Current research

Pre-committed Consumption and Family Insurance after job loss (WP available upon request)

ABSTRACT:

How does the presence of children affect consumption insurance? I study the consumption response to job loss in Norway from 1997 to 2011, and present two empirical facts: Among job losers without children, the consumption response does not differ between couples and singles. Second, single parent job losers reduce consumption much less than married or cohabiting job losers with children. Both findings run contrary to workhorse models of family insurance. I resolve the puzzle in a model of household consumption with pre-committed consumption and show that constrained households have higher marginal propensities to consume than unconstrained households.

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.

The long-run unemployment consumption gap, 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.

What happens when temporary contracts end? with Pietro Garibaldi

Published papers

The Consumption Expenditure Response to Unemployment: Empirical Evidence from Norwegian Households with Andreas Fagereng and Kjersti N. Torstensen [Online Appendix] [Preprint]

Journal of Monetary Economics, 2024. 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103578 

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.