Hi, I am Yannick; welcome to my website. Currently, I am a PhD student in Economics at the European University Institute and a Research Fellow at Bocconi University's Dondena Center. My thesis supervisors are  Andrea Ichino and Alex Monge-Naranjo. 

My research interests are mainly in labor economics and the economics of education, focusing on issues of economic inequality.

Find my CV here.

Working Papers

Grants vs. Loans: the Role of Financial Aid in College Major Choice  (Draft)
(w. Adriano De Falco), Revisions Requested at The Economic Journal

Abstract: Using administrative data from Chile, we analyze whether financing higher education through student loans or grants affects the college major choices of prospective university students. We exploit institutional arrangements that allocate either type of financing based on a standardized test to locally identify exogenous variation in access. Students who are marginally eligible for grants are more likely to enroll in STEM-related fields. We provide evidence that this effect is driven by grants acting as an insurance mechanism against uncertainty about degree completion. To do so, we rely on information from past graduates to characterize narrowly defined programs based on dropout rates, time to degree completion, and associated labor market outcomes and estimate a discrete choice model. Students with access to grants value characteristics related to uncertainty about degree completion less negatively than those with student loans.

Are Risk Preferences Shaped By Status Concerns? (Draft)
(w. Dietmar Fehr)

Abstract: We embed an experiment in a large-scale representative survey to investigate the impact of status concerns on the willingness to take risks. While we show that concerns about relative standing in the wealth distribution motivate risk-taking, our results contest the common prediction of higher risk-taking in the middle of the distribution. Instead, we find that respondents who are induced to perceive their relative wealth as low display more tolerance towards risk in a subsequent incentivized lottery task. This effect is not uniform but is mainly driven by individuals who more firmly believe that life outcomes are beyond their control.

Work in Progress

Labor Market Dynamics and the Distributional Impact of Price Changes (Draft available upon request)

Abstract: This paper presents empirical evidence on the importance of labor supply responses and subsequent earnings adjustments as a buffer against inflationary shocks. Using the case of energy price changes, I combine 20 years of German employer-employee data with a representative household expenditure survey and rely on regional differences in energy expenditure patterns to identify the pass-through of energy cost shocks into earnings. Changes in nominal earnings offset around 37% of county-specific costs within the same year and fully compensate workers over a five-year window. Job-to-job mobility is a key mechanism. Higher exposure to energy price changes both incentivizes workers to change jobs and, conditional on switching, makes transitions more profitable in terms of earnings gains. The empirical results suggest that endogenous labor supply responses are a significant factor in understanding the welfare consequences of price changes more broadly.

The Effect of Labor Market Shocks on Health: a GxE Analysis
(w. Massimo Anelli, Pietro Biroli, Elisabetta De Cao, and Silvia Mendolia)