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Occupations, Disability Insurance, and Career Choices

Work-limiting disabilities pose a significant risk to the earnings potential and welfare of older workers. While coverage of public disability insurance (DI) systems is almost universal, the risk of becoming dependent on DI varies across occupations. In this paper, I study the value of public DI across different occupations using data from administrative social security records in Germany. I...

Diversity in Teams and Creative Output

Modern labor markets increasingly rely on teamwork for tasks that require creative thinking, yet little is known about how such creative output is produced. We exploit the randomized allocation of first-year undergraduate students to study groups in a large Economics module to examine how diversity in team members’ backgrounds affects the creativity of their collaborative work. Each group produces...

Stress and Resilience in the Labor Market

Less Meat on the Table: Findings from the German Socio-Economic Panel 2016–2022

Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this article investigates the recent development of meat consumption in Germany and selected socio-demographic determinants of meat-related dietary habits. In line with official data, the SOEP shows a downward trend in the frequency of meat consumption and an upward trend in self-reported vegetarianism for 2016–2022. Women, the better educated, singles, ...

Hegemony and International Alignment

This article explores the interplay between economic hegemony and political alignment. Using theoretical and empirical insights from Broner et al. (2024), we posit that hegemonic states, like the United States, foster political alignment, which enhances globalization. We use UN voting data to proxy for international alignment and show that hegemons induce alignment. These data have shortcomings, however. ...

Unequal Returns? Wealth and Debt Gradients in Health Among Immigrants and Natives in Norway

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is positively associated with health, but these benefits are not equally shared across groups. The Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework posits that marginalized groups derive weaker health returns from economic resources than majority populations. Extending this framework to a migration context, this study examines wealth - and debt – health gradients ...

Fiscal Policy, Debt, and Inequality

This one-day conference brings together leading researchers and policymakers to discuss the interactions between fiscal policy, public debt, monetary transmission, innovation, and inequality. The program features research presentations, panel discussions, and opportunities for exchange across academia and policy institutions.

Decline in Job Satisfaction and How It Relates to Investment Decisions of the Self-Employed

Despite substantial research on job satisfaction in self-employment, we know little about the specific consequences for the venture when job satisfaction declines after an external shock. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of an external shock and drawing on a sample of nearly 7000 self-employed individuals living in Germany, we investigate how declines in job satisfaction are related to the ...

Revisiting Oil Supply News Shocks: Proxy vs. Non-Gaussian Structural Vector Autoregressions

We replicate a study by Känzig (American Economic Review, 111 (2021), 1092-1125), who employs structural vector autoregressive techniques to examine the impact of changes in oil supply expectations on the price of oil and other macroeconomic aggregates. Känzig identifies an oil supply news shock by constructing a proxy from OPEC announcements about their production plans. As this proxy is a controversial ...

Working Longer: The Effects of a Higher Retirement Age on Work-Related Health Investments During the Working Life

(joint with Johannes Geyer, Peter Haan, Felix Weinhardt) Health investments are vital for maintaining physical and mental well-being throughout working life, and their importance is amplified with rising retirement ages due to demographic aging. This is the first study to examine if a longer working life causally increases institutionalized health investments. We explore the impact of a German...