A Strandir Native with a Burning Interest in Fishing & Finance

Stefán Bjarni Gunnlaugsson is an associate professor in the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Akureyri. His research focuses on the Icelandic fishing industry and financial markets although his teaching centers on finance. “It’s really a practical course that most people would benefit from. Topics include investment, capital costs, fixed income and equities,” says Stefán. 

Stefán is currently on sabatical and so is only engaged in research. His area of research is emissions produced by the Icelandic fishing industry and what factors contribute to these emissions. He is also finishing an article on the proportion of ice used in the Icelandic fishing industry. 

In his doctoral thesis Stefán tracks trends in the Icelandic fishing industry in recent decades. This includes special attention to the financial side of the industry. “One of the more remarkable conclusions is that a lot of resource rent has been generated in the industry in recent decades, but a large portion of that revenue has gone to parties who cashed out of the system several years ago. Likewise, I examined coastal fishing in particular. And it was surprising that there were proportionally fewer accidents where people were injured in coastal fishing compared to other kinds of fishing in Iceland,” says Stefán. 

Who is Stefán?

Stefán is from the Strandir region, born in Hólmavík in 1970 and raised there as well. He left for Akureyri where he received his upper secondary degree in 1990. During and immediately following his upper secondary years Stefán worked at sea on a freezing trawler. He received a degree in fisheries science from the University of Akureyri in 1995 and an MSc in banking and finance from the University of Stirling in 1997. He then took a position at Landsbankinn bank where he worked until 2003. Stefán has worked at the University of Akureyri since then as well as becoming an aficionado of Icelandic stocks for the last 10 years. Stefán completed his doctoral degree from the University of Iceland in 2021.