Frederik Bjørn Christensen

Postdoc, Stockholm School of Economics

Frederik Bjørn Christensen

Postdoc

Department of Economics

Stockholm School of Economics

Box 6501

113 83 Sweden

GitHubLinkedInEmail

I am a Postdoc at the Department of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, going on the 2024/25 Jobmarket.

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

The Role of Education Subsidies in Social Mobility
with Johanna Wallenius. Coming soon.

Abstract: 

The Scandinavian education system with universal tax-financed post-secondary education and generous student aid programs is often highlighted for promoting intergenerational mobility. However, educational mobility in Denmark is still surprisingly low. In this light, we use a structural life cycle model estimated on Danish register data to examine what channels can explain low mobility within a universal education system. Particularly, we use the estimated model to gauge the effects of child ability, parental education, and parental transfers on education choice. Having accounted for these channels, we conduct counterfactual policy experiments to evaluate the scope for public education policy to improve mobility.


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