Felix Holub

I’m a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Mannheim. Click here for my CV.

Prior to entering the PhD program I obtained a Master’s degree from CEMFI and a Bachelor’s degree from Maastricht University.

I will join the Goethe University Frankfurt in Fall 2021.

Primary Field: Applied Microeconomics Secondary Fields: Labor Economics, Environmental Economics, Health Economics

Publication

The Effect of Clean Air on Pharmaceutical Expenditures, Economics Letters, 2020 with Alexander Rohlf, Nicolas Koch and Nolan Ritter
media coverage: Ärzteblatt, ÄrzteZeitung, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bayern 2 (Radio)

[Abstract]
Airborne emissions are detrimental to health. Low emission zones (LEZs) that restrict pollution-intensive vehicles from entering are popular measures to curb local emissions such as particulate matter. We evaluate how LEZs impact defensive pharmaceutical expenditures. To this end, we use the complete medical histories of 2.7M individuals insured with Germany’s largest public health insurer AOK. We identify causal effects exploiting the quasi-experimental, staggered introduction of LEZs in 49 cities. We find that LEZs reduce annual pharmaceutical expenditures for heart and respiratory diseases by 15.8M€, representing a significant fraction of policy costs.

Research Papers

Gender Gaps and the Role of Bosses, CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper 237 with Moritz Drechsel-Grau

[Abstract]
This paper investigates the contribution of managers to gender gaps and analyzes whether the over-representation of men in management positions puts women at a disadvantage. Relying on personnel data from one of the largest European manufacturing firms, we separate out the factors explaining gender gaps. Adjusted pay gaps are positive, which means that men earn more than observationally equivalent women. A significant share of pay gaps can be explained by the sorting of men and women to different managers. More importantly, gender gaps in bonus payments causally depend on the manager’s gender. Accounting for worker and manager heterogeneity, bonus gaps are larger when the manager is male. This is driven by the fact that performance ratings are more favorable to men if handed out by a male manager. We present suggestive evidence that the relevance of manager gender for pay gaps is driven by discrimination rather than same-gender complementarities in productivity. However, independent of the root cause of these differences in evaluations by manager gender, the findings imply that a lower number of female managers increases gender gaps and thus constitutes a structural disadvantage for women.
Urban Air Pollution and Sick Leaves: Evidence from Social Security Data, Banco de España Working Paper 2041, CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper 241 with Laura Hospido and Ulrich J. Wagner

[Abstract]
We estimate the causal impact of air pollution on the incidence of sick leaves in a representative panel of employees affiliated to the Spanish social security system. Using over 100 million worker-by-week observations from the period 2005-2014, we estimate the relationship between the share of days an individual is on sick leave in a given week and exposure to particulate matter (PM10) at the place of residence, controlling for weather, individual effects, and a wide range of time-by-location controls. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in PM10 that is due to Sahara dust advection in order to instrument for local PM10 concentrations. We find that particulate matter increases sick leaves in a statistically and economically significant fashion. The effect of pollution on sick leaves varies with respect to various worker and job characteristics. It is stronger for workers with pre-existing medical conditions, and weaker for workers with low job security.
Killing Prescriptions Softly: Low Emission Zones and Child Health from Birth to School, IZA Discussion Paper 14376 with Hannah Klauber, Nicolas Koch, Nico Pestel, Nolan Ritter and Alexander Rohlf

[Abstract]
We examine the persistence of the impact of early-life exposure to air pollution on children’s health from birth to school enrollment using administrative public health insurance records covering one third of all children in Germany. For identification, we exploit air quality improvements caused by the implementation of Low Emission Zones, a policy imposing driving restrictions on high-emission vehicles. Our results indicate that children exposed to cleaner air around birth require less medication for at least five years. The initially latent health response materializes only gradually in lower medication usage, leaving important but subtle health benefits undetected in common measures of infant health.
The Benefits and Costs of Driving Restriction Policies: The Impact on Congestion, Pollution and Consumer Spending with Jose Enrique Galdon-Sanchez, Ricard Gil, and Guillermo Uriz-Uharte

[Abstract]
Driving restrictions in cities aim to reduce congestion and pollution, but they may also unintentionally distort consumer spending decisions. By increasing transportation costs to ban-affected areas, driving restrictions could discourage consumption in stores of those areas. This paper empirically evaluates the effects of a driving restriction regulation in Madrid, Spain, known as Madrid Central. First, using a difference-in-differences identification strategy, we find a decrease of 15% in both congestion and pollution. Second, we rely on a unique dataset on credit card transactions detailing spending for each pair of buyer-seller locations zip codes to analyze how the driving ban changed consumption behavior. Although we find no significant effect on overall consumption spending, our findings show a reduction in brick-and-mortar sales, and a substitution towards online shopping in businesses of the ban-affected area. This implies e-commerce may allow affected establishments to, at least partially, compensate for the reduction in brick-and-mortar sales.

Research in Progress

The Impact of Air Quality on the Productivity of High-Skilled Workers
with Beate Thies