Politics in Wage setting: Does government colour matter?

This paper studies the relationship between wage formation and the political colour of the government in an economy with centralized wage bargaining. Ideological, organizational and personal ties between the central trade union and the social democratic political party suggest that the trade union may behave significantly different in wage negotiations under a social democratic than under a conservative government. Using time series data for Norway, we estimate that changing from a conservative to a social democratic central government significantly reduces manufacturing wages and makes wages more responsive to unemployment. This result is consistent with a wage bargaining model augmented by political preferences of the union leaders and suggests that the effect of bargaining coordination depends on the political colour of the government. The estimated effects are both robust with respect to model specification and stable over time.Wages; political regime;time series analysis

Utvikling av økonomisk sosialhjelp i Nord-Gudbrandsdal

I dette notatet går vi igjennom utvikling i utbetaling av økonomisk sosialhjelp, utvikling i innbyggerantall, utvikling i arbeidsmarkedet, samt arbeidsavklaringspenger, kvalifikasjonsprogrammet og overgang til varig ufør. Utbetalingene av økonomisk sosialhjelp i NAV Nord-Gudbrandsdal har falt med over 6 millioner kroner per år i perioden 2007 til 2012. Samtidig har andel yngre sosialhjelpsmottakere økt fra å være langt under landsgjennomsnittet til å ligge på samme nivå som i resten av landet. En forverring av arbeidsmarkedet fra 2008 kan ha bidratt til denne utviklingen, men utover dette finner vi ingen klare trekk som kan identifisere årsaken til utviklingen i perioden

Effects of strong and weak non-pharmaceutical interventions on stock market returns: A comparative analysis of Norway and Sweden during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

In this paper, we examine the behaviour of stock market returns in Norway and Sweden during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We test how the different government interventions chosen in Norway and Sweden, including restrictions such as school closures and travel prohibitions along with economic support, affected equity markets in both countries. Our dataset comprises a panel of data for Norway and Sweden over 221 trading days during the period 1 January to 5 November 2020. The result show that while non-pharmaceutical interventions had few or no effects on Norwegian stock market returns, they positively affected the stock market in Sweden, although the strength of this effect weakened with the increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.publishedVersio

Modeling markups and its determinants: The case of Norwegian industries and regions

In this paper we use an innovative and nonstandard approach to model and estimate markups and market power. The approach uses a regression framework with determinants as well as a random component. We use this innovative tool to investigate the level of market power in Norwegian industries and regions. Norway is an interesting case study because in Norway prices on most consumer goods and services are higher than in similar countries. Given that many studies show substantial and an increasing trend in markup, it is naturally interesting to investigate the market power in different industries and different regions in Norway. We use an unbalanced panel collected by The Norwegian Tax Administration for the period 2000-2018 to address this issue. We find low and non-increasing market power in Norway, which is different from other countries. Further, we find that market powers decrease with firm-size, increase with geographical industrial concentration and decrease with rural location.publishedVersio

Price differentiation in the alpine skiing industry-The challenges of demand shifting and capacity constraints under pandemics

The implementation of variable pricing at ski resorts can shift demand from peak periods to off-peak periods if at least some skiers have the flexibility and willingness to do so. This is often referred to as diversion, or demand shifting, and can directly affect the profit-maximizing prices ski resorts should set for their tickets. In this paper, we first model how diversion is related to various levels of the intra-weekly price differences at a ski resort. Then we use this model to recalculate the optimal variable prices a ski resort should set when accounting for the demand shifting and capacity constraints. The results show that the optimal prices the ski resort should set are influenced by both diversion and capacity constraints. The latter aspect is particularly relevant in the ongoing global pandemic. Ski resort managers can make direct use of our modelling framework and results when implementing new pricing strategies.publishedVersio

Willingness to pay for “green skiing”

In this note we provide preliminary empirical evidence on Norwegian alpine skiers’ willingness-to-pay for season pass attributes that make alpine skiing more sustainable. We focus on two key attributes; (1) compensating for the CO2 emissions associated with the activity by purchasing CO2 quotas and (2) compulsory use of public transportation to/from the ski resort. The results show that there is a substantial interest in season passes that includes CO2 compensation. However, combining season passes with compulsory use of public transportation (ski bus) does not seem to be attractive to Norwegian alpine skiers/snowboarders. The optimal prices of the two alternatives are approximately 11.5% higher (CO2 version) and 25% lower (ski bus version) when compared to are gular season pass.publishedVersio

Economies of scope and scale in the Norwegian electricity industry

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND licenseAn important issue for multi-product firms to consider is economies of scope, i.e., whether there is any benefit from producing two or more products, or whether specializing in producing only one product would be less costly. We examined the economies of scope for Norwegian electricity companies because policy makers have decided to force companies that both generates and distributes electricity to split their operations into two companies, one engaged in generation only and the other in distribution only. We set out to test the validity of the policy makers decision on unbundling generation and distribution. Using data from Norwegian electricity companies for the period 2004–2014, we found evidence of economies of scope, meaning that policy makers’ insistence on separating generation and distribution companies will have increased costs. We also found evidence of economies of scale, meaning that there are cost savings in expanding outputs. Our findings provide important information to consider in future policy decisions in the Norwegian electricity industry, probably with implications for other countriespublishedVersio

