Research

The Centre for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality and Rationality aims to conduct groundbreaking experimental research on how to address inequality in society. FAIR is comprised of three research groups, the Centre for Empirical Labor Economics (CELE), The Choice Lab (TCL), and Development (DEV).

CELE

Centre for Empirical Labor Economics aims to foster research on the multiple aspects of empirical labour economics. The research agenda includes several themed areas of focus: the labour market, education and health economics, in particular early investments and intergenerational mobility.

TCL

The Choice Lab uses economic experiments to study individual decision-making, particularly how people are motivated by moral, risk and institutional considerations. Areas of focus are global income inequality, tax policy, health care and management issues relevant to corporations and non-governmental organisations.

Dev

Development combines field experiments, smaller-scale controlled economic experiments, survey experiments and household surveys to better understand people's choices in low-income countries and provide research-based advice on how their lives can be improved. Our projects involve early childhood development, education, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on countries in East Africa.

Last updated: 04.20.2026

Selected publications

Authors	Title	Publication
Alexander W. Cappelen, Gary Charness, Mathias P. Ekström, and Uri Gneezy	Exercise improves academic performance	Journal of Political Economy 134 (1): 397–434. January 2026.
Philipp Ager, Marc Goñi, and Kjell G. Salvanes	Gender-biased technological change: Milking machines and the exodus of women from farming	American Economic Review 116 (1): 246–286. January 2026.
Alexander W. Cappelen, Ranveig Falch, and Bertil Tungodden	Experimental Evidence on the Acceptance of Males Falling Behind	Journal of the European Economic Association 23 (6): 2212–2240. June 2025.
Aline Bütikofer, Antonio Dalla-Zuanna, and Kjell G. Salvanes	Breaking the Links: Natural Resources Booms and Intergenerational Mobility	Review of Economics and Statistics 107 (2): 306–323. March 2025.
Daron Acemoglu, Tuomas Pekkarinen, Kjell G. Salvanes, and Matti Sarvimäki	The Making of Social Democracy: the Economic and Electoral Consequences of Norway’s 1936 Folk School Reform	Journal of the European Economic Association 23 (1): 119–158. June 2025.
Eva M. Berger, Ernst Fehr, Henning Hermes, Daniel Schunk, and Kristen Winkel	The Impact of Working-Memory Training on Children’s Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills	Journal of Political Economy 133 (2): 492–521. February 2025.
Sarah Cattan, Kjell G. Salvanes, and Emma Tominey	First-Generation Elite: The Role of School Social Networks	American Economic Review 115 (12): 4369–4403. December 2025.
Alexander W. Cappelen, Benjamin Enke, and Bertil Tungodden	Univeralism: Global Evidence	American Economic Review 115 (1): 43–76. January 2025.
Sandra E. Black, Paul J. Devereux, Fanny Landaud, and Kjell G. Salvanes	The (Un)Importance of Inheritance	Journal of the European Economic Association 23 (3): 1060–1094. June 2025.
Samuel D. Hirshman and Alexander L.P. Willén	Does Increasing the Riskiness of Choices Widen Gender Gaps?	Management Science 71 (8): 6880–6901. November 2024.
Henning Hermes, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter, and Simon Wiederhold	Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment	Journal of the European Economic Association 23 (3): 1133–1172. June 2025.
Alexander W. Cappelen, Stefan Meissner, and Bertil Tungodden	Cancel the Deal? An Experimental Study on the Exploitation of Irrational Consumers	Management Science 71 (5): 3983–3995. August 2024.
Eugen Dimant, Michele Gelfand, Anna Hochleitner, and Silvia Sonderegger	Strategic Behavior with Tight, Loose, and Polarized Norms	Management Science 71 (3): 2245–2263. May 2024.
Aline Bütikofer, Katrine V. Løken, and Alexander L.P. Willén	Building Bridges and Widening Gaps	Review of Economics and Statistics 106 (3): 681–697. May 2024.
Fanny Landaud, Éric Maurin, Alexander L.P. Willén, and Barton Willage	The Value of a High School GPA	Review of Economics and Statistics. February 2024.
Andreas Haller, Stefan Staubli, and Josef Zweimüller	Designing Disability Insurance Reforms: Tightening Eligibility Rules or Reducing Benefits?	Econometrica 92 (1): 79–110. January 2024.
Julian V. Johnsen, Hyejin Ku, and Kjell G. Salvanes	Competition and Career Advancement	Review of Economic Studies 91 (5): 2954–2980. October 2024.
Alexander W. Cappelen, Cornelius W. Cappelen, and Bertil Tungodden	Second-Best Fairness: The Trade-off between False Positives and False Negatives	American Economic Review 113 (9): 2458–2485. September 2023.
Leonardo Bursztyn, Georgy Egorov, Ingar Haaland, Aakaash Rao, and Christopher Roth	Justifying Dissent	Quarterly Journal of Economics 138 (3): 1403–1451. January 2023.
Erik de Haan and Viktor O. Nilsson	What Can We Know about the Effectiveness of Coaching? A Meta-Analysis Based Only on Randomized Controlled Trials	Academy of Management Learning & Education 22 (4). February 2023.
Ingar Haaland and Christopher Roth	Beliefs about Racial Discrimination and Support for Pro-Black Policies	Review of Economics and Statistics 105 (1): 40–53. 2023.
