Erling Steigum is a professor of economics at BI Norwegian Business School. He holds a PhD from Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, where he was professor from 1982 to 1999. Main area of research and teaching is macroeconomics. His research has been published in journals such as Econometrica, International Economic Review, European Economic Review and Scandinavian Journal of Economics. He is a CES-Ifo research fellow and has been a co-editor of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics. He served at Head of the Department of Economics during the period 2003 - 2011.
Steigum has also been the chairman of the Government's Investment Strategy Council for Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund (2005 - 2009) and has served as a board member of the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (2002 - 2006). He is a board member of Centre of Monetary Economics (CME) at BI and has contributed to serveral Norges Bank Watch reports, evaluating monetary policy in Norway.
Research areas
The financial accelerator and investment behavior; macroeconomic models (including computable models) with sticky prices and wages; sectoral adjustment costs and dynamic analysis of the "Dutch disease"; petroleum wealth, sovereign wealth funds, and intergenerational distribution; computable overlapping generations models and generational accounting for Norway; pension reforms; the Nordic banking crises in the 1990s.
Teaching areas
Macroeconomics.
Borrow and adjust: fiscal policy and sectoral adjustment in an open economy
International Economic Review, 44(2) , s. 699-724.
Fehr, Hans; Steigum, Erling, Fossati, A. & Wiegard, W. (2002)
Pension funding reforms in a small open welfare state
Policy Evaluation with Computable General Equilibrium Models, , s. 232-248.
Steigum, Erling (2001)
Formuesberegninger, bruk av oljeinntekter og najonalbudsjettet 2001
Økonomisk forum, (1) , s. 24-30.
Steigum, Erling; Isachsen, Arne Jon & Røste, Ole Bjørn (1999)
Norsk pengepolitikk: Er et fleksibelt inflasjonsmål løsningen?
Euroen og den norske kronens skjebne,
Steigum, Erling; Isachsen, Arne Jon & Røste, Ole Bjørn (1999)
Pengepolitikk og valutakurs i fokus: Hva sier nyere forskning?
Euroen og den norske kronens skjebne,
Steigum, Erling (1999)
Globalisering og kapitalflyt: Noen lærepenger for små land
Internasjonal Politikk, 57(4) , s. 565-573.
Steigum, Erling (1999)
Robert Mundells forskning i internasjonal makroøkonomi
Sosialøkonomen, 59
Steigum, Erling; Gjersem, Carl & Auerbach, Alan J. (1999)
Generational accounting and depletable natural resources: The case of Norway
Generational accounting around the world,
Steigum, Erling (1999)
De profesjonelle og amatørene. Noen refleksjoner omkring Populister og originale økonomer
Sosialøkonomen, 59
Steigum, Erling (2022)
Finanspolitikk, oljepenger og materiell velferd for folk flest
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 5) , s. 11-15.
Steigum, Erling & Straume, Hans-Martin (2022)
Innføring i moderne makroøkonomi
[Textbook]. Gyldendal Akademisk
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2020)
Artikkel om ny teknologi, produktivitet og renter vant prisen for 2019
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 1) , s. 35-36.
Steigum, Erling (2019)
Nasjonalbudsjettet 2020: Mot et bedre rammeverk for den økonomiske politikken
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 5) , s. 35-36.
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2019)
Artikkel om individers kognitive ytelse vant prisen for 2018
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 1) , s. 49-50.
Steigum, Erling (2018)
Moderne makroøkonomi
[Textbook]. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag A/S
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2018)
Artikkel om vitenskapelig fundament for empiriske analyser vant artikkelprisen for 2017
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 1) , s. 51-52.
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2017)
Artikkel om progressiv beskatning vant artikkelprisen for 2016
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 1) , s. 83-84.
