Behavioral Economics and Labor Market Performance

A growing body of research in psychology and economics demonstrates that individual behavior does not only depend on economic incentives and constraints, but instead is influenced by a multitude of psychological factors as well as by individual limitations in self-control, cognition, and attention. These findings have profoundly shaped the way in which economists and psychologists think about public policy. The research unit “Behavioral Economics and Labor Market Performance” studies how insights from economics and psychology can be leveraged to improve labor market prospects of individual workers, the functioning of labor market policy, and overall labor market performance.

The research unit, consisting of experts in behavioral economics, labor economics, and experimental economics, collaborates closely with the Danish Ministry of Employment, the Danish Agency for Labor Market and Recruitment, and an interdisciplinary network of researchers.

Topics that are studied include:

• How do cognitive and behavioral biases hamper individuals’ employment and earnings’ prospects?
• How to help people overcome these challenges, in order to speed up the job search process and improve the quality of resulting labor-market “matches”?
• How to identify and best assist at-risk groups, in order to prevent them falling into long-term unemployment?

To address these questions, the research unit applies a broad spectrum of complementary scientific methods. The research projects make use of register data, household surveys, as well as large-scale randomized controlled trials.

In our research, we use of a broad spectrum of empirical methods to shed new light on a number of fundamental questions related to individuals’ job search behavior, their earnings and employment prospects, and overall labor market performance.

We make use of register data, laboratory and internet experiments, household surveys, as well as large-scale randomized controlled trials.

We share all published results - from working papers to journal articles.

2023

Unemployed Job Search Across People and Over Time: Evidence from Applied-For Jobs. Jonas Fluchtmann, Anita M. Glenny, Nikolaj Harmon, Jonas Maibom. Forthcoming in Journal of Labor Economics.

Oral Health Promotion and Labour Market Prospects of Socially Disadvantaged and Unemployed People – A Randomised Controlled Trial. Anna M. Sigsgaard, Iben Bolvig, Katrine Dannemand Jensen, Steffen Altmann. Børge Hede, and Esben B. Øzhayat, forthcoming in: The Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.

Side Effects of Labor Market Policies. Marco Caliendo, Robert Mahlstedt, Gerard van den Berg, Johan Vikström. Forthcoming in Scandinavian Journal of Economics.

2022

Interventions and Cognitive Spillovers. Steffen Altmann, Andreas Grunewald and Jonas Radbruch, Review of Economic Studies, 2022, 89 (5).

Deadlines and Memory Limitations. Steffen Altmann, Christian Traxler and Philipp Weinschenk, Management Science, 2022, 68 (9), 6733-6750.

The Direct and Indirect Effects of Online Job Search Advice. Steffen Altmann, Anita Glenny, Robert Mahlstedt, Alexander Sebald. IZA Discussion Paper No. 15830

Do Job Seekers Understand the UI Benefit System (and Does It Matter)? Steffen Altmann, Sofie Cairo, Robert Mahlstedt, Alexander Sebald. IZA Discussion Paper No. 15747

The Intended and Unintended Effects of Promoting Labor Market Mobility. Marco Caliendo, Steffen Künn, Robert Mahlstedt. IZA Discussion Paper No. 15011

2021

Transparency of the Welfare System and Labor Market Outcomes of Unemployed Workers. Sofie Cairo and Robert Mahlstedt. IZA Discussion Paper No. 14490

2020

The Gender Application Gap: Do men and women apply for the same jobs? Jonas Fluchtmann, Anita M. Glenny, Nikolaj Harmon, Jonas Maibom. Working Paper, University of Copenhagen.

2019

Defaults and Donations: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Steffen Altmann, Armin Falk, Paul Heidhues, Rajshri Jayaraman, and Marrit Teirlinck. Review of Economics and Statistics, 101 (5), 808-826.

2018

Learning about Job Search: A Field Experiment with Job Seekers in Germany. Steffen Altmann, Armin Falk, Simon Jäger, Florian Zimmermann. Journal of Public Economics, 2018, 164, 33-49.