The Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée (BETA)  is pleased to organize the 39th Days of Applied Microeconomics  / Journées de Microéconomie Appliquée (JMA)  in Strasbourg at the Patio (Central Campus) of the University of Strasbourg, Thursday 8 and Friday 9 June 2023.

Every year, the JMA conference takes place in a different University in France, in a French-speaking country or in a border country. It brings together researchers, seniors, juniors, and PhD students, of any nationality, whose research contributes to the literature in applied microeconomics.

The conference's program will be available by May, 15th.

The conference will start with the keynote lecture given by Alexandra Spitz-Oener. Alexandra Spitz-Oener is a Professor of Economics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, the Deputy Director of the ROOKWOOL Foundation Berlin Institute for the Economy and the Future of Work, and a Research Associate at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg. Her research interests are in Applied Microeconomics, in particular Labor Economics. Her current research focuses on understanding the challenges for workers brought about by technological changes, trade and immigration.

Talk: "Workplace Connections, Migration, and Firm Quality: Evidence from German Reunification"

We study the impact of co-worker networks on the migration decisions of East Germans after reunification. Based on a novel data set that links rich administrative data from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989 to German social security data, we identify East Germans’ workplace connections formed in the GDR as well as their labor market trajectories after reunification. We then analyze how former GDR co-workers who have migrated to West Germany impacted the migration decision of East Germans after reunification. For identification, we focus on East Germans who are displaced by establishment closures between 1992 and 2005. Having a former GDR co-worker who works in West Germany substantially increases the probability to move to West Germany after job displacement. We find that contacts who work in high-quality firms in West Germany are particularly important in triggering East-West migration.