Publication

"Patience, Risk-Taking, and Human Capital Investment across Countries" (with Eric A. Hanushek, Philipp Lergetporer, and Ludger Woessmann)
The Economic Journal, Volume 132, Issue 646, August 2022, Pages 2290–2307. (link to paper, NBER Working Paper 27484, covered in VoxEU, ifo Schnelldienst, Ökonomenstimme, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, Twitter thread here; replication package here; awarded with the ifo Outstanding Publication Award 2023)

Abstract: Patience and risk-taking – two preference components that steer intertemporal decision-making – are fundamental to human capital investment decisions. To understand how they contribute to international skill differences, we combine PISA tests with the Global Preference Survey. We find that opposing effects of patience (positive) and risk-taking (negative) together account for twothirds of the cross-country variation in student skills. In an identification strategy addressing unobserved residence-country features, we find similar results when assigning migrant students their country-of-origin preferences in models with residence-country fixed effects. Associations of national preferences with family and school inputs suggest that both may act as channels.

Working Papers

"Patience and Subnational Differences in Human Capital: Regional Analysis with Facebook Interests" (with Eric A. Hanushek, Pietro Sancassani, and Ludger Woessmann), NBER Working Paper 31690, CESifo Working Paper 10660, IZA Discussion Paper 16458, covered in Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and VoxEU, Twitter thread here.
Conditionally accepted at The Economic Journal.

Abstract: Decisions to invest in human capital depend on people’s time preferences. We show that differences in patience are closely related to substantial subnational differences in educational achievement, leading to new perspectives on longstanding within-country disparities. We use social-media data – Facebook interests – to construct novel regional measures of patience within Italy and the United States. Patience is strongly positively associated with student achievement in both countries, accounting for two-thirds of the achievement variation across Italian regions and one-third across U.S. states. Results are confirmed in an identification strategy that uses variation across ancestry countries from which ancestors of the current population of U.S. states migrated. Results also hold for six other countries with more limited regional achievement data.

"Age and Cognitive Skills: Use It or Lose It" (with Eric A. Hanushek, Frauke Witthoeft, and Ludger Woessmann), current version
Revise and Resubmit at Science Advances.

Abstract: Cross-sectional age-skill profiles suggest that workers’ cognitive skills start declining by their thirties if not earlier. If accurate, such age-driven skill losses pose a major threat to the human capital of societies with rapidly aging populations. We estimate actual age-skill profiles from individual changes in skills at different ages. We use the unique German longitudinal component of the Programme of the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC-L) that retested a large representative sample of adults after 3.5 years. Two main results emerge. First, correcting for measurement error, average skills increase into the forties before decreasing slightly in literacy and more strongly in numeracy. Second, skills decline at older ages only for those with below-average skill usage. White-collar and higher-educated workers with above-average usage show increasing skills even beyond their forties. Women have larger skill losses at older age, particularly in numeracy.

"Child Penalties in Labour Market Skills" (with Jonas Jessen and  Michele Battisti), IZA Discussion Paper 17379, BSoE Discusson Paper 0052, submitted.

Abstract: Child penalties in labour market outcomes are well-documented: after childbirth, mothers’ employment and earnings drop persistently compared to fathers. In addition to gender norms, a potential driver could be the loss in labour market skills due to mothers’ longer employment interruptions. This paper estimates child penalties in adult cognitive skills by adapting the pseudo-panel approach to a single cross-section of 29 countries in the PIAAC dataset. We find a persistent drop in numeracy skills after childbirth for both parents between 0.13 (short-run) and 0.16 standard deviations (long-run), but no statistically significant difference between mothers and fathers. Estimates of child penalties in skills strongly depend on controlling for pre- determined characteristics, especially education. Additionally, there is no evidence for worse occupational skill matches for mothers after childbirth. Our findings suggest that changes in general labour market skills cannot explain child penalties in labour market outcomes, and that a cross-sectional estimation of child penalties can be sensitive to characteristics of the outcome variable.

[NEW VERSION COMING SOON] "Cognitive Skills Among Adults: An Impeding Factor for Gender Convergence?" (with Michele Battisti and Alexandra Fedorets), CESifo Working Paper 10428, IZA Discussion Paper 16134, Twitter thread here.

