Projects

Our research focuses on two broad topics: (i) the link between labor markets and the welfare state; and (ii) the interactions between economic inequality and the macro-economy.

In our labor market research we empirically identify the causal effect of welfare state policies for individual labor market outcomes. We study, for example, how labor market policies affect unemployment; how disability- and unemployment-insurance systems affect retirement and mortality; how family policies affect fertility and labor supply; and how immigration policies affect host-country labor markets.

To understand the nexus between inequality and macroeconomic outcomes we analyze, theoretically and empirically, how the formation of large middle classes in emerging economies affects growth and structural change; how inequalities affect R&D and innovation incentives through the demand for new and higher-quality products; and how inequalities within and between countries shape trade flows and the international division of labor.

Economic Inequality and International Trade
Sinergia Project CRSI11_132272 / 1 financed by the SNF
PI: Prof. Dr. Josef Zweimüller (Project Partners: Prof. Dr. Peter Egger, ETH; Prof. Dr. Reto Foellmi, University of St.Gallen)

NRN Labor and Welfare State
Subproject Population Economics financed by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF
Project Partner: Prof. Dr. Josef Zweimüller (PI: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, University of Linz)