ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The solar system represents the archetype for the formation of rocky planets and habitable worlds. A full understanding of its formation and earliest evolution is thus one of the most fundamental goals in natural sciences. The only tangible record of the formative stages of the solar system comes from ancient meteorites and their components some of which date back to the to the birth of our Sun. The main objective of this proposal is to investigate the timescales and processes leading to the formation of the solar system, including the delivery of volatile elements to the accretion regions of rocky planets, by combining absolute ages, isotopic and trace element compositions as well as atomic and structural analysis of meteorites and their components. We identify nucleosynthetic fingerprinting as a tool allowing us to probe the history of solids parental to our solar system across cosmic times, namely from their parent stars in the Galaxy through their modification and incorporation into disk objects, including asteroidal bodies and planets. Our data will be obtained using state-of-the-art instruments including mass-spectrometers (MC-ICPMS, TIMS, SIMS), atom probe and transmission electron microscopy. These data will allow us to: (1) provide formation timescales for presolar grains and their parent stars as well as understand how these grains may control the solar system’s nucleosynthetic variability, (2) track the formation timescales of disk reservoirs and the mass fluxes between and within these regions (3) better our understanding of the timing and flux of volatile elements to the inner protoplanetary disk as well as the timescales and mechanism of primordial crust formation in rocky planets. The novel questions outlined in this proposal, including high-risk high-gain ventures, can only now be tackled using pioneering methods and approaches developed by the PI’s group and collaborators. Thus, we are in a unique position to make step-change discoveries.

2 495 496 €

Start date: 2020-01-01, End date: 2024-12-31

In this project I propose to study opinion dynamics in social networks and groups. In particular, I will ask how opinion dynamics contribute to shape social identity and how, conversely, social identity affects communication. I also ask whether and when social identity is a barrier to communication, when “opinion bubbles” are created and when and how “fake news” can spread. The types of social identity I consider include social class, ethnicity and gender. The project consists of four subprojects. The first subproject [A] focuses on communication between social classes and inequality. The subproject asks how opinion dynamics contribute to diverging experiences, core behaviours and values that go much beyond income inequality. I will first document this divergence by conducting experiments in a representative sample of the UK population via the UK Household panel and then conduct lab experiments to study opinion dynamics and the conditions under which “opinion bubbles” arise in more detail. Subproject [B] focuses on gender bias in committees. A large body of empirical evidence has documented gender biases in decisions, such as hiring, promotion, or performance evaluations. Many of these decisions involve communication and deliberation among committee members. Nevertheless the role of opinion dynamics in committees in creating or amplifying gender bias has not been explored. Subproject [B] aims to fill this gap. Subproject [C] will focus on how perceived uncertainty contributes to the spread of discriminatory attitudes with a particular focus on ethnic discrimination. Subproject [C] will be conducted both using a representative sample of the UK population via the Innovation Panel of Understanding Society, the UK Household panel as well as lab experiments. The last subproject [D] will use lab experiments to study under which conditions opinion dynamics can become vulnerable to “fake news”.

830 623 €

Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2022-11-30

Wage inequality in industrialised countries has increased sharply over the past decades, and much of this increase has occurred between rather than within firms. Furthermore, substantial inequality between men and women persists in all industrialised countries, and a large part of the gender gaps observed today is attributable to the arrival of children. In this proposal, we put firms at the centre of the analysis and ask the following questions: First, which market forces can (partly) explain the increasing wage inequality between firms? Second, how do government policies alter the wage structure? And third, how do firm policies and the firm environment impact on gender inequality? All projects draw on four decades of German social security records comprising the near universe of workers and establishments, which we augment with survey and administrative data on firms. In Project A, we investigate how two important market forces, increased product market competition and routine-biased technological change, contributed to the increasing wage inequality between firms, by changing which firms operate in the market (selection) and how employment is distributed across low and high productivity firms (reallocation), and by differentially affecting wage growth across firm types (differential wage growth). In Project B, we study how two prominent government policies, the introduction of a minimum wage and changes in business tax rates, affect wage dispersion between firms through selection, reallocation and differential growth effects. In Project C, we first analyse whether firm provided family-friendly policies, most notably flexible working times and child care facilities, can be effective at reducing gender inequality. We then investigate how the firm environment, specifically the presence of co-workers who are likely to have a working mother and hold more egalitarian gender attitudes, shapes mothers’ return-to-work decisions and earnings trajectories after childbirth.

1 491 803 €

Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31

Information flows are fundamental to how well markets work for consumers and firms. Consumers get different deals depending on (a) how much they know about the offerings of different firms and, conversely, (b) how much firms know about consumer preferences. The internet is transforming both (a) and (b), allowing consuInformation flows are fundamental to how well markets work for consumers and firms. Consumers get different deals depending on (a) how much they know about the offerings of different firms and, conversely, (b) how much firms know about consumer preferences. The internet is transforming both (a) and (b), allowing consumers to discover and evaluate products with greater ease and enabling firms to personalise prices and target their advertising. Economic understanding currently lags behind what is needed for robust policy formulation in the areas of consumer privacy, price discrimination, and the costs of search and advertising. This project aims to fill that gap. How does the structure of information in consumer markets affect market performance, and which kinds of information should be stimulated or controlled? I propose four lines of enquiry to address this over-arching theme: (1) to develop innovative modeling techniques to understand how the structure of information about consumer preferences (possessed by firms and by consumers themselves) affects overall surplus and how that surplus is divided between firms and consumers; (2) to develop methods to study how the structure of consideration sets (i.e., the set of firms a consumer is able or willing to consider for her purchase) affects market outcomes; (3) to analyse how the information channels of advertising by firms and search by consumers interact and which is more important for the efficient functioning of markets, and (4) to investigate which aspects of their preferences consumers are willing to share with firms and thereby understand better how to solve difficult but important pricing problems.

1 221 744 €

Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31