Rate My Professor Pia Pinger

Prof. Dr. Pia Pinger is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne since 2019, holding her position in the Department of Economics within the WiSo Faculty. She serves as Director of the Reinhard Selten Institute and Principal Investigator in the excellence cluster ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy, as well as in the Key Profile Area Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB). Pinger specializes in applied microeconometrics and behavioral economics, focusing on human capital, socioeconomic inequalities, educational decision-making, early childhood health, labor economics, and the role of social environment, ability signals, and mental models in shaping economic preferences, prosociality, and life outcomes. Her research has demonstrated causal evidence on how mentoring improves educational outcomes for socially disadvantaged children and how parental socioeconomic status influences children's IQ and preferences.

Pinger obtained her PhD in Economics summa cum laude from the University of Mannheim in 2013 and her Master in International Economic Studies from Maastricht University in 2006, with prior studies at Sciences Po Paris and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Her career includes Assistant Professor at the University of Bonn from 2013 to 2019, researcher roles at the University of Mannheim and ZEW Mannheim from 2008 to 2013, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Chicago. Key publications include 'The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment' (Journal of Political Economy, 2020), 'Socio-Economic Status and Inequalities in Children’s IQ and Economic Preferences' (Journal of Political Economy, 2021), 'Paternal Grandfather’s Access to Food Predicts All-cause and Cancer Mortality in Grandsons' (Nature Communications, 2018), 'Instrumental Variable Estimation of the Causal Effect of Hunger Early in Life on Health Later in Life' (The Economic Journal, 2016), and forthcoming articles in Journal of Political Economy and Psychological Science. She has received the ERC Starting Grant (1.5 million EUR) for the OPPORTUNITY project on inequalities in decision-making (2023), the Prize for the Best Dissertation in Education Economics (2015), the Karin Islinger Dissertation Award (2014), and the Dissertation Prize 'The Future of Labor' (2014). Pinger is an IZA Research Fellow, CESifo Affiliate, CEPR and MPI Research Fellow, and serves on the editorial board of the Review of Economic Studies.