Research on social security and social policy at NOVA emphasises public monetary transfers in a wide sense. Three main areas of interest can be outlined:
What are the driving forces behind the development of public support arrangements, and what forces influence the outline of such arrangements?
Does the organisation of the social security administration help employees to fulfil their tasks as effectively and efficiently as possible?
What are the distributional and behavioural effects of public transfers?
Several projects are comparative, and some are part of international co-operative research projects. Apart from this, projects are developed in order to fulfil funding bodies´ need for knowledge on the one hand, and the international research agenda on the other. NOVA is one in three core environments for social security research in Norway, with a special responsibility for the social approach as opposed to the medical and economical. This implies that the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion funds a certain number of positions ear-marked to social security research. Several projects are thus linked to National Insurance benefits.
