Research Productivity and Parenting

What are the effects of parenthood on the research productivity of academic economists? This issue has been closely examined by Heinrich W. Ursprung in a recent joint study with Matthias Krapf and Christian Zimmermann. Combining the survey responses of nearly 10,000 economists with their publication records as documented in their RePEc accounts, these authors do not find a strong relationship between motherhood and research productivity. As an evidence-based upper bound they suggest that consideration be given to a motherhood bonus of 10% for each preteen child.

Mr Ursprung's research interests include political economy, education economics, international economics and the economics of science. During his sojourn at the Ifo Institute, Mr Ursprung will work together with Björn Kauder and Niklas Potrafke on a research project investigating whether the field of study influences university students' political attitudes.

Heinrich Ursprung has published numerous articles in internationally renowned scientific journals such as the AER, IER, EER and JEBO. He is a past president of the European Public Choice Society and has been, from 1994–2013, one of the managing editors of the European Journal of Political Economy. In 1994 he obtained a Max Planck research award for outstanding research in collaboration with Arye Hillman in the field of political economy.

Mr Ursprung obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Basel. He was a research fellow at the Center for Study of Public Choice and at UCLA, and held a lecturership at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, before joining the faculty in Konstanz in 1988 where he is now Professor of Economics. He has held visiting positions at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, UCLA, the Research Institute in Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, Japan, and George Mason University.