Publications

We study the gender differences in aversion to COVID-19 exposure using a natural experiment of the 2020 US Open. We find that female players were significantly more likely than male players to have withdrawn from the 2020 US Open. While players from countries characterized by relatively high levels of trust and patience and relatively low levels of risk-taking were more likely to have withdrawn than their counterparts from other countries, female players exhibited significantly higher levels of aversion to pandemic exposure than male players even after cross-country differences in preferences are accounted for. About 15% of the probability of withdrawing that is explained by our model can be attributed to gender.

This study examines the gender dimension of occupational exposure to contagious diseases spread by the respiratory or close-contact route. It shows that in Europe, women are more exposed to contagion, as they are more likely than men to work in occupations that require high levels of contact and physical proximity at work. Women are also less likely to be able to work remotely, which contributes to their increased exposure. The study finds that gender is a more important factor in workers’ exposure to contagion than their education or age. This gender difference in exposure can be largely attributed to patterns of sectoral segregation and to the segregation of women within sectors into occupations that require more interpersonal interactions. Finally, results reveal heterogenous cross-country patterns in gender gaps in exposure to contagion in the workplace, with Nordic, Continental, and Baltic countries showing relatively large gender gaps to the disadvantage of women.

We study how the de-routinisation of jobs affects workers at different ages in 12 European countries. The shift away from routine work and toward non-routine work occurred much faster among workers aged between 25 and 44 than among older workers. In the majority of countries, the ageing of the workforce occurred more quickly in occupations that were initially more routine-intensive, as the share of older workers in these occupations was rising and the share of young workers declining. The unemployment risk related to routine task intensity was increasing, especially among individuals between the ages of 15 and 34, and to a larger extent in countries with fast ICT capital growth and in countries not increasing their participation in global value chains.

We study the empirical relationship between job tasks and wages for a harmonised sample of 19 developed countries. We use worker-level PIAAC data to account for task heterogeneity within occupations. First, we compute abstract, routine and manual task measures that are found to be well-validated visa-vis previous research. Second, we estimate task prices, and find that a one-standard-deviation increase in abstract tasks is related to a 3.3-log-point wage premium, whereas there is a 2.6 to 2.9-log-point wage penalty for each standard deviation of routine (manual) tasks. Development factors and labour market institutions, particularly union coverage and strictness of employment protection legislation, seem to play a role in the differences in all three task prices.

We create a multidimensional index that accounts for five dimensions of energy deprivation: two objective indicators of “low income, high costs,” and “high actual cost,” as well as three subjective indicators of “not warm enough home,” “housing faults,” and “bills difficulties.” We define households as poor if at least two deprivation forms exist. We apply our measure to Poland. In 2017, 10% of households in Poland suffered from multidimensional energy poverty. Households living in buildings built before 1946, households living in rural areas, and households dependent on retirement and disability pensions were at the highest risk of multidimensional energy poverty.