The financial crisis in Norway: effects on financial markets and measures taken

This article guides through the measures implemented in Norway in order to dampen negative effects stemming from the financial crisis. We also discuss some features of the Norwegian money market and the liquidity system in Norway. From the point of view of central banks, the widening gap between money market rates and the key policy rate has been one disturbing element of the financial crises. We develop a simple model, which illustrates how developments in forward exchange premiums can provide insight as to why money market premiums differ across currencies. The model shows that the excess supply of term liquidity in dollar relative to the excess supply of term liquidity in other currencies has an impact on the domestic money market premium relative to that on USD.     

The Changing Relationship Between Economic Sociology and Institutional Economics

A bstract In his early work. Talcott Parsons severely criticized Old Institutional Economists like Thorstein Veblen and Clarence Ayres. Parsons'main objection was that institutional economics had a misconceived view on the scope of economics: institutions, being the embodiment of values, were the proper subject of sociology rather than economics. By arguing for a clear-cut division of labor between economics and sociology. Parsons legitimated the divide between the two disciplines that came into being in the years to follow. Recently however, the relationship between economic-sociology and institutional economics has changed dramatically. New Economic Sociology (advocated by scholars like Mark Granovetter and Richard Swedberig) rejects the division of labor proposed by Parsons. By-providing substitutes rather than just complements to economics, it tries to counter economic imperialism. This creates significant similarities between New Economic Sociology, Old Institutional Economics and the recent return of institutionalism in economic theory. However, the quest for a division of labor between economics and sociology remains unfinished.     

On the Re-Emergence of Small Scale Production: The Norwegian Case in International Comparison

Several studies on industrial restructuring point to the phenomenon of a changing size structure in many western economies. This article first rewievs international studies along these lines and then analyses developments in Norway from 1970 to 1990. For manufacturing, a pattern similar to those observed in other countries is found: from the middle of the 1970s there has occurred a slight shift from concentration in bigger establishments to growing employment shares in smaller establishments. Detailed analysis furthermore reveals that the shift towards smaller units has occurred in most sectors of manufacturing. When explaining this shift, however, the conclusion is the opposite of popular views emphasising the dynamism of small firms. The data points very clearly to a general industrial decline in Norway as a main explanation for the change in size structure. Rather than being attributed to the strengths of SMEs, the growing share of SMEs may be interpreted as a result of industrial weakness.     

A technometric model for the assessment of technological standards and their application to selected technology-intensive products

This article presents a quantitative model for the assessment of technological standards, which is applied to a sample of Japanese data compiled in 1982 that gives technical specifications of high-technology or high- commodity goods in Japan, the United States, and in some Western European countries. The metric model provides a systematic and checkable methodology by which to assess the achieved technological standards and disparities, allowing for cardinal measuring on different levels of aggregation. It does not consider the economic features of the products and processes analysed. The application of the model to a sample of 43 selected products (e.g., polyester filaments, color papers, coaxial cables, powder metallurgical products, machining centers, assembly robots, videotape recorders, semiconductor lasers, automobiles, nuclear reactors, to name only ten) of Japanese, U.S., and European origin (more than 5,500 data) indicates that despite the overall lead of Japan and the United States over European technological standards, the relative position of European— especially West German—technology is above average with respect to key technologies.Through the analysis of all technical specifications available, we show that the Japanese position is strong in technologies related to resources and environment, whereas the United States is in the lead in computer- aided design technologies.