(This was presented at the Norwegian Business School following the initial presentation to the government. These are my quick notes.)

Patrick Lenain, Head of Division, OECD:

Norway is doing well!

Overview of OECD organization and general reports.

Paul O’Brien: The Norway survey

See executive summary for main points and recommendations. Main points:

• tertiary education more subsidized in Norway more than most places – perhaps time to start charging for it. There is a resource cost of education, has to be financed, comes through tax. But most of the benefits of education accrue to the individual, hence they should pay. In Norway, the income distribution is very even, however, and hence tax may work. This depends on returns and skills, intergenerational mobility, etc.
• Productivity growth level has slowed in Norway, as in other countries, because of the crisis. Could be a problem in the long run, especially since the productivity growth has slowed down more in Norway.
• Wage growth a problem? Little slack, unemployment rate is low, hour worked low (this is a choice), not really a problem because it is running at full tilt. Bit of a puzzle because price signal in the labor market is subdued, not using labor market signals to tell people where to do.
• Are you ready to pay the price for many schools, one in every village?

I had a question about Norway’s raising Gini coefficient and what the government could do to translate that into higher employment for the 20% of Norway’s workforce that is outside the job market, but did not really get an answer outside the issue of too high tax rates.