Available online: https://pub.norden.org/nord2021-022/ This issue of Nordic Economic Policy Review is devoted to Nordic housing markets and housing policies. Nordic housing markets face more or less the same problems and challenges, but the way policies and regulations deal with them differs in many respects. A comparison of policies, regulations and results across countries yields valuable lessons for policymakers. The work has been led and edited by Professor emeritus Harry Flam and Professor emeritus Peter Englund.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/nord2022-001/ This issue of the Nordic Economic Policy Review surveys the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health and economic policies introduced to minimise its impact in the Nordic countries. Although national policies were broadly similar, they also differed in many respects. Given that some enjoyed greater success than others, comparing different policies and their effects may yield valuable lessons for the future. The Nordic countries weathered the pandemic relatively well compared to most other high-income countries, both in terms of public health and economic repercussions. Infection and excess mortality rates were comparatively low in the Nordic Region, except in Sweden, where they relied more on recommendations and guidelines than mandatory measures to contain the spread of the virus. The fall in GDP was also comparatively small and short-lived in all the countries except Iceland, where tourism plays a more prominent role in the economy. Nordic Economic Policy Review (NEPR) aims to convey policy-relevant, up to date research on different economic issues. The review produces one issue per year, each time with a new topic and researchers. NEPR strives to make the latest economic research accessible to both decision-makers and a broader audience, as well as to contribute to Nordic knowledge exchange on economic policy issues and challenges.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/nord2022-003/ This report discusses the observed gender gap in education, i.e. that girls are performing better in the Nordic school system than boys, with a special focus on girls and boys with foreign backgrounds. The report is a knowledge overview of the latest research of the similarities and differences between the Nordic countries with regard to the situation and what has been done to help children with foreign backgrounds, especially boys, perform better in school. We want to identify what the Nordic countries can learn about the issue from their respective setbacks and positive advancements.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book presents twenty-three in-depth case studies of successful public policies and programs in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland. Each chapter tells the story of the policy's origins, aims, design, decision-making, and implementation processes, and assesses in which respects - programmatically, process-wise, politically, and over time - and to what extent it can be considered to have been successful. It also points towards the driving forces of success, and the challenges that have had to be overcome to achieve it. Combined, the chapters provide a resource for researchers, educators, and students of public policy both within and beyond the Nordic region.

The Routledge Handbook of Housing Economics brings together an international panel of contributors to present a comprehensive overview of this important field within economics. Housing occupies an increasingly central role in modern society, dominating consumer assets and spending, forming an important part of social policy and being a large enough market to impact the macroeconomy. This handbook tackles these themes, along with other critical issues such as intergenerational housing inequality and the efficiency and social justice of housing interventions. This volume is structured in four main parts. It starts with eight chapters in microeconomics and housing. This is followed by two shorter sections on macroeconomics and finance. The final main part of the book is concerned with eight chapters on policy dimensions. While many of the chapters are rooted in mainstream economics and finance applied to housing, there are also chapters stressing institutional, behavioural and political economy orientations, as well as those that explicitly challenge more mainstream accounts. The contributing authors are based in Europe, North America and Australia and all draw in international literature to provide state of the art reviews of their topics. This carefully curated handbook will be essential reading for advanced students, researchers and policy makers in housing economics, urban economics, urban planning, public economics and real estate economics and finance. Chapter 22 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Norway is performing unevenly across its four agricultural policy objectives. While Norway enjoys a high level of food security and is meeting its aim of maintaining agricultural production across the country, both environmental performance and the efficient creation of value added along the food chain are compromised by support policies linked to production levels.

How well designed are the financial regulations that have been imposed after the global financial crisis in 2008–09 and the subsequent euro crisis? Will the new bail-in rules work in a systemic crisis, or do we risk further costly bail-outs by governments? How does monetary policy influence household debt? Have macroprudential tools been well-calibrated? Answers to these questions are crucial for judging the risks that the current corona crisis might also trigger a new financial crisis. The 2020 issue of the Nordic Economic Policy Review consists of six papers, including an introduction by editors Lars Calmfors and Peter Englund.