Research

Research interests

Applied Microeconomics, especially Public Sector Economics. 

Publications

• The Gender Pay Gap in University Student Employment. Empirical Economics, vol. 63, 2022. Joint with Paul David Boll and Larissa Zierow.

  • Working Paper: ifo Working Paper No. 364
  • Summaries: ifo Schnelldienst 04/2022
  • Coverage: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Paper of the week @ Momentum Institute

• The Separation and Reunification of Germany: Rethinking a Natural Experiment Interpretation of the Enduring Effects of Communism. Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 24 (2), 2020. Joint with Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Wößmann. 

  • Working Paper: CAGE Working Paper 461, CEPR Working Paper 14470
  • Summaries: VoxEU, ifo Schnelldienst 5/2020, Ökonomenstimme, Twitter Summary
  • Coverage: Marginal Revolution, Deutschlandfunk, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Chart of the Week by the American Economic Association

• Public Employment Services under Decentralization: Evidence from a Natural Experiment. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 182 (2), 2020. Joint work with Michael Weber. 

  • Working Paper: CESifo Working Paper No. 7957
  • Summary: ifo Schnelldienst 2/2020
  • Coverage: The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets (By T. Boeri and J. van Ours, 3rd edition fc), Badische Zeitung, Research Monitor of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs

• Fueling Fiscal Interactions: Commodity Price Shocks and Local Government Spending in Colombia. International Tax and Public Finance, vol. 24 (4),  2017.  Joint work with Frank Fossen and Nicolas Pardo. 

Working Papers / Under Review

• The Big Sell: Privatizing East Germany's Economy. Joint with Moritz Hennicke and Moritz Lubczyk. Invitation to revise & resubmit at Journal of Public Economics.

  • Working Paper: CESifo Working Paper No. 8566
  • Summaries: ifo Schnelldienst 9/2020, ZEW-Kurzexpertise Nr. 20-12, Ökonomenstimme, Twitter Thread
  • Coverage: Süddeutsche, Focus, Spiegel Online, Le Soir

• Privatizations Spark Socialist Backlash: Evidence from East Germany’s Transformation. Joint work with Anselm Hager, Werner Krause, and Moritz Hennicke.

  • Working Paper: OSF Preprints, Dec 2020.

• Grading Student Behavior. Joint with Florian Schoner and Larissa Zierow. Invitation to revise & resubmit at Labour Economics.

  • Working Paper: CESifo Working Paper No. 9275
  • Summaries: Twitter Thread, Press Release (German)
  • Coverage: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Spiegel Online, Süddeutsche, Handelsblatt, Die Zeit, Welt, Yahoo

• Encouraging Entrepreneurship: The Role of Economics Education Classes in School. Joint with Andranik Tumasjan (Mainz), Ines Rüter (Mainz), Larissa Zierow (ifo), and Ismail Ismail (LMU). Invitation to revise & resubmit at Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.

Work in Progress

• Espionage-based knowledge flows and firm Outcomes. Joint with Albrecht Glitz (UPF Barcelona) and Adrian Lerche (IAB Nuremberg)

Publications Outside Economics and Other Work

• Who heads the German ministries of education? A new dataset for the analysis of biographical characteristics of education ministers in the federal states, 1950–2020. Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (ZPol) – Journal of Political Science, 2023. Joint with Nathalie Irmert, Kaja Mummert, Rita Nikolai and Larissa Zierow.  

  • Data: Available here

• The Relevance of the German Excellence Initiative for Inequality in University Funding. Higher Education Policy, 2021. Joint with Felix Winkelmayer.

  • Coverage: Die ZEIT Wissen³, Forschung & Lehre, Nature (Editorial)
  • Summary: ifo Schnelldienst 6/2021, Twitter Thread

• Integrationsperspektiven von ukrainischen Geflüchteten im deutschen Schulsystem. ifo Schnelldienst, 2022, 75, No. 08, 29-34. Joint with Katja Michlbauer.

  • Coverage: Welt, Tagesschau, ZEIT Online, Süddeutsche Zeitung, RTL News, ntv, Deutschlandfunk

• Gleicht Schulbildung soziale Unterschiede aus? Wirtschaftsdienst, 2020, No. 100, 932-936. Joint with Johanna Raith and Larissa Zierow.