Hi, I am Yannick; welcome to my website. 

I am a labor economist, working as a research fellow at Bocconi University's Dondena Center. I recently defended my PhD in Economics at the European University Institute, where my thesis advisors were  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.

I am on the 2025/26 Academic Job Market.

Job Market Paper

Labor Market Dynamics after Cost-of-Living Shocks (Draft)

Abstract: This paper provides causal micro evidence on how idiosyncratic cost-of-living shocks transmit into labor market outcomes. 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. A one-standard-deviation shock raises annual earnings growth by 0.6 percentage points, offsetting about 40% of local cost increases within a year and almost fully compensating workers over five years. Job-to-job mobility is a key mechanism: higher exposure to energy price changes both increases the likelihood of switching and makes switches more profitable. Through the lens of an equilibrium model of the labor market, I clarify that while labor market responses substantially mitigate the distributional impact of relative price changes, they impose additional non-pecuniary costs on workers.

Working Papers

Grants vs. Loans: The Role of Financial Aid in College Major Choice  (Draft)
(w. Adriano De Falco), conditionally accepted by The Economic Journal

Abstract: We analyze whether financing higher education through student loans or grants affects the college major choices of students in Chile, where either type of financing is allocated based on a standardized test. Students who are marginally eligible for grants are more likely to enrol in high-paying fields such as STEM. Complementing the reduced form result, we estimate a discrete choice model on data for narrowly defined higher education programs. The results indicate that, holding other program characteristics constant, grant recipients place a higher value on fields with high earnings growth potential, while being less concerned about a lower graduation probability.

Status, Control, and Risk: How Relative Wealth Perceptions Shape Risk-Taking (Draft)
(w. Dietmar Fehr), submitted

Abstract: We embed an experiment in a large-scale representative survey to investigate how relative wealth affects risk-taking and how this effect varies as a function of perceived control over life outcomes. 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 risk-taking task. This effect is not uniform but is mainly driven by individuals who more firmly believe that life outcomes are beyond their control.

The Heterogeneous Impact of Automation on Older Workers
(w. Massimo Anelli, Pietro Biroli, Elisabetta De Cao, and Silvia Mendolia, Draft available upon request)

Abstract: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we examine the effect of automation on older U.S. workers. On average, a one standard deviation increase in robot adoption reduces the probability of working by 7 percentage points and increases both early retirement and the uptake of social security and disability payments. A key contribution of our paper is to show empirically that the average effect masks strong treatment effect heterogeneity. Among high-ability workers, automation has little impact, whereas it significantly reduces employment rates among lower-ability workers. We exploit the availability of genetic information in the HRS to proxy ability types based on a person's genetic predisposition for educational success. In line with models of endogenous skill investments, we show that genetic predictors of education are important moderators of automation even conditional on educational attainment.