Dr Ceren Ozgen

The Department of Economics
Associate Professor in Economics

Contact details

Telephone: +44 121 414 7290
Email: c.ozgen@bham.ac.uk

Address: Department of Economics
University House
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Dr Ceren Ozgen is an applied economist who works at the intersection of labour and urban economics. She received her PhD degree from the Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). Before joining the University of Birmingham (UoB), she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at European University Institute in Florence, and she received the prestigious Marie-Sklodowska Curie Fellowship from the European Commission. Her research utilizes rich micro-data sets and administrative data from the Netherlands/Europe for a wide range of econometric modelling applications. She has published extensively on labour market impacts of international migration and migration policy, firm innovation and economic growth. Her recent research focusing on technological change, skills mismatch, and green jobs has received various research grants, e.g. British Academy grant; ESRC/UKRI grant, £1,402,000 (2022-2026), and are published in Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, International Migration Review, among others. She has worked as a researcher in various international projects financed by the World Bank, European Commission, the US National Science Foundation, OECD and the Institute for International Urban Development (Harvard University).

Ceren Ozgen is a visiting senior fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Green Skills Lab at LSE; and Research Fellow at IZA@LISER since 2014.

She is currently University of Birmingham director of Big Data and Economics Research Network (BVRN). The BVRN is a network of academics at the University of Birmingham and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam undertaking data-driven economic analyses of urban, environment, labour and migration-related topics.

For a full list of publications please read Ceren's CV (PDF, 150 KB)

Staff details
Policy information

Qualifications

PhD Economics. VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2008-2013.
MSc Economics. University of Trento, Italy, 2004-2005.

Biography

2022- Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham
2019-2022-Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham
2016-2019-Marie-Sklodowska Curie Fellow, Department of Economics and IRiS, University of Birmingham
2015-2016-Postdoc researcher, Department of Spatial Economics, VU University Amsterdam
2014-2015-Postdoc researcher, Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute Florence
Spring 2024-Associate Staff, London School of Economics
Spring 2011-Visiting fellow, National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, University of Waikato, New Zealand

Teaching

Global Economy – UG 2024
Econometrics – UG 2022
Advance Quantitative Analysis – UG 2021
Professional Development – UG 2020, 2022
IRiS Spring School on Migration – PG (2019)

Postgraduate supervision

- Camila Orbegozo (2024-present) Partially funded from the Dept of Economics, Uni of Birmingham
- Yuedi Guo (2024-present) Partially funded from the Dept of Economics, Uni of Birmingham
- Yihong Zheng (2023-present)
- Wenjing Kuai (2018-2021), Fully funded by the Chinese Government and UoB. Graduated. Placement in The University of Tokyo.
- Hiromi Yumoto (2019-2022), Fully funded by the Japanese Government and the World Bank. Placement in University of Essex.

Research

Labour economics (Innovation, technological change, skills, green jobs, international migration)

Urban economics (Cities and technology, diversity and innovation, urban theory, BIG data).

Other activities

Professional Affiliations

Director of Big Data & Economics Research Network (BVRN), 2022 - present.
Scientific Committee member to European Centre of Expertise (ECE), 2024-present.
Member of ESRC Peer Review Committee College, 2024 - present.
Member of Royal Economic Society Peer Learning Sets Facilitator, 2024 - present.
IZA Research Fellow, European Association of Labour Economists, Global Labour Organisation Fellow (GLO), Tinbergen Institute Alumni, Urban Economics Association, Member of European Regional Science Association (Dutch section).

Research Impact

Invited speaker for Battle of Ideas 2019, “Migration and Depopulation in Twenty-First-Century Europe” Session, Birmingham.
Invited speaker for Keynote Session at 11^th IMISCOE Conference, Immigration, Social Cohesion & Social Innovation, Madrid 2014 (IMISCOE is the largest European network of scholars in the area of migration with 56 member institutes and over 1000 scholars).
External reviewer for Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), doctoral funding scheme PRIDE 2019.
External reviewer for annual BSF competition for research grants, United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, 2018.
External reviewer for Singapore Ministry of Education Social Science Research Thematic Grants, 2017.
External reviewer for Social Sciences and Humanities Section, Research Council of Canada for Insight Grants, 2014.
Advisory group member and External reviewer for Council of Europe, Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity, 2014.

