Katrin Sommerfeld

Dr. Katrin Sommerfeld is a Head of Junior Research Group at Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH.
She has been head of ZEW’s Junior Research Group “Integration of Migrants and Attitudes towards the Welfare State (IMES)” in ZEW’s Research Department “Labour Markets and Social Insurance” since 2019.
She focuses on microeconometric research on issues surrounding migration as exemplified by the recent influx of refugees into Germany and Europe.
Her research centres on feedback effects from immigration with respect to employment and wages on different groups on the German labour market, refugees, former migrants, and natives.
In addition, she investigates further economic and societal consequences of the recent asylum immigration.
Since 2017, Dr. Katrin Sommerfeld has been working in ZEW’s Research Department “Labour Markets and Human Resources”.
Until recently she was the contact person for the research area on “Integration into Labour Markets”.
From 2014 to 2016, she investigated the effects of environmental reforms on the competitiveness of private firms.
Prior to that, she worked at the Department of Applied Econometrics at the University of Freiburg.
She successfully completed her doctorate with a thesis on “Wage Inequality and Employment in the Germany Labor Market” under the supervision of Professor B.
Fitzenberger in 2013.
She studied economics at the University of Bamberg, the University of Alcalá in Madrid, and the Goethe University Frankfurt with a focus on applied microeconometrics.