Research

I am an applied economist working mostly with reduced form methods in the fields of labor, public, education and family economics.

Published and forthcoming work

What Causes the Child Penalty? Evidence from Same Sex  and Adopting Couples [working paper version]

Instrument-based estimation with binarized treatments: Issues and tests for the exclusion restriction

Hva koster det å stenge utdanningssektoren?  Beregning av kostnader av smittevernstiltak mot COVID-19 for humankapital, studieprogresjon og produktivitet 

Child care, parental labor supply and tax revenue

Exploring Marginal Treatment Effects: Flexible estimation using Stata

The impact of universal prekindergarten on family behavior and child outcomes

Working papers

You Can’t Force Me Into Caregiving: Paternity Leave and the Child Penalty [new draft!]

Abstract: Children cause large reductions in earnings for mothers but not fathers, a stylized fact known as the “child penalty” that explains a substantial portion of remaining gender income gaps. We evaluate the impact of paternity leave, a policy intended to increase fathers' time with their young children and potentially decrease the child penalty by making caregiving more equitable. Despite fathers overwhelmingly taking up this leave, we detect no impacts on child penalties. We additionally find no impact of paternity leave on the amount of leave fathers take for the next child, a good proxy for gender norms within couples. We highlight one possible explanation: fathers approach parental leave very differently than mothers. Fathers are much more likely to take their paternity leave during summer holidays, when their children are already in formal care, and take more part-time leave than mothers. This tendency is stronger among fathers induced to take more leave by paternity leave quotas than fathers in general, suggesting that quota-induced leave may not lead fathers to act as primary caregivers. Consequently, we show descriptive evidence that child penalties are 10 percentage points smaller in families where fathers voluntarily take leave than in families where fathers are induced to take leave by paternity leave quotas.

High school dropout for marginal students: Early career consequences and labor market outcomes  [new draft]

Abstract:  We exploit a randomized high-stakes exam in Norwegian high schools to evaluate consequences of exam fail for an academically marginal and policy-relevant group of students. Failing the exam more than doubles the dropout rate. By age 30, we find evidence for lower educational attainment but no significant effects on labor market earnings. This may be explained by flexible pathways in the educational system: Failing students are more likely to switch to vocational training and be self-employed in their early careers. Finally, we show that marginal students are disadvantaged and provide evidence on how policymakers can target this group. that allows for transfer across high school tracks.

The importance of escape clauses: Firm response to thin capitalization rules,

Abstract: Escape clauses, where small firms are exempt from particular tax rules, is a crucial feature of a number of corporate tax schemes, but creates incentives to avoid taxation by manipulating the measures that determine inclusion. We evaluate the impact of thin capitalization rules, which commonly feature such escape clauses across the world, by exploiting the introduction of these rules in Norway in 2014. Combining difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity and bunching estimates, we show that what appears to be a strong response in the capital structure among exposed firms primarily reflect within-group reallocation of debt to avoid exposure to the rules.  We observe sharp bunching among both new and existing subsidiaries at both thresholds for rule inclusion, and find that internal corporate group debt is offloaded to these bunching subsidiaries in order to avoid additional tax costs. As a result, significant and large effects on firm-level capital structure in response to the thin capitalization rules is driven by reshuffling of capital within corporate groups with little real effects. Re-estimating the difference-in-difference specification at the corporate group level confirms this finding, questioning the extent to which thin capitalization rules affect the real economy due to the presence of escape clauses.

Child care for all? Treatment effects on test scores under essential heterogeneity

Abstract: The common claim that universal child care equalizes differences in endowments rests crucially on heterogeneity in the treatment effect. In this paper, I investigate how test scores in reading, math and English at age 10 are affected by early child care attendance using marginal treatment effects. Identification comes from a large Norwegian reform that expanded highly rationed child care for toddlers unequally across municipalities and over time. I find that a) IV returns are small and even negative, but hide important heterogeneity, b) there is some evidence of positive selection on observable gains and c) MTEs are downward sloping, suggesting selection on unobservable gains: Children with large unobserved treatment effects are most likely to be treated. This implies that the effect of further expansions is smaller than initial rollout as the children with the largest treatment effects are already served.

Work in progress

• Testing monotonicity: Theory and practice, with Tymon Słoczyński and Martin Huber

• Bunching and the labor supply elasticity: Literature, empirical practices and improvements, with Lars Thorvaldsen

• Earn or Learn: Labor supply elastisities for students, with Trine Vattø and Jannicke Sahl.

Non peer reviewed work and reports in Norwegian

• Latente eierinntekter og skatteplikt på unoterte aksjer etter aksjonærmodellen (SSB Rapporter 2022/37)

• Verdsetting av unoterte selskaper (SSB Rapporter 2022/31), with Erlend Eide Bø

• Saksbehandlere og arbeidssøkeres overgang til arbeid, report for the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration, with Manudeep Bhuller, Gaute Torsvik and Espen Steinung Dahl

• Kapitalflyt og eierskap i Norge, 2004-2018: En deskriptiv analyse (SSB Rapporter 2021/29)

• Hva koster det å stenge utdanningssektoren?  Beregning av kostnader av smittevernstiltak mot COVID-19 for humankapital, studieprogresjon og produktivitet , SSB Rapporter 2020/15, with Sturla Løkken and Simon Bensnes

• Rentebegrensningsregelen: En empirisk evaluering (SSB Rapporter 2019/41) with Frida Kvamme

• Betydningsløs rett til barnehageplass, Samfunnsøkonomen 9, 2014