Doctoral Research
My dissertation, "The gendered division of paid labor among families of children with disabilities – A comparative approach," examines how childhood disability, understood as a family-level condition, interacts with family policies and national contexts to shape gender inequality in the division of paid labor across Europe.
The project combines comparative policy analysis with quantitative cross-national research. It develops new measures of policies targeting families of children with disabilities and draws on harmonized data from the 2021 and 2024 waves of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), covering all EU member states.
By bringing families of children with disabilities into comparative research on employment, family policy, and gender inequality, the dissertation connects household-level caregiving demands with broader institutional arrangements. It shows how the effects of family policies may differ across household types and how state interventions can either mitigate or reinforce gendered inequalities in families facing heightened caregiving demands.
The dissertation is supervised by Prof. Haya Stier and Dr. Dafna Gelbgiser, and is supported by several competitive doctoral scholarships and academic excellence awards. Further details are available on the awards page.
Master's Research
My MA thesis, "Mothers of children with disabilities: Labor force participation across the child's developmental stages," examined how the employment disadvantage experienced by mothers of children with disabilities is shpaed by their children's developmental stages and by mothers' educational attainment.
Using US nationally representative data, the study found that this disadvatnage was most pronounced in early childhood and concentrated primarily among mothers without a college degree.
Completed under the supervision of Dr. Dafna Gelbgiser, the thesis was awarded second place in the Israeli Sociological Society's Best MA Thesis Competition.
Additional Projects
Caregiving at Work: Family Caregivers in the Israeli Labor Market
This study examines family caregivers in the Israeli labor market using data from the 2025 Arlozorov Forum Labor Market Survey. It provides an updated assessment of the prevalence and characteristics of employed family caregivers in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war, both of which have expanded and intensified family caregiving responsibilities in Israel. The project examines how caregiving is associated with work absences, employment changes, and other forms of employment disruption, and how these outcomes vary by gender, type of caregiving responsibility, and employment conditions. A central contribution of the study is its focus on the workplace as a potential source of either support or disadvantage, examining how organizational awareness, accommodations, employment sector, and labor relations shape caregivers’ ability to remain in employment. The findings are intended to inform policy responses by the state, employers, and labor organizations.
Pension Policy and Working Beyond Retirement Age
Lead by Prof. Alisa Lewin and Prof. Haya Stier, this study examines how pension policies shape employment beyond the official retirement age across 31 European countries. Combining individual-level data from the 2018 EU-SILC with country-level policy indicators, it investigates how pension generosity and statutory retirement age interact with individuals’ financial resources to influence post-retirement employment. The findings show that more generous pension systems reduce the likelihood of working beyond retirement age, while statutory retirement age operates less directly and depends partly on personal income. By linking individual employment decisions to national pension arrangements, the study highlights the importance of considering both financial need and institutional context when designing policies intended to extend working lives.
Immigrant households’ economic integration over the life course: A multidimensional cross-country comparison
Lead by Prof. Alisa Lewin, This project examines immigrant household economic integration across the life course and across national contexts. Drawing on data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), it analyzes immigrant–native gaps in income, poverty, affluence, homeownership, and wealth across different age groups. The study investigates how these disparities evolve over time, whether they reflect processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage, and how national policies and institutional arrangements shape immigrants’ long-term economic integration.