BI PhD student wins prestigious Norges Bank award

Photo: Norges Bank

“I feel very honoured! Research requires a lot of work and even though you think that the papers you write are very interesting, there is always a good chance that other economists disagree. For me, the prize served as a huge encouragement. I have gotten a lot of help with all my papers and two of the papers in the thesis are co-authored. The prize is also an important recognition of all the work done by my advisors and co-authors,” says Grindaker. 

Grindaker’s thesis consists of three separate papers that investigate how a lack of information on labour and housing markets shape agents’ responses to changes. The award is given out every three years based on recommendations from a committee of leading international economics professors. 

“We investigate whether stigma from corporate bankruptcies affects CEOs' careers, how moving homeowners' decision to buy-first or sell-first in the housing market affects prices, and whether unemployment insurance affects how workers move between different type of firms,” Grindaker explains. 

Grindaker was supervised by professor Gisle James Navik at the Department of Economics.

«Morten was a prolific PhD-student. He collaborated fruitfully with senior researchers on a couple of papers and developed his own research agenda which lead to his own excellent paper on workers’ search behaviour in the labour market. Morten is hard-working, creative and intellectually curious,” says Natvik.

Facts:

• The prize is 75.000 Norwegian kroner. 
• To qualify, the main topic of the thesis must be related to microeconomics. 
• The thesis must also be submitted by a Norwegian university or college. 
• The award was initiated in 1999 and had been given out nine times since then.