Welcome to Henning Hermes’ personal website!

I am an Associate Professor of the Economics of Education at the University of Munich (LMU) and Deputy Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education at the ifo Institute Munich.

My further affiliations are:

I am a behavioral and experimental economist, primarily using field experiments to study policy-relevant questions in the economics of education.

I co-organize the Workshop on Field Experiments in Economics and Business.

I am a guest editor at the European Economic Review for a Special Issue on “Field Experiments to Reduce Inequality”.

Thank you for your interest in my work – I hope to provide a first overview here on this website. You can also follow me on BSky, LinkedIn, or Twitter to stay updated about my research. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact me or take a look at my CV.

Contact me at: hermes@ifo.de

Research

Working Papers

The Demand for Economic Narratives

(with Sebastian Blesse, Klaus Gründler & Philipp Heil). Under review.

The Causal Impact of Gender Norms on Mothers’ Employment Attitudes and Expectations

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Under review.

Discrimination in Universal Social Programs? A Nationwide Field Experiment on Access to Child Care

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Revise & Resubmit at the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Media: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung [German]

Free to Fail? Paternalistic Preferences in the United States

(with Björn Bartling, Alexander W. Cappelen, Marit Skivenes & Bertil Tungodden). Revise & Resubmit at the Economic Journal.
Media: VoxEU Column

Early Child Care, Maternal Labor Supply, and Gender Equality: A Randomized Controlled Trial

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Under review.
Media: VoxEU Column, Spiegel [German], BR [German].

Publications in Economics

[9] Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Journal of the European Economic Association, 2025, 23(3), 1133-1172.
Media: VoxEU Column, FAZ [German], Ökonomenstimme [German], Winner of the CIDER Public Science Award 2022 (3rd price), Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung [German], SWR [German], Augsburger Allgemeine [German].

[8] The Impact of Working Memory Training on Children's Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills

(with Eva Berger, Ernst Fehr, Daniel Schunk & Kirsten Winkel). Journal of Political Economy, 2025, 133(2), 492-521.

[7] Information about Inequality in Early Child Care Reduces Polarization in Policy Preferences

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Guido Schwerdt & Simon Wiederhold). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024, 228, 106780.

[6] Males Should Mail? Gender Discrimination in Access to Child Care

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). AEA: Papers & Proceedings, 2023, 113, 427-431. (Ungated version)

[5] Teaching Self-regulation

(with Eva Berger, Ernst Fehr, Daniel Schunk & Kirsten Winkel). Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, 6(12), 1680-1690. (Ungated version)
Media: Scienmag, Phys.org, The Hill, The Print, Spektrum [German], FAZ [German]

[4] Self-regulation Training and Job Search Input: A Natural Field Experiment Within an Active Labor Market Program

(with Eva Berger, Günther König, Felix Schmidt & Daniel Schunk). Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 2022, 98, 101858.

[3] If You Could Read My Mind—An Experimental Beauty-Contest Game with Children

(with Daniel Schunk). Experimental Economics, 2022, 25, 229-253.

[2] Motivating Low-Achievers—Relative Performance Feedback in Primary Schools

(with Martin Huschens, Franz Rothlauf & Daniel Schunk). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, 187, 45-59.

[1] Do Children Cooperate Conditionally? Adapting the Strategy Method for First-Graders

(with Florian Hett, Mario Mechtel, Felix Schmidt, Daniel Schunk & Valentin Wagner). Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2020, 179, 638-652.

Other Publications

Self-oriented affective empathy is associated with increased negative affect

(with M. Hülsemann, A. Kaurin, B. Kollmann, A. Chmitorz, K. Ahrens, C. Schenk, M. Plichta, B. Lutz, U. Basten, C. Fiebach, R. Kalisch, K. Lieb, A. Reif, O. Tüscher, D. Schunk & M. Wessa). Scientific Reports, 2025, 15(27767).

Pragmatic clustered randomised control trial to evaluate a self-regulated learning intervention to be implemented in South Australian primary schools—study protocol

(with Sally A. Brinkman, B. Lam, S. Dawson, R. Marrone, D. Schunk, K. Winkel, F. Gabriel, S. Fowler & D. Engelhardt). Trials, 2025, 26(120).

Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children

(with Ana Cubillo, Eva Berger, Kirsten Winkel, Daniel Schunk, Ernst Fehr & Todd Hare). Developmental Science, 2023, 26(1), e13252.

Policy Writing

Paternalistic preferences in the United States

(with Björn Bartling, Alexander Cappelen, Marit Skivenes & Bertil Tungodden. VoxEU Column, Feb 2025.

Was weiß die deutsche Bevölkerung über Ungleichheiten im Zugang zu Kitas? Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Befragung

(with Johannes Baur, Philipp Lergetporer, Fabian Mierisch, Guido Schwerdt & Simon Wiederhold). ifo Schnelldienst, 2024, 77(10), 36–38.

Frühkindliche Betreuung erhöht den Arbeitsmarkterfolg von Müttern ohne Abitur

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). Wirtschaft im Wandel, 2023, 29(3), 52–55.

How early childcare can boost the labour market success of lower-educated mothers

(with Marina Krauss, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold). VoxEU Column, April 2023.

Bewerbungsunterstützung erhöht die Kita-Inanspruchnahme von Kindern aus bildungsferneren Familien

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold, Vera Freundl & Olivia Wirth. ifo Schnelldienst, 2021, 74(09), 41–45.

The socioeconomic gap in childcare enrolment: The role of behavioural barriers

(with Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold. VoxEU Column, Dec 2021.

Work in Progress

Paternalism across the World

(with Björn Bartling, Alexander W. Cappelen, Akshay Moorthy, Marit Skivenes & Bertil Tungodden).

Economic Literacy: Measurement, Expectations, and Policy Views

(with Raphael Brade, Tim Kaiser, Sarah Necker, Anke Windisch, and Ludger Woessmann).

How School Matching Designs Affect Inequality: Experimental Evidence

(with Sabrina Herzog).