Jonas Tungodden and Alexander L.P. Willén	When Parents Decide: Gender Differences in Competitiveness	Journal of Political Economy, Volume 130 (11), November 2022
Kjell G. Salvanes, Barton Willage, and Alexander L. P. Willén	The Effect of Labour Market Shocks Across the Life Cycle	Journal of Labour Economics, Volume 40 (4), October 2022
Pedro Carneiro, Kai Liu, and Kjell G. Salvanes	The Supply of Skill and Endogenous Technical Change: Evidence from a College Expansion Reform	Journal of the European Economic Association, jvac032, 00 (0), June 2022
Cheti Nicoletti, Kjell G. Salvanes, and Emma Tominey	Mothers Working during Preschool Years and Child Skills: Does Income Compensate?	Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 40 (4), October 2022
Alexander W. Cappelen, Sebastian Fest, Erik Ø. Sørensen, and Bertil Tungodden	Choice and Personal Responsibility: What Is a Morally Relevant Choice?	The Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 104 (5), September 2022
Samuel M Hartzmark, Samuel D Hirshman, and Alex Imas	Ownership, Learning, and Beliefs	Quarterly Journal of Economics 136 (3): 1665–1703. April 2021.
Kjell G. Salvanes, Emma Tominey, Italo Lopez-Garcia, and Pedro Carneiro	Intergenerational Mobility and the Timing of Parental Income	Journal of Political Economy, Volume 129 (3), March 2021
Aline Bütikofer, Julie Riise, and Meghan M. Skira	The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Maternal Health	American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Volume 13 (1), February 2021
Aline Bütikofer and Kjell G. Salvanes	Disease Control and Inequality Reduction: Evidence from a Tuberculosis Testing and Vaccination Campaign	Review of Economic Studies, Volume 87 (5), 2087-2125, October 2020
Julie Riise, Barton Willage, and Alexander Willén	Can Female Doctors Cure the Gender STEMM Gap? Evidence from Exogenously-Assigned General Practitioners	Review of Economics and Statistics 104 (4): 621–635. July 2022.
Alexander Cappelen, John List, Anya Samek, and Bertil Tungodden	The Effect of Early Childhood Education on Social Preferences	Journal of Political Economy, Volume 128 (7), July 2020
Kristina M. Bott, Alexander W. Cappelen, Erik Ø. Sørensen, and Bertil Tungodden	You’ve Got Mail: A Randomized Field Experiment on Tax Evasion	Management Science, Volume 66 (7), July 2020
Kjetil Bjorvatn, Alexander W. Cappelen, Linda Sekei Helgesson, Erik Ø. Sørensen, and Bertil Tungodden	Teaching Through Television: Experimental Evidence on Entrepreneurship Education in Tanzania	Management Science, Volume 66 (6), June 2020
Ingvild Almas, Alexander W. Cappelen, and Bertil Tungodden	Cutthroat Capitalism Versus Cuddly Socialism: Are Americans More Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking than Scandinavians?	Journal of Political Economy, Volume 128(5), May 2020
Manudeep Bhuller, Gordon Dahl, Katrine Løken, and Magne Mogstad	Incarceration, Recidivism, and Employment	Journal of Political Economy, Volume 128 (4), April 2020
Lars Ivar Oppedal Berge, Kjetil Bjorvatn, Simon Galle, Edward Miguel, Daniel N. Posner, Bertil Tungodden, and Kelly Zhang	Ethnically Biased? Experimental Evidence from Kenya	Journal of the European Economic Association, Volume 18 (1), February 2020
Alexander L.P. Willén and Anders Böhlmark	Tipping and the Effects of Segregation	American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Volume 12 (1), 318-347, January 2020
Michael Loveinheim and Alexander L.P. Willén	The Long-run Effects of Teacher Collective Bargaining	American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Volume 11 (3), August 2019
Sandra E. Black, Aline Bütikofer, Paul J. Devereux, and Kjell G. Salvanes	This Is Only a Test? Long-Run and Intergenerational Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout	Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 101 (3), July 2019
Aline Bütikofer, Katrine V. Løken, and Kjell G. Salvanes	Infant Health Care and Long-Term Outcomes	Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 101 (2), May 2019
Aline Bütikofer, David N. Figlio, Krzysztof Karbownik, Christopher W. Kuzawa, and Kjell G. Salvanes	Evidence that prenatal testosterone transfer from male twins reduces the fertility and socioeconomic success of their female co-twins	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 116 (14), April 2019
Marianne Bertrand, Sandra E. Black, Sissel Jensen, and Adriana Lleras-Muney	Breaking the Glass Ceiling? The Effect of Board Quotas on Female Labour Market Outcomes in Norway	The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 86 (1), January 2019

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ALL Published papers from FAIR

Women in Economics network

The Women in Economics Network (WomEN) is a platform for interactions among female economists with the aim to and promote gender balance in academic leadership positions. Together with FAIR, WEN partners with other universities and institutions to organize international networking and mentoring events for women. Some of the events are annual workshops for applied economists, a biannual networking lunch for all female faculty members at NHH, small-group annual presentation training courses for female faculty and female job market candidates.

WOMEN IN ECONOMICS NETWORK

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