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2016)
Artikkel om prioritering av vegprosjekter vant artikkelprisen for 2015
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen,
Steigum, Erling (2015)
En kommentar til Nasjonalbudsjettet 2016
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 5)
Steigum, Erling; Borge, Lars-Erik & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen, (2015)
Artikkel om bokpriser vant prisen for 2014
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (Nr. 1) , s. 87-88.
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2014)
Artikkel om arbeidsinnvandring vant prisen for 2013.
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, (1) , s. 55-56.
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri Pettersen (2013)
"En mer effektiv konkurranselov" vant artikkelprisen 2012
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, , s. 80-81.
Steigum, Erling (2013)
Sovereign wealth funds for macroeconomic purposes
[Report Research]. Finanspolitiska rådet
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have become more numerous after the turn of the century, but the largest ones have been set up by non-democratic countries in the Middle East and Asia. Norway´s large SWF is an exception. In democratic societies, SWFs have been established in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland to pre-fund pensions in response to expected population ageing. The management of Norway’s Fund has been index-based, with only a very small role played by active management. In most other SWFs around the world, active management is much more important, and the cost of management is much higher than in Norway. The academic literature suggests that although active management could be worthwhile, many empirical studies do not support the belief that external active management generates excess after-fee returns. An empirical study of active management in Norges Bank finds that 70 percent of the (small) active management results from equity can be explained by other systematic risk factors than market risk. There is no strong consensus about how a global fund should diversify its assets among asset classes and currencies. We argue that SWFs could have positive macroeconomic effects in democratic welfare states if the government runs pension programs financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and future population ageing is significant. Still, a SWF is hardly politically feasible if there is no broad agreement in the electorate and among political parties that fiscal surpluses and a SWF is worthwhile.
Steigum, Erling & Thøgersen, Øystein (2013)
A crisis not wasted – Institutional and structural reforms behind Norway’s strong macroeconomic performance
[Report Research]. Norges Handelshøyskole
This paper draws the line between the Norwegian boom-bust cycle and crises in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the succeeding institutional and structural reforms and the strong macroeconomic performance and stability of the last two decades. The systemic banking crisis and speculative attack on the Norwegian krone in the early 1990s were the
last in a series of blows to Norway’s macroeconomic policy regime. In addition to the recession after 1988, the underlying growth potential of the Mainland economy was also weak, despite financial deregulation and the gains in competitiveness. The large oil price fall in the mid-1980s had demonstrated the risk of uncertain oil revenues as an important source of income to the government.
The political awareness of an economic crisis paved the way for a series of structural reforms and changes in the macroeconomic policy regime. Some of these reforms were implemented quickly, such as a tax reform, an energy market reform and a new incomes policy framework. In 2001 a new
framework for monetary and fiscal policy was put in place, involving a flexible exchange rate and inflation targeting, as well as a new fiscal policy rule designed to facilitate consumption smoothing and a build-up of a sovereign wealth fund. We discuss possible reasons why Norway’s political system has been able to learn from previous policy failures and reach the necessary consensus, and determination, to implement institutional and structural reforms in economic policy.
Borge, Lars-Erik; Steigum, Erling & Strandenes, Siri P. (2012)
Skaper velferdsstaten større sosiale helseforskjeller
[Professional Article]. Samfunnsøkonomen, 26(1) , s. 52-53.
Steigum, Erling (2011)
The short- and long-run effects of the Norwegian banking crisis in the 1990s
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Steigum, Erling (2011)
The Norwegian Banking Crisis in the 1990s: Effects and Lessons
Norges Bank Watch 2010 An Independent Evaluation of Monetary Policy in Norway
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
Steigum, Erling; Bjørnland, Hilde C, Clarida, Richard & Holvik, Elisabeth (2010)
An independent evaluation of monetary policy in Norway. Norges Bank Watch Report Series No. 11
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
Steigum, Erling (2010)
Norsk økonomi etter 1980: fra krise til suksess
[Professional Article]. Praktisk økonomi & finans, 26(3) , s. 11-17.
