Kirsten Sehnbruch

Kirsten Sehnbruch
Born	1970 Oberhausen, Germany
Occupation(s)	Academic, researcher
Years active	1997–present
Known for	Employment quality research, Latin American labor markets, Chilean political studies

Kirsten Sehnbruch holds the position of British Academy Global Professor and is a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute within the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her expertise lies in defining and quantifying employment quality, with a particular emphasis on developing nations. Her scholarly interests encompass employment quality, multidimensional measurement tools, labor markets in Latin America, labor relations, Chilean political dynamics, and public policy formulation.

Research

Sehnbruch’s investigations prioritize employment attributes—such as earnings, job security, occupational hierarchy, social security contributions, and opportunities for vocational education—as fundamental to individual welfare. She challenges the prevailing focus among labor market analysts and policymakers on increasing job numbers rather than enhancing job quality. Utilizing Amartya Sen’s capability approach alongside multidimensional poverty frameworks developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and United Nations Development Programme, she promotes the use of composite indicators designed to more effectively represent employment quality and inform policymaking in emerging economies.

In addition to her work on employment standards, Sehnbruch has produced extensive writings on Chilean political affairs and public policy issues. Her 2013 co-edited volume, Democratic Chile: The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition, 1990–2010, examines how the aftermath of the Pinochet regime influenced political structures and policymaking during Chile’s democratic consolidation under the Concertación coalition and the initial administration of Michelle Bachelet.

Between 2011 and 2017, she led the University of Chile’s research team participating in the NOPOOR project, which received funding from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

In 2013, she spearheaded a FONDAP-funded research initiative on social conflict and societal cohesion supported by Chile’s National Research Council (Conicyt). This effort culminated in the establishment of the Centro para el Estudio de Conflictos y Cohesión Social (COES), where she was a founding board member from 2013 until 2019.

In 2018, Sehnbruch was awarded a British Academy Global Professorship for four years to conduct research on The Quality of Employment (QoE) in Middle Income Countries.

Biography

Born in Oberhausen, Germany, Sehnbruch was raised between London—where she attended the German School London—and Kirchen, Germany. She pursued studies in modern and medieval languages at Jesus College, Cambridge. During her undergraduate tenure, she gained practical experience as a trainee auditor with Price Waterhouse in Buenos Aires, which provided her with direct insights into development challenges. Following Cambridge, she worked as an equity analyst for Goldman Sachs Asset Management based in London.

In 1997, Sehnbruch relocated to Brussels to join the European Commission, working on the Mexico Desk within the Directorate-General for External Relations. There, she contributed to negotiations concerning the Global Agreement on Free Trade with Mexico. That same year, she returned to Cambridge to pursue an MPhil in Latin American Studies with a concentration on economics and sociology.

She earned her PhD in social and political sciences at Cambridge by researching employment quality within Chile’s labor market. This dissertation was later published as The Chilean Labor Market: A Key to Understanding Latin American Labor Markets through Palgrave Macmillan in 2006.

Following her doctorate, Sehnbruch taught at the University of California at Berkeley. In 2009, she moved to Chile to join the Faculty of Economics at the Universidad de Chile and took on leadership of the Institute for Public Policy at Universidad Diego Portales. She was instrumental in obtaining significant funding from the Chilean government to establish a research center focused on social conflict and cohesion—known as Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social—hosted jointly by the University of Chile and the Catholic University of Chile. COES engages over 50 researchers across various social science fields and maintains an international collaborative network. Sehnbruch served on its governing board for five years.

Her academic pursuits concentrate on assessing employment quality within developing economies by applying Amartya Sen’s capability framework combined with empirical techniques developed by Sabina Alkire and James Foster. She contends that evaluating labor markets solely through job quantity or unemployment figures is insufficient; instead, comprehensive multidimensional metrics that capture job quality are vital for accurately gauging labor market performance.

Media

Sehnbruch has contributed blog posts to Chile's leading newspaper, La Tercera, and continues to engage actively with Chilean media outlets. Additionally, her writings have appeared in The Guardian, the Monkey Cage section of The Washington Post, Open Democracy, and the Inter-American Dialogue.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Sehnbruch, K., González, P., Apablaza, M., Méndez Pineda, R., & Arriagada, V. (2020). A multidimensional analysis of employment quality across nine Latin American nations. World Development, 127, 104738. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104738
• Madero-Cabib, I., Biehl, A., Sehnbruch, K., Calvo, E., & Bertranou, F. (2019). Fragile foundations of private pension schemes: A cohort-based study on labor trajectories in Chile. Research on Aging, 41(10), 961–987. doi:10.1177/0164027519874687
• Piasna, A., Burchell, B., & Sehnbruch, K. (2019). Examining job quality within European employment policies: Progress and setbacks. The European Review of Labour and Research, 25(2), 165–180. doi:10.1177/1024258919832213
• Sehnbruch, K., Carranza, R., & Prieto, J. (2019). Insights from Chile on unemployment insurance based on individual savings accounts: A political economy perspective. Development and Change, 50(4), 948–975. doi:10.1111/dech.12457
• Sehnbruch, K. (2017). Assessing the 2010 Chilean earthquake’s impact: Testing the capabilities of a neoliberal state. Latin American Perspectives, 44(4), 4–9. doi:10.1177/0094582X17705859
• Sehnbruch, K., Agloni, N., Imilan, W., & Sanhueza, C. (2017). The Chilean government’s social policy measures responding to the 2010 earthquake and tsunami disasters. Latin American Perspectives, 44(4), 24–40. doi:10.1177/0094582X16648955
• Ocampo, J., & Sehnbruch, K. (2015). Introduction to employment quality issues in Latin America. International Labour Review, 154(2), 165–170. doi:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00237.x
• Ruiz-Tagle, J., & Sehnbruch, K. (2015). Quantity versus quality of jobs in Chile: The critical role of permanent contracts. International Labour Review, 154(2), 227–252. doi:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00240.x
• Ramos, J., Sehnbruch, K., & Weller, J. (2015). Theoretical framework and empirical evidence on employment quality in Latin America. International Labour Review, 154(2), 171–194.doi:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00238.x
• Sehnbruch, K., Burchell, B., Agloni, N., & Piasna, A. (2015). Human development and decent work: Exploring why certain concepts gain traction while others do not. Development and Change, 46(2), 197–224.doi:10.1111/dech.12149
• Burchell, B., Sehnbruch, K., Piasna, A., & Agloni, N. (2014). Defining and debating employment quality and decent work: Methodologies and ongoing discussions. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 38(2), 459–477.doi:10.1093/cje/bet067
• Sehnbruch, K. (2012). Review of Michelle Taylor-Robinson’s Do the Poor Count? Democratic Institutions and Accountability in the Context of Poverty. Social Forces, 93(2), e44.doi:10.1093/sf/sos107
• Dresdner Cid, J., & Sehnbruch, K. (2010). Employment market effects of the 2010 earthquake in Chile’s Bío Bío region. Revista Sociedad Hoy, 19, 71–96.
• Sehnbruch, K. (2006). Evaluating whether Chile’s unemployment insurance scheme based on individual savings accounts can serve as a model for other developing countries. International Social Security Review, 59(1), 27–48.doi:10.1111/j.1468-246X.2006.00232.x

Books

• Sehnbruch, K., & Siavelis, P. (2014). El balance: Política y políticas de la Concertación 1990–2010. Santiago: Catalonia.
• Sehnbruch, K., & Siavelis, P. (2014). Democratic Chile: The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition, 1990–2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Sehnbruch, K. (2006). The Chilean Labor Market: A Key to Understanding Latin American Labor Markets. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.