Learning and Work hybrid seminars, spring/summer 2026

The Maastricht University - SBE hybrid seminar series features researchers from different disciplines, with focuses on both academic and policy issues.

The hybrid seminar series takes place every Tuesday from 12:00 to 13:00, on site and also via Microsoft Teams.

Organisers of L&W seminars

Raymond Montizaan: r.montizaan@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Katarina Wessling: k.wessling@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Steffen Künn: s.kuenn@maastrichtuniversity.nl

  • Upcoming seminars

    When: Tuesday, 12 May
    Time: 12.00 - 13.00
    Where: TS49 - 0.003 (ROA-lounge)

    Speaker: Pascal Hess (IAB)

    Titel: Worker Beliefs about Occupational Mobility

    Abstract: We study how employed workers perceive and respond to opportunities for occupational mobility. Using a large-scale survey of 4,500 full-time workers in Germany, linked with administrative employment data, we measure workers’ beliefs about the transferability of their skills, the similarity of alternative occupations to theirs, the benefits - potential earnings - and costs - retraining and licensing requirements - of moving to other occupations. We also capture respondents’ beliefs about exposure of their own and alternative occupations to automation, AI, and the green transition.  The results reveal that workers are imperfectly informed about opportunities in other occupations: they systematically underestimate task similarity and wages in alternative occupations while overestimating the need for retraining or licensing. These misperceptions are more severe for blue-collar workers and for workers in commercial and administrative occupations, and are strongly negatively correlated with intentions to seek jobs in other occupations. Randomized information treatments providing data on wages, retraining requirements, and displacement risk meaningfully alter workers’ beliefs and mobility intentions, even nine months after the intervention. These findings suggest that information gaps may hinder efficient labor reallocation, especially during periods of structural transformations, and that targeted informational interventions can help improve occupational mobility decisions.

     

    Scheduled seminars


    26.05.2026 tba
    09.06.2026 Hannah Klauber (PIK)
    23.06.2026 tba
    07.07.2026 Amelie Schiprowski (Uni Bonn)
     

     
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