Frederik Bjørn Christensen

Consultant

Ministry of Finance

Copenhagen, Denmark

My research interests are macroeconomics, public policy, demography, welfare, and inequality. My work combines computational models and micro data to analyze pertinent policy issues.

Education

Ph.D. in Economics, 2019-2023
Copenhagen Business School

M.Sc., Economics and Business Administration, 2017-2019
Aarhus University

B.A., Economics and Business Administration, 2013-2016
Aarhus University

Jobmarket Paper

Does Student Aid Improve Educational Mobility?
with Johanna Wallenius. Link to latest version.

Abstract: Universal education systems are often said to promote intergenerational mobility. However, educational mobility in Denmark, which offers tax-financed post-secondary education and generous student aid, is still surprisingly low. To rationalize this, we develop a structural life cycle model where education choice is endogenous and depends on preferences, graduation probabilities, and parental transfers, which vary with child ability and parental education. After estimating the model on Danish register data, we first disentangle the drivers of educational mobility. Subsequently, we conduct counterfactual policy experiments to evaluate the scope for education policy to improve mobility. We find that increasing current subsidies has only small positive effects on educational attainment and mobility, while relaxing the student debt limit has virtually no effect. This is so as the persistent transmission of skills and preferences dominate immediate pecuniary incentives.

Working Papers

Population Aging, Public Finances, and Alternatives for Retirement Reform
with Tim Dominik Maurer. Link to latest version.

Abstract: We study retirement reforms that ensure sustainable public finances in the face of population aging. We build a structural life-cycle model with a pension scheme that includes a public pay-as-you-go pillar and a mandatory fully-funded pillar. The two pillars interact through a means-testing mechanism. The higher the fully-funded benefit, the lower the public pay-as-you-go benefit. The interaction allows us to assess a reform in which increases in fully-funded contributions and benefits reduce public pension benefits through means testing. We compare this reform to three alternatives: Increasing the retirement age, cutting public benefits, and increasing taxes to finance growing public pension expenditures. We estimate the model to Danish micro data and find that expanding fully-funded pensions to indirectly lower public pensions yields the highest welfare. Among the remaining reforms, we show that directly lowering public benefits outperforms hiking taxes and increasing the retirement age.

Improving Welfare by Public Education

Link to draft

Policy and Technical Work

Drivers of Real Interest Rates in a Two-country, General-equilibrium, OLG Model
with Jesper Pedersen, Danmarks Nationalbank. Link to WP

Solving Overlapping Generations Models with Linked Bequest and Human Capital
with Tim Dominik Maurer. Code available on GitHub

Work in Progress

Redistribution in Public Pension Schemes: Evidence from Denmark
with Tim Dominik Maurer

Do Means-Tested Pensions Undermine the Effectiveness of Retirement Age Increases?

with Tim Dominik Maurer, Svend Erik Hougaard Jensen, and Thorsteinn S. Sveinsson

Teaching

Pension Economics, 2024

Copenhagen Business School, Full Degree Master, Link to course

Pension Economics, 2023

Copenhagen Business School, Full Degree Master, Link to course

Microeconomics, 2023

Copenhagen Business School, Full Degree Bachelor, Link to course

Pension Economics, 2022

Copenhagen Business School, Full Degree Master, Link to course

Computational Macroeconomics, 2021

Iowa State University, University of Kansas, PhD-level, Link to course

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