Thomas is an Assistant Professor at the Chair of Organizational Economics at the University of Munich and an Economist at the Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies at ifo Institute. His main research interests are empirical innovation economics and digitization. Previous research has focused on determinants of technological progress such as intellectual property, competition, and migration. Current projects include research on the effects of broadband expansion as well as on online collaboration in open-source software development. In addition to courses covering these topics, Thomas has taught graduate courses on machine learning methods for economic research.