I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, and a member of EduQuant. My research is in education and labor economics. My ongoing work studies how education policy and labor market structures affect people’s opportunities and outcomes.

I have advised the Danish Ministry of Education as a member of EduQuant, been an invited presenter at the OECD/Cedefop as a national expert on vocational education, and worked as a short-term consultant for the World Bank. I have also been a visiting researcher including at the Centre for Economic Performance, Harvard Kennedy School, the LSE, UMass Amherst, and CEBI at the University of Copenhagen.

News: I have been awarded 5 mio. DKK by the Rockwool Foundation for my research project on “Disability Aid for University Students.” You can read more about the project here.

Contact: jesper.eriksen@econ.ku.dk

Working papers

• The Grandparent Effect Reexamined: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Large-Scale Educational Reform.
  • With Mads Meier Jæger and Kristian Bernt Karlson
  • Revise and Resubmit at American Journal of Sociology.
• Peer Effects in Vocational Education and Training.
  • With Shaun Dougherty
  • Revising. [Annenberg Institute WP]
• The Long-Run Effects of Refugee Inflows on Native Children’s Economic Mobility.
  • Submitted. [WP]
• Switching Strategies? Peer Impacts of Moving Disabled Students to General Education Classrooms
  • With L. Robin Caron and Jeppe Johansen
  • [WP]

(Selected) ongoing research

• Discrimination in Informal Markets: Evidence from Danish Apprenticeships
• Perceptions of returns to learning-on-the-job.
  • With Franziska Valder
• Vaccinating effects of mental health treatment.
  • With August Juul Petersen
• Making Firms Train: Empirical evidence from a Danish tax reform.
  • With Mette Ejrnæs
• School Peers and Education Choice.
  • With Saandra Nandakumar and Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen
• Heterogeneous Returns to Fields of Study.
  • With Kristian Bernt Karlson and Mikkel Høst Gandil

Publications

1. Firm Innovation and Continuing Education. Eriksen J. & J. R. Holm (2021). In Globalization, New and Emerging Technologies, and Sustainable Development – The Danish Innovation System in Transition, Routledge. [Preprint]
2. The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility - Danish Evidence. Eriksen, J. & M. D. Munk (2020). Economics Letters, Vol. 189, 109024. [Preprint] [Supplementary data (Dataverse)]
3. Time-Series Cross-Section Analyser i Komparativ Politisk Økonomi. Eriksen J. & S. Etzerodt (2018). Metode og Forskningsdesign, Vol. 3. [Paper] [Supplementary files (Github)]

Reports

1. Udsyn I Udskolingen – Kvantitativ Evaluering af Læringsorienteret Uddannelses-vejledning. Eriksen, J., Thomsen, R. & D. Reimer (2021). DPU, Aarhus Universitet. [Report]
2. The Importance of GPA Requirements for VET and Low-Income Students. Eriksen, J, & S. Dougherty (2021), p. 132-143. In The Next Steps for Apprenticeship, edited by Cedefop/OECD. Cedefop Reference Series; No 118. Luxembourg: Publications Office. [Report]
3. Educated Cities and Regional Centralization: Spatial Trends in Students’ Location in Denmark, 1982-2013. Eriksen, J. (2017). Center for Research on Regional Dynamics and Inequality, Aalborg University. [Report]

Disability Aid for University Students (Rockwool Foundation grant)

I have been awarded 5 mio. DKK from the Rockwool Foundation for my research project on Disability Aid for University students. Growing numbers of youth receive diagnoses for disabilities across the OECD countries, particularly for mental health problems. These diagnoses often give the right to expensive disability aid, including aid that aims to help students through their tertiary education. But it is unclear how the aid helps the recipients. We will investigate how disability aid in the tertiary education system helps the recipients’ educational attainment and achievement, labor market attachment, and health. I will conduct the project with postdocs Pernille Plato and Asbjørn Juul Petersen. The project runs from October, 2026 to September, 2029.