Sarah Schroeder

Aarhus University, Centre for Economic and Firm Research (CEFAU) and Ratio Institute, Stockholm

I'm an economist working on international trade, labour economics and the economics of technological change. My research examines how firms and workers adjust to globalisation and new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and automation, and how these adjustments shape employment, skills, wages and inequality.

I am based at Aarhus University, where I am a Research Analyst at the Centre for Economic and Firm Research (CEFAU) and a part-time lecturer in economics. I was Assistant Professor of Economics at Aarhus University from 2019 to 2025. I am also an Associate Researcher at the Ratio Institute in Stockholm, a Research Fellow and steering group member of the AI-Econ Lab and a Fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

I received my PhD in Economics at the University of Edinburgh in 2019.

Research Interests:

International Trade
Labour Economics
Economics of Technological Change and AI
Development Economics

Selected Work

Exporters, Multinationals and Residual Wage Inequality: Evidence and Theory

European Economic Review (2025), Best Paper Award, 11th FIW Research Conference.

Using German linked employer-employee data, I show a clear hierarchy of wage premia across firms' international activities (exporters, domestic multinationals, foreign-owned multinationals), and explain it with a trade-and-FDI model with search frictions.

Artificial Intelligence, Tasks, Skills and Wages: Worker-Level Evidence from Germany

with Erik Engberg, Michael Koch and Magnus Lodefalk, Research Policy (2025)

Workers in occupations more exposed to AI saw a wage growth premium, while workers in occupations more exposed to robots saw a discount.

Who Adopts AI? Evidence on Firms, Technologies and Workers

with Giuseppe Pulito, Mariola Pytlikova and Magnus Lodefalk, RF Berlin DP 089/26 and IZA DP 18515 (2026)

Linking Danish firm surveys to employer-employee registers, we find that AI adoption is highly technology-specific, with different workforce compositions predicting core AI and generative AI adoption.

Automation and the Changing Composition of Skill Demand

with Mark Hellsten and Giuseppe Pulito, R&R at Labour Economics, RFBerlin DP 122/26, Best Paper Award, International Federation of Robotics, CORA 2026

Within-occupation adjustment accounts for 14-39% of total skill demand change after automation, and effects differ sharply across the occupational hierarchy.

Mobility Frictions, Partial Migration and the Distributional Effects of International Trade

with Rui Zhang, R&R at AEJ: Macroeconomics, WP on SSNR

Mobility frictions under China's Hukou system shape who gains from trade, with implications for regional inequality and welfare.

All papers and abstracts →

Awards and Funding

Awards

Best Paper Award, International Federation of Robotics, CORA 2026
Best Conference Paper, 11th FIW Research Conference in International Economics (2018)

Grants and fellowships

CEPR-Kiel International Summer Fellow and IfW Kiel Fellowship (2025-2027)
Co-Principal Investigator, MIT J-PAL Jobs and Opportunity Initiative grant (2022-2025)
Co-Principal Investigator, LSE/IGC grant on "Firms, Trade & Productivity" (2022-2025)
Co-Investigator, Platform for Inequality Research at Aarhus University (PIREAU) (2022-2025)

News

Upcoming Presentation:

Decmber 3-4, Stockholm - The Nordic International Trade Seminars (NOITS) conference
November 26, London - The UKTPO 9th Annual Conference
November 20 - Invited online lecture on AI and the labour market, Master 2 AI, Digital Technologies and Intellectual Property, CEIPI, University of Strasbourg

September 2026 – Awarded the International Federation of Robotics Best Paper Award at CORA 2026 for "Automation and the Changing Composition of Skill Demand"
June 2026 – Co-organised the AI-Econ Lab conference "The Impact of AI on White Collar Work", Katrinelund, Sweden
April 2026 – Invited Seminar, University of Barcelona (Barcelona)
March 2026 – New working paper: "Who Adopts AI? Evidence on Firms, Technologies and Workers", with Giuseppe Pulito, Mariola Pytlikova and Magnus Lodefalk (RF Berlin DP 089/26 and IZA DP 18515)

Earlier news

November 2025 – Conference on the Use of Statistics Denmark’s Enterprise Microdata (Copenhagen)
I will be Kiel-CEPR International Summer Fellow in July and will be visiting the Institute for the World Economy (IfW) in Kiel and Berlin.
Upcoming presentation: I will be presenting my working paper "Mobility Frictions, Partial Migration and the Distributional Effects of International Trade", (coauthored with Rui Zhang) at the SED Meeting in Copenhagen, 26-28 June 2025
*New Publication*: My paper ”Artificial Intelligence, Tasks, Skills and Wages: Worker-Level Evidence from Germany”, with Erik Engberg, Magnus Lodefalk and Michael Koch, is now published at Research Policy, Volume 54, Issue 8, 105285
May 2025: I am co-organising a Workshop on "Labor Market Inequality and Workplace AI", on May 20-21 at Aarhus University
*New Publication*: My paper ”Artificial Intelligence, Hiring and Employment: Job Postings Evidence from Sweden”, with Erik Engberg Mark, Hellsten, Farrukh Javed, Magnus Lodefalk, Radka Sabolova and Aili Tang; is now published at Applied Economics Letters (2025), 1–6
Feb 2025: I have become affiliated with the Ratio Institute, Stockholm. See the post here
*New Publication*: My paper "Exporters, Multinationals and Residual Wage Inequality: Evidence and Theory" is now published at the European Economic Review, 104980.
Upcoming presentation: I will be presenting my working paper "Mobility Frictions, Partial Migration and the Distributional Effects of International Trade", (coauthored with Rui Zhang) at the Workshop on Economic Security and the Future of the Global Trading System at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, 24-25th February 2025
Recent presentation: I presented my working paper "Mobility Frictions, Partial Migration and the Distributional Effects of International Trade", (coauthored with Rui Zhang) in Oxford at the STEG-themed Workshop "Trade and Spatial Frictions"
Dec. 2024: The Artificial Intelligence survey on firms and workers, in collaboration with Denmark Statistics, has been completed

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