In this presentation I will give an overview of three early-stage research ideas in labor economics. The topics range from the impact of market power on workers’ labor market careers, the gender pensions gap and the age wage gap across space. The age wage gap has been rising over the past three decades in many advanced economies, and the authors argue that this is due to less upward mobility within firms for young workers. This research aims to explore heterogeneity across space using German administrative data. The second project investigates the impact of market power on workers’ wages, employment and reallocation using firm-level measures of market power and observing labor market outcomes on the worker level for France and Germany. The final research idea makes use of matched survey and administrative pensions data to investigate the key determinants of the gender pensions gap, which can be considered an accumulation of gender disparities across the life cycle.