Judith Niehues studied economics at the University of Cologne and at the San Diego State University. She graduated as Diplom-Volkswirtin (equiv. M.A. Economics) in July 2007. From August 2007 until September 2008 she worked as a research assistant at the Cologne Center for Public Economics (Prof. Dr. C. Fuest). From October 2008 until September 2011 she was a PhD student in the SOCLILFE research training group at the University of Cologne. Since October 2011 she is Economist at the Cologne Institute for Economic Research.

Judith received her PhD for her thesis on "Income Inequality, Inequality of Opportunity and Redistribution" from the University of Cologne (Prof. Dr. C. Fuest, Prof. D.A. Jaeger, PhD) in December 2011.

Her main research interests include (empirical) public and labor economics, in particular tax benefit microsimulation, the analysis of income and earnings inequality as well as behavioral and redistributive effects of tax benefit systems.

She was an IZA Research Affiliate from February 2010 until December 2015. From September 2009 until September 2011 she was part-time Research Assitant at IZA.