Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln

Max Planck Fellow
 

Connecting AI Research and Applied Economics
Building Collaboration Between CHM and WZB
Exchange with the MPRG Biosocial

Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln is a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB). She has only recently taken up this role (in September 2025), so the initial phase of the fellowship has focused on setting up collaborations and identifying projects where joint work can be productive. Her fellowship has so far primarily established connections with two sections of the Institute: the Center for Humans and Machines (CHM) and the Max Planck Research Group Biosocial | Biology, Social Disparities, and Development (MPRG Biosocial). She has also become a faculty member of International Max Planck Research School on Learning, Institutions, and Future Evolution (LIFE).

Since 2024, Fuchs-Schündeln has been President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, alongside her role as Professor of Macroeconomics and Development at Goethe University Frankfurt/Main. At WZB, she heads the research group Inequality, Social Mobility and Growth. In June 2025, she presented her research agenda, the findings of her publications, and a current project at the MPIB.

Fuchs-Schündeln's work focuses on (1) inequality, social mobility, and growth, and (2) the interplay between norms and economic incentives, with particular attention to equitable growth, intergenerational mobility, the endogeneity of preferences, and gender equality. She combines quantitative macroeconomics and empirical microeconomics in data-driven analyses using international administrative and survey datasets as well as original surveys. Her topics include cross-country and within-country differences in hours worked; the evolution of inequality in Germany and Europe; labor market flexibility; distributional effects of the digital transformation; the role of education on intergenerational mobility; and the formation of economic and political preferences. The presented ongoing research project concerned in-group favoritism in grant evaluations. Specifically, this project examines whether European Research Council (ERC) decisions are influenced by the composition of the review panel and by the shared gender or nationality of applicants and reviewers.

Fuchs-Schündeln's Max Planck Fellowship has the aim to strengthen cooperation between MPIB and WZB through regular exchanges and joint projects.

Key References

Connecting AI Research and Applied Economics

The cooperation with the Center for Humans and Machines (CHM) builds on complementary strengths: CHM's research on artificial intelligence and human–machine interaction, and the applied economics expertise at WZB, especially in labor markets, inequality, social mobility, and empirical methods. A focus of the fellowship has been to connect AI-related research with applied economic evidence on labor markets and workplace change. The spread of generative AI has been fast, while reliable data on how these tools are actually used at work is still limited. Fuchs-Schündeln's work addresses this gap by collecting representative data and comparing patterns across countries, with attention to who uses generative AI, how intensively it is used, and what role employers and workplace practices play.

In 2025 and early 2026, she and collaborators conducted representative surveys in the United States, Germany, and five additional European countries on the workplace use of generative AI. The results show substantial differences between countries. In the United States, 43% of respondents report using generative AI in their job, the highest rate in the sample. Germany's adoption rate is lower at 32%. The surveys also measure intensity of use. Depending on the country, between 1.6% (Italy) and 5.2% (United States) of working time is reported to involve generative AI. In countries with higher adoption rates, respondents also report using a larger set of AI tools and applying them to a wider range of tasks.

Across all countries, adoption differs by demographic characteristics. People with lower formal education, older workers, and women report lower usage rates. These differences are relevant for questions about unequal access to new technology and potential distributional effects. At the same time, these demographic factors explain only around one half of the differences between countries. A large part of the cross-country variation appears linked to firm-level support and management practices. Both across and within countries, AI adoption by employees is strongly correlated with good management practices and employer encouragement. 

Building Collaboration Between CHM and WZB

Fuchs-Schündeln's work on AI is also reflected by a new cooperation between CHM and WZB. Together with CHM Director Iyad Rahwan, she organized an event at WZB that brought together CHM researchers and researchers from WZB's area Markets and Choice to discuss societal effects of AI and how research may foreshadow cultural and economic implications. The event included a keynote by Rahwan and a discussion in which WZB economists contributed questions and comments from the perspectives of labor markets, incentives, and institutional context.

To strengthen the exchange between the two units and to generate joint projects, Fuchs-Schündeln and Rahwan initiated a joint recruitment for a postdoctoral researcher. The position is intended to support research at the intersection of technology and labor markets and to strengthen ongoing exchange between CHM's mainly computer-science-based team and WZB's economics researchers. The call, placed through the international job market for PhD economists, attracted more than 180 applications. A joint committee including Fuchs-Schündeln, Rahwan, and researchers from CHM and WZB reviewed applications, conducted interviews, and invited six candidates to Berlin in January and February to present their work. The presentations covered topics such as human and algorithm collaboration in supporting unemployed job seekers and the effects of generative AI on career choices. The search is still ongoing and the selected candidate is expected to start in the fall of 2026.

Exchange with the MPRG Biosocial

Alongside her AI-related research, Fuchs-Schündeln is a leading expert on the economic and social consequences of German reunification. This connects to research at MPIB on inequality. Laurel Raffington, head of the MPRG Biosocial, invited Fuchs-Schündeln to provide feedback and critical input on ongoing work.

In a meeting with members of the MPRG Biosocial, junior researchers presented their research on genetic factors and on how and why their implications may differ between East and West Germany. The discussion brought together approaches from genetics and economics and clarified where the two fields ask similar questions but rely on different approaches. Fuchs-Schündeln contributed perspectives from economic research on reunification and institutional change, and the exchange identified potential links to future joint work on migration, inequality, and social mobility. The cooperation will be continued by a co-authored paper.