Hannah Illing

Hannah Illing is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Applied Microeconomics, University of Bonn, and a research associate at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). She has been an associated member of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy since 2022 and maintains affiliations with IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

Dr. Illing earned her PhD through a joint program between the IAB and University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, which included a research stay at Boston University. Her academic trajectory includes visiting positions at Boston University (2019) and UC Berkeley (2024), reflecting her international research engagement.

Her research centers on labor economics with specialized expertise in gender and migration dynamics. She investigates structural labor market disparities through the lens of economic shocks, examining how firms' wage-setting practices perpetuate gender gaps, how sudden worker outflows affect labor markets, and how natural disasters disrupt employment systems. Her methodological approach combines administrative German data with advanced econometric techniques including event studies, propensity score matching, and difference-in-differences designs to isolate causal mechanisms.

Recent publications reveal persistent gender disparities in earnings losses after job displacement (with women experiencing 35% higher losses than men) and demonstrate how European integration policies created asymmetric labor market effects across Czech and German border regions. Her work consistently highlights how economic shocks amplify vulnerabilities for women and migrants through complex interactions of firm behavior, policy environments, and household dynamics.

Dr. Illing actively contributes to the Collaborative Research Center Transregio 224 and Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute, where she integrates microeconomic analysis with public policy design. Current projects examine flood-related labor market disruptions, forced migrant outflows, and pandemic-era job disruptions, maintaining her focus on shock-responsive labor market institutions.