Labor and Public Economics

What are the research topics in this area?

In our research, we address a wide breadth of important societal questions. Our work touches on labor market topics such as the value of education and skills; technological developments including robotics; and the effect of trade on employment and wages. It also includes the area of optimal policy design such as income taxation and education policies. Our members study how preferences for public policies are determined and how information shapes those preferences. We also investigate spatial questions --- with a particular focus on inequality --- such the effects of market access and spatial frictions on the economic fortunes of regions.

Why is the University of Konstanz particularly strong in this area?

Much of our work is fueled by our strong focus on working with the best possible data sources for the question at hand. In many cases, this involves creating new data sets that permit us to study longstanding questions with high precision and (quasi) experimental variation. At the same time, we pay special attention that the empirical work is solidly grounded in economic theory.

To what extent are the topics socially relevant?

Our aim is to contribute to urgent social and economic questions. Our work sheds light on several current societal challenges such as persistent gender disparities in opportunities, the future of work, and inequitable access to education. Our focus on inequality is shared with the mission of the Excellence Cluster “The Politics of Inequality”, located at the University of Konstanz, and many members of our group are also active contributors to the cluster.

How well is the group connected with the research community?

We maintain close ties to many international research networks and organizations. This includes e.g.:

  • Centre for Economic Performance
  • OECD (in particular the PIACC study)
  • Ifo Institute
  • Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG)
  • Swiss Leading House Economics of Education
  • Center for Economic Policy Research
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
  • Center for European Economic Research (ZEW)

We run a weekly seminar series where we invite people from the international research community and provide a platform for internal members to present their work in progress.