Publications

Highlight publications

Acemoglu, D, Koster, HRA & Ozgen, C 2023 'Robots and Workers: Evidence from the Netherlands' NBER working paper series, no. 31009, National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w31009

Koster, HRA & Ozgen, C 2021, 'Cities and tasks', Journal of Urban Economics, vol. 126, 103386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2021.103386

Recent publications

Article

Ozgen, C, Cole, M, Jabbour, L & Yumoto, H 2026, 'Refugees' Economic Integration and Firms', Journal of Human Resources, vol. 61, no. 4, 0924-13814R2. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0924-13814R2

Elliott, R, Maddison, D, Kuai, W & Ozgen, C 2024, 'Eco-innovation and (green) employment: A task-based approach to measuring the composition of work in firms', Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, vol. 127, 103015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103015

Lui-Farrer, G, Green, A, Ozgen, C & Cole, M 2023, 'Immigration and labor shortages: learning from Japan and the United Kingdom', Asian and Pacific Migration Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/01171968231188532

Ozgen, C 2021, 'The economics of diversity: Innovation, productivity and the labour market', Journal of Economic Surveys, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 1168-1216. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12433

Cole, M, Ozgen, C & Strobl, E 2020, 'Air pollution exposure and Covid‑19 in Dutch municipalities', Environmental and Resource Economics, vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 581–610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00491-4

Carmichael, F, Darko, C, Ercolani, M, Ozgen, C & Siebert, S 2020, 'Evidence on intergenerational income transmission using complete Dutch population data', Economics Letters, vol. 189, 108996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.108996

Ozgen, C 2017, 'The elusive effects of workplace diversity on innovation', Papers in Regional Science, pp. 29-49. https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12176

Ozgen, C, Peters, C, Niebuhr, A, Nijkamp, P & Poot, J 2014, 'Does cultural diversity of migrant employees affect innovation?', International Migration Review, vol. 48, no. Supplement 1, 12138, pp. S377-S416. <http://10.1111/imre.12138>

Ozgen, C, Nijkamp, P & Poot, J 2013, 'The Impact of Cultural Diversity on Firm Innovation: Evidence from Dutch micro-data', IZA: Journal of Migration, vol. 2, no. 18, 18(2013). <https://izajodm.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2193-9039-2-18>

Ozgen, C, Nijkamp, P & Poot, J 2010, 'The Effect of Migration on Income Growth and Convergence: Meta-Analytic Evidence', Papers in Regional Science, vol. 89. <https://rsaiconnect.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1435-5957.2010.00313.x>

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

de Graaff, T, Arribas-Bel, D & Ozgen, C 2017, Demographic Aging and Employment Dynamics in German Regions: Modeling Regional Heterogeneity. in Modelling Aging and Migration Effects on Spatial Labor Markets. Springer Verlag.

Ozgen, C, Nijkamp, P & Poot, J 2012, Immigration and Innovation in European Regions. In Migration Impact Assessment: New Horizons. in Immigration and Innovation in European Regions. In Migration Impact Assessment: New Horizons. <https://www.elgaronline.com/display/edcoll/9780857934574/9780857934574.xml>

Working paper

Elliott, R, Kuai, W, Ozgen, C & Maddison, D 2021 'Eco-Innovation and Employment: A Task-Based Analysis' IZA Discussion Paper Series, no. 14028, IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, pp. 1-69. <https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/14028/eco-innovation-and-employment-a-task-based-analysis>

Ozgen, C, Lui-Farrer, G, Cole, M & Green, A 2020 'Economic Migration in the UK and Japan: Examining the Roles of Labour Shortages, Automation, Migration Policy and Demographic Aging' Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS), University of Birmingham.

Darko, C, Carmichael, F, Ercolani, M, Siebert, S & Ozgen, C 2019 'Evidence on intergenerational income transition using complete Dutch population data' IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3475800 >

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Articles purely on my research have appeared in: The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Times, The Conversation, The Irish Times, The 'I', Público (Portugese national newspaper), Algemeen Dagblad and NL Times (Dutch national newspapers).
TV networks on which my research has been discussed: MSNBC (USA TV channel), ORF (Austrian National TV channel), Brabant news (local Dutch TV channel).
Online science media articles explicitly on my research: VoxEU, The Register (40 million readers worldwide), French online media Reaction Atlántico, The World Economic Forum, TheScientist, Scientias, Bnnvara/Zembla (Reputable investigative journalism), Transform, Respro® Bulletin Board, Heidi News (Swiss science media).
‘Legal and Economic Integration of Refugees:: What Works?’ In Migration, displacement and diversity: The IRiS anthology., 177-182 (withM Cole, H Yumoto).
‘Immigration and Firm Innovation in Western-Europe: Understanding the Channels of Influence’, Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute, Florence. Policy Brief, No. 2015/01.
‘Meer innovatie door buitenlanders?! (More innovation by foreigners?!)’, Report released by Panteia Netherlands (an organization for policy research & consultancy) in 2012.
Evidence Briefing on Immigration and innovation in European regions prepared for the UK’s ESRC presented to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2011.
Research covered in The Wall Street Journal Blogs (Real Time Economics) titled “McDonald’s Economics”, May 12^th, 2011
Research report on "Migration Impact Assessment: An Overview, Tentative Findings and a Framework", Commissioned by FORUM (Utrecht), 2009, (with Peter Nijkamp, Tüzin Baycan-Levent, Masood Gheasi, Simonetta Longhi, Enno Masurel, Jacques Poot, Mediha Sahin)