Lifting Barriers to Skill Transferability: Immigrant Integration through Occupational Recognition with Silke Anger and Jacopo Bassetto (IZA DP: 17444, RFB/CReAM DP 27/24), 2nd round revise & resubmit: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

Western countries face growing labor shortages, yet institutional barriers limit immigrants’ ability to transfer foreign-acquired skills. Using administrative and survey data from Germany and a difference-in-differences design, we show that removing these barriers for non-EU immigrants increased the share of recognized foreign qualifications by 15.3 percent. Employment and wages of non-EU immigrants rose by 6.3 and 7.6 percent, respectively, narrowing existing gaps with EU immigrants and natives. Employment gains were largest among immigrants experiencing greater occupational downgrading at arrival, consistent with improved skill transferability. Overall, easing access to occupational recognition constitutes an effective policy tool for enhancing immigrant economic integration.

A Library in the Palm of your Hand? Inequalities in Reading Literacy and Educational Attainment with Silke Anger, Bernhard Christoph, Agata Galkiewicz, Shushanik Margaryan, Frauke Peter, Thomas Siedler AEA RCT Registry AEARCTR-0008561 (IZA DP: 17322), revise & resubmit: Journal of the European Economic Association

Reading skills are crucial for academic success and long-term educational attainment. However, children from disadvantaged backgrounds often read less compared to their more privileged peers. This study assesses the impact of a randomized reading intervention conducted in Germany targeting 11–12-year-olds from disadvantaged households. This intervention involved distributing e-book readers, which provided free access to a large digital library of age-appropriate books directly to the children’s homes. Our results show that the intervention led to increases reading engagement among the children, which in turn improves their academic performance, particularly in reading comprehension and mathematics. Additionally, we observe positive effects on the socio-emotional well-being of the participants.

Coworker Networks from Student Jobs: A Flying Start at Labor Market Entry? with Gökay Demir, Friederike Hertweck, Ipek Yükselen (IZA DP: 17541)

This paper analyzes the impact of college students’ coworker networks formed during student jobs on their labor market outcomes after graduation. For our analysis, we use novel data that links students’ administrative university records with their pre- and postgraduation employment registry data and their coworker networks. Our empirical strategy exploits variation in the timing and duration of student jobs, controlling for a variety of individual and network characteristics, as well as firm-by-occupation fixed effects, eliminating potential selection bias arising from non-random entry into student jobs and networks. The results show that students who work alongside higher-earning coworkers during their student jobs earn higher wages in their first post-graduation employment. Two key mechanisms appear to drive this effect: (1) sorting into higher-paying firms after graduation, facilitated by coworker referrals, and (2) enhanced field-specific human capital through exposure to skilled colleagues. However, the initial wage advantage from higherearning coworker networks diminishes over time as students with worse networks catch up. Our findings contribute to the understanding of how early career networks shape labor market outcomes and facilitate a smoother transition from higher education to graduate employment.

Pathways to Immigrant Economic Integration with Jacopo Bassetto, Gordon Dahl, and Helmut Rainer

Helping High-School Students in Choosing their Career: Experimental Evidence from a Large-Scale School Policy with Silke Anger, Sarah Bernhard, Hans Dietrich, Adrian Lerche, Alexander Patzina, Carina Toussaint  AEA RCT Registry AEARCTR-0004587