Lifting Barriers to Skill Transferability: Immigrants’ Integration through Occupational Recognition with Silke Anger and Jacopo Bassetto

We study the effects of improving skill transferability on immigrants’ labor market integration exploiting a unique reform in Germany. The reform alleviated barriers to occupational recognition for non-EU immigrants. Combining administrative and survey data in a difference-in-differences design, we show that post-reform the share of non-EU immigrants with recognized qualifications increased by 15 percent. Consequently, non-EU employment and wages in regulated occupations (e.g., doctors) increased respectively by 18.6 and 4 percent, narrowing the gaps with EU immigrants. Despite the inflow of non-EU immigrants in these occupations, we find no evidence of crowding out or downward wage pressure for natives.

Reducing the Child Penalty by Incentivizing Part-Time Work? with Laurenz Bärtsch (IZA DP: 17109)

Worldwide governments discuss how to increase maternal labor market participation and to reduce the child penalty after birth. This study analyses a German paid parental leave reform, which aims to increase maternal labour market participation and to reduce the child penalty by financially incentivising maternal part-time work during the two years following child birth. Using German social security records, we exploit the fact that only mothers whose child is born in or after July 2015 are eligible for the new part-time PL option in a Difference-in-Differences strategy. We find that the policy increased the probability that high income mothers return to work during the first year after child birth by 3pp (≈ 15%). However, the policy does not impact maternal employment along the intensive margin (part-time or full-time work) in the long run, leaving maternal labor market participation and the child penalty unaffected.

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)

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.

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

The Effect of Early Home Visiting on Maternal and Child Mental Health at Primary School Age with Gabriella Conti and Sören Kliem 

Student Job Coworker Networks and Labor Market Entry with Gökay Demir, Friederike Hertweck, Ipek Yükselen

Breaking Free from Traditional Gender Roles: Post-schooling Impacts of Enhanced Opportunities for Immigrant Women with Jacopo Bassetto and Helmut Rainer

Zooming Tutors into Students’ Homes? An RCT Online Tutoring Intervention with Low-Performing Students with Silke Anger, Bernhard Christoph, Agata Galkiewicz, Shushanik Margaryan, Thomas Siedler AEA RCT Registry AEARCTR-0008937