Research

Work in progress

"Long Run Impacts of Child Benefits" with Edda Solbakken (draft coming soon)

We show that cash transfers to families with teenagers significantly improved economic self-sufficiency in adulthood.  In 2000, the Norwegian government raised the age limit for child benefit from 16 to 18. Depending on their birth cohort and age gap, this reform also affected economic resources available to their younger siblings. Using linked register data, we implement a difference-in-differences approach leveraging this variation to estimate effects on outcomes up to age 30. We estimate significant reductions in cash welfare receipt, increased educational attainment, increased labor earnings, as well as reductions in juvenile crime. Our estimates imply that the program is cost-effective. 

Peer-reviewed publications

• Hospital Queues, Patient Health and Labor Supply (with Venke Furre Haaland, Ingrid Huitfeldt and Mark Vortruba (AEJ Policy)

• Implementation and economic effects of local non-pharmaceutical interventions (with Maja Weemes Grøtting) (Health Economics) 

• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental healthcare consultations among children and adolescents in Norway: a nationwide registry study  (with Miriam Evensen,  Rannveig Hart,  Lars Johan Hauge, Ingunn Olea Lund, Ann Kristin Skrindo Knudsen, Maja Weemes Grøtting, Pål Surén, and Anne Reneflot) (European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)

• Re-opening schools in a context of low COVID-19 contagion: Consequences for teachers, students and their parents (with Maja Weemes Grøtting and Rannveig Kaldager Hart) (Journal of Population Economics)

• Parental Labor Supply: Evidence From Minimum Wage Changes (with Michael Reich , Jesse Wursten and Sylvia Allegretto) (Journal of Human Resources, ungated version here)

• Are Minimum Wage Effects Greater in Low-Wage Areas? (with Michael Reich (Industrial Relations, ungated version here)

• Can Labor Market Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair (with William F. Dow, Christopher A. Lowenstein and Michael Reich) (Journal of Health Economics, ungated version here)

• Regional Variation in Healthcare Utilization and Mortality (with Ingrid Huitfeldt) (Journal of Health Economics)

• Spillovers from gatekeeping – Peer effects in absenteeism (with Harald Dale-Olsen) (Journal of Public Economics)

• Profiting from presenteeism? Effects of an enforced activation policy on firm profits (Labour Economics)

Policy briefs

• The downstream benefits of higher incomes and wages (with Ken Jacobs)

• The New Wave of Local Minimum Wage Policies: Evidence from Six Cities (with Sylvia Allegretto, Carl Nadler, Michael Reich)

• Seattle’s Minimum Wage Experience 2015-16 (with Sylvia Allegretto and Michael Reich)