Empirical and theoretical studies suggest that employment behaviour varies with the state of the labour market since hiring and firings costs depend on the availability of labour. Extending earlier empirical work on this subject, we test for state dependence in employment adjustment and in the...

Existing studies generally reject purchasing power parity (PPP) on datasets from countries that have been affected by large real shocks, including Norway. However, we offer strong evidence of PPP between Norway and its trading partners during the post-Bretton Woods period, in which the Norwegian...

It is often argued that Norway's sizeable net foreign assets based on its petroleum wealth imply an appreciation of its real exchange rate to a permanently strong level. We investigate this issue within the framework of the fundamental equilibrium real exchange rate (FEER) approach. It is shown...

Denne artikkelen undersøker hvor mye vi bør bruke av petroleumsinntektene hvis vi samtidig skal minimere kostnadene ved å bruke dem. Slike kostnader forbindes med sektoromstillinger som ikke kan opprettholdes og må reverseres for unngå intern og ekstern ubalanse i økonomien....

This paper addresses the so-called natural resource curse by devising a rule that can reduce macroeconomic costs associated with the consumption of revenues from natural resources. It assumes that such macroeconomic costs are mainly brought about by changes in the real exchange rate, which...

We characterise the behaviour of Norwegian output, the real exchange rate and real money balances over a period of almost two centuries. The empirical analysis is based on a new annual data set that has recently been compiled and covers the period 1830-2003. We apply multivariate linear and...

We investigate whether there is a case for asset prices in interest rates rules within a small econometric model of the Norwegian economy, modeling the interdependence of the real economy, credit and three classes of assets prices: housing prices, equity prices and the nominal exchange rate. We...

This paper provides real-time evidence on the frequency, size and duration of arbitrage opportunities and deviations from the law of one price (LOP) in the foreign exchange market. We investigate deviations from the covered interest rate parity (CIP) condition ('round-trip arbitrage') and...

We investigate empirically whether a central bank can promote financial stability by stabilizing inflation and output, and whether additional stabilization of asset prices and credit growth would enhance financial stability in particular. We employ an econometric model of the Norwegian economy...

We evaluate two main views on pursuing financial stability within a flexible inflation-targeting regime. It appears that potential gains from an activist or precautionary approach to promoting financial stability are highly shock dependent. We find support for the conventional view that concern...