Hello!

I am a postdoctoral fellow at BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, Department of Economics, where I work with the Center for Applied Macroeconomics and Petroleum (CAMP). 

Research interests: Household finance, family economics, families in macro, unemployment, consumption and saving, income inequality, family insurance.

Reach me at helene.onshuus (a) bi.no, or check out my BI web page


Current research

Divorcing into Wealth? Housing Expenditure and the Loss of Economies of Scale (WP available upon request)

ABSTRACT: 

I study household housing investment and risk-taking after divorce. I construct a model of family dissolution where divorced individuals lose access to economies of scale, and show that the loss of economies of scale in housing is an important mechanism in their adaption to single life. I use Norwegian administrative data to investigate how housing wealth, financial saving and net assets change after divorce, using an event study design. I find a substantial increase in housing investment, and subsequently in net wealth. The increase in housing investment is financed by increased debt, constituting a balance sheet expansion. Finally, I show that the increased housing expenditure dwarfs other responses to divorce, including earnings and financial saving.

Family Insurance and the Consumption Expenditure Response to Unemployment (WP available upon request)

ABSTRACT:

How much does family matter for the consumption response to income shocks? I study the consumption response to job loss in Norway from 1997 to 2011, and show that married or cohabiting job losers indeed smooth consumption compared to single job losers. Single job losers front-load the consumption response, responding more strongly on impact, even though the share of the accumulated income loss passed through to consumption is the same after four years. There is no increase in spousal labor supply, suggesting that the relevant family insurance channel is resource pooling. Second, the timing of housing market transactions seems to be an important margin of adjustment, and single male job losers are disproportionately pushed out of the housing market. 

Scarring effects of unemployment, with Malin Jensen and Sigmund Ellingsrud

Five Facts about income inequality in a resource rich economy, with Hilde Bjørnland, Yoosoon Chang, Paul Labonne, Julia Skretting and Leif Anders Thorsrud.

Published papers

PhD Dissertation

My PhD dissertation includes early version of the papers Divorcing into Wealth?, The consumption Expenditure Response to Unemployment,  and Family Insurance and the Consumption Expenditure Response to Unemplyment.