Research
Work in progress
Buy to let: The role of rental markets in housing booms (R & R International Economic Review)
How do rental markets affect housing price dynamics? I develop a structural search model that allows housing owners to invest in rental housing, and let rents be determined endogenously. To motivate the model, I present empirical evidence that around 20 percent of buyers are buy-to-let investors, and the buy-to-let share is positively correlated with housing prices. The calibrated model matches the high investor share and housing price increase of a housing boom. A buy-to-let sector in a search framework is able to explain 50 percent of the observed increase in price-to-rent ratio, without shocks to credit or over-optimistic expectations. In the model, an exogenous increase in population inflow increases demand for both owned and rented housing. Increased rental demand induces more buy-to-let investors to enter the market, which adds extra demand to the housing market. The investor mechanism is novel to this paper. Search frictions are important to explain the increase in price-to-rent ratio.
[Current version (29.03.22)] [Working paper] [Press: Aftenposten]
Market rate housing construction in urban neighborhoods
with Stefan Leknes
Preempting housing auctions
with Andreas E. Eriksen
Hedonic regression models for housing taxation
with Odd Erik Nygård and Thor Olav Thoresen
Measuring housing market mismatch
Published papers
Buy to let housing investors in the Nordic countries, Invited contribution, Nordic Economic Policy Review, 2021: 49 - 72
[Published version] [Press: E24]
Taxation of housing: Killing several birds with one stone, Review of Income and Wealth, 2020, 66(3): 534 - 557
[Published version] [Working paper] [Press: Klassekampen; Frifagbevegelse]
Heterogeneity of the Carnegie effect, Journal of Human Resources, 2019, 54(3): 726 - 759
with Elin Halvorsen and Thor Olav Thoresen
[Published version] [Working paper] [Press: Dagsavisen; DN; Significance magazine]
Match quality in housing transactions: What can we learn from comparing buyers and sellers? Journal of Housing Economics, 2018, 41: 184 - 199
[Published version] [Accepted manuscript (pdf)] [Working paper (substantially different from published version)] [Press: Dagsavisen]
Taxes on the Internet: Deterrence Effects of Public Disclosure, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2015, 7(1): 36 - 62
with Joel Slemrod and Thor Olav Thoresen
[Published version] [Working paper] [Press: The Economist; Aftenposten]
Horizontal Inequity under a Dual Income Tax System: Principles and Measurements, International Tax and Public Finance, 2012, 19(5): 625 - 640
with Peter Lambert and Thor Olav Thoresen
[Published version] [Working paper]
A Suggestion for Evaluating the Redistributional Effects of Tax Changes: With an Application to the 2006 Norwegian Tax Reform, Public Finance Review, 2012, 40(3): 303 - 348
with Thor Olav Thoresen, Erik Fjærli and Elin Halvorsen
[Published version] [Working paper]
Published papers in Norwegian
Leiemarkedets rolle og fremtid, Samfunnsøkonomen, 2024, 138(3): 34 - 41.
Hedonisk verdsettelse av bolig med fleksibel geografisk inndeling, Tidsskrift for boligforskning, 2022, 5(2): 70 - 87.
with Per Medby, Odd Erik Nygård and Mona Takle
[Published version] [Working paper]
Fordelingseffekter av skattereformen i 2006, Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, 2012, 53(3): 267 - 294.
with Thor Olav Thoresen, Erik Fjærli and Elin Halvorsen