Two CBS researchers win grants from Independent Research Fund Denmark

Independent Research Fund Denmark awards a total of DKK 5,692,614 million to CBS research projects from the DFF-Research Project 1 pool.

One project investigates the 'revolving door phenomenon' where politicians and civil servants leave the public sector to enter the private sector.  The other project will examine how the consumption of Danish households is affected by large and sudden changes in house prices.

Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod is granted DKK 3,162,875 million, while Natalia Khorounzhina is granted DKK 2,529,739 million.

Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod is assistant professor at the Department of International Economics, Government and Business, while Natalia Khorounzhina is associate professor at the Department of Economics.

Each of them receives a share of the pool called DFF-Research Project 1.  The purpose of DFF-Research Project 1 is to promote the quality of Danish research.  All applications have been assessed by one of the five academic councils of the fund, and the 192 selected projects are characterised by a high academic level of international quality.

The revolving door between the civil service and the private sector

Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod's project investigates the revolving door phenomenon, where civil servants and politicians leave the public sector to work in private companies.

The research focuses on how political institutions can influence the significance of this phenomenon in Europe.

”The project is important because the revolving door is something that constantly comes up. Many people have an opinion about it – primarily as something bad and borderline corrupt. But in reality, we know very little about the phenomenon,” says Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod and continues:

“The project will map how widespread the phenomenon is, investigate how companies use revolving door staff, and find out if companies can use them to obtain benefits from the public sector that they would not otherwise have access to.”

The project will develop a comprehensive database of revolving door movements across 28 European countries and conduct a survey experiment with businesspeople to establish causal relationships.

Additionally, it will examine how institutional factors influence the impact of revolving door staff on companies.

Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod is the main recipient of the grant, but Jan Stuckatz, assitant professor at Department of International Economics, Government and Business is a co-recipient and will work together with Benjamin Carl Krag Egerod on the project

How do rising house prices affect Danish consumption?

Natalia Khorounzhina's project focuses on how the consumption of Danish households is affected by large and sudden changes in house prices.

Her research will investigate how different types of consumption expenditures (both durable goods and everyday items) react differently to economic shocks.

”Receiving this grant means that my research idea has resonated among the broader group of scholars in social sciences. It is an honour to receive this broad acceptance of my research aspirations. Equally important, the project idea involves obtaining the large amounts of data, which would not be possible without generous financial support from the grant. I am very grateful for it, as it makes my research not just relevant, but achievable,” says Natalia Khorounzina.

She says about the project:

“I want to investigate the sensitivity of household consumption expenditure to income and house price changes. In doing so, this project will stand on the shoulders of a large literature generated by many great Danish and international researchers who study sensitivity of consumption to various shocks and policy changes. I will contribute by unpacking the total consumption expenditure of Danish households into durable consumption and consumption of everyday goods and services and re-examine the sensitivity of various types of consumption expenditure to house price shocks and income risk.”

The project aims to uncover causal relationships between changes in house prices and household consumption patterns and to reconsider how these types of consumption are affected by policy incentives.

“Why is it important to distinguish between different expenditure types? Spending on durable goods tends to be more cyclical as it can be more readily postponed in times of economic weakness, therefore the consumer’s sensitivity to shocks can be stronger for durable goods. Spending on everyday goods and services is less volatile and more robust to shocks, making this type of consumption less responsive to targeted economic policy,” she concludes.

The two research projects are just two out of 192 new research projects to receive grants from the DFF pool totalling DKK 575 million.

You can see the 192 projects here.