Barbara Boelmann

Barbara Boelmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cologne, a YEP Fellow of ECONtribute, and a researcher at the Research Data Centre Ruhr of the RWI. She is affiliated with C-SEB, the Collaborative Research Center Transregio 224, and IZA. As of November 2024, she holds an Add-on Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Economics by the Joachim Herz Foundation.

Her educational background includes a PhD from University College London and CReAM (2022), an MSc in Economics, and a BA in Economics and Chinese Studies, all from the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Dr. Boelmann is an applied labour economist specializing in inequalities in education and on the labour market with a focus on gender inequalities. Her research examines how regions shape these inequalities through local institutions, culture, and power dynamics. She employs applied microeconometric methods to understand the structural factors underlying inequality on the labour market. Her work spans cultural determinants of maternal labor supply, educational mobility, student finance impacts, and political representation.

Her publication portfolio demonstrates strong expertise in gender economics, with significant media coverage in the New York Times, The Independent, and major German publications. Her research on cultural determinants of maternal labor supply following German reunification has particularly influenced policy discussions.

• Add-on Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Economics by the Joachim Herz Foundation
• Award for MSc teaching at UCL (2019)

Dr. Boelmann actively supervises undergraduate and graduate theses while teaching 'Gender Economics' for MSc students, seminars on 'Women in the Labour Market' and 'Educational Inequalities over the Life Cycle,' and leading a PhD Reading Group on 'Econometrics.' She co-founded the Gender Economics Teaching Network to share teaching resources across institutions.

She organizes ECONtribute's Reinhard Selten Equal Opportunity Talk Series (ReStart) to communicate research to the public and has presented her work to policymakers through the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Her science communication includes Science Slam presentations and podcasts on gender norms and labor market inequality.