I am an Associate Professor of Finance at the Department of Finance at Copenhagen Business School, a Research Fellow at the Danish Finance Institute, a Research Affiliate at CEPR, a CEPR Household Finance Network Member, a member of The Center for Big Data in Finance (BIGFI) at Copenhagen Business School and a Research Fellow at the Pension Research Centre (PeRCent) at Copenhagen Business School. I am also currently a visiting fellow at the Department of Finance at the University of Zürich.
I have an ERC Starting Grant for the project Gender in Finance, starting in August 2025.
I am also a member of the Icelandic Fiscal Policy Council, in charge of evaluating the government’s fiscal policy.
My research focuses on Household Finance, Financial Intermediation, Behavioral Finance, Sustainable Finance, and Labor and Finance.
An overarching goal of my research is to understand the traits and circumstances that influence the financial choices of individuals and households and how they use financial instruments, markets, technology, and information to achieve their objectives. Much of my work is based on collaborations with financial institutions where I merge comprehensive and detailed bank data with information from natural as well as field experiments that I run in collaboration with those same institutions.
Click here for my Google Scholar profile.
NEW:
January 2025: My paper, The Ostrich in Us: Selective Attention to Financial Accounts, Income, Spending, and Liquidity (with Michaela Pagel), has been accepted for publication in the Review of Economics and Statistics.
March 2024: My paper with Michaela Pagel, Retirement-Consumption Puzzles: New Evidence from Personal Finances (with Michaela Pagel), has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Public Economics.
November 2023: My paper The Co-holding Puzzle: New Evidence from Transaction-Level Data (with John Gathergood), has been accepted for publication in the Review of Financial Studies.
October 2023: I received a SNF Research Project Grant (950,000 CHF) titled "Green Household Finance: A Behavioral Analysis Using High-Frequency Bank Data" (2023-2027).
Publication in the Journal of Political Economy: Misfortune and Mistake: The Financial Conditions and Decision-Making Ability of High-Cost Loan Borrowers
I am a member of the new Center for Big Data in Finance (BIGFI) at CBS which opened in January 2023.
Publication in the Review of Finance: Mobile Apps and Financial Decision Making
November 2021: I received VINNOVA Research Grant (1M SEK) together with Marieke Bos, Enrichetta Ravina, and Basit Zafar for the project "Expectations, Household Behavior, and Inequality: Evidence from Field Experiments".
TFI writes about our research project: For richer, for poorer: Financial shocks, within-couple insurance, and debt
Research grant from The Think Forward Initiative: Arna Olafsson receives grant from the Think Forward Initiative (TFI)
I am a CEPR research affiliate as of December 2019.
Research grant from The Danish Council of Independent Research: Arna Olafsson receives grant to study fintech and financial fitness
January 2025: My paper, The Ostrich in Us: Selective Attention to Financial Accounts, Income, Spending, and Liquidity (with Michaela Pagel), has been accepted for publication in the Review of Economics and Statistics.
March 2024: My paper with Michaela Pagel, Retirement-Consumption Puzzles: New Evidence from Personal Finances (with Michaela Pagel), has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Public Economics.
November 2023: My paper The Co-holding Puzzle: New Evidence from Transaction-Level Data (with John Gathergood), has been accepted for publication in the Review of Financial Studies.
October 2023: I received a SNF Research Project Grant (950,000 CHF) titled "Green Household Finance: A Behavioral Analysis Using High-Frequency Bank Data" (2023-2027).
Publication in the Journal of Political Economy: Misfortune and Mistake: The Financial Conditions and Decision-Making Ability of High-Cost Loan Borrowers
I am a member of the new Center for Big Data in Finance (BIGFI) at CBS which opened in January 2023.
Publication in the Review of Finance: Mobile Apps and Financial Decision Making
November 2021: I received VINNOVA Research Grant (1M SEK) together with Marieke Bos, Enrichetta Ravina, and Basit Zafar for the project "Expectations, Household Behavior, and Inequality: Evidence from Field Experiments".
TFI writes about our research project: For richer, for poorer: Financial shocks, within-couple insurance, and debt
Research grant from The Think Forward Initiative: Arna Olafsson receives grant from the Think Forward Initiative (TFI)
I am a CEPR research affiliate as of December 2019.
Research grant from The Danish Council of Independent Research: Arna Olafsson receives grant to study fintech and financial fitness