Four Essays in Natural Resource Economics
On Thursday February 9 2023 Rasmus Noss Bang will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend his thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
News archive
All research news from the Department of Business and Management science
Watch your money
Øyvind Thomassen: Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX are an extreme case, but the problem is far greater: Investors who are not afraid of being deceived should think again.
The Tax Commission protects the super rich
Petter Bjerksund and Guttorm Schjelderup: It creates a dynasty effect where wealth accumulates among the few.
Unsubtle about tax
Ola Kvaløy, Jarle Møen and Ragnar Torvik: The Norwegian Tax Commission is proposing a reform that will make it more worthwhile to work, especially for those with fairly low wages or high wages.
Norwegian game of chance with European friendship
Gunnar S. Eskeland: Marketing Norwegian gas as "reliable" means that we must show understanding when our customers experience times of crisis. Støre should travel to Brussels and make Norway a leading and generous partner in the energy crisis.
Essays on Mutual Funds
On Thursday 12 January 2023 André Wattø Sjuve will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend his thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
`Will limit the reporting of aggressive tax planning´
Last week the EU Court Justice made a striking decision. The court says that a 2018 directive intended to mandate the collection and exchange of information about cross-border tax arrangements, violates the lawyer-client confidentiality.
Actions from behavioral economics reduce tax evasion
Andreas Olden: If the Norwegian Tax Administration sends out a behavior oriented letter, we can almost count the impact in terms of the difference in kroner and øre that comes in as tax money after the letters.
Discussed tax transparency initiatives
Currently, tax transparency ranks high on governments’ agenda as being one of the key policy tools to reduce tax avoidance and evasion. This week NHH and SNF arranged a conference on tax transparency.
Additional tax is power, not a partnership
Gunnar S. Eskeland: The oil tax package is the story of a state which, in miserable, nocturnal proceedings on additional taxes, cannot take care of itself, but gives away the people's money to special interests, apparently without getting anything in return.
Taxfair – a project funded by the European Commission
European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action has funded the research project TAXFAIR that aims to provide a knowledge-based framework for governments and policymakers around the world to implement an effective system for the automatic exchange of information.
The fee should be scrapped
Petter Bjerksund and Guttorm Schjelderup: The high-price tax will give us less clean power in both the short and long term. It is a textbook example of how a tax should not be launched.
Top publication by Kvaløy and Olsen
The article "Balanced Scorecards: A Relational Contract Approach" has been published in Journal of Accounting Research.
Tax increase is not the answer when we need more power
Gunnar S. Eskeland: Experience, intuition and analysis indicate that tax relief will lead to investment and an increase in supply - also of renewable energy. So why propose tax increases both in general and for renewable energy now?
Top publication by Steffen Juranek
The article "Responsible Investment and Stock Market Shocks: Short-Term Insurance without Persistence" has been published in British Journal of Management.
Now it seems that the fox has gotten into the hen house
Petter Bjerksund and Guttorm Schjelderup: The fixed price scheme has now got a loophole which makes it most profitable for the power producers to offer fixed price agreements to the customers who need it the least.
Once the damage is done
Øyvind Thomassen: It is not the level of household debt that will cause the next financial crisis.
Crisis after crisis in shipping
«NHH Shipping Conference – LeaderShip» is coming up. Now, they announce the line-up of more than 15 top speakers from the business and academia.
Top publication by Endre Bjørndal and Mette Bjørndal
The article "Energy Storage Operation and Electricity Market Design: On the Market Power of Monopolistic Storage Operators" has been published in European Journal of Operational Research.
Now it is hydropower's turn to receive a tax package
Petter Bjerksund and Guttorm Schjelderup: The power producers' description of reality and arguments characterize the government's proposal for changes in power taxation. The proposal may have unintended effects that weaken competition and the power market itself.
Top publication by Maximilian Todtenhaupt
The article "Withholding Taxes, Compliance Cost, and Foreign Portfolio Investment" has been published in Accounting Review.
Maximum prices will not give us more energy
Gunnar S. Eskeland: In Europe, maximum prices, rationing or export restrictions do not produce more energy - it produces more pain. But it may be better to make a partnership less binding than to see it break down.
Artificial intelligence? We need to talk about data quality
Christian Braathen: Artificial intelligence is the solution to the lack of labor - if data quality is addressed. Organizations must prioritize data quality, be less concerned with "big data" and more concerned with good data.
Is it okay that the state gets richer?
Gunnar S. Eskeland: The population's demand to get their share of the gains from higher power prices is both natural and healthy.
Took a new approach to teaching – received award
NHH lecturers and statisticians Geir Drage Berentsen and Håkon Otneim employed a new approach to teaching during the pandemic. They’ve now received the Inspirational Teaching Award and the sum of NOK 250,000 to share between them.
