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We study inequality generated by capital gains in the housing market by exploiting two countrywide data sources in Norway: a registry of housing units and a database of transactions. We identify and follow all individuals in six birth cohorts in Norway, who were owners on January 1, 2007, and on January 1, 2019, and estimate the sum of their actual and potential capital gains from their owned and sold properties. We demonstrate that there is a substantial increase in capital gains inequality over the period, both across and within geographical strata and across and within birth cohorts. We find a statistically significant and economically meaningful difference between the distributions of capital gains of female and male owners in Oslo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: New EU regulations for increased sustainability and better utilization of side-streams are pushing the European mussel farming and processing industry to adapt to new regulations regarding their wastewater production, which leads to incentives for optimizing methods for better utilization of this side-stream resource. In this study, one such European company is faced with a choice of a filtration system out of three possible options, to invest in and achieve the option with the best balance between economic gain and environmentally sound production. Method: For this, a specialized Analytical Hieratical Processes (AHP) tool was utilized together with a supplementary Debias Your Decisions (DYD) tool to visualize the local best choice for the company. Results: Based on the generated user weights from the company it was apparent that the user weights were biased towards certain criteria in the AHP tool, which meant that half of the tool’s criteria had greatly diminished influence on the tool’s scores. This brought into question the objectivity of the Performance index (Pi) score results from the AHP tool when the user weights were applied, since these Pi scores deviated significantly from the expert Pi scores. The supplement tool DYD was found to be able to identify the dominant decision biases influencing the user weights in the current case, which enabled the implementation of relevant debiasing techniques to correct for the overweighted user weights from the company. With these corrections and the case company’s input data, the optimum alternative suggested for the case company is membrane filtration based on the final Pi scores for all weight sets.Discussion: This process and final debiased results further validated the AHP tools results as objectively grounded due to their convergence with the experts’ scoring results. This study also served as further validation for the new supplement DYD tool as the current sensitivity analysis showed the tool’s robustness to be high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Norway, house prices tend to drop in December. This regularity is persistent across regions and over time. I exploit a transaction data set with high temporal granularity to document and estimate the size of the December discount. I control for a composition effect using a hedonic model and I control for unobserved heterogeneity by using repeat sales and involving ask prices and appraisal values. By segmenting into submarkets, I search for determinants of price seasonality. The evidence suggests that the December effect is linked to time‐on‐market for each unit and transaction volumes within each submarkets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fisheries science and fisheries management advice rely on both scientific and commercial data to estimate the distribution and abundance of marine species. These two data types differ, with scientific data having a broader geographical coverage but less intensity and time coverage compared to commercial data. Here we present a new type of commercial data with high resolution and coverage. To our knowledge, the dataset presented in this study has never been used for scientific purposes. While commercial datasets usually include the total weight by species on per haul basis, the new data also include the commercial size class for the species landed, recorded directly on a haul-by-haul basis. Thus, this dataset has the potential to provide knowledge on landed fish with as high spatio-temporal resolution as when coupling logbooks and sales slips but with the addition of detailed knowledge on the size distribution. Such information may otherwise be obtained through on-board observer programmes but unlike the observers’ data, the dataset presented here is routinely collected on most of the trips of the vessels involved, which means that the coverage of the data for the individual vessel is larger than observers’ data. Furthermore, the risk of changes in fishing behaviour due to the presence of an observer on-board is avoided. This paper describes the coverage and completeness of the dataset, and explores the reliability of the data available. We conclude that the main limitation is the small number of fishing vessels covered by the program, but that the data from those vessels are accurate, detailed, and relatively reliable.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2008.10.004 Byline: Erling RA[cedilla]ed Larsen, Dag Einar Sommervoll Keywords: Hedonic model; Landlord scale; Rental market; Tenant characteristics Abstract: Owner-occupied and rental housing services are often assumed to be close substitutes, and both house price and rental price indices rely on regressions based on dwelling and spatial attributes. However, while such characteristics are exhaustive in the owner's market, they cannot capture the additional complexity of rental markets. This paper offers an analysis of additional factors that affect rent, such as landlord and tenant characteristics and the landlord-tenant interaction. We examine a novel data set of the Norwegian rental market and obtain substantial improvements in explanatory power by including tenant and landlord characteristics. Additionally, we are able to shed first light on long-standing questions such as the relationship between the scale of the landlord's businesses and rent levels. Author Affiliation: Research Department, Statistics Norway, P. O. Box 8131 Dep. N-0033 Oslo, Norway Article History: Received 24 February 2008; Revised 10 April 2008; Accepted 23 October 2008

