I derive a measure of job mobility that reflects individuals ability to sort into the preferred jobs. Relying on the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I find that educational attainment tends to have a strong positive effect on internal (i.e., within firms) and external (i.e., between...

Social mobility is a key element of meritocratic societies. We analyze multigenerational social mobility with a hand-collected yearly Swiss dataset from 1550 to 2019. With our surname-based approach, we measure the Swiss society's overall permeability over more than 450 years. Furthermore, we...

In spring 2020, governments around the globe shut down schools to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. We argue that low-achieving students may be particularly affected by the lack of educator support during school closures. We collect detailed time-use information on students before...

This study investigates intergenerational social mobility and its particular transmission mechanisms in low- and middle-income countries. Using data from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, we estimate the degree to which socioeconomic status persists across generations. We then analyze through...

Economic growth varies substantially across regions and over time. This paper shows that economic growth in a person's birth place is an important determinant for wealth in adulthood. We exploit a new dataset that oversamples wealthy individuals in Germany and includes information on birth...

In this paper, we investigate sibling correlations in educational outcomes, which serve as a broad measure of the importance of family and community background. Making use of rich longitudinal survey and register data for Denmark, our main aim is to identify the parental background...

If information asymmetries prevent talented students of non-academic backgrounds from applying for merit-based aid, the full potential of qualified youth will not be unfolded and social selectivity is likely to corroborate. This paper analyzes whether information asymmetries exist and decrease...

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the impact of future demographic change on the distributions of earnings and skills in the German economy. The model accommodates household heterogeneity along both, the intra- and the inter-generational dimension. The results suggest a decline in...

Educational tracking seeks to group students by unobserved ability using measures of observable acquired skills. In a model where individuals have differential skills prior to beginning formal education due to differences in early childhood development (e.g. linguistic, cultural, or nutritional...

We analyze differences in school quality using a comprehensive panel data set covering all upper secondary school graduates in Finland during the years 2002-2013. School quality is defined as the effect of the school on matriculation exam results controlling for quality of student intake. In...