Abstract: While gender differences in labor force participation and wages have been studied extensively, gender gaps in cognitive skills among adults are not yet well understood. Using the PIAAC dataset, this paper presents novel findings on cognitive skill distributions by gender across 34 countries. Despite increasing educational equality, inequalities in numeracy skills favoring men compared to women are pervasive. These skill differences account for a sizable part of the gender wage gap. Furthermore, there are larger disadvantages for women at the top of the wage distribution, which are complemented by lower returns to skills compared to men. We also find that these numeracy-wage patterns are especially pronounced for parents and for those with the highest degree in a non-STEM field of study.

"Good or Bad News First? The Effect of Feedback Order on Motivation and Performance", ifo Working Paper 396. (funded through an Add-on Fellowship by the Joachim Herz Foundation)

Abstract: How to give feedback in learning environments is a widely discussed topic. I design a field experiment to understand whether the ordering of feedback elements matters for motivation and performance. In random order, university students get one positive and one negative feedback element on their performance in exam practice questions. Students who first receive positive feedback are more motivated to study for the exam compared to those receiving negative feedback first. This effect is driven by a drop in motivation after negative feedback when receiving it first, but not when receiving it second. Furthermore, students adjust their study content to the feedback topics. I find no significant effects of feedback ordering on exam performance overall, but students who first receive the positive feedback perform better if their negative-feedback topic is covered in the exam.

Work in Progress

"The Impact of Performance Feedback on Student Study Habits and Grades" (with Margaret Leighton, supported by a BA/Leverhulme Research Grant), data collection in progress

"Meet My Family: The Effect of Female CEOs’ Newspaper Coverage on CEO Perception and Economic Decision-making" (with Virginia Sondergeld), data collection in progress

Other work

"No lasting increase in the gender care gap in Germany after the coronavirus pandemic" (with Jonas Jessen and Katharina Wrohlich), DIW Weekly Report 9/2024, original German version here. (live interview on national radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur)

Abstract: The gender care gap, i.e., the difference between the amount of unpaid care work—such as childcare and housework—  performed between men and women is comparatively high in Germany: Women take on much more unpaid care work than men. This gap increases consistently when starting a family. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, many feared that the gender care gap may grow even larger. In fact, empirical analyses show that gender differences in care work did increase in young families at the beginning of the pandemic, as primarily women took on the extra childcare work brought on by closures of daycare facilities and schools. However, using data from the family panel pairfam, this Weekly Report shows that the gender care gap has since returned to its—albeit still high—pre-pandemic level. If policymakers want to effectively combat gender inequalities on the labor market, they should focus more on the unequal division of care work and dismantle existing barriers preventing a more equal division. This could be done by, for example, increasing the period of parental leave earmarked to fathers, and reforming minijobs and Ehegattensplitting, i.e., the joint taxation of married couples with full income splitting. 

"'Corona Class of 2020': A Lost Generation?" (with Clara Albrecht, Vera Freundl, and Tanja Stitteneder), CESifo Forum 22 (4), 53-58. (covered in the media by tagesschau liveblog, Deutschlandfunk, n-tv.de, Main-Echo, Münchner Merkur, SR 2 Kulturradio, among others;  awarded with the ifo Transfer Prize 2021)

Abstract: The coronavirus crisis has caused severe economic, social and health disruptions worldwide. Children and young adults were among those who suffered most from the effects of the pandemic. Schoolchildren and students faced learning losses, and time spent on school activities dropped by about one-half. Likewise, apprentices and young adults in vocational training experienced learning losses due to school closures and reduced in-person training time. With declining enrollment rates in high school and college, the pandemic caused a major and unprecedented disruption in (higher) education. In many OECD countries, youth unemployment increased sharply, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. In addition to all that, mental health deteriorated within the younger population. This shows us how important it is to learn from these negative consequences for a large part of the population and to ensure in the future that no one is left behind in times of crisis. 

"Gender Pay Gap: Ursachen und Maßnahmen" (with Sarah Gust), ifo Schnelldienst, 2022, 75, Nr. 10, 13-17. (awarded with the ifo Transfer Prize 2022)

Email: lkinne@diw.de, Twitter: @KinneLavinia, Linkedin