Hva påvirker regional økonomisk utvikling?

• Barth, Erling; Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald (2020). Hva betyr skattefradraget for oppslutningen om fagforeninger? Søkelys på arbeidslivet. 37, s. 109–123. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-7989-2020-01-02-07.
• Barth, Erling; Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald (2020). Union Density Effects on Productivity and Wages. Economic Journal. 130(631), s. 1898–1936. doi: 10.1093/EJ/UEAA048. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  We exploit changes in tax subsidies for union members in Norway to identify the effects of changes in firm level union density on productivity and wages. Increased deductions in taxable income for union members led to higher membership rates and contributed to a lower decline in union membership rates over time in Norway. Accounting for selection effects and the potential endogeneity of unionisation, the results show that increasing union density at the firm level leads to a substantial increase in both productivity and wages. The wage effect is larger in more productive firms, consistent with rent-sharing models.

• Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning (2020). Linguistic diversity and workplace productivity. Labour Economics. doi: 10.1016/j.labeco.2020.101813. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  We study the importance of linguistic diversity in the workplace for workplace productivity. While cultural diversity might improve productivity through new ideas and innovation, linguistic diversity might increase communication costs and thereby reduce productivity. We apply a new measure of languages’ linguistic proximity to Norwegian linked employer-employee manufacturing data from 2003–12, and find that higher workforce linguistic diversity decreases productivity. We find a negative effect also when we control for the impact of cultural diversity. The detrimental impact disappears over time as immigrant workers’ expected proficiency in Norwegian improves since their time of arrival.

• Finseraas, Henning (2019). Social democratic representation and welfare spending: A quantitative case study. Political Science Research and Methods. doi: 10.1017/psrm.2019.36. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The welfare state literature argues that Social Democratic party representation is of key importance for welfare state outcomes. However, few papers are able to separate the influence of parties from voter preferences, which implies that the partisan effects will be overstated. I study a natural experiment to identify a partisan effect. In 1995, the Labour Party (Ap) in the Norwegian municipality of Flå filed their candidate list too late and could not participate in the local election. Ap was the largest party in Flå in the entire post-World War period, but have not regained this position. I use the synthetic control method to study the effects on welfare spending priorities. I find small and insignificant partisan effects.

• Dale-Olsen, Harald (2017). Labour demand and supply changes in Norway following an imposed harmonization of geographically differentiated payroll-tax rates. Labour. 32(2), s. 261–291. doi: 10.1111/labr.12119. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The payroll-tax is an important source for public financial revenues. Utilising Norwegian population-wide linked-employer-employee register-data for 2001-2012 while exploiting the harmonizing of the geographically-differentiated payroll-tax imposed by the EU, I show that payroll-tax increases are shifted onto workers’ hourly wages thus reducing these. Annual earnings also drop as the payroll-tax grows. Neither unemployment nor employment levels are affected in the short-run, but the payroll-tax levels and the number of sick leave days appear positively correlated. In the long run, entry into retirement and DI rolls increase. Thus the tax hike induces the withdrawal of workers from the labour force.

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• Barth, Erling; Finseraas, Henning; Kjelsrud, Anders Grøn & Moene, Karl Ove (Kalle) (2021). Does the Rise of China Lead to the Fall of European Welfare States? IZA Institute of Labor Economics. Vis sammendrag

  Have recent trends in globalization changed the positive link between trade openness and social insurance? The consensus view - that voters want better social insurance against income loss the more open the economy - is seemingly contested by the rise of populism and the China shock. We present a theoretical framework of risk and income effects of globalization that captures the conventional view, but also shows when it will be modified: When the income effect is negative, the political support for social insurance can decline in spite of the risk effect. We construct an empirical measure of welfare state support across European regions and leverage the rapid integration of China into the world economy to show that higher import competition reduces the support for social insurance. Consistent with our framework, we decompose the overall effect of the shock into a (weak) positive risk effect and a (strong) negative income effect

• Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning (2019). Språklig mangfold og produktivitet på arbeidsplassen. IZA. Vis sammendrag

  I dette arbeidet studerer vi betydningen av språklig mangfold på arbeidsplassen for produktivitet. Mens språklig mangfold kan øke produktiviteten gjennom nye ideer, tanker og innovasjon, kan språklig mangfold øke kommunikasjonskostnadene og dermed redusere produktiviteten. Vi bruker et nytt mål på språklig likhet som vi kopler til norske registerdata fra industrien i perioden 2003-12. Vi finner en negativ effekt på produktiviteten knyttet til språklig mangfold. Den negative effekten forsvinner ikke når vi tar hensyn til kulturell mangfold på arbeidsplassen. Ettersom norskkunnskapene bedres med botid for utenlandske arbeidere, så forsvinner også den negative effekten knyttet til språklig mangfold.

• Dale-Olsen, Harald (2019). Kreativ ødeleggelse, velferdsytelser og organiseringsnettverk. IZA. Vis sammendrag

  Hvis fagforeninger bidrar til etablering av mer produktive virksomheter på bekostning av mindre produktive virksomhet (a la Schumpeters tanker om kreativ ødeleggelse («creative destruction)), så vil det være et åpent spørsmål om dette også påvirker utstrømningen til velferdsytelser som ledighet, uførhet og pensjon. I arbeidet studeres hvordan regional organiseringsgrad påvirker den regionale utstrømningen til ulike velferdsytelser i perioden 2003-2012. I studien sammenlignes kommuner og næringer med høy organiseringsgrad i 1918 med dem som hadde lav historisk organiseringsgrad. Studien finner at vekst i den regionale organiseringsgraden innebærer redusert utstrømning til de fleste velferdsytelser, men med unntak av alderspensjon som øker.

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• Dale-Olsen, Harald & Finseraas, Henning (2019). Linguistic proximity and workplace productivity. Vis sammendrag

  We study the importance of linguistic diversity in the workplace for workplace productivity. While cultural diversity might improve productivity through new ideas and innovation, linguistic diversity might increase communication costs and thereby reduce productivity. We apply a new measure of languages’ linguistic proximity to Norwegian linked employer-employee Manufacturing data from 2001-12, and find that higher workforce linguistic proximity increases total factor productivity. We find a positive effect also when we take into account the impact of cultural diversity and the improvement of proficiency in Norwegian of foreign workers since their time of arrival in Norway.

• Dale-Olsen, Harald (2018). Wages, Creative Destruction, and Union Networks. Vis sammendrag

  Do unions promote creative destruction? In this paper we apply a shift-share approach and historical unionisation data from 1918 to study the impact of changes in regional unionisation on regional wage and productivity growth and job creation and destruction during the period 2003-2012. As local regional-industrial unionisation increases, wages grow. Lay-offs through plant closure and shrinking workplaces increase, but entry and new hires are unaffected. Overall, the increased unionisation yields a positive impact on regional productivity, exceeding the wage growth, partly due to the closure of less productive firms, but also enhanced productivity of the survivors and new entrants.

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