Erling Holmøy

Trade liberalisation and effects on pollutive emissions to air and deposits of solid waste. A general equilibrium assessment for Norway

Abstract This paper assesses the effects of the last decades multinational liberalisation of foreign trade, in terms of economic gains and in terms of emissions to air and deposits of solid waste. By means of a disaggregated intertemporal CGE model for Norway two scenarios with and without the trade reforms are compared. Despite a slight decrease in GDP, emissions of several pollutants rise significantly. This is partly attributable to a modest increase in aggregate welfare, as polluting consumption rises along with reduced labour effort. Further, the trade reforms, in combination with existing policy concessions, result in a long-run structural change in favour of heavy-polluting export industries. As these are large consumers of electricity, prices of clean hydropower rise and cause an economy-wide substitution towards more pollutive energy sources.

A general equilibrium assessment of a suggested reform in capital income taxation

Abstract The paper analyzes and evaluates the reform in capital taxation that recently was introduced in Norway. We develop user cost formulas that capture the partial effect of taxation on the price of capital, and calculate the social rate of return to real capital in 17 private industries. The differences between the pre- and post-reform returns indicate the incentive effects of the reform. We discuss the response to the reform in an applied general equilibrium model of the Norwegian economy. We are primarily interested in the welfare gain induced by the reform and the distribution of this gain between different groups of households.

Fiscal effects of the Norwegian pension reform. A micro-macro assessment

The main goal of the Norwegian pension reform of 2011 is to improve long run fiscal sustainability, not least through stronger labour supply incentives. We assess to what extent the reform is likely to live up to these intentions. To this end we combine a dynamic microsimulation model, which includes a complete description of the Norwegian population and the pension system, with CGE-modelling of the effects on all government revenues and expenditures. We find that the reform is likely to make a great fiscal impact in the long run, and higher employment plays an important role in this respect. However, the pension reform alone is far from enough to solve the Norwegians long run problem of fiscal sustainability.

Computable General Equilibrium Assessments of Fiscal Sustainability in Norway

The chapter demonstrates how the computable general equilibrium model MSG6, combined with special models of government expenditures, has been used to assess the long-run fiscal sustainability in Norway. The simulations suggest that Norway faces a severe fiscal sustainability problem in the long run, despite an exceptionally strong fiscal position at present. This result is found to be relatively robust to exogenous variations in productivity growth, petroleum prices, longevity, immigration and the health of the elderly. The chapter also discusses the fiscal effects of various policy responses, including the pension reform of 2011, improvements in the standards of public health services and care for the elderly, as well as a tighter fiscal policy rule. The simulation experiments demonstrate that general equilibrium mechanisms contribute significantly to the total effects.

Chapter 5 Macroeconomic Effects of Proposed Pension Reforms in Norway

Ageing combined with generous welfare state schemes makes the present fiscal policy in Norway unsustainable, despite large government petroleum revenues. We estimate to what extent two suggested reforms of the public pension system improve fiscal sustainability and stimulate employment, two main objectives of the reforms. To this end we apply two large models iteratively: 1) a detailed dynamic micro simulation model to estimate government pension expenditures; 2) a large CGE-model to estimate general equilibrium effects on all tax bases and employment, i.e. macroeconomic effects. We find that the reform proposals have much larger effects than typically found for reforms of the tax and trade policy. Whereas maintaining the present system implies that the payroll tax rate must be increased from about 13 percent today to 25 percent in 2050, both proposals imply that taxes can be reduced from the present level in all years up to 2050. Most of this reduction can be attributed to higher employment.