Research area
Microeconomics
Research in this area uses a variety of econometric methods and simulation models to enhance understanding of the economic behaviour of persons, households and businesses under existing statutory and economic conditions, represented, i.a., by government policy. An important question concerns the effect of policy changes on economic agents. Studies include discussions of the role of households as consumers and sources of labour, the distribution of income and wealth, and effect of education on economic outcomes and firm behaviour.
Research fields
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Consumer behaviour
Studies of consumer behaviour describe the behavioural effect of factors such as prices, interest rates and income. Research seeks to identify how variables like age, sex, education and number of children alter the behaviour of different consumer groups. Government policy performance is evaluated and consumption trends projected into the future.
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Econometric methods and microeconometrics
Research in this area seeks to facilitate the theoretical development of econometric method and method application. Methods are used to formulate, estimate and test empirical relations based on economic theory. Applications based on microdata include studies of individual, household and corporate behaviour. The models are also used in policy analysis, including counterfactual analysis.
Go to research field econometric methods and microeconometrics
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Economic history
This field uses economic methods to analyze the economic long-run development in Norway . Studying economic and demographic phenomena over long time periods might provide new insights about economic growth, the distribution of income and population development. The research uses a rich statistical material from Statistics Norway and its predecessors, dating back to the census from 1801 and onwards.
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Economics of education
Studies here look into the economic and social determinants of educational outcomes and how they affect educational performance. Issues explored include the impact on results of resources allocated to schools, intergenerational effects of education, relationship between education and economic growth, and effect of education on wages.
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Firm behaviour
Research in this area includes econometric analysis of microdata to facilitate insight into corporate behaviour. Studies address the ability of policy instruments to stimulate corporate R&D investment, and the impact of different corporate and capital taxation designs on real business investment.
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Income distribution
Distribution analysis facilitates an understanding of how economic factors and policy affect income and wealth distribution over time. Studies seek to explain income and wealth distribution variation, with a particular focus on economic poverty.
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Labour market
In this area of research labour supply and demand are studied, along with their impact on i.a. wages and employment/unemployment. Studies address the significance of the tax system and of technological and institutional factors. Given the labour market’s importance to economic performance and to most people’s economy and living standards, there are several points in common with studies under other headings.
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Local public finance
This research field includes studies of local government behaviour, particularly spending and priorities relative to different services/social groups. At the individual level, studies address the distribution of municipal services in light of income and poverty distribution. Nationally, variations in local governments’ service provision over time, and their effect on municipal sector financing, are in focus.
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Pensions
Research in this field addresses effects of demographic shifts and benefit system changes on individual pensions, government spending and income distribution. Behavioural effects are also taken into account. Studies generally apply a microsimulation model based on individual life history data. The results are fed into integrated analyses of the Norwegian economy and public finances.
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Savings
Research in this area concerns individuals’ and households’ adjustments to maintain a stable consumption pattern over the life-cycle in the face of fluctuating income. Studies explore the effect of government policy and finance markets on overall saving, and aim at identifying motivations to save and factors affecting lifetime saving propensities.
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Taxes
In this area of research, different forms of taxation including direct taxation of individual and businesses and indirect taxation of goods and services are studied. Microdata help identify causal links and microsimulation and general equilibrium models help determine the impact of changes. Studies show the welfare effect of taxation: taxes’ distributive implications and efficiency loss.
News about microeconomics
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Jobber man mindre etter å ha arvet penger?
Savings
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Forskning viser at jo større arven er, jo større er nedgangen i arbeidsinntekten. Personer som arver mer enn en gjennomsnittlig årslønn, har ofte en nedgang i arbeidsinntekten på 7-10 prosent i årene etter mottatt arv.
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Comparison of income growth and growth in pension payments
Pensions
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How does the income growth towards the end of a person’s working life compare with the growth in pension? It is important to analyse this in order to determine how the pension system should be regulated in the future.
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Good girl – bad boy. Making identity statements when answering a questionnaire
Consumer behaviour
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Environmental policy analyses often draw on stated preferences, with most humans having strong preferences with respect to how we view ourselves and how we would like others to perceive us. This may create systematic differences between reported and real behaviour, making policy analysis based on stated preferences difficult. In this paper, researcher Bente Halvorsen models how social and moral norms and the image we would like to project affect reported and actual behaviour.
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Self-delusion in the pursuit of happiness
Consumer behaviour
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Dag Einar Sommervoll explores how repeated revisions of consumption plans increase long-run utility in a Discussion Paper. If agents value present anticipations of future consumption, some revisions may be viewed as a benign form of self-delusion.
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Homework and pupil achievement in Norway
Economics of education
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A report by Marte Rønning shows that pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to spend no time on homework than pupils from higher socio-economic backgrounds. The report also shows a positive effect of homework on average. However, not all pupils seem to benefit from homework.
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Non-parametric identication of the mixed proportional hazards model with interval-censored durations
Econometric methods and microeconometrics
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A Discussion Paper by Christian Brinch presents identication results for the mixed proportional hazards model when duration data are interval-censored. Earlier positive results on identication under intervalcensoring require both parametric specication on how covariates enter the hazard functions and assumptions of unbounded support for covariates. New results provided here show how one can dispense with both of these assumptions.
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Indirect inference methods for stochastic volatility models
Econometric methods and microeconometrics
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A Discussion Paper by Arvid Raknerud and Øivind Skare aims to develop new methods for statistical inference in a class of stochastic volatility models for financial data based on non-Gaussian Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) processes.