«Essays on Behavioural Economics and Tax Compliance»
On Friday 17 June 2022 Andreas Olden will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend his thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
Visit from the Tax commission of Høyre
The Tax commission of Høyre, the Norwegian Conservative Party, visited NHH on 20 May.
Methodology and Practice of Optimization Problems
On Friday 10 June 2022 Nahid Rezaeinia will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend her thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
Not only legally untenable, but also an excuse
Øystein Foros and Erling J. Hjelmeng: The Norwegian Competition Authority speaks loudly against politicians' proposals for new rules on price differences in the grocery industry. But again, politicians seem more balanced and curious than the competition authorities.
The shelf will be cleared - we must pay close attention so we do not overpay and miss opportunities
Gunnar S. Eskeland: In any case, the Norwegian people are left with the bill - or the damage - after the clean-up in the North Sea, so we must handle the risk well: It can be sloppy, and we can miss out on value creation and reuse.
86 master's students took NHH's course on economic crime
`With a future job in finance, this course is highly relevant´, says master's student Daniel Botten (25).
New findings on gasoline markets
On Tuesday 26 April 2022 Ritvana Rrukaj will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend her thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
It is reactionary to want artificially cheap energy in Norway
Gunnar S. Eskeland: You have to be careful with what you wish for: You can get it. We will not be left out when the world's energy use is challenged and changed.
Cables, Climate and Glasgow
Øyvind Bøhren and Per Ivar Gjærum: The new foreign cables turn upside down discussions about climate gains. Do we understand the dilemma?
Mohammed Mardan new NHH PROFESSOR
Mohammed Mardan has been promoted to professor in the field of Business Economics.
The war profits are deserved - and secured. Or?
Gunnar S. Eskeland: When we may become terribly rich in war and energy change in Europe: Maybe we should be a little ahead and prepared for the reactions we may encounter?
Climate Customs, Marx and free passengers
Gunnar S. Eskeland: If Norway were to be the country in Europe that rejects climate tariffs, many would get a good laugh, for example the USA, China and Brazil - and Groucho Marx.
Lawyer boycott can be a violation of the competition law
Øystein Foros and Erling J. Hjelmeng: The Bar Association is organizing a boycott of the Supreme Court. With that, it can itself come into conflict with the law - the competition law. The Supreme Court of the United States has stamped a similar boycott as an cartel business.
The weakness of the nation state can be turned into strength
Gunnar S. Eskeland: Profitability is improving, and wind turbines are becoming more and better, if cables keep the electricity market open.
The spending packages have caused the inflation in the United States
Øyvind Thomassen: Expansive monetary policy does not provide higher prices or demand when the public does not want to loan for consumption.
The Oil Fund and active management: Follow the Tinbergen Rule!
Trond Døskeland: The Oil Fund's active return is positive, but it is small - NOK 170 billion since 1998, according to the analysis we have done for the Ministry of Finance.
Psychological safety essential for entrepreneurs
Christian Braathen: Entrepreneurs often need financing to avoid having an additional job, outside the start-up company. On the other hand, investors demand that entrepreneurs work only with the start-up company before they finance.
IMO’s Annual Efficiency Ratio comes in for heavy criticism
Roar Ådland, among others, fiercely criticizes the International Maritime Organization for its Annual Efficiency Ratio (AER), the key measure to define how ships fare when the Carbon Efficiency Indicator (CII) starts in just over a year.
Are central banks really independent?
Øyvind Thomassen: The central banks are involved in a poker game where they have bluffed at least since the financial crisis. And they dare not do anything but raise in each round.
National master thesis award to Jansen and Stavik
Embla Jansen and Stine-Mari Stavik are the winners of the ISACA Norway Chapters award for best master's thesis. They have examined how the stock market reacted to 42 of the world's largest hacks.
New doctoral thesis: Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds
On Friday 17 December 2021 Andreas Ørpetveit will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend his thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
Best Master Thesis Award to Strømholm and Rolfsen
Lars Skaugen Strømholm and Raag August Sandal Rolfsen are the winners of the Best Master Thesis Award at the Department of Business and Management Science for 2021.
This way, people can get a share of the benefits of high power prices, not just the cost
Gunnar S. Eskeland: Households and companies should get a share of the increase in value of Norwegian hydropower. Here is a suggestion for calculating the amount we should all get transferred to our accounts in winters like this.
Is the housing market «too big to fail»?
Øyvind Thomassen: If house prices ever fall considerably that will lead to an economic decline. Will the government save highly leveraged homeowners?
Foundership is a practice in mental self-torture
Christian Braathen: Foundership contributes to extrem personal growth, but there is a dark side of the picture.
Wealth tax is no gift to foreign investors
Øyvind Thomassen: Wealth tax is not significant when it comes to financing of new projects. The exception is small firms that have to finance investments with own funds.
