Universität zu Köln

Fuchs, Larissa ORCID: 0009-0001-0436-4165 (2025). Fuchs, Larissa (2025). Essays in Applied Microeconomics. Dissertation, University of Cologne. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This dissertation examines economic mechanisms across three critical domains aligned with sustainable development goals. The first chapter investigates how job advertisement content affects talent pools in the technology sector through a randomized controlled trial at a major European technology firm. The results demonstrate that emphasizing flexibility increases applications from both genders, while highlighting career advancement primarily attracts male applicants. These effects are predominantly driven by applicants outside the firm's home region. A complementary survey reveals that emphasizing career advancement leads to higher anticipated career benefits but lower expected work-life balance, suggesting job advertisements shape potential applicants' beliefs about workplace environments. The second chapter examines gender disparities in STEM enrollment using administrative and survey data from Germany. The key finding is that while males display higher relative STEM performance than females, this advantage stems primarily from females' stronger achievement in non-STEM subjects. A one-standard-deviation increase in grade-based STEM advantage raises males' likelihood of pursuing STEM by approximately 19 percentage points, but yields only half this effect for females. This differential response to relative performance explains 26% of the STEM gender gap when major preferences follow male patterns, but plays minimal role when preferences mirror female patterns. The third chapter investigates how climate stress tests influence bank lending and borrowers' environmental practices. Banks participating in climate stress tests increase lending to borrowers with higher transition risk while raising loan rates, in contrast to non-participating banks that reduce credit supply. Participating banks also demonstrate improved collection of climate risk information and increased lending for green purposes. While borrowers show higher likelihood of implementing emission policies and using renewable energy, no significant reductions in direct carbon emissions were observed. In conclusion, the results demonstrate how economic mechanisms can drive sustainable development across talent recruitment, education, and climate finance.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Translated title:	Title Language Fuchs, Larissa (2025). Essays in Applied Microeconomics. Dissertation, Universität zu Köln German
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Fuchs, Larissa larissa.fuchs@icloud.com orcid.org/0009-0001-0436-4165 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-754837
Date:	2025
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences > Economics > Microeconomics, Institutions and markets > Professorship for Economics Behavior und Design
Subjects:	Economics Management and auxiliary services
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Job advertisements English Hiring English Gender Gap English STEM Enrollment English Field Experiment English Climate Stress Test English Green Finance English Banking Supervision English Carbon Risk English Beliefs English Survey Experiment English
Date of oral exam:	21 February 2025
Referee:	Name Academic Title Pinger, Pia Prof. Dr. Boelmann, Barbara Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/75483