My current research focuses on commitment problems within households. I study how dynamic household decisions are shaped by the fact that family members cannot always commit today to future actions or future sharing rules. This matters, for example, when spouses respond to income shocks, decide how much to save, insure each other within the family, or renegotiate household arrangements when outside options change.
A central theme is limited commitment: household members may cooperate as long as doing so remains attractive, but bargaining positions can shift over time and, in some cases, household dissolution or divorce becomes the relevant outside option. I use theoretical, quantitative, and empirical methods to analyze how these forces affect labor supply, saving behavior, risk sharing, and the design of public policies such as social insurance, taxation, and divorce law.
Working papers
With Dorothée Bahn and Christian Bredemeier.
Recommended version: June 2026.
An earlier version appeared as Ruhr Economic Papers, No. 1177, RWI, 2025.
2024
With Dorothée Averkamp and Christian Bredemeier. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 126(1), 3-37, 2024.
2023
With Christian Bredemeier and Jan Gravert. Review of Economic Dynamics, 51, 547-578, 2023.
2023
With Christian Bredemeier and Roland Winkler. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 55(7), 1703-1747, 2023.
Coverage: VoxEU; Oekonomenstimme (in German).
2023
With Christian Bredemeier and Roland Winkler. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 27(4), 998-1018, 2023.
2022
With Christian Bredemeier and Andreas Schabert. European Economic Review, 141, 103970, 2022.
2020
With Christian Bredemeier and Roland Winkler. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 52(6), 1527-1563, 2020.
2020
With Christian Bredemeier and Roland Winkler. Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers, 29, 99-140, 2020.
Coverage: VoxEU; Oekonomenstimme (in German).
2019
With Christian Bredemeier and Jan Gravert. Journal of Labor Economics, 37(4), 1215-1265, 2019.
2017
With Christian Bredemeier and Roland Winkler. Economics Letters, 158, 73-76, 2017.
2016
With Ludger Linnemann and Andreas Schabert. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 20(1), 380-403, 2016.
2015
With Christian Bayer. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 7(4), 160-187, 2015.
2013
With Christian Bredemeier. Journal of Labor Economics, 31(3), 603-631, 2013.
2013
With Benjamin Born and Gernot Müller. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 37(2), 446-465, 2013.
2012
With Christian Bayer. Economics Letters, 117(3), 831-833, 2012.
2012
With Ludger Linnemann. Journal of Macroeconomics, 34(3), 674-686, 2012.
2012
With Christian Bayer. Review of Economic Dynamics, 15(3), 377-401, 2012.
2009
Empirical Economics, 37(3), 627-652, 2009.
2007
With Christian Bayer. German Economic Review, 8(4), 510-535, 2007.
2006
Papers in Regional Science, 85(2), 235-255, 2006.
Funded project
The project studies how limited commitment within households shapes family insurance, saving behavior, and the economic consequences of divorce law. It combines quantitative dynamic household models with empirical analysis of panel microdata, including individual life-satisfaction measures, to reassess policy questions in social insurance, taxation, and divorce law.
Joint project with Christian Bredemeier
Project number: 516317370
Grant references: JU 3247/1-1 · BR 7012/1-1
Direct funding: Approx. EUR 250,000
Funding period: 36 months from 2023
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