Dr. Henning Hermes Portrait

© ifo Institut / Enno Kapitza

Welcome to Henning Hermes’ personal website!

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher and Deputy Director at the Ludwig Erhard ifo Center for Social Market Economy and Institutional Economics at the ifo Institute Munich. In addition, I am affiliated with the FAIR Center of Excellence at NHH Bergen, a DICE Research Affiliate at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics, an IZA Research Affiliate, a CEPR Research Affiliate, a CESifo Research Network Affiliate, and a Network Member of HCEO.

I am a behavioral and experimental economist focusing on topics in labor, education, and the formation of (noncognitive) skills. More recently, I have worked on the importance of early child care for life outcomes and inequality. In addition, I have projects in the areas of digital learning as well as paternalistic decision making. For my work, I mainly use field experiments but I also conduct lab, lab-in-the-field, and survey experiments. I studied Economics and Psychology at the University of Mainz, where I also pursued my PhD (supervised by Daniel Schunk and Ernst Fehr).

I co-organize the Workshop on Field Experiments in Economics and Business.

I am a guest editor at the European Economic Review for a Special Issue on “Field Experiments to Reduce Inequality”.

Thank you for your interest in my work – I hope to provide a first overview here on this website. You can also follow me on Twitter to stay updated about my research. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact me or take a look at my CV.

Contact me at: hermes@ifo.de

Research

Working Papers

Discrimination in Universal Social Programs? A Nationwide Field Experiment on Access to Child Care
(with Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Revise & Resubmit at American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Media: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung [German]
Free to Fail? Paternalistic Preferences in the United States

(with Björn Bartling, Alexander W. Cappelen, Marit Skivenes & Bertil Tungodden). Under review.

Early Child Care, Maternal Labor Supply, and Gender Equality: A Randomized Controlled Trial

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Under review.
Media: VoxEU Column, Spiegel [German], BR [German].

Publications

[9] The Impact of Working Memory Training on Children's Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills

(with Eva Berger, Ernst Fehr, Daniel Schunk & Kirsten Winkel). Forthcoming at the Journal of Political Economy.

[8] Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Guido Schwerdt & Simon Wiederhold). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024, 228, 106780.

[7] Males Should Mail? Gender Discrimination in Access to Child Care
(with Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). AEA: Papers & Proceedings, 2023, 113, 427-431. (Ungated version)
[6] Teaching Self-regulation

(with Eva Berger, Ernst Fehr, Daniel Schunk & Kirsten Winkel). Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, 6(12), 1680-1690. (Ungated version)
Media: Scienmag, Phys.org, The Hill, The Print, Spektrum [German], FAZ [German]

[5] Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children

(with Ana Cubillo, Eva Berger, Kirsten Winkel, Daniel Schunk, Ernst Fehr & Todd Hare). Developmental Science, 2023, 26(1), e13252.

[4] Self-regulation Training and Job Search Input: A Natural Field Experiment Within an Active Labor Market Program

(with Eva Berger, Günther König, Felix Schmidt & Daniel Schunk). Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 2022, 98, 101858.

[3] If You Could Read My Mind—An Experimental Beauty-Contest Game with Children

(with Daniel Schunk). Experimental Economics, 2022, 25, 229-253.

[2] Motivating Low-Achievers—Relative Performance Feedback in Primary Schools

(with Martin Huschens, Franz Rothlauf & Daniel Schunk). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, 187, 45-59.

[1] Do Children Cooperate Conditionally? Adapting the Strategy Method for First-Graders

(with Florian Hett, Mario Mechtel, Felix Schmidt, Daniel Schunk & Valentin Wagner). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2020, 179, 638-652.

Policy Writing

Was weiß die deutsche Bevölkerung über Ungleichheiten im Zugang zu Kitas? Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Befragung

(with Johannes Baur, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Guido Schwerdt & Simon Wiederhold). ifo Schnelldienst, 2024, 77(10), 36–38.

Frühkindliche Betreuung erhöht den Arbeitsmarkterfolg von Müttern ohne Abitur

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Wirtschaft im Wandel, 2023, 29(3), 52–55.

How early childcare can boost the labour market success of lower-educated mothers

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). VoxEU Column, April 2023.

Bewerbungsunterstützung erhöht die Kita-Inanspruchnahme von Kindern aus bildungsferneren Familien

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold, Vera Freundl & Olivia Wirth. ifo Schnelldienst, 2021, 74(09), 41–45.

The socioeconomic gap in childcare enrolment: The role of behavioural barriers

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold. VoxEU Column, Dec 2021.

Work in Progress

Paternalism across the World

(with Björn Bartling, Alexander W. Cappelen, Akshay Moorthy, Marit Skivenes & Bertil Tungodden).

The Importance of Social Norms for Maternal Labor-Market Expectations and Attitudes

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold).

Do We Need Another Expert? The Willingness to Pay for Economic Narratives

(with Sebastian Blesse, Klaus Gründler & Philipp Heil).

How School Matching Designs Affect Inequality: Experimental Evidence

(with Sabrina Herzog).

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