INES HELM
https://sites.google.com/site/ineshelm10
ines.helm.10@ucl.ac.uk
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Placement Director: Andrew Chesher
Graduate Coordinator: Daniella Harper
andrew.chesher@ucl.ac.uk
economics.jobmarket@ucl.ac.uk
CONTACT DETAILS
Department of Economics
University College London
30 Gordon Street
London WC1H 0AX
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 7964716626
DOCTORAL STUDIES
PhD Candidate in Economics, University College London
Thesis Title: Spillover Effects in Local Labour Markets
Expected Completion Date: June 2016
MRes, Economics, University College London, 2011
PREVIOUS STUDIES
MSc, Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, London School of Economics, Distinction, 2010
Diplom (MSc equivalent), Economics, University of Munich, First, 2009
REFERENCES
Uta Schoenberg (Primary Advisor)
Department of Economics
University College London
30 Gordon Street
London
WC1H 0AX
United Kingdom
u.schoenberg@ucl.ac.uk
Eric French
Department of Economics
University College London
30 Gordon Street
London
WC1H 0AX
United Kingdom
eric.french.econ@gmail.com
Christian Dustmann (Advisor)
Department of Economics
University College London
30 Gordon Street
London
WC1H 0AX
United Kingdom
c.dustmann@ucl.ac.uk
RESEARCH FIELDS
Applied Economics, Labor Economics, Urban Economics, Public Economics
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
since 2011
08/2010
2008/2009
08-09/2008
02-03/2007
Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), UCL, Research
Officer
Johannes-Guttenberg University, Mainz, research assistant for F. Heiss
University of Munich (LMU), research assistant for F. Englmaier
Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Intern
German Federal Statistical Office, Wiesbaden, Intern
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2014/15
2013/14
2012/13
2011/12
Quantitative Economics and Econometrics, BSc (2nd year), UCL, teaching
assistant for E. French
Quantitative Economics and Econometrics, BSc (2nd year), UCL, teaching
assistant for M. Mogstad
Applied Economics, BSc (1st year), UCL, teaching assistant for U.Schoenberg
Basic Microeconomic Concepts, BSc (non-economists), UCL, teaching assistant
for B. Armendariz
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION & SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS
2015
2014
2013
Frontiers of Urban Economics Conference (Columbia University); Empirical Economics
Seminar (University of Munich); Topics in Labour Economics Workshop (Italy);
Workshop on Natural Experiments and Controlled Field Studies (Ohlstadt); Economic
Geography and International Trade Workshop (Duesseldorf)
Topics in Labour Economics Workshop (Italy); Workshop on Natural Experiments
and Controlled Field Studies (Ohlstadt); Empirical Economics Seminar (University of
Munich); Applied Seminar (University of Mannheim); Workshop on Spatial Dimensions
of the Labour Market (Nuremberg)
CEMFI Summer School Cities, Productivity and Migration (Madrid); Workshop on
Natural Experiments and Controlled Field Studies (Ohlstadt)
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
2013 - 2015
2012/2013
2011/2012
2010/2011
2010 - 2013
2009/2010
2009/2010
2009
PhD Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation
WM Gorman Scholarship, University College London
NORFACE Scholarship, University College London (CReAM)
WM Gorman Scholarship, University College London
ESRC Studentship, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Adeline and Karl Goeltz Scholarship, London School of Economics
Scholarship of the Hans-Rudolph-Foundation, Munich
Anita Augspurg Award of the Department of Economics (LMU) for the best Diploma
Thesis of a female Student in Summer Term 2009
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Refereeing:
Conference Organisation:
Seminar Organisation:
Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Scottish Journal
of Political Economy
Member of the Conference Organizing Committee Norface Conference on
Migration, London (04/2013)
Co-Organisator internal CReAM Seminar (2011/12), Organisator CReAM
Seminar (2015/16)
WORKING PAPERS
National Industry Trade Shocks, Local Labor Markets and Agglomeration Spillovers
(Job Market Paper)
Why is economic activity spatially concentrated? One explanation for this phenomenon is the existence
of agglomeration economies, whereby firms benefit from productivity or cost advantages when they
locate near other firms. In this paper, I provide a novel approach to estimate agglomeration effects
using a broad set of national industry shocks. For identification I exploit trade shocks to industries in
Germany stemming from trade integration of Eastern Europe and China. These shocks differentially
disseminate across regions and industries because of differences in local industry structure. Workers in
the same industry but in different regions might hence be differentially affected by indirect exposure to
the other local industries’ trade shocks. I first provide a simple model of agglomeration economies and
show that in this setting trade shocks can affect other local industries’ labor demand. I then estimate
local industry spillovers from trade shocks accounting for the own industry trade shock and national
indirect product demand shocks by exploiting within industry variation in indirect trade exposure across
local labor markets. I find considerable employment spillovers from other tradable industries net trade
shocks and even stronger effects within the same broad sector. Furthermore, I find that predominantly
shocks to high technology industries generate spillovers. This indicates that place based policies are
likely to be more successful when aiming to attract high technology firms.
Spillover Effects of Mass Layoffs
(with Christina Gathmann & Uta Schoenberg)
Governments are often willing to subsidize firms on the verge of bankruptcy. The main economic
rationale behind these government interventions is that a plant closure would not only harm the workers
employed in that plant, but create a domino effect on the region as a whole, thereby multiplying job
losses. Yet, little is known empirically how important these spillover effects are for the regional economy.
In this paper, we use administrative data of all workers and firms in Germany to quantify the spillover
effects of mass layoffs. For the empirical analysis, we combine a difference-in-differences estimator
with an event-study approach. We find sizable and persistent negative spillover effects on the regional
economy: regions, and especially firms producing in the same sector as the layoff plant, lose altogether
many more jobs than in the initial layoff. In contrast, we find much smaller negative employment effects
on workers employed in the region at the time of the mass layoff. This suggests that mass layoffs entail
considerable negative spillovers for the local economy, but less so for the national economy.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Local Multipliers and Adverse Effects of a Fiscal Stimulus Package
The Dynamics of Local Fiscal Multipliers: Evidence from Germany (with Jan Stuhler)
New Evidence on the Economics of Job Displacement (with Uta Schoenberg)
LANGUAGES
German (native), English (fluent), Spanish (intermediate), French (basic)