Danmarks Nationalbank (in Danish often simply Nationalbanken) is the central bank of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is a non-eurozone member of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Since its establishment in 1818, the objective of the Nationalbank as an independent and credible institution is to issue the Danish currency, the krone, and ensure its stability. The Board of Governors holds full responsibility for the monetary policy.The building which houses the bank's headquarters was designed by the renowned architect Arne Jacobsen, in collaboration with Hans Dissing and Otto Weitling. After Jacobsen's death, his office, renamed Dissing+Weitling, has brought the construction to completion.Danmarks Nationalbank undertakes all functions related to the management of the Danish central-government debt. The division of responsibility is set out in an agreement between the Ministry of Finance of Denmark and Danmarks Nationalbank.Danish and Faroese banknotes were previously printed at Danmarks Nationalbank's Banknote Printing Works. This practice came to an end 20 December 2016, after which the printing of banknotes has been outsourced due to a reduced demand for cash, and cut in expenses of 100 million kroner until 2020.
Does residential electricity demand respond to prices? Using a large, high-frequency smart meter dataset from Denmark combined with hourly prices, we estimate the short-run, hourly price elasticity of electricity demand at the household level. Although most households show no significant responsiveness to price signals, we find that nearly one third reduce their consumption significantly when prices rise. On average, a one Danish krone increase in electricity prices leads to a 2.6% decrease in demand. By linking smart meter data to administrative records, we further examine how price responsiveness varies across socio-demographic groups. We find that the price sensitivity is higher among households with higher educational attainment and overall electricity consumption, but lower among those aged 35 to 54.
15% of Danish workers account for 60% of unemployment. Are these workers unemployed more frequently because of their lower productivity or higher opportunity costs of employment? Using administrative data linking workers to their earnings, wealth, debt, health records, parental backgrounds, partners, job types, and firm-level value added, I find strong evidence that higher unemployment risk reflects lower productivity rather than higher pecuniary opportunity costs. A calibrated heterogeneous-agents model with segmented labor markets is consistent with these findings: productivity differences and non-pecuniary opportunity costs explain most of the unemployment gap. This matters for social policy: optimal unemployment insurance is higher than if marginal workers’ unemployment was predominantly due to a high pecuniary opportunity cost.
We analyze the role of nonbank lenders in the transmission of monetary policy using data on the universe of unsecured credit to firms and households in Denmark. Nonbanks increase their credit supply after a monetary contraction, both relative to banks and in absolute terms. The increase in nonbank lending is financed through increased long-term debt. A model with segmented debt markets featuring differential investor rate sensitivities rationalizes these findings. Nonbank credit insulates corporate investment and household consumption from monetary contractions, with positive spillovers extending beyond nonbank clients through industry and geographic channels.
If old firms are, on average, much larger than young firms, does this mean that firms get better with age? Using Danish administrative data on firms aged 0-65, we study the relationship between size and age. In the cross-section, average size is increasing with age. However, by exploiting the panel structure through the estimation of fixed effects or by using a partial identification approach to the so-called age-period-cohort problem, we find evidence that firm size increases with age only for the first 10-15 years, and falls after that. Moreover, sample composition effects seem to be important to understand the patterns in the cross-section: we find significant differences in exit rates by firm size and strong cohort effects for firms entering in the late 1950s. We also find that the exit rate is not monotonically decreasing with age; for smaller firms, it starts increasing again in their 20s, spiking in their late 30s.
This paper examines the impact of natural gas market shocks on gas market dynamics, inflation expectations and realized inflation in the Euro Area using a weekly BVAR model. Our contribution lies in a novel identification strategy that distinguishes between various types of shocks of unprecedented detail, leverages weekly rather than monthly data, and extends the analysis to both financial market-based headline and core inflation expectations. We find that, although conceptually distinct, pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply shocks have comparable effects on realized variables such as gas prices and actual inflation. By contrast, LNG supply shocks play a more limited role in shaping inflation expectations. Precautionary demand and industrial demand shocks also emerge as important drivers of inflation dynamics. This reflects both the forward-looking nature of precautionary shocks, which capture changes in investor sentiment, and the broader macroeconomic relevance of industrial demand shocks, whose effects extend beyond the gas market.
