Research
Find examples of my work here. Please feel free to reach out with any comments, questions or suggestions.
A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Commuting, Residential and Work Location Choices
With Christian Langholz Carstensen, Fedor Iskhakov, John Rust and Bertel Schjerning
We present a dynamic equilibrium model of joint residential and work location in which commuting costs depend on the distance between work and home, and house prices equate supply and demand for housing. We estimate the model using Danish register data for households in Greater Copenhagen area. We then predict the effects of increasing supply of residential housing on house rental prices, job mobility, residential sorting, commuting and welfare. In the second counterfactual simulation we show differential impact of telecommuting which implies substantial welfare gains and increased labor supply on the margin by educated workers whereas low educated workers benefit only slightly from lower housing prices in urban areas caused by out migration.
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This research has been applied to simulate the effects of new housing construction on Lynetteholm, as part of a project for the Danish Ministry of Transport. The full report is available here:
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Connect-The-Dots: Identification of Heterogeneous MWTP Functions under Time-Varying Preferences
Models based on residential location choice have become commonplace in the non-market valuation literature. Rosen (1974) provides a utility-theoretic basis for hedonic models to be used to measure the welfare consequences of changes in local public goods and amenities. However, his proposed two-stage estimation procedure embodies a number of difficult econometric problems that have become the focus of research for decades. My paper builds upon the "inversion" approach suggested by Bajari and Benkard (2005) and the buyer-panel extension of that work proposed by Bishop and Timmins (2018). The latter paper shows how data on repeat purchases can be used to flexibly recover preferences with rich individual heterogeneity, but the method is unable to deal well with time-varying individual attributes that might prompt residential location changes. I expand that approach to deal with any number of time-varying individual attributes including wealth and family structure. I apply that method to detailed longitudinal data from the Danish register data, and use the estimates to value non-marginal changes in access to public transport. I demonstrate a significant and policy-relevant bias from failing to properly account for the time-varying preferences.
Dynamic Human Capital in General Equilibrium
With Christian Langholz Carstensen
The interest in understanding and modeling individuals' human capital investments and occupational choices in a dynamic framework dates back to Keane and Wolpin (1997). However, extending this line of research to a general equilibrium setting remains relatively rare, and the existing literature has primarily focused on the binary choice between entering the labor market or pursuing a college degree.
In this paper, we develop a structural model that captures field-specific educational choices, labor market participation, and industry selection. Unlike much of the existing work, which often limits attention to the academic track, we incorporate the full range of options within the Danish education system — including vocational education — while explicitly accounting for the system’s hierarchical structure.
This framework allows us to simulate empirically relevant counterfactual scenarios and assess the effects of policy changes, such as adjusting admission rates across educational tracks based on labor market demand, or evaluating the labor market and wage equilibrium consequences of restricting access to student grants for master’s level university programs. Furthermore, by integrating the income tax system into the model, we can study the dynamic effects of public expenditure on different fields of education.
A Model of Couples’ Joint Home and Work Decisions and the Intra-Household Allocation of Commuting
When studying individuals' choices of residence, workplace, and commuting patterns, it is crucial to account for the co-location trade-offs faced by dual-earner households, who often live together but work in different places. Much of the existing literature treats households as single decision-makers, overlooking the joint nature of these choices. Using high-quality Danish administrative data, I link household members and provide descriptive evidence showing that the way couples split commuting distances varies systematically across regions.
In particular, I explore how intra-household differences in commute distances between men and women relate to the gender wage gap, which also shows substantial spatial variation. To model this joint decision-making process, I combine the dynamic residential and workplace choice literature with insights from collective household models, developing a collective dynamic discrete choice framework that explicitly captures intra-household bargaining over location decisions.
