Hedda Thorell

Hi! I'm Hedda Thorell, a fifth year PhD student at the Department of Economics at Stockholm University. My research interests lie in applied macroeconomics, macro finance and household finance. I am particularly interested in using micro data to understand the macroeconomy, and monetary policy in particular.

I also have experience from different policy institutions; including the International Monetary Fund, the National Institute for Economic Research (NIER) and Sveriges Riksbank. I am also a 2026 Lamfalussy Fellow.

I am on the 2026/2027 Job Market.

You can find my CV here. Feel free to get in touch with me at hedda.thorell@su.se.

News
October 2026: I will present our paper, "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Undermining Central Bank Independence", at the Young Researcher Poster Session at the Conference on Macroeconomic Policy (scheduled).

September 2026: I presented my paper, "Quantitative Easing and Portfolio Rebalancing", at GSE Helsinki (Nordic PhD Seminar Exchange), and at the First Women’s Network Conference in Stockholm.

August 2026: I presented our paper, "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Undermining Central Bank Independence", at the poster session at the Conference on New Challenges in Monetary Economics.

June 2026: I presented our paper, "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Undermining Central Bank Independence", at the Ministry of Finance in Sweden (Finansdepartementet).

May 2026: Together with Gökhan Ider, I received the ECB Lamfalussy Research Fellowship 2026 for our project, “News-Driven Fluctuations and Monetary Policy Transmission.” I also presented my paper, "Quantitative Easing and Portfolio Rebalancing", at the 6th Workshop for Women in Macroeconomics, Finance and Economic History, and our paper, "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Undermining Central Bank Independence", at the 2nd Kiel-CEPR Conference on Monetary Policy - Central Bank Independence in the Spotlight. Our article was also covered in VoxEU.

April 2026: I presented my paper, "Quantitative Easing and Portfolio Rebalancing", at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (ENTER Seminar).

Research

Quantitative Easing and Portfolio Rebalancing
Draft available upon request

Who sells to the central bank during QE, and how are the proceeds reinvested? I study the Riksbank's covered bonds purchasing programme during the Covid pandemic, exploiting short-run deviations in the Riksbank's allocation principle to construct unexpected purchases and estimate effects on yields and portfolio rebalancing. I find that purchases lowered yields and that domestic sellers rebalance into government bonds. Foreign investors, however, do not rebalance within the Swedish bond market. Instead, their selling is mirrored by a decline in repo positions, suggesting repayment of loan financing rather than capital outflows.

The Macroeconomic Consequences of Undermining Central Bank Independence: Evidence from Governor Transitions
Joint with Marijn A. Bolhuis (IMF) and Rui C. Mano (IMF). Submitted.
IMF Working Paper No. 2026/040
Coverage: World Economic Outlook, October 2025, BOX 2.3, VoxEU.

The Anatomy of Monetary Stimulus of Durable Goods Demand
Joint with Jesper Böjeryd (Stockholm University) and Roine Vestman (Stockholm University)
Work in progress

Geopolitical Risk and Firm Financing
Joint with Märta Almgren (Stockholm University), Mathias Klein (Sveriges Riksbank) and Valentin Schubert (Sveriges Riksbank)
Work in progress

News-Driven Fluctuations and Monetary Policy Transmission
Joint with Gökhan Ider (Free University and DIW Berlin)
ECB Lamfalussy Research Fellowship 2026

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse