Benjamin's Site

Welcome
I am an Assistant Professor (promotion-track to Associate Professor) at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich and earned my Ph.D. in Economics from LMU Munich. I have also held visiting positions at Harvard University and Princeton University.

I am an applied microeconomist interested in labor and education economics, public economics, the economics of religion, and AI & economics. One strand of my research investigates how school curricula influence student achievement, attitudes, beliefs, choices, and long-term labor market outcomes. Another line of my work employs tools from AI, natural language processing (NLP), and computational linguistics to examine the effects of economic policies and educational interventions on employees and students.

My Ph.D. thesis was awarded the Prize for Best Dissertation in 2021/2022 by the German Economic Association's Section on Economics of Education, and I received the Fürther Ludwig Erhard Prize in 2023.
Research
Publications

Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom:
The Lasting Effects of Science Education
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 139 (4): 2331-2375, 2024

Download Paper. Twitter thread here. Short video presentation here.

Coverage: VoxEU, Education Next, EconPol, Genetic Literacy Project, FutureEd, Leibniz Association, Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings (Video), OurLongWalk, GlobeNewswire, YahooFinanceNews, Post Online Magazine, Bildungsklick (German), Verbaende.com (German), NNZ-News (German)
Working Papers
Do Words Matter?
The Value of Collective Bargaining Agreements
with Elliott Ash, W. Bentley MacLeod, Suresh Naidu

Working Paper: Download
Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from
German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education
with Ludger Woessmann and Larissa Zierow

Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Human Resources

Working Paper: Download. Twitter thread here.

Coverage: VoxTalks (Podcast), VoxEU Column, CESifo Forum, The Guardian, Helsinki Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German), Bayerischer Rundfunk (German), Spiegel Online (German), Bild.de (German), n-tv (German)
Genetic Endowments, Educational Outcomes and
the Mediating Influence of School Quality
with Paul Hufe and Marc Stoeckli

Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics

Working Paper: Download. Twitter thread here.

Coverage: Helsinki Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German), Passauer Neue Presse (German), Bildungsklick (German), Verbaende.com
Measuring Student Mindsets at Scale in Resource-constrained Settings:
SMS Toolkit with an Application to Brazil during the Pandemic
with Guilherme Lichand, Elliott Ash, Jairo Rosero, Carlos Doria, Ana Trinidade, Eric Bettinger, and David Yeager

Conditionally Accepted, Journal of Research on Adolescents

Working Paper: Download.
The Unintended Consequences of School Curricula Reforms: Examining Spillover Effects of US Education Standards
with M. Danish Shakeel

Working Paper: Download.

[Older versions: Harvard PEPG WP, Brown Annenberg Institute WP, ifo WP ]

Coverage: Forbes, Innovations in STEM Teacher Preparation, The Education Exchange (Podcast)
Work in Progress
The Opportunities and Challenges of ML-based
Targeting for Educational Technologies:
Evidence from Brazil in the Aftermath of the Pandemic
with Guilherme Lichand, Elliott Ash, Jairo Rosero,
Mario Curiki, Carlos Doria, David Yeager and Eric Bettinger

Data Analysis on-going
The Political Economy of Religious Language:
Evidence from the United States Congress
with Elliott Ash and Gloria Gennaro

Data Analysis on-going
Does the timing of income payments matter for households?
Evidence from random within-month variation of child allowance payments
with Larissa Zierow , Sebastian Wichert, Emanuel Renkl

Data Collection on-going
Policy papers (non-refereed)
How are Low-Income Families Faring in the Corona Crisis?
with Vera Freundl, Katia Werkmeister and Larissa Zierow

Download: ifo Schnelldienst, 07/2021

Coverage: Tagesschau.de (German), Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (German), Business Insider (German), Der Standard (Austrian)
Teaching

Workshop: NLP and Computational Linguistics in Economics, Spring 2024, Princeton University.
Teaching Material (Slides and Jupyter Notebooks) available on Github
Lecture: Text Data in Business and Economics, Fall 2023, Basel University.
Teaching Material (Slides and Jupyter Notebooks) available on Github
CV
You can find my CV here.
Contact
My office hours are on Mondays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. during term time. Outside of term, meetings are available by appointment.

Looking forward to answering your email!
University of Cambridge
Faculty of Economics
Austin Robinson Building
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge
CB3 9DD
UNITED KINGDOM
ba475@cam.ac.uk
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Benjamin W. Arold

Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge

Welcome

My Ph.D. thesis was awarded the Prize for Best Dissertation in 2021/2022 by the German Economic Association's Section on Economics of Education, and I received the Fürther Ludwig Erhard Prize in 2023.

Research

Publications

Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom:

The Lasting Effects of Science Education

Working Papers

Do Words Matter?
The Value of Collective Bargaining Agreements

Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from
German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education

Genetic Endowments, Educational Outcomes and

the Mediating Influence of School Quality

Measuring Student Mindsets at Scale in Resource-constrained Settings:

SMS Toolkit with an Application to Brazil during the Pandemic

The Unintended Consequences of School Curricula Reforms: Examining Spillover Effects of US Education Standards

Work in Progress

The Opportunities and Challenges of ML-based
Targeting for Educational Technologies:
Evidence from Brazil in the Aftermath of the Pandemic

The Political Economy of Religious Language:
Evidence from the United States Congress

Does the timing of income payments matter for households?

Evidence from random within-month variation of child allowance payments

Policy papers (non-refereed)

How are Low-Income Families Faring in the Corona Crisis?

Teaching

Workshop: NLP and Computational Linguistics in Economics, Spring 2024, Princeton University.

Lecture: Text Data in Business and Economics, Fall 2023, Basel University.

CV

You can find my CV here.

Contact

My office hours are on Mondays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. during term time. Outside of term, meetings are available by appointment.

Looking forward to answering your email!

Benjamin W. Arold

Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge

Welcome

My Ph.D. thesis was awarded the Prize for Best Dissertation in 2021/2022 by the German Economic Association's Section on Economics of Education, and I received the Fürther Ludwig Erhard Prize in 2023.

Research

Publications

Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom:

The Lasting Effects of Science Education

Working Papers

Do Words Matter?The Value of Collective Bargaining Agreements

Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence fromGerman State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education

Genetic Endowments, Educational Outcomes and

the Mediating Influence of School Quality

Measuring Student Mindsets at Scale in Resource-constrained Settings:

SMS Toolkit with an Application to Brazil during the Pandemic

The Unintended Consequences of School Curricula Reforms: Examining Spillover Effects of US Education Standards

Work in Progress

The Opportunities and Challenges of ML-basedTargeting for Educational Technologies:Evidence from Brazil in the Aftermath of the Pandemic

The Political Economy of Religious Language:Evidence from the United States Congress

Does the timing of income payments matter for households?

Evidence from random within-month variation of child allowance payments

Policy papers (non-refereed)

How are Low-Income Families Faring in the Corona Crisis?

Teaching

Workshop: NLP and Computational Linguistics in Economics, Spring 2024, Princeton University.

Lecture: Text Data in Business and Economics, Fall 2023, Basel University.

CV

You can find my CV here.

Contact

My office hours are on Mondays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. during term time. Outside of term, meetings are available by appointment. Looking forward to answering your email!

Do Words Matter?
The Value of Collective Bargaining Agreements

Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from
German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education

The Opportunities and Challenges of ML-based
Targeting for Educational Technologies:
Evidence from Brazil in the Aftermath of the Pandemic

The Political Economy of Religious Language:
Evidence from the United States Congress

My office hours are on Mondays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. during term time. Outside of term, meetings are available by appointment.

Looking forward to answering your email!