Markus Nagler
Assistant Professor of Economics
Fields
Education
Innovation
Labor
Welcome!
I am an assistant professor of economics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. I am also an affiliate member of the CESifo Research Network (Labor Economics), an associate member of the LASER Research Network at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and a fellow of the Schöller Research Center for Business and Society.
You can find my CV here and my Google Scholar Profile here.
Peer Mentoring and Online Teaching Effectiveness
Do peer mentors improve online education outcomes?
Can Peer Mentoring Improve Online Teaching Effectiveness? An RCT During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(with David Hardt and Johannes Rincke)
Online delivery of higher education has taken center stage but is fraught with issues of student self-organization. We conducted an RCT to study the effects of remote peer mentoring at a German university that switched to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mentors and mentees met one-on-one online and discussed topics like self-organization and study techniques. We find positive impacts on motivation, studying behavior, and exam registrations. The intervention did not shift earned credits on average, but we demonstrate strong positive effects on the most able students. In contrast to prior research, effects were more pronounced for male students.
AEARCTR-0005868, CESifo Working Paper No. 8671
R&R at Labour Economics
Coverage: Press Release (German), Bayerischer Rundfunk (in German), The Education Exchange, Ökonomenstimme (in German)
Remote Tutoring in Higher Education
Does small-group peer tutoring work in higher education?
Tutoring in (Online) Higher Education
(with David Hardt and Johannes Rincke)
Demand for personalized online tutoring in higher education is growing but there is little research on its effectiveness. We conducted an RCT offering remote peer tutoring in micro- and macroeconomics at a German university teaching online due to the Covid-pandemic. Treated students met in small groups, in alternating weeks with and without a more senior student tutor. The treatment improved study behavior and increased contact to other students. Tutored students achieve around 30% more credits and a one grade level better GPA across treated subjects. Our findings suggest that the program reduced outcome inequality. We find no impacts on mental health.
The Impact of ICT on Innovation
Did access to BITNET promote innovation?
ICT, Collaboration, and Innovation: Evidence from BITNET
(with Kathrin Wernsdorf and Martin Watzinger)
Does access to technologies that reduce information and communication costs increase innovation? We examine this question by exploiting the staggered adoption of BITNET across U.S. universities in the 1980s. BITNET, an early version of the Internet, enabled e-mail-based knowledge exchange and collaboration among academics. After the adoption of BITNET, university-connected inventors increase patenting substantially. The effects are driven by collaborative patents by new inventor teams. The patents induced by ICT are closely related to science. In contrast, we neither find an effect on patents not closely related to science nor on corporate inventors unconnected to universities.
Short-listed for EPIP Young Scholar Award 2020
Accepted at Journal of Public Economics
CEPR Discussion Paper No. 17179
Coverage: Ökonomenstimme (in German)
Publications
(with Monika Schnitzer and Martin Watzinger)
Journal of Industrial Economics, forthcoming
Coverage: VoxEU, FAU alexander (in German)
Disclosure and Subsequent Innovation: Evidence from the Patent Depository Library Program
(with Jeffrey L. Furman and Martin Watzinger)
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 13(4): 239-270 (2021)
Coverage: Brookings, Written Description, CATO Research Brief, VoxEU, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Report "Safeguarding the Bioeconomy", Matt Clancy's New Things Under the Sun, AEA Chart of the Week, Update in Matt Clancy's New Things Under the Sun
How Antitrust Enforcement Can Spur Innovation: Bell Labs and the 1956 Consent Decree
(with Martin Watzinger, Thomas Fackler, and Monika Schnitzer)
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 12(4): 328-359 (2020)
AEJ:Policy Best Paper Award 2021
Coverage: YouTube-EEA, Vox, Latest Thinking, New York Times, The Register, The American Prospect, Center for American Progress, Wired, Gilbert: "Innovation Matters: Competition Policy for the High-Technology Economy", AEA Chart of the Week, FAU alexander (in German), ifo Schnelldienst (in German), Works in Progress
Weak Markets, Strong Teachers: Recession at Career Start and Teacher Effectiveness
(with Marc Piopiunik and Martin R. West)
Journal of Labor Economics 38(2): 453-500 (2020)
Coverage: BBC News, Washington Post, Education Week, Elite Network of Bavaria (in German), Harvard GSE News, The 74, NBER Reporter: Education Program Report, National Council on Teacher Quality, The Economist, Education Next, The Education Exchange, Haaretz (in Hebrew)
The Disciplinary Effect of Post-Grant Review: Causal Evidence from European Patent Opposition
(with Stefan Sorg)
Research Policy 49(3): 103915 (2020)
(with Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Woessmann)
Journal of Economic Growth 22(3): 273–311 (2017)
Selected Research in Progress
Labor Mobility and the Productivity of Scientists
(with Monika Schnitzer and Martin Watzinger)
Classroom Peer Effects of Immigrants: Within-Student Evidence
(with Anna Heusler)
High-Pressure, High-Paying Jobs
(with Erwin Winkler and Johannes Rincke)
Workshop Organization
Co-Organizer, 20th Bavarian Micro Day 2022
Co-Organizer, FAU Applied Micro Research Workshop
Co-Organizer, IAB-FAU Labor Reading Group
Co-Organizer, CRC190 Workshop Future of Labor 2019
Co-Organizer, EBE Summer Meeting 2016
Contact me
You can reach me at markus.nagler _at_ fau.de
© 2015