We examine how changes to regulations and the economic conditions have influenced gross immigration to Norway from, in principle, all countries in the world during 1969– 2010. In line with existing studies of immigration we find that economic factors were important for immigration to Norway....

The degree of exchange rate pass-through to domestic goods prices has important implications for monetary policy in small open economies with floating exchange rates. Evidence indicates that pass-through is faster to import prices than to consumer prices. Price setting behaviour in the...

We evaluate the empirical performance of the new Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) for a small open economy using cointegrated vector autoregressive models, likelihood based methods and general method of moments. Our results indicate that both baseline and hybrid versions of the NKPC as well as...

We find that the Norwegian R&D tax credit scheme introduced in 2002 mainly works as intended. The scheme is cost-effective and it is used by a large number of firms. It stimulates these firms to invest more in R&D, and, in particular, the effect is positive for small firms with little R&D...

We address the question of whether the returns to R&D differ between R&D projects funded by public grants and R&D in general. To answer this question, we use a flexible production function that distinguishes between different types of R&D by source of finance. Our approach requires no adjustment...

Norwegian business spending on R&D is low by OECD standards. To stimulate business R&D, in 2002 the Norwegian government introduced a tax-based incentive, SkatteFUNN. We analyze the effects of SkatteFUNN on the likelihood of innovating and patenting. Using a rich database for Norwegian firms, we...

Rapid growth in productivity combined with increasing wage dispersion in some countries, notably Anglo-Saxon, has been the subject of numerous studies. The main hypothesis in the literature is that an increased skill premium provides a link between productivity growth and inequality. If this...

Several small open economies switched to inflation targeting during the 1990s, thereby giving up various forms of exchange rate targeting in favour of flexible exchange rates. Norway did the same early in 2001, and has thereafter experienced highly varying nominal exchange rates with consumer...

The New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC) has become the benchmark model for understanding inflation in modern monetary economics. One reason for the popularity is the microfoundation of the model, which decomposes agents' behaviour into price adjustments and deviations of the price level from its...