I am a Senior Economist in the Research Unit of Danmarks Nationalbank, the central bank of Denmark. I work on topics in applied macroeconomics and labor economics. I am especially interested in the way firms set prices and wages. In my research, I usually work with micro-level data to help understand macroeconomic developments. I also contribute to the policy debate on topics related to inflation and firm dynamics at Danmarks Nationalbank.
I am married to Daphné Skandalis, also an economist. You can find her website here.Publications
Financial Frictions: Micro vs Macro Volatility, with Renato Faccini, Seungcheol Lee, Ralph Luetticke and Morten Ravn. January 2024. Conditionally accepted at American Economic Review
Credit Supply Shocks and Prices: Evidence from Danish Firms, with Gabriel Züllig. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (2024), Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 1-28 (Lead article).
The Pass-Through of Minimum Wages into US Retail Prices: Evidence from Supermarket Scanner data, with Claire Montialoux and Michael Siegenthaler. The Review of Economics and Statistics (2022), Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. 890-908. [Media coverage: Marginal Revolution, National Affairs Findings Blog, Brad Delong]
Working Papers
Demand Shocks and Prices: Micro Evidence and Macro Implications, with Christian Philip Hoeck. June 2025.
Abstract: We estimate the response of domestic prices and total output of Danish manufacturing firms to persistent firm-level demand shocks that result from heterogeneity in firms' exposure to different export destinations. Our results suggest supply curves at the firm level are steep---a demand shock that increases output by 1% raises prices by 0.5%. We then augment the supply side of a New Keynesian model with firm-level demand shocks, and identify key parameters from matching the response of firms to those shocks in the model to our estimates. In a model that fits firm behavior in the cross-section, the slope of supply curves contributes meaningfully to the slope of the Phillips curve. Nevertheless, with realistic cyclicality of real wages the Phillips curve is rather flat. Our preferred estimate of the overall Phillips curve slope is 0.025, which almost entirely reflects the aggregation of firms' supply curves.
Markups over the Firm Life Cycle, with Klaus Adam and Gabriel Züllig. [New draft in preparation].
Abstract: We estimate the dynamics of relative markups, marginal costs and prices over the firm life cycle using detailed firm data from Denmark. Marginal costs fall by about 20% over the first 15 years of firms' life, while prices fall only weakly by about 5%, resulting in a 15pp increase in markups. About one third of the decrease in marginal cost over the firm age is explained by movements in productivity, with the remainder being due to non-homotheticities and increasing returns in the production function. We show that markups increase following the introduction of new products and the discontinuation of old products, suggesting that product turnover is important driver of markup dynamics at the firm level.
Firm Dynamics and the Rise in Danish Firms' Cash Holdings, with Simone Bonin. August 2022.
Abstract: We study cash holdings in the full population of Danish firms 2003–2018 and document a large and persistent increase in cash holdings after the Global Financial Crisis. This increase is driven by small and medium-sized firms, who are usually not covered in datasets used in the existing literature. Cash holdings of larger firms are stable and much lower than those of larger public firms in the U.S. We show that firm entry and exit dynamics among small firms account for essentially all of the rise in cash holdings. We document correlations of cash holdings with firm characteristics in the full population of firms, that are consistent with the those found for larger public firms. Changes in persistent characteristics of entering firms, such as size or industry, cannot explain the development of cash holdings. Rather, the increase is explained by a fall in bank borrowing among entering firms. Our results document the important role of credit for firms cash holdings, and suggest that post-crisis developments in credit markets drive both borrowing and cash holding decisions.
Work in Progress
Negative Interest Rate Policies: The Role of Pass-Through to Deposit Rates, with Anders Yding.
Investment after export demand shocks, with Anders Yding.
Markups and Monetary Policy: Evidence from Denmark, with Luca Riva.
Policy Publications
The Increasing Importance of the Largest Companies, with Simon Juul Hviid, Mia Jorgensen, Morten Spange and Rasmus Rold Sorensen. March 2025. Danmarks Nationalbank Analysis
Inflation Inequality in Denmark, with Andreas Kuchler and Christoffer Weissert. June 2023. Danmarks Nationalbank Economic Memo [Media coverage: Berlingske, Politiken]
The Rise in Cash Holdings of Danish Companies, with Simone Maria Bonin. August 2022. Danmarks Nationalbank Economic Memo No. 8
Liquidity Reserves of Danish Firms: Implications during the COVID-19 Epidemic. June 2020. Danmarks Nationalbank Economic Memo
Labor Cost Pass-through to Producer Prices in Denmark, with Simon Juul Hvid. December 2020. Danmarks Nationalbank Working Paper
Manufacturing Prices and Employment after the Swiss Franc Shock, with Daniel Kaufmann. October 2017. Study on behalf of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO
Dormant Projects
Export Prices, Markups, and Currency Choice after a Large Appreciation, with Daniel Kaufmann. January 2020.
The Response of Retail Prices and Markups to Cyclical Demand Shocks. July 2017.