Research Papers

Are Male Bosses Bad for Women’s Careers? Evidence from a Multinational Corporation

with Felix Holub

Abstract: We study whether gender-based favoritism impedes women's career progression using data from a European multinational corporation. Leveraging manager reassignments, we show that manager gender does not affect gender differences, neither in wage growth nor in promotion rates. Remarkably, this holds across a wide range of countries and departments, i.e., workforces that differ substantially in terms of gender norms, occupations, and gender composition, but are all subject to the same management practices and corporate culture. Analyzing performance and potential ratings, we find that manager gender only matters in low-stakes decisions that do not affect managers’ own career prospects.

Work in Progress

Housing Booms, Labor Mobility, Misallocation, and Segregation

with Katrin Hohmeyer and Max Löffler

Gender Inequality among Top Earners

with Elena Herold, Andreas Peichl, and Johannes Schmieder

Reallocation Effects of Transfer Policies

with Lilly Fischer, and Pascal Zamorski

Publications

Employment and Reallocation Effects of Higher Minimum Wages

Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, forthcoming
(journal website)

Falling Behind: Has Rising Inequality Fueled the American Debt Boom?

with Fabian Greimel

The Review of Financial Studies, 2026, 39, p. 459-517
(journal website)

Inequality and Income Dynamics in Germany

Quantitative Economics, 2022, 13(4), p. 1593-1635

with Andreas Peichl, Johannes Schmieder, Kai D. Schmid, Hannes Walz and Stefanie Wolter

part of the Global Income Dynamics Project

Consumption-Savings Decisions under Upward-Looking Comparisons

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2014, 106, p. 254–268

with Kai D. Schmid