Steigum, Erling (2010)
NORSK ØKONOMI ETTER 1980 – FRA KRISE TIL SUKSESS
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
Norsk økonomi anno 2010 fremstår som en stor suksess. Det er bare Luxemburg som nå har en høyere kjøpekraftskorrigert brutto nasjonalinntekt per innbygger enn Norge blant OECDlandene. Det er illustrerende at norsk økonomi er blitt påført betydelig mindre realøkonomisk tap av den internasjonale finanskrisen i 2008-2009 enn andre OECD-land. Det er usannsynlig at Norges suksess utelukkende skyldes flaks. Vi skal ikke gå lenger tilbake enn på 1980-tallet og frem til begynnelsen av 1990-tallet da norsk økonomi hadde store problemer, både i form av lav produktivitetsvekst, høy inflasjon og til slutt mye arbeidsledighet. I denne artikkelen skal vi se nærmere på utviklingen i norsk økonomi og makroøkonomisk politikk etter 1980, samt drøfte mulige årsaker til suksessen.
Norges Bank Watch 2009 Monetary Policy and the Financial Turmoil
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
Steigum, Erling (2008)
BEFOLKNINGSALDRING, PENSJONSREFORMER OG REALØKONOMI
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
I de siste 15−20 årene har en rekke industriland reformert sine pensjonssystemer. En viktig årsak til denne bølgen av pensjonsreformer er at andelen pensjonister i befolkningen er på vei opp, og forventes å øke ytterligere i fremtiden. Også den fallende fruktbarheten fra 1970-årene og utover, samt en tendens til nedgang i den yrkesaktive perioden av livsløpet bidrar til at antallet pensjonister per arbeider vil øke betydelig i fremtiden. Det gis en kort oversikt over pensjonsreformer i Europa etter 1990. Notatet går nærmere inn på den norske pensjonsreformen.
Steigum, Erling (2004)
Oppgaver til Moderne makroøkonomi
[Textbook]. Gyldendal Akademisk
Steigum, Erling (2004)
Moderne makroøkonomi
[Textbook]. Gyldendal Akademisk
Bowen, Alex; O'Brian, Mark & Steigum, Erling (2003)
Befolkningsaldring og økonomisk politikk: Behov for pensjonsreformer?
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
Svensson, Lars E. O.; Houg, Kjetil, Solheim, Haakon & Steigum, Erling (2002)
Norges Bank Watch 2002. An Independent Review of Monetary Policy and Institutions in Norway
[Report Research]. Handelshøyskolen BI
The Centre for Monetary Economics (CME) at the Norwegian School of Management BI has for the third time invited a committee of economists for Norges Bank Watch, with the objective to evaluate the monetary-policy regime in Norway and Norges Bank’s conduct of monetary policy. The committee for Norges Bank Watch 2002 consists of Professor Lars E.O. Svensson (chair), Princeton University, Chief Economist Kjetil Houg, Alfred Berg, Doctorate Student Haakon O.Aa. Solheim, Norwegian School of Management BI, and Professor Erling Steigum, Norwegian School of Management BI. The committee met in Oslo in June 2002, had discussions with key officials at Norges Bank and the Ministry of Finance, and has worked on its report until September 2002.
Borrow and adjust: Fiscal policy and sectoral adjustment in an open economy
[Report Research]. Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research
The paper considers normative fiscal policy implications of sectoral adjustment consts in a two-sector model with overlapping generations. We show that despite no nominal rigidities, temporary fiscal deficits increase social welfare if adjustment costs prevent immediate sectoral reallocation of inputs. If there are no adjustment costs, the case for fiscal deficits vanishes.
Steigum, Erling (2001)
Trade unions and the burden of the public debt
[Report Research]. Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research
This paper looks at intergenerational welfare effects of increased public debt when union power in pay bargaing generates structural unemployment. Under a reasonable condition, the debt burden on future generations from postponement of the labor tax is larger than in the case of no union power.