Workers, Firms and Social Insurance

The project will be part of my Ph.D. work associated with the Frisch Centre's project "Labor Market and Social Insurance in Norway" financed by the Norwegian Research Council's program Welfare, Working Life and Migration (VAM). Norwegian welfare and labor market policy is governed by two overriding aims: To prevent poverty and to promote participation and self-sufficiency. While these two policy goals normally can be viewed as highly compatible, there is also an inherent conflict: Elimination of poverty w ill inadvertently imply a decent income even for those who do not work. This may encourage some individuals who are (or could have been) capable of supporting themselves by working, to instead rely on social insurance. UC Berkeley and the Centre for Labo r Economics (CLE) provide a unique environment for working with the issues outlined above. I have received an invitation from David Card to visit the centre for one semester. Card is a world leading labor economist, and has worked extensively on welfare r eform, labor supply, minimum wages, evaluation of social programs, unemployment and a range of other topics. Card is also program director for the Labor Studies program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The CLE is also home to resident a nd visiting faculty and graduate students who specialize in labor economics. The working environment at the CLE will prove very beneficial to my work on my dissertation. While at the CLE, I also plan to attend courses offered by the graduate program in e conomics at UC Berkeley not available in Norway. I will be attending the two weekly seminar series supported by the CLE: a labor lunch series and a weekly labor seminar. Finally, the stay at UC Berkeley and CLE will provide opportunities for more informal exchange with other labor economists and graduate students working in the field of labor economics, both people based in the US and in other countries.