Melanie Arntz

Prof. Dr. Melanie Arntz serves as Vice Director of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and holds the Chair of Labor Market and Occupational Research at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg since January 2025. She is an active member of the academic community with significant policy influence.

Her educational background includes geography and economics studies at the University of Bonn and the University of Minnesota, followed by a doctorate in empirical economics from TU Darmstadt in 2007.

Professor Arntz's research focuses on structural changes in labor markets driven by technological advances, particularly examining how artificial intelligence transforms employment patterns, wage structures, and inequality. Her work also investigates occupational evolution and regional labor market dynamics in response to technological disruption. She employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze workforce transitions in the digital age.

Her recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on telework dynamics, urban amenity preferences across skill levels, gender implications of remote work during pandemics, and broader digitization impacts on future work arrangements. These studies demonstrate her commitment to addressing contemporary labor market challenges through rigorous empirical analysis.

Professor Arntz holds significant policy advisory roles, including membership on the Working World Council of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry's Scientific Advisory Board on Skilled Labor Security. She also serves on the Regional Economics Committee of the German Social Policy Association and co-edits the Journal for Labour Market Research.

Her academic career includes previous appointments as research associate at ZEW Mannheim since 2002, deputy head of the 'Labor Markets and Social Security' research department from 2009 to 2024, junior professor in 2009, and professor of labor markets at Heidelberg University from 2018, funded by the Leibniz Association's Women Professors Program.