Maria Victoria Olesen
Ph.d. Fellow
Om
Primary research areas
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.
Publications
See all publications12. februar 2026
A Danish Fix for U.S. Mortgage Lock-in?
David W. Berger
Jaehun Jeong
Julie Marx, Assistant Professor
Maria Victoria Olesen, Ph.d. Fellow
Fabrice Tourre
Recent research projects
From Rates to Riches: How Danish Homeowners Respond to Interest Rate Shocks
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