Ingo Isphording is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Collective Goods in Bonn, Germany. Until August 2025, he served as IZA Research Director, being responsible for scientific management, coordination of the institute’s research agenda, and science communication. Prior to taking up this position he acted in various other roles at IZA for almost a decade. He is an applied labor and education economist who is passionate about researching the origins of educational and labor market inequality and how public policy can make a difference. His work has been published in journals such like the Economic Journal, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Human Resources and the American Economic Journal. He is actively engaged in improving German education policies by disseminating international research findings within the German policy discourse and advocating for enhanced data access for researchers.

Ingo Isphording is a member of the Research Committee on Economics of Education (Bildungsökonomischer Ausschuss) of the German Economic Association and is affiliated with CESifo and the CRC TR 224 "Economic Perspectives on Societal Challenges".


External Publications