December 05, 2025 | News | New Faces at MPIDR

Welcome Jan Einhoff!

Jan Einhoff will be working in the Research Group Labor Demography and the MaxHel Center at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR). © MPIDR/Schulz

The Research Group Labor Demography welcomes Jan Einhoff as a new research scientist. He will also be part of the MaxHel Center. Jan completed his PhD studies in sociology within the DYNAMICS research training group at Humboldt University in Berlin and was a visiting researcher at Nuffield College in Oxford, the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and the Finnish Centre for Pensions in Helsinki. He holds degrees from Bocconi University, the Hertie School, and the University of Mannheim.

Jan’s main research interests are in social demography, life course research, and quantitative methods. His dissertation examined the social stratification of late working lives in Europe, with a particular focus on new causal inference and machine learning approaches. 

What question drives you most in your research?     
I am mainly interested in the causes and consequences of the extension of working lives – the fact that more people participate in the labor market at older ages and retire later. I want to understand which population groups lead and benefit from this development, and which ones don’t, for example due to poor working conditions or health issues. I am also fascinated by new quantitative research methods that allow us to better understand how disparities between population groups emerge (in working life expectancies, for example) and to what extent policy interventions could realistically reduce these disparities (through better work-care reconciliation, for example).

Why did you choose MPIDR as your new employer and what are you particularly looking forward to as you start working at the MPIDR?    
There are few places in Germany or elsewhere that offer such excellent research conditions. I had the chance to visit the MPIDR during my PhD and immediately appreciated the friendly atmosphere. It felt like a place where exciting research happens, where people from around the world come together, and where I could connect with others who share similar interests. I’m really looking forward to being part of that environment.

What do you like about Rostock?    
What I love most about Rostock is how close it is to the Baltic Sea. I like to swim and I enjoy long seaside walks, not just in summer. It’s also located in a beautiful and historic part of Europe, not too far from the Nordics and Poland, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of the region during my time at the Institute.

What is your favorite and what is your least favorite part about work?    
I really like that my task as a researcher is to be innovative and to do things that no one has done before. I also enjoy learning from brilliant colleagues and seeing their research develop. My least favorite part of work are the less creative or repetitive tasks that need to be done during the research process, like the endless data cleaning.

What are you obsessed with at the moment besides demography?    
I enjoy cooking and exploring cuisines from around the world, which fits well with working in academia and traveling to different places for conferences and research visits. I am also hoping to get back into long-distance running more regularly, as I did before my PhD. I’ve heard Rostock is a great place for that!