Dr. Juliane Zenker

About Me

I am a Senior Researcher at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), with over 15 years of experience in policy analysis. My work centers on public and development economics, with a particular focus on social policies, labor markets, gender equality, and socio-ecological transformation.

My research adopts a transdisciplinary approach, often combining field experiments with machine learning techniques to evaluate government-led interventions. I collaborate closely with international organizations, including the World Bank, for which I have co-lead policy evaluations as a Principal Investigator. The geographic focus is on conflict- and climate-affected regions such as Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, and more recently, Germany. 

My work has been supported by institutions such as the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), the Joachim Herz Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Previously, I held the Dorothea-Schlözer Fellowship and served as a Senior Researcher in the Department of Economics at the University of Göttingen, where I also acted as interim Junior Professor for Development Economics. In Spring 2020, I was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

Since 2023, I have served as a member of the Standing Field Committee for Development Economics of the German Economic Association. 

I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Göttingen, where I was part of the DFG-funded Research Training Group “Globalization and Development.”