting Inequality in Unemployment Scarring

Unemployment can have persistent negative impacts on workers' earnings, but previous studies have largely overlooked that these effects could vary between sociodemographic groups. This paper examines the effects of unemployment on earnings by gender and migration status, adopting an intersectional approach. Using Swiss administrative data of more than 450,000 first-time unemployed individuals from 2010 to 2019, I apply a stacked difference-in-differences design to analyze the effect of unemployment on earnings. The results show that workers experience an average drop of 24 % in yearly earnings in the four years after unemployment. While the gender gap in earnings losses is negligible, migrants face earnings losses 85\% (or 14 percentage points) higher than non-migrants. An intersectional analysis reveals that foreign women experience 19% greater losses than foreign men. The gender gap varies by age and migration status, with women more disadvantaged when young and men when older. These gaps can be attributed to migrants suffering disproportionate penalties for longer unemployment duration and recurring unemployment. While longer unemployment may explain the gender gap for old workers, motherhood can explain the gap for Swiss but not for foreign women. Better targeted job assistance policies may be needed to reduce disparities, particularly for vulnerable groups, such as young workers who only recently migrated.

Notes: Each line represents the average predicted values of earnings differences one year after and before unemployment and unemployment duration in days by intersecting subgroups of gender and migration status conditional on the caseworker value-added percentile in terms of earnings (left) and unemployment duration (right). "No migration" represents Swiss citizens with at least one native Swiss parent. "Migration" represents Swiss citizens whose parents are both non-natives. "Foreign" represents individuals without Swiss citizenship. The grey area represents the 95\% confidence interval.

Single authored. Draft available upon request.

The Unequal Impact of Caseworkers on Job Seekers' Labor Market Outcomes

There are substantial disparities in labor market outcomes caused by unemployment between sociodemographic groups. Little is known about the role of caseworkers in shaping these disparities. This paper investigates the differential impact of caseworkers on job seekers' earnings and unemployment duration across gender and migration status. I use data from the Swiss public unemployment assistance system covering more than 250,000 first-time unemployed workers, matched with caseworker identifiers from 2010 to 2019. I exploit the quasi-random assignment of caseworkers to job seekers to construct an exogenous measure of caseworker value-added. The results show that caseworker value-added substantially impacts job seekers' labor market outcomes: an increase of one quintile in value-added reduces the earnings losses associated with unemployment by 30% and shortens unemployment duration by 8%. There are considerable disparities across gender and the migration status of job seekers. For example, I find that the effect of caseworker value-added on earnings is 38% lower for migrant men than non-migrant men but 70% higher for migrant women. The results can partially be attributed to how caseworkers use application requirements and benefit sanctions as tools to influence job search behavior. These findings demonstrate the positive impact of caseworkers on job search outcomes but raise concerns about their potential role in widening existing disparities between sociodemographic groups.

Notes: Estimates show inequality ratios between groups with the lowest and highest average years of education using DHS sample weights. A value of zero implies parity and a value of one implies total inequality between the two most extreme groups. Aggregated data by country of $n=$2,689,279 individuals of the last available cohort; no mark means 1980 and younger cohort; countries marked with * means 1970-1979 cohort; countries marked with °, the cohort born in 1969 and earlier was used. Sources: DHS 1992-2019 and US CPS 2019.

Intersectional Inequality in Education in Africa, Asia, and the Americas

Intersectional inequality—the notion that disparities run along combinations of social groups such as gender or ethnicity—has become an increasingly prominent concept in social sciences. However, there is little empirical research using an intersectional framework to measure inequality. We propose two metrics of intersectional inequality based on the concept of horizontal inequality. Applying these measures, we analyze educational intersectionality in gender and ethnicity using data from 40 countries. We show that the intersectional perspective reveals particularly disadvantaged groups that remain masked if gender and ethnic inequality are analyzed separately. In several countries, the most disadvantaged intersectional group is of a different gender or ethnicity than the generally more disadvantaged gender or ethnicity. Moreover, in most countries intersectional inequality is greater than the sum of gender and ethnic inequality. In these countries, neither increasing education levels nor reducing gender and ethnic inequalities is sufficient to “leave no one behind.”

joint work with Isabel Günther and Kenneth Harttgen. Published in the Review of Income and Wealth (2025). View publication.

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