Download CV here

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Employment

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​​Professor of Economics (tenured): September 2022 -

University of Mannheim, Department of Economics

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Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), January 2024 - 

Member of the Wirtschaftshistorischer Ausschuss, March 2024 - 

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Previous Positions:

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Research Affiliate, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), December 2018 - December 2023​

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Professor of Economics (fixed-term 5-years): August 2021 - September 2022

University of Mannheim, Department of Economics

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Associate Professor of Economics: April 2017 - April 2022

University of Southern Denmark, Department of Business and Economics

Visiting Associate Professor of Economics: January 2018 - June 2018

Harvard University, Department of Economics

 

Assistant Professor of Economics: August 2013 - March 2017

University of Southern Denmark, Department of Business and Economics

 

Education

 

PhD in Economics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2013 

MRes in Economics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2009

Diplom in Economics, University of Mannheim, 2007

 

Research Interests

 

Economic History, Demography, and Immigration

 

Published and Forthcoming Papers

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​​​"How the Other Half Died: Immigration and Mortality in US Cities" (joint with James Feigenbaum, Casper Worm Hansen, and Hui Ren Tan). Review of Economic Studies, 2024, 94 (1), pp. 1-44.

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"School Closures During the 1918 Flu Pandemic", (joint with Katherine Eriksson, Ezra Karger, Peter Nencka, and Melissa Thomasson). Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024, 106 (1), pp. 266-276.

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"The Effect of Immigration Restrictions on Local Labor Markets: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure", (joint with Ran Abramitzky, Leah Boustan, Elior Cohen, and Casper Worm Hansen). American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2023, vol. 15 (1), pp. 164-91.

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​"Killer Incentives: Rivalry, Performance and Risk-Taking among German Fighter Pilots, 1939-45", (joint with Leonardo Bursztyn, Lukas Leucht, and Joachim Voth). Review of Economic Studies, 2022, vol. 89 (5), pp. 2257-92.

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​"The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners After the Civil War" (joint with Leah Boustan and Katherine Eriksson). American Economic Review, 2021, vol. 111 (11), pp. 3767-94.

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"Structural Change and the Fertility Transition", (joint with Benedikt Herz and Markus Brueckner). Review of Economics and Statistics, 2020, 102(4), pp. 806-822. 

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"How the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Shaped Economic Activity in the American West", (joint with Katherine Eriksson, Casper Worm Hansen, and Lars Lønstrup). Explorations in Economic History, 2020, vol. 77 (July), pp. 101342.

 

"Agricultural Risk and the Spread of Religious Communities", (joint with Antonio Ciccone).  Journal of the European Economic Association, 2018, vol. 16 (4), pp. 1021-68.

 

"Fertility and early-life mortality: Evidence from smallpox vaccination in Sweden", (joint with Casper Worm Hansen and Peter Sandholt Jensen).  Journal of the European Economic Association, 2018, vol. 16 (2), pp. 487-521.

 

"Immigrants' Genes: Genetic Diversity and Economic Development in the US", (joint with Markus Brückner). Economic Inquiry, 2018, vol. 56 (April), pp. 1149-64. 

 

"The Boll Weevil Plague and its Effect on the Southern Agricultural Sector, 1889-1929", (joint with Markus Brückner and Benedikt Herz).

Explorations in Economic History, 2017, vol. 65 (July), pp. 94-105. 

 

"Cultural Diversity and Economic Growth: Evidence from the US During the Age of Mass Migration", (joint with Markus Brückner). European Economic Review, 2013, vol. 64 (November), pp. 76-97.

 

 

Working Papers

"Gender-biased technological change: Milking machines and the exodus of women from farming" (joint with Marc Goni and Kjell G. Salvanes)​

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"Medical Technology and Life Expectancy: Evidence from the Antitoxin Treatment of Diphtheria", (joint with Casper Worm Hansen and Peter Z. Lin)

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​"Froebel's Gifts: How the Kindergarten Movement Changed the American Family", (joint with Francesco Cinnirella).

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"Church Membership and Social Insurance: Evidence from the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927", (joint with Casper Worm Hansen and Lars Lønstrup).  Reject and Resubmit -- Economic Journal

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​​​"Bank Entry Regulation and Financial Development: The US Free Banking Experience", (joint with Fabrizio Spargoli).  

 

"The Persistence of de Facto Power: Elites and Economic Development in the US South", 1840-1960".

 

Work in Progress

"The Making of an American: Public Kindergartens and the Assimilation of Immigrant Children", (joint with Francesco Cinnirella, Katherine Eriksson, and Viktor Malein)

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"The long-run impacts of the first kindergartens and day nurseries for poor children in early 20th century New York", (joint with Viktor Malein)

 

"Liberation Technology? The Impact of the Sewing Machine on Women", (joint with Davide Coluccia)

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Other Publications

"The accuracy and efficiency of the Consensus Forecast: A further application and extension of the pooled approach", (joint with Marcus Kappler and Steffen Osterloh). International Journal of Forecasting, 2009, vol. 25 (1), pp. 167-181.

