Norway as a laboratory for research on imperfect labour markets.

This seminar was filmed during the conference "Modern labour markets Trade unions, social dialogue and productivity" 3 June 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden. The research on how the Norwegian labour market actually works is world leading. In this session we summarize and discuss some of the main findings – and relate them to the political context and the social dialogue. We will discuss the possibility for employers to set wages below the productivity of the employees, and how collective agreements and trade unions can affect the behaviour of firms – in terms of employment, innovation, productivity and wages. But also, what are the main unanswered questions and how interested are the social partners? It is unfortunate that Sweden lags so far behind Norway when it comes to this type of research. Presentation: Harald-Dale-Olsen is a professor of economics at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo. His research is focused on how employees react to changes in wages and how trade unions affect employers. Lately Mr Dale-Olsen has done research on how trade unions might affect structural change, innovation and productivity. Panel: Harald Dale-Olsen, Professor, Institute for Social Research, Oslo. Lars Andersen, Erica Sjölander, Director at Economic Council of the Labour Movement. Anders Forslund, Chief of Administration, The Swedish Unions within Industry. Jon Erik Dølvik, Research professor, emeritus. Moderator: Daniel Lind, Head of Research, The productivity Commission of The Swedish Unions within Industry.