Essays on efficiency and economies of scope and scale in electricity networks

The electricity market in Norway has undergone substantial changes in recent decades, which prompts the need for research on how the industry should be organized. In an indivisible electricity industry that, on the one side, consists of market-oriented competitive entities in production and power trading, and, on the other side, natural monopolies within transmission and distribution, it is of interest to perform cost analysis within the productivity and efficiency framework. The electricity industry is complex, owing to the fact that production and consumption must happen simultaneously. After the Energy Act of Norway came into force on January 1, 1991, only transmission and distribution remained regulated. The regulation of transmission and distribution serves to avoid the typical disadvantages arising from natural monopolies. Many countries have gone through the same or similar changes in their respective industries. In a developing and increasingly global industry regarding power trading, more regulation is probably needed, not less. The possible future changes in the power grid—owing to private firms and the ability of households to take advantage of the technological developments in solar and wind generation—will probably also affect the regulating task in the future. The main objective of this thesis is to improve the understanding of efficiency measures and methods, and to increase the knowledge of the market structure in the Norwegian electricity distribution industry. In Essay 1 “Economies of scale in Norwegian electricity distribution: A quantile regression approach”, we investigate scale economies to see if the structure of the industry affects the costs. If a restructure of the industry would reduce costs for the firms, and, hence, in the industry, it would mean increased productivity and efficiency. In Essay 2, “Economies of Scope and Scale in the Norwegian Electricity Industry”, we study scale and scope economies. Economies of scope measures the synergies of producing more than one output. Some electricity companies in Norway both generate and distribute electricity. If there exist some positive synergies from producing more than one output, it means that the cost would be higher if two separate firms produced the same amounts of output of each product as the one firm producing both products. In Essay 3, “Lost economies of scope and potential merger gains in the Norwegian electricity industry”, I investigate what are the potential gains from merging the distribution companies in Norway. Both Essay 1 and Essay 2 state that there are economies of scale in the industry, meaning that the industry would benefit from increasing the size of the companies in terms of increased output. Because the output is given, this means that companies must merge. In Essay 2, we report that there exist economies of scope. Due to the change in the Energy Act of Norway in 2016, we find that the separation of the integrated firms producing both generation and distribution services, would increase costs to the industry and, hence, incur losses by not utilizing economies of scope. If disentangling generation and distribution of electricity would lead to more mergers of the distribution companies, it is of interest to seek the potential gains in terms of cost reductions to the industry from such mergers. In Essay 4 “Disentangling Costs of Persistent and Transient Technical Inefficiency and Input Misallocation: The Case of Norwegian Electricity Distribution Firms”, we focus on the fact that many efficiency studies neglect allocative efficiency, and only concentrate on technical efficiency. In addition, we also disentangle costs of persistent and transient inefficiency, and include determinants for both persistent and transient inefficiency

Utvikling av økonomisk sosialhjelp i Nord-Gudbrandsdal

I dette notatet går vi igjennom utvikling i utbetaling av økonomisk sosialhjelp, utvikling i innbyggerantall, utvikling i arbeidsmarkedet, samt arbeidsavklaringspenger, kvalifikasjonsprogrammet og overgang til varig ufør. Utbetalingene av økonomisk sosialhjelp i NAV Nord-Gudbrandsdal har falt med over 6 millioner kroner per år i perioden 2007 til 2012. Samtidig har andel yngre sosialhjelpsmottakere økt fra å være langt under landsgjennomsnittet til å ligge på samme nivå som i resten av landet. En forverring av arbeidsmarkedet fra 2008 kan ha bidratt til denne utviklingen, men utover dette finner vi ingen klare trekk som kan identifisere årsaken til utviklingen i perioden

Understanding private equity performance : a review of dynamics driving fund performance

In recent years, more papers on private equity performance have emerged, casting light over a market that earlier was characterised by privacy and secrecy. Early studies mostly use VentureXpert as a data provider, however, data from this provider has been under a lot of criticism lately, and new data providers have emerged. In this thesis, we study the performance of buyout and venture funds from 1990 to 2008 using a dataset from Preqin. Previous studies have mostly focused on IRR or a modification of this metric. We have compared these findings with our results and use a widely reported investment multiple to see if there are discrepancies that can explain the differences in results. Based on findings from other papers, the dataset is of high quality and is less prone to bias compared to datasets previously used in private equity research. In our study of fund types, we see a general tendency of buyout outperforming venture. We have also looked more closely at sequence numbers and see that there is a negative correlation between performance and sequence numbers. This suggests that experience is not necessarily a contributing factor for good performance. We find indications that past performance may be well suited for risk reduction, but is not necessarily indicative for future performance. As Preqin has been little used in private equity research, our results contribute to this field by showing that Preqin, as a data provider, is well suited for academic research. We also test the validity of past research and show that, although the concepts are still valid, an update based on newer data points is warranted.nhhma