Carolin is a former PhD student in Economic Geography. Her research interests lie in labour economics, inequality and innovation. For her PhD project, she uses administrative and survey data from the Office for National Statistics to trace the widening regional income inequality in the UK. Other ongoing research projects look at the effect of innovation on regional labour markets in the UK, France and Germany, and the role of the market for start-ups on US inequality. Her research is funded by an ESRC scholarship. She co-authored a report on the geography of innovation with Riccardo Crescenzi, Simona Iammarino, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Michael Storper that was commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

In spring 2020, Carolin spent three months at the Luskin School of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles as a visiting doctoral researcher on the invitation of Professor Michael Storper, also funded by the ESRC. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Carolin worked as a policy analyst at Belmana. Her work focused on policy evaluations, specialising in business support. She holds a BSc in International Economic Studies from Maastricht University and an MSc in Economic History (Research) from the LSE.

Thesis title and short abstract:

“Essays on regional labour markets and income inequality”

The thesis explores topics of regional labour markets in the context of wide earnings differences in the UK. The first paper considers the impact of labour mobility on local labour markets. Using a panel of employee records, I estimate the impact of local internal in- and out-migration on the earnings of employees who do not move,  finding a positive long-run effect on earnings from in-migration, but no negative effect from out-migration. The second paper considers the effect of innovation, measured by patent applications, on regional employment and earnings in the UK, France and Germany. I use a panel estimation strategy to model the feedback effects between patenting and graduate employment, as well as their joint effect on earnings and non-graduate employment. The third paper considers the role of dominant businesses in the UK, and their effect on the labour share at the local level. I find that dominant businesses are significantly concentrated in London and the South East. The rents these businesses are able to generate are partly shared with employees in the form of higher wages. However, the overall they have a negative impact on labour shares at the regional level.

Teaching:

GY307 – Theories of Regional Development: 2019/20, 2020,21

GY103 – Contemporary Europe: 2020/21

Publications:

The Geography of Innovation and Development: Global Spread and Local Hotspots (2020), with Riccardo Crescenzi, Simona Iammarino, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, and Michael Storper. Geography and Environment Discussion Paper No. 4, London, UK: London School of Economics.

Academic Supervisors

Simona Iammarino
Michael Storper

View Carolin's CV.