What is the role of large players" like hedge funds and other highly leveraged institutions in speculative attacks? In recent theoretical work, large players may induce an attack by an early move, providing information to smaller agents. In contrast, many observers argue that large players are...

The relationship between volume and volatility has received much attention in the the literature of financial markets. However, due to the lack of data, few results have been presented for the foreign exchange market. Further, most studies contain only aggregate series, and can not distinguish...

We presents evidence that non-financial customers are the main liquidity providers in the overnight foreign exchange market using a unique daily data set covering almost all transactions in the SEK/EUR market over almost ten years. Two main findings support this: (i) The net position of...

The household portfolio is dominated by a small number of assets; primarily housing and mortgages. We compare data on actual portfolios of Norwegian households with estimated optimal portfolios, using traditional financial theory. We find actual portfolios to be close to the portfolio indicated...

Energy consumption in homes accounts for over 30 percent of annual Norwegian electricity consumption. The government has set targets to reduce energy consumption in the housing sector. Measures that can increase energy efficiency in the housing sector are both known and available, but they will...

Energy consumption in homes accounts for over 30 percent of annual Norwegian electricity consumption. The government has set targets to reduce energy consumption in the housing sector. Measures that can increase energy efficiency in the housing sector are both known and available, but they will...

We look at a wide range of national and international crises to identify banks' exposures to losses during banking crises. We find that banks generally sustain greater losses on corporate loans than on household loans. Even after sharp falls in house prices, losses on household loans were often...