Research

Abstract: Despite the rapid urbanization of the developing world, little remains known about how urban residency and migration affect childhood outcomes. Using census data for 14 African countries combined with an age-at-move design, I show that childhood exposure to cities significantly increases primary school completion and literacy rates of children, even for poor urban households. The availability of schools and the lower opportunity costs of education appear to be the main factors explaining the higher education attainment in urban regions. The paper thus provides evidence of a novel channel through which urban migration can promote economic development in developing countries. 

Awards: (1) Winner of the 2020 IPUMS International Research Student Award; (2) Winner of the Young Researcher Award in Economics and Technical Sciences of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala; (3) Honorable Mention for the Urban Economics Association Prize for Best Student Paper at the European Meeting; (4) Selected for the 2023 EALE Job Market Tour

Abstract: Despite a large urban-rural education gap in many countries, little attention has been paid to whether cities enjoy a comparative advantage in the production of human capital. Using Dutch administrative data, this paper finds that, conditional on family characteristics and highly predictive measures of cognitive ability, children who grow up in urban regions consistently attain higher levels of human capital compared to children in rural regions. The elasticity of university attendance with respect to density is 0.07, which is robust across a variety of specifications. Hence, the paper highlights an alternative channel to explain the rise of the city.  

Abstract: We study the consequences of worker displacement during the second industrial revolution using linked census data combined with novel archival data on the 19th-century Swedish iron industry. Ironworkers  displaced by the industrial transformation exited the iron industry at higher rates, were more likely to internally migrate, and ended up in occupations that paid around 10% less compared to non-displaced workers. Regional migration appears to play an important role in mitigating the impact of worker displacement. To our knowledge, this paper is the first to quantify the effects of worker displacement during the second industrial revolution.

Abstract: Places shape the educational attainment of children, yet the reasons remain poorly understood. In this paper, I study the role of spatial differences in educational signals. Using Dutch administrative data combined with high-stakes national exam scores, I show that students receive less ambitious track recommendations from teachers in rural areas. The spatial difference in recommendations is comparable to the impact of having a university-educated parent and can explain half of the spatial difference in academic track enrollment. Key mechanisms are spillovers due to high-SES peers in cities and stronger beliefs in the importance of educational investment among urban teachers.

Abstract: Despite the persistent urban-rural income gaps visible across the developing world, it remains unclear to what extent these reflect the causal effect of urban residency. This paper presents new evidence by estimating the effect of urban residency in childhood on labor market outcomes using an age-at-move design combined with Brazilian census data. The analyses show that spending childhood in an urban environment significantly increases earnings and wages in adulthood, with little effect on hours worked or labor force participation. Around half of the effect is explained by an increase in educational attainment. The findings suggest that the previous literature underestimates the impact of urban residency on earnings by 50%.

Abstract: Parental separation is a common event during childhood, yet the developments and consequences remain poorly understood. In this paper, we use administrative data on residential co-location to identify all types of parental separation events among children born between 1952 and 2007 in Sweden. While high-SES households are as stable today as in the 1960s, household stability has declined sharply among low-SES households since the 1970s. Restricting attention to  divorce severely understates both the SES gradient and changes over time. Turning to children’s outcomes, we find little evidence that parental separations have a long-run impact on learning outcomes as measured by national test scores. In contrast, parental separations significantly reduce teacher-assigned grades, and consequently, academic track enrollment in high school. The findings suggest that school-based interventions, rather than household interventions, may be key to supporting children following parental separations.

Abstract: We use novel administrative datasets to study human capital dynamics from birth to college in Sweden. We focus on the human capital dynamics among two groups: children from migrant families and children from low-SES families. Children from migrant families start out with a large disadvantage early in life but catch up throughout every stage of childhood, ultimately surpassing natives in college enrollment. In contrast, human capital gaps by SES are comparatively small in early childhood but steadily widen, leaving low-SES children only half as likely to attend college compared to high-SES peers. Higher educational ambition and a more favorable location explain the catch-up among children from migrant families, with no evidence that they over-invest in education. Our findings show that human capital trajectories differ markedly across groups often viewed as disadvantaged and highlights avenues for policy to improve educational attainment among disadvantaged groups.

Abstract: Boys increasingly lag girls in educational attainment. Using Swedish data, we find that half of the gender gap in college enrollment can be explained by boys receiving lower grades conditional on national test scores. We exploit the random assignment of subjects to schools during the grade 9 national tests to examine whether the provision of information on educational performance reduces gender gaps. Conditional gender gaps in teacher grades decline by a third, or 0.051 SD, when a subject is assigned to the national test. The findings show that exposing teachers to standardized performance signals reduces gender disparities in teacher-assigned grades.

Abstract: Global concerns over affordability and accessibility of the city have led to rapid expansions of social housing in European countries. While social housing can enable access to the city for a given individual, it risks creating negative externalities via the labor market. In this paper, we study how social housing affects effective labor supply and wages within a spatial general equilibrium model. Using extensive administrative data on the Netherlands, we find that low-skilled workers are more productive in cities, but this is not reflected in earnings because of the labor supply distortions introduced by social housing in spatial equilibrium.

RCT in the field until 2027 

Firm heterogeneity and exports in the Netherlands: Identifying export potential beyond firm productivity. The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, 29 (2020), 36-68. (With S. Brakman, H. Garretsen and P. Zwaneveld). Link to paper  

"How large are the non-travel time effects of urban highway tunneling? Evidence from Maastricht, the Netherlands." Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 130 (2019): 570-592. (With J. Tijm, T. Michielsen and P. Zwaneveld). Link to paper