Journal articles · Working papers · Technical reports · Research communication · Opinion pieces

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

• Poverty, Inequality and Social Security during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Linked Swiss Tax Data (with Oliver Hümbelin and Olivier Lehmann), Poverty & Public Policy 18: e70074, 2026. Journal Website
• Early exposure to foreign language training and students’ educational trajectories (with Enzo Brox, Chantal Oggenfuss, and Stefan C. Wolter), Economics of Education Review 108, 102684, 2025. Journal Website
• Students' grit and their post-compulsory educational choices and trajectories: Evidence from Switzerland (with Janine Albiez and Stefan C. Wolter), Education Economics, Sep., 1-14, 2025. Journal Website
• Religious practices and student performance: Evidence from Ramadan fasting (with Erik Hornung and Guido Schwerdt), Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 205, 100-119, 2023. Journal Website
• The impact of state aid on the survival and financial viability of aided firms (with Sven Heim, Kai Hüschelrath, and Philipp Schmidt-Dengler), European Economic Review 100, 193-214, 2017. Journal Website

  Reprinted in: Ex Post Economic Evaluation of Competition Policy: The EU Experience, edited by Fabienne Ilzkovitz and Adriaan Dierx, Chapter 10, Kluwer Law International. Publisher Website

Working papers

• Assessing the role of asylum policies in refugees' labor market integration: The case of protection statuses in the German asylum system (R&R at Labour Economics) Working Paper
  Abstract

  I study the effect of refugees’ protection status—Geneva Convention or subsidiary protection status—on labor market outcomes, focusing on a cohort of Syrian and Iraqi refugee migrants entering Germany between 2013 and 2016. My empirical analysis exploits a sudden and unpredictable March 2016 policy change of the asylum claim-handling federal agency, reducing the likelihood of receiving Geneva Convention refugee status for refugee migrants from these two countries. Using data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey of refugees, I exploit the policy change in a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. Estimation results indicate a substantial negative effect of subsidiary protection status on earnings and employment.

• Labor earnings of native and foreign workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland (with Oliver Hümbelin and Olivier Lehmann) (R&R at Research in Social Stratification and Mobility) Working Paper
  Abstract

  The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented economic shock, raising concerns that the pandemic may reinforce existing labor market inequalities. Theories on social stratification suggest that such disruptions can amplify structural disadvantages faced by migrant groups. Using linked administrative data from social security and population registry records for 2016–2022, we construct a balanced panel of more than two million prime-age workers with stable prepandemic labor market attachment. We estimate difference-in-differences event-study models to examine how labor earnings of native and foreign workers evolved before and after the onset of the pandemic across the labor earnings distribution. In the lower part of the labor earnings distribution, the labor earnings gap between natives and non-EU/EFTA workers at the onset of the pandemic did not differ from pre-pandemic years. However, this gap widened thereafter, indicating that the pandemic exacerbated disadvantages for this group. Moreover, analyses using linked survey data suggest that differential sorting into occupations or sectors does not fully account for these results. Overall, our findings indicate that large economic shocks can reproduce or intensify existing labor market inequalities.

• Classroom rank in math, occupational choices and labor market outcomes (with Enzo Brox and Maddalena Davoli) Working Paper
  Abstract

  We examine the impact of students' classroom rank in math on educational, occupational, and labor-market outcomes. Using Swiss PISA-2012 data linked to administrative student records and tax information, and leveraging variations in achievement distribution across classes, we find that students with higher math ranks are more likely to pursue STEM-related occupations. Through subject-specific survey questions, we provide evidence of the underlying mechanisms at play, and we also demonstrate that parents can serve as important mediators. Furthermore, we show that a higher classroom rank in math increases earnings and the willingness to invest in occupation-specific further education.

