The Sufficient Statistics Approach Applied To International Tax Policy

This paper extends the sufficient statistics approach to study international tax policy. International policy differs from domestic policies because i.) from the perspective of domestic policy makers the welfare weight on foreign agents lies below that of domestic agents, and ii.) behavioral changes by foreign agents have (general equilibrium) spillover effects on the domestic economy that are welfare relevant. I develop a tax model in which a domestic firm produces output by combining domestic and foreign inputs. Production also depends on the aggregate level of the foreign input, thereby generating a production externality. Factor prices are determined in general equilibrium by the interplay between the firm’s demand for factors and the supply provided by foreign and domestic private agents. The firm is taxed based on its factor inputs and factor prices but can avoid taxation using a costly tax avoidance technology. The cost of avoidance partly depends on investment in tax administration. Welfare is defined as a weighted sum of tax revenue and the surpluses of private domestic and foreign agents. I examine the welfare effects of marginal increases in both the tax rate and tax administration. These effects decompose into contributions to the production and fiscal externality and to transfers between domestic agents and the government, as well as between foreign and domestic agents. The sufficient statistics needed for welfare analysis are the elasticity of taxable income, the elasticity of factor prices, and the elasticity of the foreign input with respect to the policy variable of interest

Optimal Insurance Policies and Saving in a Temporal World

We consider Pareto optimal risk sharing between a buyer and a seller of insurance contracts, as well as consumption substitution and saving in a two-period context. The separation of the time periods allows us to consider the substitution effect. We show that the classical result of Pareto optimal risk sharing between a customer and an insurer is robust, and remains so also with recursive utility. For both expected utility and recursive utility we obtain precautionary savings with prudence. With recursive utility we identify the connection between the coefficient of elasticity of substitution in consumption and optimal saving, both under certainty and uncertainty. The separation of consumption substitution from risk aversion is shown to be partial

Technical versus Environmental Efficiency in Steel Production: A Global Perspective

This study provides the first global, plant-level assessment of both technical and environmental efficiency in steel production using a novel micro-dataset covering 147 steel mills across 50 countries from 2019 to 2023. Applying a Stochastic Directional Distance Function, we estimate each plant’s distance to the production frontier and compute the shadow price of CO2e emissions. Our results reveal a robust negative correlation between inefficiency and marginal abatement cost: technically efficient electric arc furnace (EAF) mini-mills — particularly prevalent in North America — display low inefficiency scores (∼0.2) and face high marginal abatement costs (up to 13.4 USD/ton). Conversely, integrated plants in developing countries often operate inefficiently (scores up to ∼0.8) but can abate emissions at very low cost (∼0.4 USD/ton), with Europe positioned between these two extremes. Estimated shadow prices are consistently lower than prevailing carbon market rates, highlighting a systemic under-valuation of emissions in the absence of regulatory pressure. This underpricing, in turn, reflects the highly uneven technological and economic conditions across steel plants worldwide, reinforcing the need for climate policies that account for both efficiency levels and plant configurations, and that tailor interventions to the specific costs and capacities of decarbonization

Optimal risk sharing with translation invariant recursive utility in continuous time

We consider optimal risk sharing where agents have preferences represented by translation invariant recursive utility. The dynamics in continuous time is driven by diffusion processes. The model has some appealing features compared to the scale invariant version. First, the model allows for heterogenous agents, where optimal risk sharing can be addressed. Second, a new endogenous variable allows for a variety of results, not possible in the standard model. The model allows for a new look at the mutuality principle. We also endow the model with a stock market and derive a consumption based capital asset pricing model

Hva opplever skoleledere som utford r ende for å bygge kollektiv mestringstro for sine medarbeidere

