Martin Habets
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University and an affiliated researcher at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN.se).
I received my PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in 2026.
My research interests lie in environmental, labor, and health economics.
Research
Abstract: I combine detailed crime reports, independent helpline data, and high-frequency weather records to investigate how temperature variations influence domestic violence (DV) in Mexico City. I find a positive, contemporaneous, and linear relationship between daily temperature and DV, with a 1°C rise leading to a 2.8% increase in DV reports. This effect emerges even under moderate climatic conditions, suggesting continuous risk beyond extreme heat events. My findings rule out that changes in victims’ reporting behavior entirely drive the relationship. Exploiting detailed census data from nearly 2,500 neighborhoods, I show that temperature-induced DV disproportionately affects poorer areas, revealing how environmental stressors exacerbate existing urban inequalities.
(with Marco Battaglini, Eleonora Patacchini, and Valerio Leone Sciabolazza)
Abstract: We investigate whether legislators’ personal financial behavior responds to lobbying activity. Building a novel panel at the legislator–sector–quarter level, we link stock transaction disclosures by members of the U.S. Congress to lobbying records indicating when firms seek to influence a legislator’s policy agenda. We ask whether legislators are more likely to trade in sectors where they have recently been lobbied. The project contributes to our understanding of the strategic use of political connections, the private returns to office, and the channels through which influence may operate in legislative settings.
(with Libertad González)
Abstract: Do sisters or brothers shape adolescents’ gender norms? At a time when they are forming their identities, the presence of a sister, rather than a brother, could influence adolescents’ own gender attitudes. We investigate this question through a school-based lab-in-the-field study of 12–14-year-olds in Barcelona, which directly elicits gender-role attitudes and perceived social norms using a rich set of survey measures and incentivized coordination games. Our identification relies on the as-good-as-random sex of the second-born sibling among first-born adolescents, conditional on parents having a second child. Overall, no clear detectable effects emerge. Our findings suggest that, in early adolescence, sibling sex plays at most a limited role relative to other forces – such as parents, peers, and school environments – in shaping gender norms.
(with Benjamin Hattemer and Ismael Moreno-Martinez)