Associate Professor
Copenhagen Business School
Department of Economics,
Porcelaenshaven 16 A, DK-2000 Frederiksberg
Tel.: (+45) 3815 2587, Mobile: (+45) 2281 1015
E-mail: imu.eco@cbs.dk
Research interests
Urban economics and transportation economics.
with Bence Boje-Kovacs, Albert Saiz, Vinicios Sant'Anna and Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen
Abstract. 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 immigrant-dense, housing prices decline, and subsequent move-ins are more likely to be other immigrants or young, low-income native citizens without children.
with Bruno De Borger and Jan Rouwendal
Abstract. In this paper, we study the productivity and wage effects of a large and very localized discrete shock in the quality of transport infrastructure, viz. the opening of the Great Belt Bridge connecting the Copenhagen area with the neighboring island Funen and the mainland of Denmark. We focus on two effects: (i) an accessibility externality, captured via changes in an accessibility indicator at the municipal level; (ii) better matching of workers to jobs, enabled by to the shorter travel times after the opening of the bridge. We can disentangle the accessibility and matching effects, because better matching is only realized via new commutes crossing the Great Belt after the opening of the bridge. Our results show that the increased accessibility had significant positive effects on productivity as well as wages, the latter being much more localized. The productivity effects of improved labour market matching are larger than the accessibility effects, but they are restricted to a small share of the firms. We find a modest wage effect of better matching, suggesting that employees get a small wage increase on top of the commuting cost savings associated with the opening of the bridge. Overall, the estimates suggest that firms benefited more from the opening of the bridge than did workers. Moreover, the bridge benefited mainly highly educated and male workers, and it increased wage inequality.
with Malte Borghorst and Jos van Ommeren
Abstract. We demonstrate that women with children are much more likely to leave their job when they have a long commute, which is not true for men. Interpreting these results through the lens of a dynamic search model, we demonstrate that the costs of commuting increase substantially for women after they have children. For women with children, a 12 kilometer increase in commuting distance induces costs equivalent to about 16% of their wage.
with Bence János Bøje-Kovács and Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen
Abstract. 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 affects the local housing market and job availability, leading to lower housing prices, higher wages, and longer commutes. Ultimately, the loss of the town-hall bears major negative consequences for inhabitants.
