Joint work with Petra Moser. 2024.

[Paper] 

Despite improvements in the allocation of talent, women continue to be underrepresented in innovation. This paper investigates whether changes in the allocation of talent could close this innovation gender gap. Linking 70,000 scientists with their patents, we find that the underrepresentation of women today is a continuation of a long-run trend that was already in place for scientists born in the 1920s. OLS estimates indicate that the low share of female scientists in patent-intensive STEM fields is the main driver of this persistent gender gap in innovation. We interpret these findings through the lens of a Roy (1951) model of field choice with gender distortions. To test the model's predictions and to identify the causal effects of gender differences in the allocation of talent, we exploit an exogenous shock in female representation due to WWII. As men enlisted in the war, the scarcity of male scientists pulled female scientists into patent-intensive research fields in STEM. Using variation in enlistment as an instrument for female entry, we find that one additional woman becomes an inventor for every five women entering STEM. Using data on PhDs and elite education, we show that female scientists are positively selected and that selection decreases during WWII when more women enter science. Counterfactual estimates imply that, if women were as likely to work in STEM fields as men, the innovation gender gap would close in 38, rather than 118 years.

Joint work with Maria Waldinger. 2024. 

[Paper]

This paper measures the long-term effects of sustained exposure to air pollution on individuals' health and labor market outcomes. When the Soviet Union -- main provider of fossil fuels to Socialist East Germany after World War II -- unexpectedly cut oil exports in 1982, East Germany had to rapidly substitute oil with highly-polluting lignite coal. We exploit the spatial distribution of lignite mines within East Germany to show that air pollution increased significantly in areas in which lignite was available after 1982. We document large and persistent negative effects on individuals' labor market and health outcomes over four decades after the shock. Exposed individuals earn lower wages, spend less time in employment and retire earlier. We identify these effects in an inverse movers design that leverages, first, authoritarian restrictions on individual freedom of movement and the non-competitive housing and labor markets of East Germany's command economy to rule out endogenous pollution mitigation and, second, the sudden lapse of these restrictions after German Reunification in 1990. Comparing birth cohorts, we show that long-term effects are largest for those exposed at medically critical ages. Using survey data, we confirm that declining individual health is the main mechanism driving the effects in the labor market. 

Conditionally accepted at Journal of Public Economics

Joint work with Moritz Hennicke and Lukas Mergele. 2024.

[Paper] 

Departing from communism, East Germany witnessed history’s most extensive privatization program. While the program sparked global interest as a blueprint for economic transformation, its effectiveness remains disputed. Using unique firm-level data, we examine the program’s objective to privatize the most competitive firms. We document that firms with higher baseline productivity are more likely to be privatized, yield higher prices, are more often acquired by West Germans, and are more likely to survive 20 years later. Inspecting the inner workings of the privatization agency, we illustrate challenges and lessons for how governments can design and implement industrial policy goals.

Media coverage: [Süddeutsche Zeitung] [MDR] [WDR] [FOCUS] [Spiegel Online] [LeSoir] [Freie Presse] [Neues Deutschland]
Summaries: [ZEW Kurzexpertise] [ifo Schnelldienst] [Ökonomenstimme]

Joint work with Bettina Peters. (Previous title: Incumbents and Entrants as Carriers of Productivity Growth and Innovation). 2023. 

[Paper]

How does productivity growth change over the firm life cycle? Using pooled survey data from Germany, we study the evolution of firm productivity as an organizational learning process. Differentiating between internal learning through firms’ investments in own research and development and external learning through spillovers, we show that the relationship between learning and productivity growth changes substantially as firms age. While we find that young firms experience larger productivity gains from internal learning – own research and development – on average, their productivity gains are also significantly more volatile. Established firms, in turn, experience lower but more persistent productivity gains from internal learning and are less likely to change their position in the productivity distribution as a consequence of internal learning behavior. External learning through spillovers occurs mostly at established firms.