Research and publications

Research

I work on market design, matching theory and empirical methods. Working on real allocation procedures with municipalities and states generates data that allow their effects to be studied causally. I use administrative data and field experiments from Germany, Hungary and England.

Research areas

School choice

Parents in the lab. All mechanisms are frequently manipulated, by parents about as often as by students. arXiv 2026

Efficiency and strategy-proofness. In Budapest, the Rank-Minimizing mechanism cuts the share of poor placements from 15 to under 3 per cent. GEB 2023

Childcare. Decentralised deferred acceptance for childcare JMID 2021.

Inequality

Shadow education. When children are assigned to the top track, families from the lowest socio-economic tercile increase private tutoring disproportionately. DP 2025

Early tracking. Academic-track schools help children of all backgrounds, but disadvantaged children are less likely to get there. DP 2024

School choice across districts. When districts merge their allocation, everyone gains on average; the gain is equivalent to a school five kilometres closer. GEB 2024

Development economics

Microfinance. In Thailand, more diverse borrower groups improve repayment by ten percentage points. DP 2024

Statistics and data. Work from my OECD years (2014–2017) on the value of official statistics and new data sources.

Publications

Journal articles

  1. 3
    School Choice with Independent versus Consolidated Districts
    Games and Economic Behavior 147: 170–205 (2024) · T. Klein, R. Aue, J. Ortega
  2. 2
    The Cost of Strategy-Proofness in School Choice
    Games and Economic Behavior 141: 515–528 (2023) · J. Ortega, T. Klein
  3. 1
    A Deferred Acceptance Mechanism for Decentralized, Fast and Fair Childcare Assignment
    Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design 6(1): 59–100 (2021) · T. Reischmann, T. Klein, S. Giegerich

Working papers

  1. 12
    Experimental School Choice with Parents
    arXiv 2603.24615 (2026) · M. Freer, T. Klein, J. Ortega
  2. 11
    Sorting, Status, and Shadow Education: How Track Placement Shapes Parental Investment
    ZEW Discussion Paper 25-023 (2025) · T. Klein, S. McNamara
  3. 10
    Access, Achievements, and Aspirations: The Impacts of School Tracking on Student Outcomes
    ZEW Discussion Paper 24-076 (2024) · M. Bach, T. Klein, S. McNamara
  4. 9
  5. 8
    Analysis of Stable Matchings in R: Package matchingMarkets
    Vignette to R package matchingMarkets (2023) · T. Klein
  6. 7
    Improving Efficiency and Equality in School Choice
    ZEW Discussion Paper 22-046 (2022) · J. Ortega, T. Klein
  7. 6
    What Happens when Separate and Unequal School Districts Merge?
    ZEW Discussion Paper 20-032 (2020) · R. Aue, T. Klein, J. Ortega
  8. 5
    Access to New Data Sources for Statistics: Business Models and Incentives for the Corporate Sector
    OECD Statistics Working Paper 17/01 (2017) · T. Klein, S. Verhulst
  9. 4
  10. 3
    An Indicator for Statistical Literacy Based on National Newspaper Archives
    IASE 2016 Roundtable Paper (2016) · T. Klein, A. Galdin, E. Mohamedou
  11. 2
    Making Data Portals Work for SDGs: A View on Deployment, Design and Technology
    PARIS21 Discussion Paper 8 (2016) · T. Klein et al.
  12. 1
    Public-Private Partnerships for Statistics: Lessons Learned, Future Steps
    OECD Development Co-operation Working Paper 27 (2016) · N. Robin, T. Klein, J. Jütting

Policy briefs

  1. 6
    Rethinking Tracking: Lessons from Hungary for German Education Reform
    ZEW Policy Brief 10/2025 (2025) · S. McNamara, T. Klein
  2. 5
    Mit Digitalisierung gegen Lebensmittelverschwendung
    ZEW Policy Brief 9/2023 (2023) · T. Klein, M. Ott
  3. 4
    Tapping into People’s Impatience for Better Environmental Subsidies
    ZEW Policy Brief 4/2023 (2023) · A. Atayev, G. Caspari, A. Hillenbrand, T. Klein
  4. 3
    Matching Practices for Teaching Positions in Public Schools in Germany
    Matching-in-Practice Country Profile 28 (2019) · T. Klein, P. vom Baur
  5. 2
    Matching Practices for Childcare in Germany
    Matching-in-Practice Country Profile 26 (2018) · S. Herzog, T. Klein
  6. 1
    Dezentrale Kitaplatzvergabe ohne Warteschlange: Ein Leitfaden
    ZEW Policy Brief 4/2017 (2017) · N. Fugger, T. Klein, T. Riehm

Practitioner articles

  1. 8
  2. 7
    Mit Ungeduld zu besseren Subventionen für umweltfreundliche Produkte
    Wirtschaftsdienst 06/2025 (2025) · A. Atayev, G. Caspari, A. Hillenbrand, T. Klein
  3. 6
    Alleinerziehende in der Betreuungsplatzvergabe: Status quo und Handlungsempfehlungen
    Wirtschaftsdienst 05/2024 (2024) · H. Steinberg, S. Schüller, Y. Öztürk, T. Klein, P. Schober
  4. 5
    Effiziente und faire Verteilung von Lebensmittelspenden
    Wirtschaftsdienst 08/2023 (2023) · T. Klein, M. Ott
  5. 4
    Die Regeln machen den Unterschied: Marktdesign
    Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium 48(4): 22–28 (2019) · V. Gretschko, T. Klein, A. Wambach
  6. 3
  7. 2
  8. 1

Reports

  1. 6
    Die KitaMatch-Software: Wegweiser für eine schnelle, faire und transparente Kitaplatzvergabe
    Bertelsmann Stiftung (2023) · G. Caspari, S. Greshake, T. Klein, T. Riehm
  2. 5
  3. 4
    Measuring the Value of Official Statistics
    UNECE Report on the Value of Official Statistics, ch. 5 (2017) · T. Klein, P. van de Ven
  4. 3
    Rethinking Donor Support for Statistical Capacity Development
    OECD Development Co-operation Report 2017, ch. 4 (2017) · S. Badiee, T. Klein, E. Mohamedou
  5. 2
    The Role of National Statistical Systems in the Data Revolution
    OECD Development Co-operation Report 2017, ch. 3 (2017) · S. Badiee, J. Jütting, T. Klein
  6. 1
    Data for Development: A Needs Assessment for SDG Monitoring and Statistical Capacity Development
    UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (2015) · J. Espey et al.

Books

  1. 2
    Why Do India’s Urban Poor Choose to Go Private? Health Policy Simulations in Slums of Hyderabad
    ibidem, Stuttgart (2012) · T. Klein
  2. 1
    Microfinance 2.0: Group Formation and Repayment Performance in Online Lending Platforms
    ibidem, Stuttgart (2010) · T. Klein