Maria Victoria Olesen
PhD fellow
Departments
Department of Finance
Room: SOL/D4.15
Finance
Investment
Savings
Mortgage finance
Interest rates
Big data
Primary research areas
Household Finance and Economic Decision-Making
I am interested in how households make financial decisions in response to changing economic conditions, including choices related to consumption, savings, debt, and housing.
Mortgage Markets and Financial Institutions
I am curious about how mortgage contract structures and institutional settings influence household behavior and financial outcomes, especially in the context of refinancing and housing mobility.
Econometrics and Big Data
I enjoy working with large-scale datasets and applying econometric tools to analyze economic behavior and financial market dynamics. My interests include identification strategies, panel data analysis, and financial econometrics across a wide range of topics.
I turn big data into insights about real-world decisions
I am particularly interested in how households and institutions respond to financial and policy changes. My academic work is grounded in the use of large-scale administrative datasets and econometric tools to uncover patterns in economic behavior.
I am especially motivated by questions of identification and causal inference, and I enjoy working with panel data. While my current work focuses on household finance and mortgage markets, my methodological interests span a broader range of topics in empirical finance.
Through my research, I aim to deepen our understanding of how economic structures and incentives shape household decision-making.
Recent research projects
From Rates to Riches: How Danish Homeowners Respond to Interest Rate Shocks
with David Berger, Jaehun Jeong, Julie Marx, and Fabrice Tourre
This paper investigates the real effects of a large, positive net-worth shock experienced by Danish fixed-rate mortgage borrowers in 2022, when rising long-term interest rates enabled them to repurchase their mortgages at steep discounts.
Unlike U.S. FRMs, Danish mortgages allow borrowers to monetize capital gains when rates rise, creating a unique setting to study household responses to large wealth shocks.
Using high-quality microdata, we document that many households refinanced to capture gains, reducing debt or increasing consumption and investments.
A structural model confirms heterogeneous responses across mortgage types, highlighting the role of institutional design in shaping monetary policy transmission
This paper investigates the real effects of a large, positive net-worth shock experienced by Danish fixed-rate mortgage borrowers in 2022, when rising long-term interest rates enabled them to repurchase their mortgages at steep discounts.
Unlike U.S. FRMs, Danish mortgages allow borrowers to monetize capital gains when rates rise, creating a unique setting to study household responses to large wealth shocks.
Using high-quality microdata, we document that many households refinanced to capture gains, reducing debt or increasing consumption and investments.
A structural model confirms heterogeneous responses across mortgage types, highlighting the role of institutional design in shaping monetary policy transmission