Unregistered Work among Refugees - Findings from a List Experiment in Germany, 2022, WWZ Discussion Paper 01/2022, joint work with Carina Hartmann and Christoph Sajons, under review at European Journal of Political Economy

The integration of refugees in host countries' labor markets is complicated by structural barriers, missing formal qualifications, and language deficiencies. This leads to widespread concern that refugees may end up in informal and precarious employment relationships. Empirical evidence on the prevalence of unregistered work is missing, however, due to the sensitive and illegal nature of this phenomenon. In this paper, we conduct a list experiment to measure unregistered work among refugees in Germany. Our results indicate that 31% have had experience with an unregistered job since their arrival. Refugees who report that they do not have work permission show a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing unregistered work. Furthermore, the lack of post-secondary education and vocational degrees, and a low German proficiency predict the risk to work without registration.

Vocational Training for Female Job Returners - Effects on Employment, Earnings and Job Quality, 2021, 2nd round of revision at Labour Economics

This paper studies how training vouchers increase the employment prospects of women with interrupted employment histories. Using the population of female job returners who receive a training voucher to participate in training programs and a randomly selected control group from German administrative data, I analyze the effectiveness of training on various labor market outcomes. The results suggest that receiving a training voucher translates into substantial gains in employment and earnings and increases job quality and stability. Analyzing the heterogeneity effects reveals that the effectiveness of training increases with the provided human capital. Several robustness checks support a causal interpretation of the results.


The Long-Term Effects of Job Training on Labor Market and Skills Outcomes in Chile, 2020, IDB Working Paper 1156, joint work with Rafael Novella

Job training programs can be an effective policy for improving productivity and labor market outcomes in low and middle-income countries. We report the medium and long-term impacts of a job training program for vulnerable workers in Chile on the labor market and skill outcomes using experimental and administrative data. We find that the program fails on improving workers' skills and most labor outcomes but some evidence of an effect on labor income. We also find evidence of heterogeneous effects by course-type, training provider quality, and gender. This evidence aims at contributing to a better design of training programs and to a better use of public resources.