Before the pandemic, wage and price inflation remained low in Denmark and other advanced economies, despite falling unemployment rates. We attribute the subdued inflation to low competition among firms to hire employed workers. This same force may continue to constrain inflation once the current rise in energy and commodity prices has been passed through to consumer prices.

This memo analyzes the evolution of firm ownership concentration in the private Danish rental market and its link to rental prices. We show that the overall increase in rental market concentration between 2010 and 2020 is mainly driven by the rental market in the Capital Region. Further, we document a positive empirical link between market concentration and rental prices.

The price of natural gas has risen significantly since the summer of 2021. Higher heating costs may put downward pressure on homes heated with gas. Seen in isolation, the average price drop will be DKK 73,000 for a house with gas, if the gas price develops in line with the expectations of financial markets. (Memo available in Danish only).

Artificial intelligence (AI) can improve the resiliency of both individual financial institutions and the financial sector as a whole. Yet, its users must balance benefits and risks of these technologies. This paper illustrates five focus points which financial institutions should consider when moving from traditional models to complex AI systems.

The Danish labour market has tightened substantially during the recovery of the Danish economy. Pandemic-related labour demand can account for some of the employment growth. The majority of the movements on the labour market have occurred among marginal jobs, and cross-sectoral movements have been slightly higher than usual.

This memo explores the impact of digitalisation on Danish workers and companies. For this, we first build two complementary measures of digitalisation that leverage Danish administrative data. We then document a positive association between the level of digitalisation and sales of large companies. In the final part, we study the workers in the IT sector – the producers of the digital tools. We find that the workforce in the IT sector is more specialised than the rest of the Danish workforce, and that this specialisation has increased during the past decade.

In the recent years Danish companies have increasingly acquired foreign companies and vice versa. The size of some company acquisitions surpasses the daily turnover in the foreign exchange market for kroner. A case study in this Economic Memo shows that large company acquisitions have not exacerbated krone exchange rate movements over and above the normal daily variation. (Memo available in Danish only).

This Memo investigates the bond portfolio reaction of key Danish institutional investors to duration jumps in callable mortgage bonds. It shows that the investors remain net buyers of Danish mortgage bonds during periods of jumps. In particular, they buy more than they do on average, supporting the Danish mortgage bond market, limiting a potential self-reinforcing mechanism of duration jumps.

In this memo we find empirical evidence consistent with the hypothesis that banks act strategically to finance themselves through similar levels of excess capital to their competitors. We find that this channel is a significant driver of banks’ choice of excess capital but not the most important one.

We analyse the role of nonbank lenders in corporate and consumer credit markets in Denmark and show that they affect the transmission of monetary policy to financial and real outcomes. Nonbanks increase their share of credit supply after an interest rate hike in both the consumer and corporate credit markets.

We investigate the effects of the risk of flooding on the prices of single-family homes in Denmark. Houses that are exposed to flood risk today, as well as houses that will be exposed to flood risk in the future due to rising sea levels, are priced at a discount.

The pandemic has accelerated the digital transition in many countries. This Economic Memo finds that the degree of digitalisation has had an impact on the magnitude of economic losses during the pandemic. Differences in the EU countries' objectives for digital transition can imply greater digital inequality in the future and a deeper economic gap between the countries. (Memo available in Danish only).

This memo aims to take the first steps in analysing the use of the wage compensation scheme in Denmark and its effectiveness to preserve job matches. We find that firms used the furlough programme extensively to save at-risk workers. This focus has been particularly on saving full-time workers and workers with higher tenure.