In this article, we re-examine the statistical evidence for the democratic peace at the dyadic level. We also investigate the seeming paradox that democracies are engaged in war as often as autocracies at the nation level. From the extensive literature on democracy and peace we have selected as our point of departure two influential contributions (one by Stuart Bremer, the other by Zeev Maoz & Bruce Russett), both of which analyse the relationship between democracy and peace at the dyadic level. Several problematic aspects of these analyses are addressed; in particular, problems concerning dependence between observational units caused by continuing war and peace, and by diffusion effects. We show that the increasing number of countries in the international system causes their assumption of a stationary probability of war at the dyadic level to be violated. It is argued that these problems cannot be solved adequately within the traditional dyad-year framework. Instead, it is proposed to model observations on the interstate dyad as a process in continuous time using Cox regression. An extensive model is developed that controls for contiguity, power status, alliances, stability, diffusion of war, and recurrence effects. A concept of relevance is introduced to account for the dependence of the dyadic probability of war on the size of the international system. The democratic peace is supported in our basic model. In a refined model, we find that the tendency of democracies to join each other in wars is much more marked than their avoidance of mutual fighting. This explains why democracies are as war-prone as autocracies.

Abstract:Norwegian business spending on R&D is low by OECD standards. To stimulate business R&D, in 2002 the Norwegian government introduced a tax-based incentive, SkatteFUNN. We analyze the effects of SkatteFUNN on the likelihood of innovating and patenting. Using a rich database for Norwegian firms, we find that projects receiving tax credits result in the development of new production processes and to some extent the development of new products for the firm. Firms that collaborate with other firms are more likely to be successful in their innovation activities. However, the scheme does not appear to contribute to innovations in the form of new products for the market or patenting.

Many people have contributed to this dissertation with kindly offered advice, encouragement, inspiration, support, and friendship. First of all, I wish to thank my supervisor Jarle Møen and cosupervisor Erik Biørn, for patience, supporting advice and thoughtful comments. Special thanks to my co-authors, in alphabetical order, Ådne Cappelen, Øivind A. Nilsen, Arvid Raknerud and Terje Skjerpen for inspiring and insightful discussions. All of them have contributed in numerous ways to this dissertation and have improved my ability to carry out economic research. It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with them. This dissertation is the result of my work on different projects in the Research Department of Statistics Norway. I thank my colleagues in the Research Department for providing an inspiring and pleasant working environment. In particular, I wish to thank, in chronological order, Torbjørn Haegeland, Mads Greaker and Erik Fjaerli, who all have been the head of research units where I have been employed, for embarking with me on this doctoral journey and for providing an opportunity to fulfil it. I also would like to thank the department of Economics, University of Oslo, for having me as a Ph.D. student; the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen for having me as a guest during spring 2009; and the organizers (the Centre of European Economic Research, ZEW) and participants at the Competition and Innovation Summer School in 2012 for providing a professional and inspiring arena for sharing experience and discussing preliminary work. I acknowledge the financial support from the Research Council of Norway (for the writing of the first, third and fourth papers) and from the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation (for the writing of the final paper). Finally, I thank my family and friends for their love and support. Special thanks to my mother Elena for always believing in me, to my father Vladimir for always challenging me, to my husband Håvard for always supporting me, and to my two children, Katarina and Henrik, for making my doctoral journey more meaningful. Oslo, April 2015 Marina Rybalka Essay 3: The effects of R&D tax credits on patenting and innovations With Ådne Cappelen and Arvid Raknerud Essay 4: Returns to public R&D grants and subsidies With Ådne Cappelen and Arvid Raknerud Essay 5: The innovative input mix: Assessing the importance of R&D and ICT investments for firm performance in manufacturing and services

Using a rich Norwegian panel dataset that includes information about the type and number of patent applications, direct environmental regulations, and a large number of control variables, we analyze the effects of direct regulations on environmental patenting. We use inspection violation status as a measure of regulatory stringency, while controlling for risk class. Violation status captures the probability that a firm might be sanctioned for violating its emission permit. Controlling for risk class captures firm heterogeneity related to dirtiness and inspection frequency. We empirically identify strong and significant effects on innovations resulting from the implicit regulatory costs of direct regulations.

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