Sofie Cairo

Dr. Sofie Cairo is an Assistant Professor at Copenhagen Business School’s Department for Strategy and Innovation and a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair for Entrepreneurship at the University of Zürich. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Copenhagen (2021), where her dissertation focused on social benefit policies and labor market performance through field experiments with Denmark’s Ministry of Employment.

Her research agenda examines gender disparities in science and innovation, including motherhood penalties, promotions, funding access, and health shocks’ impact on research. She employs applied microeconometrics, RCTs, and combines administrative records, bibliometrics, and experimental datasets. Current projects include field experiments with Danish science funders to improve early-career scientist retention and studies on gender gaps in corporate promotions.

Cairo’s work has been published in top economics journals and supported by fellowship grants. She collaborates with institutions like Harvard Business School (via prior postdoc) and works closely with Valentina Tartari at CBS on parenthood-related career penalties. Her research highlights structural barriers in academia and proposes policy interventions using rigorous empirical methods.