Printing money alters the fundamental idea of capitalism
Øyvind Thomassen: The extremely expansive monetary policy causes that income is mainly determined by how much you already have. The risk is that the support of the market economy disintegrates.
Domestic Solar Energy Often Benefits Both the Climate and the Economy, but Not Yet in Norway
Øyvind Bøhren, Per Ivar Gjærum and Torkel Hasle: Our analysis shows disappointing emissions, that solar energy is unprofitable for society (and mostly also for the private owner), and misleading marketing.
The miracle drug public procurement
Malin Arve: Government procurement is now meant to promote environment, innovation and technological development. But sufficient budgets and high competence is necessary, otherwise we could end up with poor and more expensive procurement.
Top publication by Møen and Schjelderup
The article "The tax-efficient use of debt in multinational corporations" has been published in Journal of Corporate Finance.
Only start-up problems? Or overdose of wonder drug?
Øyvind Thomassen: The US central bank has, since March last year, printed new dollar bills worth more than three Norwegian oil funds, money they have spent on buying securities. Has that blown up the capacity in the economy and created lasting, troublesome inflation?
MALIN ARVE APPOINTED TO NEW EXPERT COMMITTEE
Associate professor Malin Arve has been appointed to an expert committee tasked with looking at how rules and reporting duties can be simplified. This could save businesses both time and money.
What is so special with the capitalists money?
Øyvind Thomassen: Investment in new business activity may just as well be made with employment income as with a company's profit.
Does the world need only English technical language?
Jarle Møen: A country that does not have a living national technical language will not be able to conduct a well-informed public debate.
There is no lack of capital
Øyvind Thomassen: It is contractors with good ideas, good noses and power of implementation that are lacking, not the capitalists money.
Research has to be in English
Arnt Ove Hopland and Aksel Mjøs: It is better with "English only" that "Norwegian only" if we have to choose.
What is wrong with the Conservative Party?
Øyvind Thomassen: The Conservative Party should be the natural choice for all of us who believe in a Norwegian version of capitalism. Instead it has become the party supporting big capitalists.
The power that we sell is not as valuable to us as the power that we buy
Gunnar S. Eskeland: When we buy power we can let the water reservoirs be filled up, and in that way move low-priced power to more valuable moments - or to battery production. It would be a complete waste not to do so.
The financial markets always have to be saved
Øyvind Thomassen: It is always the rich people, those with the biggest possessions of shares and property, who are saved by the central banks.
Wealth tax? Yes, but not for most people
Øyvind Thomassen: A new Norwegian Parliament, where the central point has shifted towards the centre and the left, has a unique opportunity to pass a progressive wealth tax that should have a far broader appeal among voters than the current wealth tax.
How to make Norway’s oil fund last forever
Knut K. Aase and Petter Bjerksund: The optimal spending rate from the fund is significantly less than the fund’s expected real rate of return. The optimal spending rate ensures that the fund will last “forever”, but spending the expected return (following the fiscal rule, "handlingsregelen") will deplete the fund with probability one.
What does wealth tax really mean to jobs?
Petter Bjerksund and Guttorm Schjelderup: Research does not support the statement that wealth tax makes Norwegian investors less willing to own firms.
Top publication by Maximilian Todtenhaupt
The article "Cross-border effects of R&D tax incentives" has been published in Research Policy.
Top publication by Døskeland and Kværner
The article "Cancer and Portfolio Choice: Evidence from Norwegian Register Data" has been published in Review of Finance.
Tax planning in the central bank's blind spot
Guttorm Schjelderup and Kristine Sævold: Nicolai Tangen's way to organize his fortune and business may be read as a classic, aggressive, tax planning structure. It is stirring that The central bank of Norway does not see that this is a possible perspective.
Why is ecological expensive?
Øystein Foros: This will only change if the price difference becomes so big that ecological-conscious customers stop buying ecological.
Green cooperation must be controlled, otherwise it will slow down innovation and development
Gunnar S. Eskeland: New, green solutions must not be slowed down by established firms and tehcnologies' alliances and cooperation. Future development has none or weak owners and no political ties.
Job number one is to make better use of our resources
Christian Braathen: Even though conversion and green shift is important, it is not enough. We also have to make better use of today's resources.
Extreme Freight Rates Begin to Change Shippers' Calculations
The containerized shipping industry has been essential to global commerce for its low shipping costs. However, high freight rates are starting to have an impact on consumer goods. Roar Ådland is interviewed on this by The Maritime Executive.
Top publication by Toumasatos, Sandal and Steinshamn
The article "Keep it in house or sell it abroad? A framework to evaluate fairness" has been published in European Journal of Operational Research.
