Absenteeism, Health Insurance, and Business Cycles

We use a dependent competing risks hazard rate model to investigate individual sickness absence behaviour in Norway, on the basis of register data covering more than 2 million absence spells. Our findings are: i) that business cycle improvements yield lower work-resumption rates for persons who are absent, and higher relapse rates for persons who have already resumed work; ii) that absence sometimes represents a health investment, in the sense that longer absence ‘now’ reduces the subsequent relapse propensity; and iii) that the work-resumption rate increases when sickness benefits are exhausted, but that work-resumptions at this point tend to be short-lived.Absenteeism; Dependent risks

Defence of Absurd Theories in Economics

Theories that involve plainly false and even bizarre assumptions are argued to have an important role in bundling empirical facts in a way that allows these to be understood, handled and used as modules in the construction of mechanisms by economists with human cognitive limits. Absurd theories are subcomponents used in a valid explanatory strategy as long as the mechanisms only derive the implications of the facts summarised. This provides a defence and explanation of many economic theories, but also imposes hard limits on such theorising.As-if theory; Economic methodology; welfare economics

Regulering av busselskapene

Dette notatet er ment å gi en oversikt over hva tidligere forskning sier om betydningen av kontraktsformer og eierskap, spesielt i bussektoren. Med utgangspunkt i standard reguleringsteori beskrives hvordan disse faktorene kan tenkes å ha betydning for blant annet effektivitet og kvalitet. Det gies en oversikt over empirsk forskning innenfor bussektoren, både i Norge og i utlandet. I tillegg skisseres hvordan ny datainnsamling og videre forskning kan gi ny innsikt på dette feltet

Employment behaviour of marginal workers

We use structural estimation techniques to analyze labour supply effects of changes in economic incentives for individuals who have just finished vocational rehabilitation in Norway. The complicated and sometimes non-convex budget sets for this group are accounted for. Focus is also on the limitation in the choice sets this group face. Parametric bootstrap and simulation techniques are applied to construct confidence intervals for the predicted impacts of changes in the economic environment. The results show that there is a small to moderate effect of changes in economic incentives on the extent to which vocational rehabilitation brings individuals back to work. We also find that individual health status and local labour market conditions are the most important factors affecting the transition from rehabilitation to work.Structural estimation; labour supply; marginal workers.

The Total Tax on Labour Income

In the present paper we examine the economic incentives to work for persons receiving benefits in Norway. We take into account how the tax- and benefit systems interact. For a large part of the population social security transfers ensure that the income if not working is far from zero. These benefits are typically curtailed if a person works. By including this benefit loss in the tax measure we compute what we call “total” tax rates for all benefit claimants in Norway. We estimate that benefit receivers on average would gain about 70 000 NOK if working full-time instead of not working at all. The total tax rate is about 70 percent for full-time work. About 4 percent will be economically worse off if working full-time instead of not working at all. In addition we find that the tax reform intended to improve economic efficiency by cutting the highest marginal taxes, will worsen the economic incentives for benefit receivers if the lower top-rates are financed by higher taxes at lower incomes. Instead we indicate that reforms making the overall progressivity of the formal tax system stronger would improve the incentives to work for these groups.Work incentives; Taxation; Benefit entitlements

Conscientious objection to referrals for abortion: pragmatic solution or threat to women's rights?

Background Conscientious objection has spurred impassioned debate in many Western countries. Some Norwegian general practitioners (GPs) refuse to refer for abortion. Little is know about how the GPs carry out their refusals in practice, how they perceive their refusal to fit with their role as professionals, and how refusals impact patients. Empirical data can inform subsequent normative analysis. Methods Qualitative research interviews were conducted with seven GPs, all Christians. Transcripts were analysed using systematic text condensation. Results Informants displayed a marked ambivalence towards their own refusal practices. Five main topics emerged in the interviews: 1) carrying out conscientious objection in practice, 2) justification for conscientious objection, 3) challenges when relating to colleagues, 4) ambivalence and consistency, 5) effects on the doctor-patient relationship. Conclusions Norwegian GP conscientious objectors were given to consider both pros and cons when evaluating their refusal practices. They had settled on a practical compromise, the precise form of which would vary, and which was deemed an acceptable middle way between competing interests