Research 

In this paper, we investigate the impact of municipal mergers on residential mobility in a quasi-natural experiment setting by examining how local economic environment and neighborhood composition respond to the loss of local public administration. Utilizing comprehensive neighborhood-level data from Denmark spanning 1996 to 2015, we find that the loss of the town-hall triggers emigration, leading to a reduction in locally supplied public goods. This has also important implications for the local housing market and labor force, identified in declining housing prices and job availability, but an increase in wages and commuting distances. Ultimately, the loss of the town-hall bears major negative consequences for inhabitants.

This study investigates how firms build resilience during crises by analysing their management strategies and growth patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a unique dataset that combines data from a nationwide survey of Danish firms with administrative records, we assess the influence of various management strategies on employment. Our findings reveal that facilitating remote work, shifting production, increasing capital investments, and adopting new technologies are positively associated with employment growth, while state support, centralized decision-making, and insourcing strongly correlate with employment decline. The results also highlight regional differences in the adoption and effectiveness of management strategies: growing firms are predominantly located in urban areas, where strategies like remote work support and increased investment are more common. In contrast, rural firms have primarily survived the pandemic by relying on state support. This study underscores the importance of context-specific strategies for both urban and rural settings, providing practical insights for policymakers aiming to enhance business and regional resilience in future crises. 

This paper examines the impact of residence-based ethnic networks on mental health; such networks are defined as the concentration of residents from the same country of origin in a neighborhood. To estimate the effect, we utilize administrative registry data, together with data on quasi-random assignment of apartments to non-Western households with housing needs to various neighborhoods. After controlling for individual characteristics, time-invariant neighborhood characteristics, and general practitioners (GP) fixed effects, we find that a 1–percentage-point increase in the concentration of residence-based co-ethnics (RBCEs) increases the probability of being treated with psychiatric medications by 0.7-percentage point over a 5-year period after the assignment. With 19% of the population being treated with psychiatric medications the year before assignment, the result translates into an effect size of 3.7%. The results indicate that relatively high concentrations of co-ethnics treated with psychiatric medications increase the probability of being treated with psychiatric medications. The positive impact on treatment with psychiatric medication reflects an increase in the demand for these drugs when moving into a neighborhood with neighbors of the same ethnicity. If new residents are in good mental health condition when moving, these results suggest that moving into a neighborhood with a high co-ethic concentration worsens mental health status. However, as the population in this study is a vulnerable group an increase in treatment with psychiatric medications likely reflects that untreated mental health problems are treated, and the mental health status improved. The group of non-Western immigrants in this study differs significantly from the population in general, thus, results may not be generalized to all non-Western immigrants. 

We investigate the impact of exposure to an economically deprived neighborhood in Denmark on outcomes related to mental health. To identify the effect, we exploit the quasi-random assignment of applicants to diverse neighborhoods by the Copenhagen municipality from 2000 to 2007. Using data on the assignment combined with longitudinal administrative data, we find that exposure to an economically deprived neighborhood significantly increases the probability of being treated with psychiatric medication by 3.6 percentage points. A significant negative impact on mental health occurs among men and non-Western immigrants, and the results indicate that the effect of neighborhood deprivation on mental health is cumulative. We find that the negative impact of neighborhood deprivation comes from the most deprived neighborhoods. Our results suggest that for vulnerable populations, exposure to deprived neighborhoods affects mental health through social interactions with their new neighbors.

If policy-makers wish to intervene in neighborhoods to improve the socioeconomic status of the neighborhoods, it is important to know the residential dynamics of neighborhoods before starting any interventions. This paper describes the residential dynamics of persistent neighborhood deprivation over a period of 28 years. We examine small-scale, predefined, physically contiguous neighborhoods with public housing. We utilize unique longitudinal administrative data for the period 1986 to 2013 to follow individuals and their characteristics over time. With our unique data, we are the first to document that deprived neighborhoods function as a transit stage in residents’ housing trajectories. On average, residents’ unemployment rate increases before they enter a deprived neighborhood, and sharply declines two years before they move out. In line with the aforementioned findings, the results suggest that an increase in economic resources is positively associated with leaving a deprived neighborhood compared with non-deprived neighborhoods. Hence, residents’ moving patterns contribute to deprived neighborhoods maintaining their relative position. However, as both the socioeconomic difference between in-movers and out-movers and the turnover rate decline over time, residents’ moving patterns account for a small share of persistent neighborhood deprivation. Thus, with the unique data, we show that deprivation in neighborhoods is mainly attributable to long-term residents who on average do not improve their socio-economic characteristics. 

Is ethnic segregation in Europe driven by native flight or immigrant self-isolation? If the former, which natives avoid immigrants? Which immigrants? What is the geographic scope of homophilic residential preferences? We answer these questions using a matched panel containing the universe of individuals and properties in Denmark from 1987 through 2017. We take advantage of the quasi-random nature of refugee placements and simulated exogenous Markov-chain predictions to generate experimental variation regarding local immigrant arrivals. We find strong evidence of native flight, even at the building level. Flight is stronger among the old and a reaction to the arrival of low-income immigrants. As neighborhoods become more immigrantdense, housing prices decline, and subsequent move-ins are more likely to be other immigrants or young, low-income native citizens without children. 

The restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic brought repercussions for the employees. Most of the workplaces had to temporarily lockdown as a preventive measure to the virus spread. Those individuals who were able to continue working remotely faced a lower risk of job loss compared to those persons who could not. The main question, however, revolves around assessing risks and identifying resilient workers during these restrictive phases of the pandemic. In this article, we propose a new Work-From-Home (WFH) index designed to assess individuals' likelihood of working from home. Utilizing quarterly Labour Force Survey data on the actual extent of remote work among Danish workers from 2008 to 2021, this new index can be employed in any dataset with access to the International Standard Classification of Occupation codes. A comparative analysis is conducted with the commonly applied indexes-the Home Office Index (HOI) and Lockdown Index (LDI) suggested by Faber et al. (2020) and Dingel and Neiman (2020). Our findings reveal that the WFH index offers greater variations by occupations, accounting for diverse outcomes of remote work across different economic sectors. Using Pooled OLS models, the study examines factors influencing resilience and lockdown risks, considering demographics, socioeconomic status, residential location, and industry-related aspects. The results highlight the WFH index's accuracy in measuring remote work possibilities, providing a better-fitted model than in the case of HOI. The findings indicate that notably, male workers in middle to top-level positions, particularly in publicly-owned workplaces, exhibit positive outcomes in remote working and lower lockdown risks. This article not only contributes to future research on labour force resilience but also provides supplementary material for easy application to study labour market changes even in cases with limited data in other countries. 

This paper provides evidence of the effect of neighbour-based networks on employment and income dynamics at the individual level. We use the exogenous timing of relocation offers following household forced displacements in Danish public housing to identify the causal impact of exposure to employed and rich neighbours in the same building. We define exposure as the combination of one's number of neighbours and the amount of time spent with each of them, and we use two different specifications to disentangle the impact of each component. Being exposed to employed neighbours is found to significantly increase the probability of finding a job in the four years following people's relocation. The estimated impact is mainly driven by the number of different neighbours rather than by the length of interactions. In terms of heterogeneity, we find that exposure to neighbours occupying unskilled jobs and working in the industry sector has a more substantial effect on employment. Finally, exposure to rich neighbours positively affects income later in life.