Simen Aardal Ulsaker

Welcome to my personal webpage. I am an Associate Professor at Oslo Business School, OsloMet.

My research lies primarily in industrial organization and applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on competition, consumer behavior, and vertical relationships.

A central theme in my recent research is retail and grocery markets, where I study pricing, consumer search and price knowledge, cross-border shopping, and the competitive effects of entry and regulation. I also work on questions related to exclusionary contracts, investment incentives, and vertical restraints.

I am affiliated with the FOOD research project at NHH. My CV is available here.

Work in progress

Do Informed Consumers Pay Less? Evidence from a Survey with Linked Grocery Purchase Data (with Richard Friberg, Emil Halseth and Frode Steen).

Exclusionary contracts and investment (with Greg Shaffer)

Unemployment shocks, cyclical prices and shopping behavior (with Thor Andreas Aursland, Richard Friberg and Frode Steen)

Climate-Impact Knowledge and Consumer Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Information Experiment Linked to Scanner Data (with David Bilén, Mathias Ekström and Frode Steen)

Publications

Main publications

Exclusionary Contracts and Incentives to Innovate Games, 17(1), 8 (2026)

Cross-border Shopping of Alcohol - What is the Effect on Tax Revenue and Sales and Which Products Are Most Affected? (with Richard Friberg and Frode Steen) Review of International Economics, 33(5) (2025), pp. 1021–1034. WP version

The effect of cross-border shopping on commodity tax revenue: results from Norway's COVID-19 border closings (with Richard Friberg, Emil Halseth and Frode Steen) Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 126(4) (2024). [SJE best paper award 2024] WP version

Co-location, good, bad or both: How does new entry of discount variety store affect local grocery business? (with Charlotte B. Evensen and Frode Steen) Journal of European Economic Association, 22(4) (2024), pp.1798–1843. WP version

Competition and risk taking in local bank markets: Evidence from the business loans segment (with Chiara Canta and Øivind Anti Nilsen) Journal of Empirical Finance, 73 (2023), pp. 153-169. WP version.

Hump-shaped cross-price effects and the extensive margin in cross-border shopping (with Richard Friberg and Frode Steen) American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 14(2) (2022), pp. 408-38. WP version.

Bank consolidation, interest rates, and risk: A post-merger analysis based on loan-level data from the corporate sector (with Steffen Juranek and Øivind Anti Nilsen) Journal of Competition Law & Economics, 18(4) (2022), pp. 771-794. WP version

Lump-sum payments and retail services: A relational contracting perspective (with Teis L. Lømo) Journal of Industrial Economics, 69 (2021), pp. 131-168. WP version.

Competing buyers, rent extraction and inefficient exclusion International Journal of Industrial Organization, 68 (2020).

Upstream merger in a successive oligopoly: Who pays the price? (with Øivind Anti Nilsen and Lars Sørgard) International Journal of Industrial Organization, 48 (2016), pp. 143-172. WP version.

Interlocking relationships and quantity rationing Economics Letters, 146 (2016), pp. 47-49.

Menu contracts and the division of profits in vertical relationships Economics Letters, 138 (2016), pp. 72-74

Publications in Norwegian

Annerledeslandet Norge: Butikktilgjengelighet og markedskonsentrasjon i Sverige og Norge (with Richard Friberg, Ivar Pettersen, and Frode Steen) Book chapter in Mot bedre vitende i norsk matsektor (Ed. Frode Steen and Ivar Pettersen), (2020), pp. 35–70.

Produktivitetsutvikling i norsk matsektor (with Ivar Pettersen and Frode Steen) Book chapter in Mot bedre vitende i norsk matsektor (Ed. Frode Steen and Ivar Pettersen), (2020), pp. 71–123.

"Sukkeravgiften" skal øke statens inntekter og redusere sukkerforbruket – men virker den? (with Frode Steen) Praktisk økonomi & finans, 35(1) (2019), pp. 69–84.

Publications in other fields

Conversation logs as a source of insight: Predicting user satisfaction for customer service chatbots (with F. C. Ay, E. Freddi, A. Følstad, S. Hodnebrog, K. Kvale, O. A. Sell) Quality and User Experience, 10(1) (2025).

Understanding the difference between office presence and co-presence in team member interactions (with Brede Nils Moe, Darja Smite, Jarle Moss Hildrum, and Fehime Ceren Ay) 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), (2024).

A method for validation of socio-economic impact from connectivity solutions in rural communities (with Per J. Nesse and Rick Gilsing) 2024 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (ICE/ITMC), (2024).

Inactive Projects

Competition and risk taking in the banking industry: The case of capital requirements

Contact information

simen[dot]ulsaker[at]gmail[dot]com

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