I am a PhD student at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), where I am affiliated with the Economics of Inequality institute (INEQ). My research has two strands that complement and inform each other.

My empirical work is in labour economics, with a particular focus on social mobility, inequality and the economics of education. Here, I also draw on methods and theories from statistics and sociology. My philosophical work lies in the philosophy of the social sciences. I am particularly interested in the non-epistemic value judgements (normative decisions) that enter empirical research, and in how researchers should handle them.

I value both careful descriptive work and narrowly defined but convincing causal questions that help us understand the mechanisms behind social phenomena. At the same time, I like to take a step back and ask more fundamental conceptual questions: How do we measure social mobility, and how should we? What do people understand by equality of opportunity, and what matters to them about it? Can we, and should we, strive for a perfectly mobile society, or are other goals more central to the idea of equal life chances for all?

Contact

I’m always happy to hear from people working on related questions and open to new collaborations, both empirical and conceptual. You can reach me at moritz.hoerl@wu.ac.at.