More individualistic countries experience higher economic growth. We provide evidence for a human-capital-based explanation of the growth effects of individualism. Using data from the largest international adult skill assessment, we establish that individualism shapes human capital formation. We identify the effects of individualism by exploiting variation between migrants at the origin-country, origin-language, and person level. Migrants from more individualistic cultures have higher cognitive skills and larger skill gains over time. They also invest more in their skills over the life cycle, as they acquire more years of schooling and are more likely to participate in adult education activities. Individualism is more important in explaining adult skill formation than any other cultural trait that previous literature has emphasized. In the labor market, more individualistic migrants earn higher wages and are less often unemployed. We show that our results cannot be explained by selective migration or omitted origin-country variables.

Conditionally accepted at the Journal of the European Economic Association.

Individualist societies are more innovative, but little is known about the underlying individual behaviors. I use international labor-market and patent data to show that individualism—the cultural dimension that emphasizes individual achievements over collective action—positively affects individual innovation. Comparing migrants from different cultural origins within the same destination country and using variation in individualism at the country, region, and person level, I find that more individualist migrants select into more innovative occupations—including research, creative jobs, and ambitious entrepreneurship. Individualists also engage more readily in knowledge diffusion on the job—even when accounting for occupational selection—by investing more time in active learning. Taken together, those innovation choices account for 44 percent of the individualism productivity premium. Individualism also positively affects patenting behavior as a direct innovation output measure.

We study the market for data in the context of online retail newsletters, where consumers sell data in exchange for a discount. On the firm side, data on over 2,000 firms show a convergence towards a 5-10% discount equilibrium. Focusing on the user side, we conduct a survey with over 500 participants where we find substantial heterogeneity among consumers with respect to newsletter preferences and strategies. When we vary nuisance and privacy as key newsletter characteristics in a vignette experiment, the share of consumers who demand a higher-than-usual discount for subscription increases significantly when privacy is low-although actual subscription behavior remains unchanged. Allowing consumers to interact with a privacy tool to analyze real-world newsletters sparks substantial engagement and interest among survey participants: 63% choose to analyze more newsletters than they had originally been assigned. Our findings call for more accessible information on newsletter features.

Published in: AMCIS 2024 Proceedings. 8.

Among the general population, frontline workers have been identified to be at heightened risk for negative mental health consequences related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Catholic priests, who minister to approximately 30% of Canadians, in their role as frontline workers, have been profoundly limited in the provision of pastoral care due to public health restrictions. However, little is known about the impact pandemic distress has on this largely understudied population. Four hundred and eleven Catholic priests across Canada participated in an online survey during May and June 2021. Multiple regression analysis examined how depression, anxiety, traumatic impact of events, loneliness, and religious coping style affect the psychological well-being, satisfaction as a priest, and priestly identity of participants. Results demonstrated that pandemic distress significantly impacts the psychological well-being of priest participants. Depression and loneliness surfaced as significant considerations associated with lowered psychological well-being. While neither anxiety nor traumatic distress reached a significance threshold, the religious coping style of participants emerged as an important factor in the psychological well-being of priests. Results of the study contribute to the understanding of how the pandemic has impacted a less visible group of frontline workers.

Published in: Religions 2022, 13(8).

Digitalization in banking is leaving elderly clients at risk of losing access to financial services, but little is known about technology adoption at an advanced age. We develop and evaluate training interventions to foster internet banking adoption in a field experiment with more than 25,000 elderly clients of a large German savings bank, of whom we randomize 333 into training. Our administrative banking panel data allows us to account for selection on observables and assess the sustainability of treatment effects. After the interventions, the share of clients who use internet banking increases by 26 percentage points in the treatment group relative to a matched control group. In terms of sustainable usage, the share of online transactions increases by 13 percentage points and remains elevated four months later. An extensive placebo analysis suggests that as much as 85% of the effect can be causally attributed to the training interventions. We find that training boosts non-technical adoption skills and reduces key adoption barriers. Treatment effects are larger for women and those not in charge of household finances. We further estimate intent-to-treat effects and predict dropout along the entire multi-stage adoption process to shed light on practical considerations when rolling out large-scale technology adoption interventions in this age group. Specifically, we show that the type of training (self-guided versus social learning) impacts dropout differentially despite similar treatment effects overall, with the social learning treatment being more inclusive.

Under review since 06/2025.

Longitudinal survey experiment, first wave in January 2025. Supported by Diligentia.

Draft available upon request.

Lab experiments using a novel future thinking tool. Supported by GfeW, IPP, DAAD, Diligentia.

Data collection begins 06/2025.

Supported by Connex and DAAD.

This research agenda includes an interdisciplinary part in cooperation with Zachary Hallberg.

We use a simulation game resembling a trading app in combination with educational pop-ups in a field experiment with 500 students in Italy to show the effect of financial education targeted at trading apps on financial knowledge.

WP coming soon.