The RFBerlin Applied Economics Seminar series brings leading researchers to Berlin to share their latest work and engage with our community. We are pleased to welcome Torben Nielsen (University of Copenhagen) for this session.

Torben Heien Nielsen is Professor of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, affiliated with the Department of Economics and the Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI). His research focuses on the interaction between health, labor, and public economics, with an emphasis on how micro-level behaviors translate into macro-level economic outcomes. His work integrates insights from public health and medical sciences to study health inequality and physician labor markets.

Event Topic

Early Career Setbacks and Women’s Career-Family Choices

joint with Frederik Lyngse (UCPH) and Itzik Fadlon (UCSD)

We study how early-career setbacks have long-run labor- and marriage-market impacts that differ by gender. We analyze the Danish physician labor market, exploiting randomization in internship placements and administrative data following graduates for 16 years. We find that initial labor-market sorting has important long-run effects on career choices among women only, who shorten training and sort at higher rates into the more family-friendly primary care track. They also exhibit earlier and higher fertility. Our findings suggest that young women experiencing early career setbacks adapt across labor and marriage markets in ways that combine family and career with minimal income penalties.

Event Details:

Date: 12 May 2026
Time: 14:00–15:15

Participation: the seminar is open to the public and targeted to an academic audience.

If you have any questions or need further information, feel free to contact us using the form or email us at [email protected]