Working papers

Oct 25, 2007 12:00 AM

(In Norwegian) Regjeringen skriver i eierskapsmeldingen at den ikke ønsker bruk av aksjeopsjoner som lønn til bedriftsledere. Denne skepsisen til opsjoner er det all mulig grunn til å slutte seg til. En bedriftseier er avhengig av en dyktig leder so...

Oct 8, 2007 12:00 AM

This paper considers how rational groups may come to misperceive the gains from conflict. It is shown how experiences of public policies may differ from actual policies, and at the extreme may lead to revolts on false premises. The aim is to give a ...

Sep 30, 2007 12:00 AM

Non-linear relationships are common in economic theory, and such relationships are also frequently tested empirically. We argue that the usual test of non-linear relationships is flawed, and derive the appropriate test for a U shaped relationship. O...

Sep 25, 2007 12:00 AM

This paper proposes a dynamic politico-economic theory of debt, government finance and expenditure. Agents have preferences over a private and a government-provided public good, financed through labor taxation. Subsequent generations of voters choo...

Sep 12, 2007 12:00 AM

Work contributes to people's self-image in important ways. We propose a model in which individuals have a preference for being important to others. This leads to the following predictions:1) In fully competitive markets with performance pay, behavio...

Sep 7, 2007 12:00 AM

We present comparable evidence on intergenerational earnings mobility for Denmark, Finland, Norway, the UK and the US, with a focus on the role of gender and marital status. We confirm that earnings mobility in the Nordic countries is typically grea...

Aug 29, 2007 12:00 AM

(In Norwegian)Svenskene har lenge snakket om den svenske modellen, dansker og nordmenn om den skandinaviske, EU og Per Kleppe om den nordiske. Men de mener alle det samme. Norden og den samfunnsmodellen som preger de nordiske landene, er på moten. P...

Aug 29, 2007 12:00 AM

Michael Wallerstein had a long-term research interest in social democracy in the Nordic countries, a theme that we worked on together for many years. Our first paper on the topic praised the Nordic achievements, but claimed that social democracy was...

Aug 20, 2007 12:00 AM

Workers' absenteeism due to illness represents a major concern in several countries. Absenteeism are however not very well understood in economics. This paper presents a model where absenteeism is understood in relation to health. Its main predictio...

Jun 25, 2007 12:00 AM

In many countries extreme poverty is unnecessary. Yet it persists. We propose a new index to measure social attitudes that allow poverty in the midst of affluence. We label it the miser index, and we characterize it axiomatically. The index builds o...

May 23, 2007 12:00 AM

Using a model with constant relative risk-aversion preferences, endogenous labor supply and partial insurance against idiosyncratic wage risk, the paper provides an analytical characterization of three welfare effects: (a) the welfare effect of a ri...