Research Group Leader

Nicole Hiekel

scholar.google.com
twitter.com

Nicole Hiekel leads the Independent Research Group on Gender Inequalities and Fertility at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany. Nicole received her PhD in Sociology (2014) from VU University Amsterdam with her dissertation, entitled "The different meanings of cohabitation across Europe". She conducted this research at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) in The Hague.

Nicole is an internationally recognized scholar studying, at the intersection of sociology and demography, the interaction of social and gender inequalities with demographic processes in partnership and family life courses. Her research has been published in Demography, European Journal of Population, Population Studies, European Sociological Review and Journal of Marriage and Family.

MPIDR Publications

Recent All

Dierker, P.; Ophir, A.; Hiekel, N.:

From dating to marriage: changes in short-term fertility intentions across partnership transitions

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-010. (2026)    

Leesch, J.; Hiekel, N.:

No partner, no children? Union formation, assortative mating, and educational inequalities in fertility in Germany

European Journal of Population 42:8, 1–24. (2026)    

Mazzeo, F.; Hiekel, N.; Vitali, A.:

Joint pot or separate purses? Unpacking the cohabitation-marriage gap in income pooling across Europe

Journal of Family Research 38, 23–46. (2026)    

Begall, K.; Hiekel, N.:

Examining the gender equality-fertlity paradox in three Nordic countries

Population and Development Review 51:2, 858–888. (2025)    

Ferraretto, V.; Hiekel, N.; Vitali, A.:

Non-cohabiting partners’ economic characteristics and the transition to living together in Germany: a couple-level perspective

European Journal of Population 41:25, 1–28. (2025)    

Recent All

Dierker, P.; Ophir, A.; Hiekel, N.:

From dating to marriage: changes in short-term fertility intentions across partnership transitions

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-010. (2026)    

Leesch, J.; Hiekel, N.:

No partner, no children? Union formation, assortative mating, and educational inequalities in fertility in Germany

European Journal of Population 42:8, 1–24. (2026)    

Mazzeo, F.; Hiekel, N.; Vitali, A.:

Joint pot or separate purses? Unpacking the cohabitation-marriage gap in income pooling across Europe

Journal of Family Research 38, 23–46. (2026)    

Begall, K.; Hiekel, N.:

Examining the gender equality-fertlity paradox in three Nordic countries

Population and Development Review 51:2, 858–888. (2025)    

Ferraretto, V.; Hiekel, N.; Vitali, A.:

Non-cohabiting partners’ economic characteristics and the transition to living together in Germany: a couple-level perspective

European Journal of Population 41:25, 1–28. (2025)    

Arnolfo, S.; Hiekel, N.:

Pathways of family change: a typology of multipartnered fertility life courses in five Northern European countries

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-005. (2024)    

Carollo, A.; Hiekel, N.; Ferraretto, V.:

A boosted multistate model of partnership trajectories in Germany

In: Proceedings of the 38th International Workshop on Statistical Modelling: Durham, UK, 14-19 July, 2024, 86–90. Durham, UK: Durham University. (2024)    

Ferraretto, V.; Hiekel, N.; Vitali, A.:

Do his or her economic characteristics matter? A couple-level perspective on the transition to living together in Germany

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-020. (2024)    

Hiekel, N.; Kühn, M.:

Lessons from the pandemic: gender inequality in childcare and the emergence of a gender mental health gap among parents in Germany

Demographic Research 51:3, 49–80. (2024)    

Mazzeo, F.; Hiekel, N.; Vitali, A.:

Joint pot or separate purses? Unpacking the cohabitation-marriage gap in income pooling across Europe

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-024. (2024)    

Hiekel, N.; Kühn, M.:

Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of partnership and parenthood status for growing disparities between types of families

Journal of Health and Social Behavior 63:4, 594–609. (2022)    

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research is not responsible for the content of this page.