This paper examines whether personality influences the allocation of resources within households. I model households as couples that make Pareto-efficient allocations and divide resources according to a distribution function. Using a sample of Dutch couples from the LISS survey, which includes detailed individual-level data on consumption, labor supply, and personality traits, I investigate two structural channels through which personality can affect intrahousehold allocations. First, I show that personality, acting as a taste shifter, significantly influences preferences for consumed goods and leisure time. Second, by testing distribution factor proportionality and the exclusion restriction of a conditional demand system, I find that personality can act as a distribution factor. Specifically, differences in personality traits between spouses shape resource allocation by influencing the bargaining process within households. For example, women who are relatively more conscientious and engage more cognitively than their male partners receive a larger share of intrafamily resources. This paper thus provides empirical evidence on how personality traits can contribute to consumption inequality within families.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often regarded as the next general-purpose technology with a rapid, penetrating, and far-reaching use over a broad number of industrial sectors. The main feature of new general-purpose technology is to enable new ways of production that may increase productivity. However, to date, only a few studies have investigated the likely productivity effects of AI at the firm-level, presumably due to limited data availability. We exploit unique survey data on firms’ adoption of AI technology and estimate its productivity effects with a sample of German firms. We employ both a cross-sectional dataset and a panel database. To address the potential endogeneity of AI adoption, we also implement IV estimators. We find positive and significant associations between the use of AI and firm productivity. This finding holds for different measures of AI usage, i.e., an indicator variable of AI adoption, and the intensity with which firms use AI methods in their business processes.
This paper analyses the link between the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and innovation performance in firms. Based on firm-level data from the German part of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2018, we examine the role of different AI methods and application areas in innovation. The results show that 5.8% of firms in Germany were actively using AI in their business operations or products and services in 2019. We find that the use of AI is associated with annual sales with world-first product innovations in these firms of About €16 billion (i.e. 18% of total annual sales of world-first innovations). In addition, AI technologies have been used in process innovation that contributed to About 6% of total annual cost savings of the German business sector. Firms that apply AI broadly (using different methods for different applications areas) and that have already several years of experience in using AI obtain significantly higher innovation results. These positive findings on the role of AI for innovation have to be interpreted with caution as they refer to a specific country (Germany) in a situation where AI started to diffuse rapidly.
Working papers:
Adoption of AI by Firms: Determinants and Impacts
Joint with Dirk Czarnitzki, Christian Rammer In preparation for the Edward Elgar 2nd edition of the Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm Abstract · Draft soon Status: submitted to editors
This chapter provides an up-to-date overview of evidence on firms’ adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We revisit the main conceptual drivers of AI uptake discussed in the literature and summarize global trends in AI diffusion. We then examine the firm characteristics associated with adoption—including the distinction between in-house development and external acquisition—and highlight how patterns differ between general AI and generative AI technologies (GenAI). Next, we review the emerging literature on the productivity effects of AI, distinguishing non-experimental firm-level studies from recent experimental and quasi-experimental evidence on task-level impacts. As a case study, we draw on recent firm-level data from Germany to investigate how adoption decisions correlate with firm size, age, R&D intensity, human capital, location, and strategic orientation, and how these patterns vary across stages and types of AI adoption.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered to be the next general-purpose technology, with the potential of performing tasks commonly requiring human capabilities. While it is commonly feared that AI replaces labor and disrupts jobs, we instead investigate the potential of AI for overcoming increasingly alarming skills shortages in firms. We exploit unique German survey data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel on both the adoption of AI and the extent to which firms experience scarcity of skills. We measure skills shortage by the number of job vacancies that could not be filled as planned by firms, distinguishing among different types of skills. To account for the potential endogeneity of skills shortage, we also implement instrumental variable estimators. Overall, we find a positive and significant effect of skills shortage on AI adoption, the breadth of AI methods, and the breadth of areas of application of AI. In addition, we find evidence that scarcity of labor with academic education relates to firms exploring and adopting AI.
Personality traits, the marriage market, and household behavior
Joint with Mariia Kovaleva Presented at: Luxembourg 2025, SEHO 2025, AFÉPOP 2024, SES 2024, Belgian Day Labour Economists 2023, Workshop on Dynamic Macroeconomics 2023, Household Economics Gathering 2023, ENTER Jamboree 2023 Abstract · Working paper
We develop an empirical framework to analyze the dynamic effect of personality traits in marriage market patterns and intrahousehold decisions. We exploit detailed information at the individual level from the HILDA survey about consumption, labor supply, time use, and personality traits (as measured by the Big Five). First, we document that personality types are related to marital and divorce patterns, time allocated to both market and non-market labor activities, and the evolution of earnings. To rationalize these empirical facts, we build a life-cycle model that integrates endogenous household formation and collective household choices under limited commitment. Our framework allows personality to affect both wage processes and individual preferences. In the latter, personality traits enter indirectly through household production and the utility of marriage (match quality). We use the estimates of our model to conduct counterfactuals associated with intrahousehold behavior.
Work in progress:
Parental personality and child skills formation Presented at: TSE Economics of Education Workshop 2024, New Advances in Family Economics Workshop (poster) 2024, AFÉPOP 2024, Tilburg Structural Econometrics Seminar 2024, LEER 2024, Leuven Applied Micro Workshop 2024, Household Economics Gathering 2024 Abstract · Watch video · X thread · Draft soon
This paper studies the influence of parental personality on child development. I exploit detailed individual-level data from the PSID and its Child Development and Wellbeing Supplements on parental personality, children’s skills, wages, and time-use decisions. The empirical results suggest a systematic gap in cognitive and non-cognitive skills between children of parents with different personalities. This skills gap increases as children grow older and remains significant after accounting for traditional family attributes. To provide a rationale for these observed patterns, I estimate a life cycle model that incorporates parental personality and considers household decisions with endogenous formation for a child’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills. In this framework, parental personality affects the monetary and time inputs in children as well as the type of interactions between parents and children. The simulations indicate that most of the influence of personality on a child’s skills is through its effect on the quality of parent-child interactions. Also, cash transfer policies that do not account for the productivity associated with parental personality can have unexpected, negative effects on child development.
Unwanted pregnancies and child development
Joint with Zhijie Wang, Sisi Zhang Draft soon
The arguable evolution of Chilean income inequality
Joint with Leonardo Cáceres Draft soon
Universal basic income and intrahousehold collective behavior
Joint with François Maniquet Draft soon