Jeg har i denne masteroppgaven forsket på hva som kan utfordre skoleledere for å bygge kollektiv mestringstro. Det handler om de ansattes felles tro på å lykkes med å nå skolens mål og håndtere utfordringer. Forskning om temaet viser hva som vil kunne gjøre det utfordrende for ansatte i skolen. Jeg har gjennomført en kvalitativ, induktiv casestudie av to skoleteam hvor totalt fem skoleledere har deltatt. Min problemstilling belyses ved å vise til hvordan skoleledere opplever utfordringer med å bygge kollektiv mestringstro. Mine funn viser hvordan flere faktorer utfordrer det å bygge kollektiv mestringstro i skolen og hvordan disse faktorene kan gjøre det krevende for skolens ansatte å bygge et profesjonelt læringsfellesskap. Årsakene til dette knyttes i masteroppgaven mot hvordan skoleledere opplever strukturelle rammer, støttende ledelse og tid til relasjonsbygging. Hovedfunnene viser hva som kan gjøre det vanskelig for å utvikle felles praksis basert på samarbeid, medvirkning og eierskap. For det første er det funn om hvordan variasjon i holdningsgrunnlag påvirker ansattes engasjementet for å bidra til medvirkning og muligheten for å øke ledergruppens kapasitet. For det andre viser funnene hvordan samarbeidet i ledergruppen vil kunne påvirke hvordan kollektiv mestringstro bygges i organisasjonen. Sett i forhold til ansvarliggjøring og delegering vil det kunne virke inn på hvor effektivt organisasjonssamarbeidet fungerer. I forlengelsen av dette vil det kunne utvikle seg en organisasjonskultur som i mindre grad viser robusthet og raushet. For det tredje ser jeg funn om hvordan mangel på forventningsavklaringer synes å være forbundet med mindre grad av rolleforståelse og psykologisk trygghet. Ansatte i skolen vil kunne oppleve å utføre arbeidsoppgaver både fragmentert og mindre samarbeidsorientert. Svekkede relasjoner vil kunne undergrave samarbeid og tillit i organisasjonen hvor medarbeidernes psykologisk trygghet vil kunne rammes. Funnene mine viser hvilke faktorer som kan utfordre skolens mulighet til å jobbe systematisk for å bygge kollektiv mestringstro. For å bygge kollektiv mestringstro vil det være hensiktsmessig for både ledelse og ansatte i skolen å jobbe under strukturerte rammer som fremmer medvirkning, støtte og samarbeid.nhhma

East Asian Productivity Development: Why did the Philippines fall back?

During the late decades of the 20th and early decades of the 21th century East Asia experienced significant economic growth. However, the Philippines diverged due to slower growth rates. By establishing new and revised historical series for historical development of GDP in purchasing power parities along with productivity series, the paper concludes that almost lack of total productivity growth caused the bad performance of the Philippines. The reason for the inferior development seem to be dysfunctional political and managerial systems, with significant corruption and lack of investments in infrastructure. The system made foreign direct investments stay low until the last approximately 15 years, when the Philippine economy started a convergence process

Essays on Pension Accounting

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Hydrogen in Renewable-Intensive Energy Systems: Path to Becoming a Cost-Effective and Efficient Storage Solution

This paper examines the integration of hydrogen storage in renewable-intensive energy systems. Current hydrogen storage technology is too costly and inefficient, but reducing hydrogen costs to 12.5% of current levels and increasing round-trip efficiency to 70% could make it com petitive. These are challenging targets but feasible given positive predictions on cost reduction and efficiency attainability currently. Hydrogen storage reduces total energy system costs by partly replacing lithium batteries to lower storage costs, due to its suitability for long-term storage, while increasing grid flexibility to lower transmission costs. Moreover, integrating hydrogen can decrease the share of nuclear and fossil fuels in the generation mix, reducing generation costs. Italy and Germany are identified as primary targets for hydrogen expansion in Europe. In scenarios of limited lithium supply, hydrogen becomes more competitive and essential to compensate for system storage capacity shortages, though it may not reduce total system costs

European market integration and price convergence: A panel quantile regression analysis of NordLink

The European Union aims to strengthen electricity market integration as part of its transition to a low-carbon energy system, with substantial investments in cross-border transmission infrastructure. This paper presents the first empirical analysis of a new interconnector, NordLink, on price convergence between southern Norway (NO2) and Germany. Using a novel panel quantile regression model, we estimate the impact of NordLink on the full distribution of hourly electricity prices in both markets. We find that the cable raised average prices in NO2 and lowered them in Germany, but with substantial heterogeneity across the price quantiles. In NO2, lower-quantile prices fell while upper-quantile prices rose. In Germany, the largest reductions occurred in the upper price quantiles. Regarding volatility, NordLink increased price fluctuations in NO2 and reduced them in Germany. We also find that the interconnector has altered the relationship between electricity prices and key fundamentals. Notably, electricity prices in NO2 have become substantially more exposed to gas prices post-NordLink, while Germany has become less exposed. Our findings highlight that market integration influences not only average prices, but also the dynamics and structure of electricity prices, with important implications for policymakers and market participants navigating the future of cross-border transmission in Europe