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Ulf Niels­son

Associate Professor

Subjects
Finance Financial institutions Savings Securities

Primary research areas

House­hold and be­ha­vi­or­al fin­ance
Ana­lys­is of how house­holds make fin­an­cial de­cisions, not least un­der be­ha­vi­or­al bi­ases and in­sti­tu­tion­al con­straints. For ex­ample, this in­cludes ana­lyz­ing how fam­il­ies al­loc­ate and man­age as­sets—ran­ging from pen­sion and de­pos­it hold­ings to stock mar­ket par­ti­cip­a­tion—of­ten us­ing rich em­pir­ic­al data to re­veal be­ha­vi­ors in sav­ings and in­vest­ments.
Equity mar­kets and fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions
In­vest­ig­at­ing how in­sti­tu­tion­al set­tings and mar­ket fric­tions in­flu­ence equity al­loc­a­tion, par­ti­cip­a­tion, and pri­cing across both in­di­vidu­als and firms. For ex­ample, how equity mar­kets and fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions shape both firm and in­vestor be­ha­vi­or and mar­ket out­comes. Gen­er­ally a data‑driv­en ana­lys­is with be­ha­vi­or­al in­sights into how firms and in­vestors act in real-world cap­it­al mar­kets.

Mak­ing fin­ance work for people and in­sti­tu­tions

My research focuses on financial decisions of both households and firms in modern markets. It explains how people save and invest, and how firms finance themselves and interact with capital markets. This increases understanding of how market players behave in reality and whether market outcomes can be improved. 

Publications

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9 September 2025

Mandatory Pension Contributions, Household Consumption, and Savings

Lin­da San­dris Lar­sen, Associate Professor

Ulf Ni­els­son, Associate Professor

Mara Nutu

Jes­per Rang­vid, Professor

Go to publication

June 2025

Empirical Monetary-Fiscal Equivalence

Ulf Ni­els­son, Associate Professor

Jes­per Rang­vid, Professor

Farzad Saidi

Fabian Seyrich

Daniel Streitz
Go to publication

January 2025

The First Is Free

Do Employee Stocks Incentivize Stock Market Participation?

Ulf Ni­els­son, Associate Professor

Oli­ver-Ale­xan­der Press, Part-time Lecturer

Go to publication

Outside activities

West­ern High Court of Den­mark (Vestre Land­sret) , 2018 - 2020

Court ap­poin­ted eval­u­at­or (Syn- og skøns­mand)

The Iceland­ic Centre for Re­search , 2018 - 2019

Mem­ber of ex­pert pan­el

Uni­ver­sity of Ice­land , 2019 -

Primar­ily lec­tur­ing

Nor­we­gi­an En­ergy Com­pany / Noreco / Alt­inex , 2020 - 2022

Writ­ten re­port / ex­pert wit­ness

Foren­et Kred­it , 2021 - 2021

Writ­ten re­port

Copen­ha­gen In­fra­struc­ture Part­ners (CIP) , 2021 -

Lec­tur­ing

Lands­bankinn , 2023 - 2023

Lec­tur­ing

High Court of Ice­land (Land­srét­tur) , 2024 - 2024

Co-judge