U.S.E. Seminar Series
Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) organises (bi)weekly seminars, with external speakers who will present their research papers. You are most welcome to attend.
Please note: the seminars will be held in person only.
Time: Most seminars start at 11.00 and finish at 12.15.
| 13-10-2026 | Miriam Gensowski, University of Copenhagen: 'The Teachers Aren't Alright: School Effects on Teacher Mental Health.' Location: Adam Smith Hall, 1.17 Contact person: Thomas van Huizen AbstractTeacher mental health is an increasingly salient issue with societal and economic implications for educational quality and student outcomes. This study examines the role of schools as workplaces in generating heterogeneity in teachers’ mental health. Using comprehensive population-wide Danish register data linking teachers to schools, students, and health care utilization, we document large and persistent differences in mental health outcomes across schools. We attribute these differences to causal workplace effects rather than selection, leveraging a quasi-experimental mover design: teachers’ mental health deteriorates after moving to schools with worse mental health environments, with effects unfolding over the subsequent years. These effects are robust to coinciding life events, such as childbirth or changes in cohabitation status. Auxiliary analyses based on variation over time in student composition find that higher shares of female students and students from higher-SES households are associated with improved teacher mental health of teachers. Yet, observable characteristics explain only a small share of variation, suggesting that unobserved dimensions of workplace quality, such as leadership and organizational climate, play a central role as potential drivers of heterogeneity in teacher mental health. |
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| 20-10-2026 | Sara Lowes, UCSD: 'Age Sets, Accountability, and the Balance of Power: Evidence from Villages in Rural Congo' Location: Adam Smith Hall, 1.17 Contact person: Jacopo Mazza AbstractAcross much of Africa, political authority rests with older chiefs. Age sets– groups of young men who are initiated together and remain bound as a cohort for life– traditionally provide a counterweight to this authority. We ask whether this social structure shapes the effects of governance interventions that aim to check the power of village chiefs. We implement a randomized intervention in 102 villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that gives chiefs grants to purchase and distribute health products and forms committees to oversee them. We randomly vary whether each committee is composed of young men or a diverse set of villagers. We find that young male committees perform better in villages with age sets: they are more cohesive, undertake more oversight, and shift the distribution of products away from chiefs and from wealthier households. In villages without age sets, young male committees provide no such benefits and can worsen elite capture. One key mechanism appears to be the social network structure: young male committees in age set villages are less embedded in the chief’s network. |
| 3-11-2026 | Location: Adam Smith Hall, 1.17 Contact person: Timo van Balen |
| 10-11-2026 | Location: Adam Smith Hall, 1.17 Contact person: Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage |
| 17-11-2026 | Mirabelle Muuls, Imperial College London Location: Spinoza Hall, 1.05 Contact person: Kurt Rang |
| 25-11-2026 | Lorenzo Lagos, Brown University Location: Spinoza Hall, 1.06 Contact person: Emilie Rademakers |
| 1-12-2026 | Mariano Mastrogiorgio, ie University Location: Spinoza Hall, 1.07 Contact person: Maria Greve |
| 8-12-2026 | Sulin Sardoschau, Humboldt University Location: Spinoza Hall, 1.07 Contact person: Jacopo Mazza |
More information
Each of the sections of U.S.E. also organizes its own internal (brown bag) seminars where faculty and PhD students, and occasionally external visitors, present their research.
For more information about all the seminars, please contact use.ri.seminars@uu.nl.