• Eroding Social Citizenship? Policy-Induced Conditionality and Migrants’ Non-Take-Up of Social Assistance in Switzerland (with Oliver Hümbelin, Sebastian Torkisz, and Olivier Lehmann) Working Paper
  Abstract

  This study examines the impact of the 2019 reform of Switzerland’s Foreign Nationals and Integration Act on hidden poverty among foreign nationals. By linking residence permit extension and naturalisation to independence from social assistance, the reform intensified the intersection between welfare and migration policy and introduced new potential deterrents to benefit claiming. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design, we analyse how the reform affected the non-take-up of social assistance among foreign residents. The empirical analysis relies on linked administrative data from tax, population, and social assistance registers for a large urban area in Switzerland covering the period 2016–2022. While social assistance eligibility rates declined over time, indicating generally favourable economic conditions, non-take-up increased slightly, particularly among groups most exposed to the reform. DiD estimates reveal a statistically significant post-reform increase in non-take-up of between 1.8 and 2.9 percentage points among third-country nationals holding a settlement permit (C). The effect is especially pronounced among households with children. These findings suggest that migration-related conditionality may have unintended consequences by discouraging benefit claiming and thereby institutionalising hidden poverty. More broadly, the study highlights how the interaction between welfare and migration policies may reshape effective access to social rights and challenge the inclusiveness of contemporary welfare states.

• Pandemic inequalities: Regional and risk-group differences in Switzerland (with Oliver Hümbelin and Olivier Lehmann) Working Paper
  Abstract

  This paper examines the evolution of labor income inequality in Switzerland during the pandemic using comprehensive administrative data from the Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance (OASI) system, which cover nearly the entire employee population between 2016 and 2022. Our main empirical analysis relies on a balanced panel of more than 2.6 million prime-age Workers with stable pre-pandemic labor market attachment. Focusing on labor earnings from dependent employment, we estimate group-specific pre-pandemic income trends and quantify pandemic related income losses for 2020–2022 as deviations from these trajectories. Our results show that labor incomes declined relative to their expected trend in all Swiss regions, indicating a broad negative income shock despite extensive policy support. Income losses were disproportionately concentrated among workers in the lower part of the income distribution, pointing to a widening of earnings inequality beyond pre-pandemic trends. Moreover, while income deviations among high income workers were relatively homogeneous across regions, losses among low-income workers varied substantially and were descriptively associated with differences in cantonal Containment policies. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal stronger income disruptions among workers in contact-intensive occupations, women, younger individuals, and migrants. Overall, the findings suggest that the pandemic acted as a magnifier of existing labor market inequalities.

• Internet usage and migration decisions: Evidence from Nigerian micro data Working Paper
  Abstract

  This paper investigates the role of Internet usage in the migration decision using micro-level data from Nigeria. Internet usage reduces migration costs such as search and information costs or psychological costs, which suggests that having access to the Internet increases the probability to migrate. My empirical analysis exploits variation in Internet usage induced by the arrival of submarine Internet cables in Western Africa. Results indicate a large positive effect of Internet usage on migration. The effect is particularly strong for migration out of Africa and is larger for individuals from the lower part of the wealth distribution.

Technical reports

• Armutsmonitoring im Kanton Solothurn: Bericht zu Handen des Amts für Gesellschaft und Soziales Solothurn (with Oliver Hümbelin, Tanja Schindler, Dominik Büttikofer, and David Kaufmann), Berner Fachhochschule, Soziale Arbeit, 2026. Publisher Website
• Atypisch-prekäre Beschäftigung und lose Anbindung an den Arbeitsmarkt: Vertiefende statistische Analysen im Rahmen des nationalen Armutsmonitorings, Schwerpunktthema Erwerbsarbeit (with Oliver Hümbelin), Bern, Schweiz, 2025. Publisher Website (see "Bericht atypisch-prekäre Beschäftigung")

Research communication

• Atypische Arbeitsformen: Flexibilität mit Risiken (with Oliver Hümbelin), in Die Volkswirtschaft: Magazin für Wirtschaftspolitik, Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft SECO, 2026. Publisher Website
• KI in der Sozialen Arbeit: Wo stehen wir? (with Dorian Kessler and Nathalie Joder), in knoten & maschen – BFH-Blog zur Sozialen Sicherheit, Berner Fachhochschule, 2026. Publisher Website
• Ramadan intensity and subsequent student achievement (with Guido Schwerdt and Erik Hornung), VoxEU, CEPR, 2022. Publisher Website

Opinion pieces

• Die Integrationsagenda auf dem Prüfstand (with Tobias Fritschi), in Sozialalmanach 2025, Stabil prekär. Mit (Weiter-)Bildung aus der Armut?, Caritas Schweiz, 2025. Publisher Website