Existing research has shown that job displacement leads to large and persistent earnings losses for men, but evidence for women is scarce. In fact, there is more research on how women react to their husband’s job loss than to their own. Using a sample of more than 80,000 displaced workers extracted from German administrative data, a recent IZA paper by Hannah Illing, Johannes F. Schmieder and Simon Trenkle aims to close this gap in the economic literature.

Researchers from the ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence analyzed data of a major German online bank: Investors often decide how to invest based on past stock prices. In fact, however, future and past returns do not depend on each other. If investors are made aware of this error, they change their investment behavior. This is shown in a study by the team of economist Prof. Dr. Christine Laudenbach, member of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy at the University of Bonn. The study was published in advance as an "ECONtribute Discussion Paper".

In the USA and in Germany, prices have increased to their highest level in 30 years. A new survey shows: economists, households, and managers see different reasons for this and do not share the same outlook.

Moritz Schularick wins the most important research funding award in Germany. The Leibniz Prize recognizes his outstanding research achievements in the field of economics. In particular, the way he connects macroeconomics with economic history, his insights into the causes of financial crises and his research on the historical development of wealth distribution.

Competitiveness is an individual trait that has been shown to be highly predictive of career choices and labor market outcomes and for which a strong gender gap is often found. Gender differences in preferences for competition might therefore provide a partial explanation for gender disparities in career choices, such as differential selection into STEM fields or finance.

In its latest episode, the science podcast “Exzellent erklärt – Spitzenforschung für alle” provides insights into the research of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne. Studies show: Pandemic-related school closures intensified unequal educational opportunities.