About

Welcome to my website. 

I am the head of the research group "Education and Human Potential" at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BIB). I am also a research fellow at IZA Bonn, a fellow of the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (CIDER) and a member of the Education Economics Committee of the German Economic Association (Bildungsökonomischer Ausschuss des Vereins für Socialpolitik). I earned my PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with DIW's Graduate Center.

My primary research interests lie in the economics of human capital formation and the impact of public policies in this area, especially in relation to education, family and health. I am also interested in research on factors affecting the balance between work and family life, and its consequences on parents and children. 

My research in the field of public policy encompasses several areas. These include parental leave and work-family reconciliation, the costs of day care, and educational inequality in health. Furthermore, I am investigating the societal consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on education and families.

LATEST NEWS. 

5 December 2024: Our paper on "Parental Leave, Worker Substitutability, and Firms' Employment" has been accepted for publication in The Economic Journal. 

Nov '24-Oct '25: I am on Paternity Leave for our third child :-) - Relatedly, check out our new paper on "Caring Dads" below!

30 October 2024: New Discussion Paper on "Caring Dads? Universal Childcare, Paternal Leave and Fathers' Involvement" as IZA Discussion Paper No. 17422. We examine the impact of the combined availability of universal childcare and paternity leave on fathers' involvement during the early years of childhood. While fathers become more likely to take paternity leave with the expectation of mothers entering the labour market sooner, their subsequent roles as caregivers, as well as their labour market outcomes, remain largely unaffected by the childcare expansion. We conclude that significant family policy efforts could not immediately alter fathers' caregiving responsibilities within the family.

18 September 2024: New Policy Report on "Consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the health and well-being of children, adolescents and parents in Germany. "Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden von Familien während und nach Corona: Was wir für die Zukunft lernen können" in BiB.Aktuell 5/2024. 

12 August 2024: New Discussion Paper on "Unlocking potential: Childcare services and refugees’ integration, employment and well-being". Our analysis is based on a unique, large, and representative panel data set of Ukrainian refugees in Germany. 

18 July 2024: New Policy Report on the impact of parental leave absences on firms. "Längere Elternzeiten haben langfristig keine negativen Auswirkungen auf die Betriebe" im IAB Forum.

6 June 2024: New Policy Report on the Link between Advanced Maternal Age at Birth and Children's Development. "Begünstigt eine spätere Mutterschaft die kindliche Entwicklung? Der familiale Hintergrund ist entscheidend" in Bevölkerungsforschung Aktuell 2/2024

10 Apr 2024: New Handbook Chapter on "Well-Being throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Gendered Effects of Daycare and School Closures" forthcoming in "Handbook of Inequality and COVID-19 (edited by Kenneth Couch). 

22 Nov 2023: New study on "Early Inequalities" released in Berlin. Covered in, e.g., ZDF, Spiegel Online, Welt, Zeit, Deutschlandfunk