Current Position
Since 2009: Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt


Past Position
2004 - 2009: Assistant Professor, Harvard University


Other Affiliations
Associated Member of Exc. Cluster The Formation of Normative Orders at Goethe University
Affiliate, Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD)
Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
CESifo Research Network Affiliate, Munich
Member, Verein für Socialpolitik: Research Committee Development Economics


Education
2004: Ph.D. Economics, Yale University
2001: M.Phil. Economics, Yale University
2000: M.A. Economics, Yale University
1996: Staatsexamen, Mathematics and Geography, Cologne University


Research Interests
Development Economics
Impact Evaluation of Development Programs
Migration and Saving
Law and Economics

Publications
Private versus Social Returns to Human Capital: Education and Economic Growth in India
(with John Playforth), European Economic Review 66, February 2014, 266-283.

Are Immigrants More Mobile than Natives? Evidence from Germany Journal of Regional Science, 54(1), January 2014, 75-90.

Local Financial Development and Firm Performance: Evidence from Morocco (with Marcel Fafchamps), Journal of Development Economics 103, July 2013, 15-28.

Appreciating Depreciation: Physical Capital Depreciation in a Developing Country Empirical Economics 44 (3), June 2013, 1277-1290.

Ethnic Heterogeneity and the Private Provision of Public Goods Journal of Development Studies 49 (1), January 2013, 36-55.

Where are Limited Liability Companies Formed? An Empirical Analysis
(with Jens Dammann), Journal of Law and Economics, 55 (4), November 2012, 741-791.

Deterring or Displacing Electoral Irregularities? Spillover Effects of Observers in a Randomized Field Experiment in Ghana (with Nahomi Ichino), Journal of Politics, 74 (1), January 2012, 292–307. Replication data set.

The Incorporation Choices of Privately Held Corporations
(with Jens Dammann), Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 27(1), Spring 2011, 79-112.

Can Entrepreneurial Activity Be Taught? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Central America
(with Bailey Klinger) World Development, 39(9), 2011, 1592–1610.

Who Stays, Who Goes, Who Returns? East-West Migration within Germany since Reunification
(with Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln), Economics of Transition, 17(3), 2009, 703-738.

Precautionary Savings and Self-Selection: Evidence from the German Reunification "Experiment"
(with Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120 (3), August 2005, 1085-1120.

The Savings Behavior of East and West Germans - Theoretical Predictions and Empirical Evidence
(with Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln), Journal of Applied Social Science Studies (Schmollers Jahrbuch), 123 (1), 2003, 209-220.


Working Papers
Modeling Firm Dynamics to Identify the Cost of Financing Constraints in Ghanaian Manufacturing

Financing Constraints: A New Test and an Application to Developing Countries