Loophole in new scheme for employee options
Petter Bjerksund: If the employee it to be treated like a founder, the new tax proposal for employee options should be supplemented.
Bjørndal appointed member of expert committee
A new expert committee will evaluate Norwegian power supply and the electricity grid. NHH Professor Mette H Bjørndal is appointed member of the expert group.
Market Power and Intraday Market Issues
On Wednesday 16 June 2021 Somayeh Rahimi Alangi will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend her thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
Closing borders in 2020 reduced COVID-19 infections and fatalities
`Early imposition of full international travel restrictions appears to have reduced the growth in per capita cases and fatalities associated with COVID-19 in Nordic countries in 2020´, Professor Stein Ivar Steinshamn says.
«It’s hope in a hanging snore» – but not in the Super League
Øystein Foros and Erling J. Hjelmeng: UEFA's Sopranos-like methods to stop the new competitor goes against the competition rules of the European Union.
We have to start using the outfield again - for the best of the climate
Gunnar S. Eskeland: The world and Norway are making gross errors in the climate politics when it comes to the treatment of farming and forests. For Norway this opens up an important potential in the primary industries' farming and aquaculture.
NHH and shipping in Egyptian news
`Because of the relatively quick solution, the incident is not likely to have a long-term effect on the shipping industry´, says NHH Professor Roar Ådland to Al-Ahram Weekly.
Watch experts discussing financial secrecy
Did you miss out on the NHH mini conference on financial secrecy 24 March? The conference was digital and you now can watch the video and listen to experts discussing if financial institutions are capable of detecting criminal activity, as required by the regulations.
Top publication by Paul Pelzl
The article "Good mine, bad mine: Natural resource heterogeneity and Dutch disease in Indonesia" has been published in Journal of International Economics.
Top publication by Håkon Otneim
The article "The locally Gaussian partial correlation" has been published in Journal of Business & Economic Statistics.
Join a conference on financial secrecy
Tax evasion, bribery and fraud can be part of apparently legitimate business. Are the financial institutions capable of detecting criminal activity, as required by the regulations?
NHH students with a new master’s thesis about working from home
Master's degree students Andreas Vestre and Kristian Wøien Stø felt there was a lack of quantitative research on the effect of working from home. Their data analysis indicates that many make more efficient use of their working hours when working from home.
Top publication by Maximilian Todtenhaupt
The article "International taxation and productivity effects of M&As" has been published in Journal of International Economics.
Best Master Thesis prize to Benjamin Narum
Our PhD student Benjamin Narum is the 2019 - 2020 recipient of the NORS Best Master Thesis in Operations Research.
Good news if "green" funds and stocks do not perform particularly well
Gunnar S. Eskeland: Investments in "green" funds and companies – Scatec Solar, Tesla – has resulted in amazing returns, and some think that so it will be in the future as well. It would be a pity if they are proven right.
Norad webinar on illegal capital flight
Head of NoCeT, Guttorm Schjelderup, was among the speakers in a big Norad webinar on illegal capital flight.
Professor Guajardo finalist in The Daniel H. Wagner Prize
Mario Guajardo was recently awarded a diploma in the final of 2020 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for his paper «Scheduling the Main Professional Soccer League of Argentina»
Top publication by Aysil Emirmahmutoglu
The article "When Risk Perception Gets in the Way: Probability Weighting and Underprevention" has been published in Operations Research.
Carbon levy could more than double the price of traditional fuel
It will take a significant carbon levy, which more than doubles current fuel prices, to sufficiently push shipping's green transition in the way Norwegian and Danish shipowners call for, Roar Ådland tells ShippingWatch.
What will the Labour Party do about the dividend tax?
Petter Bjerksund: Has the Labour Party thought that, once again, it should be profitable to convert earned income into capital income? Or does the party intend to increase the dividend tax by 2,3 percentage points?
More jobs with less wealth tax?
Jarle Møen: Small firms are, in many cases, taxed more favourably than houses. Will even more favourable taxes on "working capital" really lead to more jobs?
How could the Nobel Prize be awarded for something as weird as auction theory?
Malin Arve and Eirik Gaard Kristiansen: Perhaps everybody has not considered that they actually have taken part in an auction.
Supporters of wealth tax should moderate their enthusiasm
Gunnar S. Eskeland: The wealth tax study currently debated actually shows that protection of "working" capital leads to more jobs, at least within small businesses. If big businesses should be protected, too, less wealth tax will be paid.
Top publication by Maximilian Todtenhaupt
The article "Capital gains taxation and funding for start-ups" has been published in Journal of Financial Economics.
Gabriel Fuentes second in UN software programming competition
PhD Research Scholar Gabriel Fuentes led his team to second place in the UN software programming competition "AIS Big Data Hackathon". Fuentes is employed at SNF and has office space at the Department of Business and Management Science at NHH.