 

Honors, Scholarships, and Fellowships

Danish Council for Independent Research, 2018: Project: "Institutions of Care: The Role of Early Childhood Investments for Historical Development" (PI, amount: DKK 4,488.160 (~ 710.000 USD)).

 

Danish Council for Independent Research, 2015: Project: "Diversity and Development: Evidence from Immigration Quotas" (joint with Casper Worm Hansen, amount: DKK 1,502.967 (~ 225.000 USD)).

 

Editorial Service

Editorial Board: Explorations in Economic History (2023-)

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Referee for academic journals: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Review, American Economic Review: Insights, British Journal of Political Science, Demography, Economic History Review, Economic Journal, Economics of Education Review, European Economic Review, European Journal of Population, European Review of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of the European Economic Association, Labour Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Development Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Economic Studies, Scandinavian Economic History Review, Social Science History

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Referee for funding agencies: Agence National de la Recherche (France), German Research Foundation (DFG), Israel Science Foundation, National Science Foundation (United States)

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Invited Presentations

University of Hamburg (Hamburg, 2023), CERGE-EI (Prague, 2022), University of Groningen (2022), Northwestern (Evanston, 2022), University of Konstanz (Konstanz, 2022), London School of Economics Epstein Keynote Lecture (London, 2022), University of Warwick (Warwick, 2022), University of Mannheim (Mannheim, 2021), Stanford (Stanford, 2021), Aarhus University (Aarhus, 2021), Brown (Providence, 2021), Dartmouth (Hanover, 2021), IFN (Stockholm, 2020), CSEF (Naples, 2019), University Parthenope (Naples, 2019), Queen's University (Belfast, 2019), NYU Stern (New York, 2018), Harvard (Cambridge, 2018), Brown (Providence, 2018), NTNU (Trondheim, 2017), Humboldt University (Berlin, 2017), Fed Chicago (Chicago, 2017), WU Vienna (Vienna, 2017), SFI (Copenhagen, 2017), University of Bonn (Bonn, 2016), UC Davis (Davis, 2016), University of Bayreuth (Bayreuth, 2016), LMU (Munich, 2016), CBS (Copenhagen, 2015), University of Exeter (Exeter, 2015), University of Copenhagen (Copenhagen, 2014), University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Modena, 2014), Lund University (Lund, 2014), Universitat de Barcelona (Barcelona, 2013), University of Southern Denmark (Odense, 2013), UAB (Barcelona, 2013)

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Conference Presentations

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Economic History Workshop (Uppsala, 2023), Kongress für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte (Leipzig, 2023), ECONtribute Workshop (Bonn, 2021), AEA Annual Meetings (San Diego, 2020), Simposio of the Spanish Economic Association (Alicante, 2019), SSHA Conference (Chicago, 2019), FAIR CELE Workshop (Bergen, 2019), Royal Economic Society Conference (Warwick, 2019), Conference on "Migration, Refugees, and the Stateless" (Northwestern University, 2019), LSE 4th Interwar Workshop (London, 2018), EHA Conference (Montreal, 2018), WEHC (Boston, 2018), Deep-Rooted Factors in Comparative Development (Brown, 2018), Economic Demography Workshop (Denver, 2018), AEA Meetings (Philadelphia, 2018), ASREC Conference (Boston, 2017), 2nd Annual Meeting of the Danish Society for Economic and Social History (Copenhagen, 2016), NBER SI 2016 DAE (Boston, 2016), Zeuthen Workshop (University of Copenhagen, 2016), 3rd SDU Workshop on Applied Microeconomics (Odense, 2016), PAA Annual Meeting (Washington DC, 2016), Economic Demography Workshop (Washington DC, 2016), Royal Economic Society (University of Sussex, 2016), AEA Meetings (San Francisco, 2016), Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (Girona, 2015), FRESH Meeting (Universitat de Barcelona, 2015), 11th European Historical Economics Society Conference 2015 (Pisa, 2015), Historical Economics of Religion Workshop (Queen's University Belfast, 2015), EBHS Conference (La Crosse, WI, 2015), Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (Palma de Mallorca, 2014), SSHA Conference (Toronto, 2014), EHA Conference (Columbus, OH, 2014), FRESH Meeting (University of Kent, 2014), Danish Public Choice Workshop (Copenhagen, 2014), AEA Meetings (Philadelphia, 2014), Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (Santander, 2013), Swedish Economic History Meeting (Lund, 2013), FRESH Meeting (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 2013), 4th Workshop on Growth, History and Development (University of Southern Denmark, 2013), Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía (Vigo, 2012), Royal Economic Society (Royal Holloway University of London, 2011), Economic History Society (Cambridge, 2011)