Research Papers

Employment and Reallocation Effects of Higher Minimum Wages

Revise & Resubmit at the JPE Macro

Abstract: This paper studies the employment and reallocation effects of minimum wages in Germany in a search-and-matching model with endogenous job search effort and vacancy posting, multiple employment levels, a progressive tax-transfer system, and worker and firm heterogeneity. I find that minimum wages up to 70% of the median wage significantly increase productivity, hours worked and output without reducing employment. In frictional labor markets, however, reallocation takes time whenever the minimum wage cuts deep into the wage distribution. I show that gradually implementing a high minimum wage is necessary to avoid elevated unemployment rates during the transition.

Previous versions of the paper circulated under the titles “Employment, Output and Welfare Effects of Minimum Wages” and “Macroeconomic and Distributional Effects of Higher Minimum Wages”

Are Male Bosses Bad for Women? Evidence from Personnel Data [new version coming soon]

with Felix Holub

Abstract: In this paper, we use personnel data of a large multinational firm to study whether manager gender affects gender gaps among the managers’ direct subordinates. Controlling for unobserved worker and manager heterogeneity, we find a significant female penalty of having a male boss in terms of subjective performance ratings. This is likely driven by (subconscious) biases rather than same-gender-complementarities in productivity. In contrast, we find that having a male manager does not affect women's wage growth or career progression relative to their male coworkers.

Falling Behind: Has Rising Inequality Fueled the American Debt Boom?
[new version]

with Fabian Greimel

Revise & Resubmit at the Review of Financial Studies

Abstract: This paper studies whether the interplay of social comparisons in housing and rising income inequality contributed to the household debt boom in the US between 1980 and 2007. We develop a tractable macroeconomic model with general social comparisons in housing to show that changes in the distribution of income affect aggregate housing demand, ggregate debt and house prices if (and only if) social comparisons are asymmetric. In the empirically relevant case of upward-looking comparisons, rising inequality can rationalize up to a quarter of the observed debt boom.

2020 WFA PhD Candidate Award for Outstanding Research