Advanced Researcher
Department of Household Finance
Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 3
60323 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Email: balakina@safe-frankfurt.de
Last update: August 2025
Personal Birth year 1987, Russian citizen
Main Research Fields Household Finance, Social Finance, Applied Networks, Behavioral Finance, Retail Investments, Financial Literacy
EMPLOYMENT
Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, Department of Household Finance
Advanced Researcher (PostDoc)
October 2023 - present
Aarhus University, Department of Economics and Business Economics
Assistant Professor
May 2020 - September 2023
Lund University, Department of Economics
Postdoctoral Fellow
2017 - 2020
Maternity Leave
April 2019 - April 2020
FELLOWSHIPS
Danish Finance Institute
Research Fellow
May 2020 - September 2023
EDUCATION
Bocconi University, Italy
PhD in Economics and Finance
Date of Defense: 17th of May 2017
Copenhagen University, Denmark
Visiting graduate student, 2015-2016.
International College of Economics and Finance, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia
M.Sc. in Financial Economics, 2011.
National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia
B.Sc. in Economics (Mathematics), 2009. Distinction
PUBLICATIONS AND BOOKS
Masciandaro, Donato, and Olga Balakina (2015) Banking Secrecy and Global Finance: Economic and Political Issues. Palgrave Macmillan
Balakina, Olga, Andrea D’Angelo, and Donato Masciandaro (2016) Bank Secrecy in Offshore Centers and Capital Flows: Does Blacklisting Matter?, Review of Financial Economics, 32: 30-57.
WORKING PAPERS
Beyond Connectivity: Network Effects on Stock Market Participation with Claes Bäckman and Anastasiia Parakhoniak (SSRN) (Accepted at the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control)
Unshrouding product-specific attributes through financial education with Vimal Balasubramaniam, Aditi Dimri, and Renuka Sane (SSRN) (R&R at the Journal of Development Economics)
Peer Effects in Multi-Layer Networks: Evidence from Financial Behavior with Gabriela Stockler
Personal Financial Advice and Portfolio Quality with Claes Bäckman, Andreas Hackethal, Tobin Hanspal, and Dominique M. Lammer (SSRN)
Greener Pensions, Greener Choices: Linking Investments to Sustainable Behavior with Charlotte Christiansen and Malene Kallestrub-Lamb (SSRN)
WORK IN PROGRESS
Ticker, Ticker, Boom: Algorithms Defuse Ticker Confusion with Claes Bäckman, Arze Karam, and Anastasiia Parakhoniak
Social Dimensions of ESG Investment with Charlotte Christiansen and Malene Kallestrub-Lamb
Discrimination and Demand for Financial Advice with Markus Eyting, Judd B. Kessler, Christine Laudenbach, and Bianca Putz
ACADEMIC VISITS:
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, March 2025
Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, Frankfurt, April 2022
Swedish House of Finance, Stockholm, March 2018
MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE________ ________________________________________________
2024 - present: Leading researcher in the grant awarded by the German Ministry of Education
"INNOFIB - Lebenslanges Lernen und Innovative Finanzbildung für Alle"
Project: Pension planning decisions of private households.
2021 - 2023: Course coordinator and lecturer
Macro Finance, graduate Level
Aarhus University, Department of Economics and Business Economics
2018 - 2019: Course coordinator and lecturer
Financial Economics, undergraduate level
Lund University, Department of Economics
TEACHING ____________________________ ________________________________________________
2021-2023: Macro Finance
Graduate Level
Aarhus University, Department of Economics and Business Economics
2020 - 2023 Supervision:
Graduate Level: 4 theses
Bachelor level: 3 theses
Project Based research internships: 3
2017-2019: Financial Economics
Undergraduate level
Lund University, Department of Economics
2017 - 2019: Supervision:
PhD thesis (Second supervisor): 1 thesis
Graduate level: 3 theses
Bachelor level: 3 thesis
FUNDING____________________________
2024 - 2027: INNOFIB, “Pension planning decisions of private households,”
funded by the German Ministry of Education
2023 - 2024: Seed Funding, “The Social Dimensions of ESG Investments,”
funded by Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE
2018 - 2019: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, SRG 2018-19
“How Fat are the Fingers? Investor Mistakes and Market Efficiency,”
funded by the British Academy
CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS
2025: Research visit and seminar at Universitat Pompeu Fabra
2024: Research in Behavioral Finance Conference, PeRCent Annual Conference 2024
2023: CEPR European Conference on Household Finance 2023, CEPR Paris Symposium 2023
2022: Stockholm University Business School, Finance seminar series; Aalto University, Finance seminar series; 6th Household Finance Workshop, SAFE, Frankfurt; Aarhus-Amsterdam-Kiel Finance Workshop, Aarhus BSS, Aarhus.
2021: 5th Household Finance Workshop, University of Bonn and SAFE House of Finance Young Scholars Nordic Finance Workshop, Copenhagen Business School
2020: Conference on “Consumer Behavior in Financial Markets”; NFN Young Scholars Finance Webinar Series
2019: Aarhus University, Economics seminar series
2018: Lund University, Financial Economics seminar series
2017: 2nd SAFE Household Finance Workshop; 6th Annual CIRANO-Sam M. Walton College of Business Workshop on Networks in Trade and Finance; KWC-CFF Workshop; Lund University, Financial Economics seminar series
2016: Belgian Network Research Meeting 2016, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL); Copenhagen University, EPRU seminar series; Copenhagen University, PhD seminar series; University of Trento, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory seminar series
2015: EDGE Jamboree, Aix-Marseille University; DGPE Workshop
REFEREEING
Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance