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IZA Short News
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British Government Commissions IZA to Analyze Labor Markets in Low-Income Countries |
 IZA has recently received a major commission from the British Government. Over the next five years IZA is to manage research funding in the amount of 10.6 million pounds for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for research projects on growth and labor markets aimed at improving the living conditions of people in countries with particularly low income levels. Among other topics, the focus will be on which strategies are especially helpful for economic growth and job creation under the specific conditions found in the countries under study.
To date there have been hardly any empirically data or studies on the poorest regions of the world upon which policy recommendations can be based. Hence, the efficacy of policies to promote employment and stable economic structures in these countries has so far been very limited. IZA and DFID will support up to 30 different research projects in the coming five years. In cooperation with independent international experts, IZA will coordinate the selection of individual projects.
More information soon to be available online.
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IZA Director Awards Kuznets Prize to Japanese Economists |
 The Japanese economists Makoto Hirazawa (Nagoya University) and Akira Yakita (Nagoya City University) received the 5th Kuznets Prize for their paper "Fertility, child care outside the home, and pay-as-you-go social security", which was selected as the best published article in the Journal of Population Economics during the period 2007-2009. Established in honor of Simon Kuznets, a pioneer in population econmics, the prize was presented by the journal's Editor-in-Chief, IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann, during the ESPE 2011 conference in Hangzhou, China.
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IZA Program Director Armin Falk Wins Prestigious Science Prizes |
 Armin Falk (University of Bonn), IZA Program Director for "Behavioral and Personnel Economics" and former Director of Research (2003-2007), was awarded the Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, funded by the Commerzbank Foundation, in October. Worth 30,000 euros, the Prize is awarded biennially for outstanding achievement in research on the foundations of economics and law. The academy highlighted the relevance of Falk’s contributions to behavioral research for economic policy advice. Behavioral economics has been one of IZA’s key research areas in the past years. “With our research in this field, we provide important insights into the mechanisms of the working world,” said IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann.
Among other science prizes, Armin Falk also received the 2011Yrjo Jahnsson Award for the best European economists under the age of 45.
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IZA Research Director Marco Caliendo Becomes Professor in Potsdam |
 In October 2011, IZA Research Director Marco Caliendo started his new position as Professor of Empirical Economics at the University of Potsdam. IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann congratulated him on this career move: “One of IZA’s key objectives is to support and promote promising young researchers. We thank Marco Caliendo for his excellent job as IZA Director of Research and look forward to our continued cooperation in the future.“
Caliendo joined IZA in Bonn as a Senior Research Associate in 2007 before becoming Director of Research in 2009. His work focuses mainly on unemployment, entrepreneurship, and the influence of personality traits on economic decisions. He will continue to cooperate closely with IZA as Program Director for Evaluation (together with Gerard van den Berg). In addition to several IZA projects on evaluation and entrepreneurship, he will also be responsible for the scientific coordination of the IZA Evaluation Data Set.
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Alan Krueger to Head U.S. Council of Economic Advisers |
 IZA Research Fellow Alan B. Krueger (Princeton University) was nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. Alan Krueger served as chief economist of the Treasury Department for two years before returning to Princeton last November.
IZA Director Klaus F. Zimmermann has been in close touch with him over the past years through IZA's partner institution DIW DC in Washington. "Alan is a brilliant and insightful economist who is dedicated to a better understanding of the labor market. Given the vast economic challenges ahead of the United States, he is certainly an excellent choice for this influential post," said Zimmermann.
Alan Krueger received the IZA Prize in Labor Economics together with David Card in 2006. Their joint volume "Wages, School Quality, and Employment Demand" is currently in press as part of the IZA Prize Book Series.
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IZA Fellow Adriana Kugler Serves as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor |
 IZA Fellow Adriana Kugler has become Chief Economist to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis. She is currently on leave from her position as Full Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Dr. Kugler has been an IZA Research Fellow for more than 10 years and has published 15 papers in the IZA DP Series. She is also affiliated with NBER, CEPR and CReAM, and serves on the editorial boards of several major economics journals.
Adriana Kugler has published widely about the impact of public policies on employment and earnings. She has also written on the topic of immigration and its impacts on both receiving and sending countries. She earned a B.A. in economics and political science with First Class Honors from McGill University and her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
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New IZA Research Staff |
 Four young researchers have joined IZA during the past two months to support the institute’s research activities in program evaluation, migration, and development economics.
Costanza Biavaschi finished her Ph.D. at Rutgers University in October 2011. Her research interests are in labor economics, applied microeconomics/microeconometrics, and public economics. Her current work focuses on migration issues, such as return migration, self-selection of migrants, and immigrant academic achievement.
Patrick Arni received his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Lausanne, HEC. He was previously a visiting scholar at Tilburg University. His research interests include labor economics and applied microeconometrics. In his dissertation he analyzes incentive policies in unemployment insurance. A further research focus is on evaluating the impacts of beliefs and of networks on social insurance schemes. He will serve as Deputy Program Director for IZA’s Evaluation program area.
Mathias Dolls is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Cologne. His main research interests are in the fields of empirical public economics and labor economics with particular reference to the redistributive and insurance effects of tax and transfer systems. He has been affiliated with IZA since September 2009.
Janneke Pieters is about to receive her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen. Her main field of research is development economics, with a focus on inequality and labor markets. Currently, she works on trade and wage inequality in developing countries, female labor force participation, and employment in informal manufacturing in India. At IZA she will also serve as Deputy Program Director for “Growth and Labor Markets in Low Income Countries”.
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Policy Forum in Beijing Discusses Challenges for the Chinese Labor Market |
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On September 17, 2011, a policy forum was organized at the China Institute for Employment Research (CIER) in Beijing to discuss some of the key challenges for Chinese labor market policy. The event was organized as part of the 3rd CIER/IZA workshop.
The panel of speakers consisted of five distinguished experts on the Chinese labor market: Deqiao Hu (National Development and Reform Commission), Shi Li (Beijing Normal University and IZA), Danhua Liu (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security), Xiangquan Zeng (Renmin University of China and IZA) and Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA and University of Bonn).
The event produced a stimulating debate about crucial issues in China, from the structural unbalance between labor supply and demand, to rural-to-urban migration, and the need for intensifying labor market reforms and promoting wage increases. Several themes, such as labor flexibility, shortages of high-skilled workers, and the impact of the financial crisis were discussed comparing the cases of China and Germany, and emphasizing similarities and differences between the two countries.
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