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2008.05.004 Byline: Erling RA[cedilla]ed Larsen, Steffen Weum Keywords: Efficient market; Excess returns; House prices; Housing market Abstract: The question of whether or not the housing market is efficient is posed by an increasing number of economists, policymakers, homebuyers, and homesellers. This article tests the efficiency hypothesis on data from the housing market in Oslo over the period 1991-2002, employing the Case-Shiller time-structure test on a repeat-sales house price index and returns to housing. We demonstrate that both the repeat-sales house price index and returns contain time structure and that the housing market is characterized by inefficiencies. We also find, surprisingly, that the housing market consistently yields higher appreciation at lower volatility than the stock market over the period. Author Affiliation: Statistics Norway, PO Box 8131 Dep., N-0033 Oslo, Norway Article History: Received 3 July 2007; Revised 14 May 2008

Semiparametric Engel curves are used to infer bias in the Canadian CPI as a Cost of Living Index. The budget share of food has long been used as an indicator of welfare. We compare households with the same levels of CPI deflated total expenditure over the period 1978-2000. Differences in the expenditure share of food are attributed to the CPI failing to capture changes in costs of living. We employ a novel econometric approach using a single index penalized linear spline model. Over the period, we find that the CPI overstated changes in the cost of living between 1.33 and 1.86% for the four household types considered. JEL classification: D1, C1 On utilise les courbes semi-parametriques d'Engel pour identifier le biais de l'IPC comme indice du cout de la vie au Canada. La part du budget qui va a la nourriture a depuis longtemps ete utilisee comme un indicateur de bien-etre. On compare des menages qui ont les memes niveaux de depenses totales (degonflees par l'IPC) pour la periode de 1978 a 2000. Les differences dans la portion des depenses qui va a la nourriture sont attribuees au fait que I'IPC ne saisit pas les changements dans les couts de la vie. On emploie une approche econometrique inedite utilisant une fonction spline lineaire avec penalites pour produire un seul indice. Sur l'etendue de la periode, on decouvre que l'IPC surevalue les changements dans le cout de la vie de 1.33 a 1.86 pour cent pour les quatre types de menages etudies.

Abstract Autoimmune sclerosing cholangitis is an overlap syndrome characterized by features of both autoimmune hepatitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, the latter usually involving the large bile ducts. Autoimmune sclerosing cholangitis occurs more often in children than in adults and is frequently associated with inflammatory bowel disease, predominantly ulcerative colitis. We report a unique case of a 10-year-old Danish boy with severe small duct autoimmune sclerosing cholangitis and synchronic Crohn colitis. He was referred with a history of weight loss, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. Biochemical anomalies included elevated alanine aminotransferase, γ-glutamyl transferase and immunoglobulin G levels and the presence of smooth muscle antibodies and perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies but normal alkaline phosphatase. Liver biopsy specimen revealed features of both autoimmune hepatitis and sclerosing cholangitis, the latter characterized by acute, hyperplastic and destructive inflammation – granulocytic epithelial lesion – of the small ducts. Magnetic resonance cholangiography was normal. Colonoscopic biopsies showed chronic inflammatory changes of the caecum and the ascending and transverse colon compatible with Crohn disease. Ursodeoxycholic acid and immunosuppressive treatment was initiated and within four weeks of treatment the general condition improved. Normalization of aminotransferase was seen at 21 weeks and γ-glutamyl transferase at 72 weeks after first admittance, while immunoglobulin G remained slightly increased. Virtual slides The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1418596609736470