What are you doing now, what are your plans for the future?
I’m currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen Department of Economics and Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI). I pursue research in macroeconomics and household finance, with a particular interest in the effects of public policy on household consumption, housing, and borrowing behavior.
How did Oxford influence what you do? How important was funding for this?
I benefited from an incredible community of mentors across various different disciplines of economics, which fuelled my desire to pursue research and expanded my mind about the types of research that were possible. Looking back, I am impressed by the amount of support and guidance I received from professors in different fields: quantitative macro, empirical micro, structural econometrics, and labour economics. Thanks to this support, I was able to develop a research agenda that combines methods from all of these different fields.
In addition, I was fortunate to receive generous financial support. The vast majority of my PhD was funded by a research grant held by Professor Michael Keane. In addition, I received the David Walton Distinguished Doctoral Scholarship, which funded the last year of my PhD and allowed me to pursue research at the Bank of England.
What were the three things of most value about being at Oxford?
Community
I benefited from an incredibly stimulating intellectual community of PhD students and postdocs, who helped me develop new ideas, expand my toolkit, think more critically, come to the department every day with excitement.
Mentorship
I was lucky to have not just one, but three brilliant advisors who guided me during my PhD. Each of these advisors (Hamish Low, Michael Keane, and Andrea Ferrero) came from a different field of economics, which helped me pursue research at the intersection of these different fields.
Freedom
Finally, Oxford provides structured freedom to develop and grow as a researcher. In my case, this allowed me to visit Yale University, start collaborations with economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and to explore a variety of different research ideas.
