Marianne Simonsen

“Academic Achievement and the Gender Composition of Preschool Staff”

In this study, Marianne Simonsen, joint with M. Gørtz and E. R. Johansen, uses register based data covering the entire population of Danish children enrolled in preschool in 2006-2007 to investigate whether the gender composition of preschool staff members affects the timing of school start and subsequent academic performance. The researchers determined that the share of male staff improves child outcomes and that gains are larger for boys who did not have access to male teachers previously and among children with less readily access to male role models.

Ms. Simonsen’s academic interests lie within family, health, and labor economics. With co-authors Smith and Skipper, she is currently exploring how reforms of welfare policies affect children's wellbeing and human capital. She also studies the role of universal parenting support during the transition to parenthood and how to support children who grow up in families plagued by substance use problems.

Marianne Simonsen is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics and Business at Aarhus University. a member of Tryg Fonden’s Center for Child Research, and a research fellow at IZA. She is chair of the Independent Research Fund Denmark Social Sciences' research council and an editor at the Scandinavian Journal of Economics. She previously served as guest editor of Labour Economics on two journal issues, one related to child development and another on health and the labor market. She received her PhD in Economics from Aarhus University and has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan.