Ulf Nielsson

Research


Working papers


Using the near-universe of Danish owner-occupied residential houses, we show that an exogenous increase in wealth significantly increases the likelihood to switch to green heating. We estimate an elasticity of one at the median of the wealth distribution, i.e., a 10% increase in wealth increase raises green heating adoption by 10%. Effects are heterogeneous along the wealth distribution: all else equal, a redistribution of wealth from rich households to poor households can significantly increase green heating adoption. We further explore potential channels of our findings (pro-social preferences, financial constraints, and luxury goods interpretation). Our results emphasize the role of economic growth for the green transition. 
Using detailed register-based data with information on individuals’ deposit holdings, we test whether individuals are active investors when it comes to their deposit holdings and why they hold deposits. We provide three main findings. First, we show that deposit investors are active, as they actively reduce their deposit holdings following an exogenous increase captured by unexpected inheritances. Second, following large exogeneous deposit inflows, people reallocate away from low-return deposits to higher expected-return assets, such as bonds and stocks, in line with classical deposit-demand theories. Third, people use deposits and voluntary unemployment insurance as substitutes, meaning deposits are used to insure against sudden negative income shocks. 
Households reduce consumption following negative shocks to their stock holdings. Households also lower consumption following exogenous increases in mortgage debt payments. But what is the impact of simultaneous adverse shocks in both markets, such as in the 2008 financial crisis? Using detailed Danish household data we find that the reduction in consumption doubles if households are highly exposed to both the stock and the mortgage market. We also find that the negative effects persist over time. It has a severe effect on consumption as households with a high-risk profile in the asset market also tend to have high exposure in the debt market. We discuss underlying reasons behind our results and their implications for macroprudential policies.
Using rich register data from Denmark, we study whether people save enough to maintain their pre-retirement level of consumption during retirement. We find that 77% of retirees do. This high fraction is driven by mandatory labour market contributions. The 23% of individuals who do not save enough to maintain their pre-retirement level of consumption are less likely to have mandatory pension schemes and do not compensate for the lack thereof via voluntary private savings. However, mandatory contributions come at the cost of lower consumption and nonretirement savings during working years. We show that people who have seen their mandatory pension contributions increase the most over time have cut consumption and non-retirement wealth accumulation during working years, compared to individuals having experienced only a small increase in mandatory pension contributions.


Selected publications (full list in CV)


Variation in results across research teams testing the same hypotheses is sizable and underestimated by the researchers. These nonstandard errors decrease with peer-review, better reproducible results, and higher rated research. 
Distributors of mutual funds (e.g., banks) exert a powerful influence on people’ decisions to buy mutual funds, dominating other explanations such as fund performance.
Sexual harassment in the workplace  causes company market value to drop by 1.5% points and MeToo four-folds the risk of becoming embroiled in a scandal.
Equity home bias of foreigners increases with duration of stay, reaching the same level as that of locals in 7-8 years of relocation.
Rural firms are less underpriced than urban firms, consistent with strong local bias in rural areas.
The empirical relationship between trade transparency and liquidity is non-monotonic, explaining why transparency effects vary in existing empirical literature.
AIM listed firms are of the same quality level as firms listed on more regulated markets, albeit smaller in size. 
The Euronext merger increased liquidity, but only for big and international firms.