The objective of this paper is to investigate if and how capital adjustment departs from the smooth pattern implied by standard model based on convex adjustment costs. Using Norwegian micro data, we start by documenting the intermittent and lumpy nature of investment rates. We then present two pieces of econometric evidence on these issues. First, we estimate a discrete hazard model to determine the probability of having an episode of high investment, conditional on the length of the interval from the last high-investment episode. Second, we estimate a switching regression model that allows for the response of the investment rate to fundamentals to differ across regimes. In both cases we investigate the aggregate implications of our results. © 2003 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sickness absence tends to be negatively correlated with unemployment rates. In addition to pure health effects, this may be due to moral hazard behavior by workers who are fully insured against income loss during sickness and to physicians who meet demand for medical certificates. Alternatively, it may reflect changes in the composition of the labor force, with more sickness-prone workers entering the labor force in upturns. A panel of Norwegian register data is used to analyze long-term sickness absences. The unemployment rate is shown to be negatively associated with the probability of absence, and with the number of days of sick leave. Restricting the sample to workers who are present in the whole sample period, the negative relationship between absence and unemployment becomes clearer. This indicates that procyclical variations in sickness absence are caused by established workers and not by the composition of the labor force.

Using longitudinal data for Norwegian children born in 1950Norwegian children born in , 1955Norwegian children born in , 1960Norwegian children born in and 1965, we find a relatively high degree of earnings mobility. There is no tendency toward decreasing mobility over the cohorts. Conditioning on the position in the earnings distribution, the analysis indicates quite high mobility in the middle of the distribution and somewhat more persistence at the top and bottom. This approach also reveals increased mobility over time for sons, but a less clear picture for daughters.

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Based on matched employer-employee data from Norway, we analyze the effects of worker displacement in 1986-1987 on their children's earnings in 1999-2001. Using displacement of fathers to indicate an exogenous earnings shock we seek to identify whether family resources have a direct effect on children's economic outcome. As in previous Scandinavian studies, we find the intergenerational earnings mobility to be fairly high compared to the U.S. and the U.K. Displacement appears to have a negative effect on earnings and employment of those affected, while we find no significant effects on offspring.

This study analyses early retirement pathways for Norwegian male and female workers, applying a multinomial logit model to a data set covering more than 10500 employees, ages 56-61, in 1989. The aim is to analyse the transition to different destinations, i.e. disability pension, unemployment benefits, and out of the labour force, in the period 1989-1995. Both family characteristics, expected income in different end-states, and push factors, such as industry attachment and local unemployment, are important for the early retirement process. Findings also indicate that there are several gender differences. The explanatory variables have different effects on the different exit routes for males as well as for females. The hypothesis that disability and unemployment are exchangeable pathways into early retirement is rejected.

Using Norwegian individual register data of young workers, from the period 1986-2008, we analyse whether there are large and persistent negative relationships between unemployment and the risk of repeated unemployment and being out of labour force. A nearest-neighbour propensity score matching method is applied to make the treatment group (the unemployed) and the control group (the employed) as similar as possible. By tracking workers over a 10-year follow-up period, we find that unemployment has a negative effect on later labour market attachment. This is consistent with existing findings in the literature. The negative effects decrease over time. Using the bounding approach proposed by Rosenbaum (2002) to analyse the importance of unobserved variables, our results indicate that a relatively high level of unobserved selection bias could be present in the data before changing the inference. Thus, unemployment leaves young workers with long-term scars.JEL Codes: J64, J65, C23

Using register data for Norwegian cohorts born in 1950Norwegian cohorts born in , 1955Norwegian cohorts born in , and 1960 found intergenerational earnings mobility to be high, and lower at the lower end of offspring's earnings distribution than at the upper end. The findings also indicate that mobility has increased over time and that the increase is somewhat higher for lower earnings. The increase in earnings mobility over time is larger for women than for men. * The authors' affiliations are, respectively,