As an Economist with a focus on labor, education, and regional economics, I explore how universities, skill development, and labor markets drive regional development and economic transformation. Much of my research is empirical, drawing on rich administrative datasets, and I enjoy digging into data - whether that means digitizing new data sources or using innovative tools and AI to run experiments and collect survey data.

In addition to my core research in Labor and Education Economics, I'm fascinated by the use of AI in research and EdTech as well as design of platform markets. I'm always looking for new ways to integrate technology into economic research, and my work reflects a commitment to using both traditional and cutting-edge methods to tackle real-world problems.

I currently lead the junior research group CAM4transfo (funded until 2028) at RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research that investigates how universities and labour markets interact during the major transformations (decarbonization, digitalization, demographic change). Prior to joining RWI, I completed my PhD at the Faculty of Economics and Management at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. 

Recent publications & working papers (10/2025) 

• Thome, Boris, Friederike Hertweck, Serife Yasar, Lukas Jonas & Stefan Conrad, 2025. A dataset of study program availability in German higher education between 1971 and 1996. Scientific Data, 12, 1626.

• Thome, Boris, Friederike Hertweck & Stefan Conrad, 2025. Predicting Perceived Text Complexity: The Role of Person-Related Features in Profile-Based Models. Journal of Educational Data Mining, 17(1), 276–307.

• Hertweck, Friederike & Judith Lehner, 2025. The gender gap in STEM: (Female) teenagers’ ICT skills and subsequent career paths. PLoS ONE, 20, 1, e0308074 .

Recent major grants (03/2025) 

• Grant to establish my own Junior Research Group "CAM4transfo" funded by Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. Funding period: 07/2025 - 06/2028.

• "NLP in Education Research: Development of the German higher education market since the 1970s" funded by Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (with Prof. Dr. Stefan Conrad, HHU Düsseldorf). Funding period: 10/2022 - 09/2025.

More news (updated 03/2026) 

• 02/2026: Elected Spokesperson of the Leibniz Mentoring Network.

• Video Presentation of the chapter on higher education in the Ruhr Area. Watch the video on YouTube.

• 10/2025: Participation at the Sixth Japanese-American-German Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium at the National Academy of Science in Irvine, USA

• 10/2025: The Bildungspolitisches Forum took place in Berlin on 1 October 2025 which I jointly organized with Kerstin Schneider from RWI, the LERN, and researchers from IAB and ifo. 

• The Bildungspolitisches Forum took place in Berlin. Great discussions about education in times of major transformations.

• 07/2025: The third Text-as-data Workshop took place at RWI in Essen on 9 and 10 July 2025. 

• 03/2025: I am happy to announce that I will lead the junior research group CAM4transfo at RWI from July onwards.

• 12/2024: Panelist at the Weizenbaum Institute about data-based management of education systems, joint panel discussion with Anne Sliwka and Alexander Brand organised by the Vodafone Foundation. Watch the video on YouTube (in German only)

• 05/2024: I am happy to announce that I will become a mentee in the Leibniz Mentoring cohort 2024/25.