Health Insurance and Labor Supply: Evidence from Same-Sex Couples, Contemporary Economic Policy, 2025, 1–22. [Link]
The Effects of Board Gender Quotas: A Meta-Analysis (with Costanza De Acutis and Andrea Weber), Labour Economics, 2024, Vol. 91 [Link] [Data]
Writing Like a Girl: Writing Style and the Gender Publication Gap in Economics (with Karoline Lehner and Alyssa Schneebaum)
This paper examines whether writing style contributes to gender differences in publication outcomes in Economics. Using EconLit data from 1990–2015, we relate writing style to authors’ publication records. Authors who use more cautionary language publish less often in top journals, while those who use more promoting language achieve stronger records in both quantity and journal quality. We show that female authors are more likely to use cautionary language, which may contribute to the gender publication gap. We find no evidence of differential returns to the same writing style by gender.
This paper investigates the impact of workplace breastfeeding laws on mothers’ breastfeeding behavior and labor supply. We exploit the staggered introduction of state-level laws between 1998 and 2010 that require employers to provide break time and a private space for expressing milk or breastfeeding. Workplace breastfeeding laws increase breastfeeding continuation at three and six months after birth by 5.4-6.7%. Further, they significantly increase maternal employment by 3.3% when children are in breastfeeding age. The findings suggest that preferences, individual constraints, and initial labor market attachment shape breastfeeding and employment responses.
Empowered Mothers, Empowered Generations: The Impact of Women's Economic Rights (with Esther Arenas-Arroyo)
This paper examines the long-run effects of women’s economic rights on generations exposed to property and earnings acts during childhood. We find that childhood exposure to these reforms reduced the probability of marriage—particularly among women—and increased female labor force participation in adulthood. To explore potential mechanisms, we document several short-run effects among the adult generation contemporaneous to the reforms, including improved occupational standing, reduced fertility, lower child mortality, and increased schooling among children. Taken together, our findings suggest that expanding economic rights for women can shape outcomes across multiple generations, underscoring the enduring importance of legal and institutional reforms that promote women’s economic empowerment.
Do female members on corporate boards make a difference? An evaluation of the introduction of the gender board quota in Austria (with Andrea Weber)
Gender in Emergency Medical Services (with Matthias Hochholzer and Raphael Gottweis)