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The purpose of this paper is to analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants.

A representative plant-level panel survey merged with register data is used. Random effect regression Tobit models are estimated. The dependent variable is wage costs share of immigrants at the plant. The important explanatory variables are measures of new technologies and work practices.

The results show that workplaces where employees use personal computers intensively and have broad autonomy hire fewer non-western immigrants who have not been raised in Norway. The negative relationship is especially strong for low-skilled non-western immigrants.

The estimation framework for studying this topic is new. The paper also presents original evidence on the relationship between characteristics of the “new” economy and demand for immigrant workers.

This article analysis the impact of training on wages using combined survey‐register material. The objective is threefold: to combine survey and register information to estimate individual return from training on wages; to estimate the impact from both individual and firm level training on individual wages; and to confront the results with control for unobserved individual and firm level heterogeneity. Results using register data show that the return from individual training is approximately 3.1 per cent per year. The return from the average training level at the firm is also positive and significant. After control for unobservable individual and firm level heterogeneity a positive impact from individual training is found, but evidence of a positive relationship between the mean level of training at the firm level and individual wages is no longer found. Our interpretation of these findings is that training has a positive individual effect, but has no positive firm‐specific external effects on other workers at the plant.

In this chapter, we have analysed the relationship between the proportion of women on board of directors and firm performance in Norway and Denmark. These countries are, in an international context, considered similar in many respects. However, during 2002–2007, the two countries experienced quite different developments regarding the gender diversity on companies' boards, caused by the Norwegian board reform affecting public limited firms. These changes increase the relevancy for analysing and comparing the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance in the two countries. The results for Denmark reveal no significant relationships between the proportion of women on boards and firm performance. As there was no quota policy in place in Denmark in this period, the proportion of women on boards has been quite constant. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that we observe no significant relationships. The results for Norway reveal first a positive relationship between the proportion of women on boards of directors and firm performance. This relationship does hold after controlling for a wide set of firm characteristics. Can this be explained by the quota? No, our robustness analyses suggest not. The results indicate that the short-term relationship between gender diversity and firm performance is negligible. Neither for public limited firms nor for limited firms, can firm performance during this period really be attributed to women on boards. Thus, from a gender equalisation point of view, it appears that one has achieved increased gender diversity on Norwegian boards, without affecting firm performance.

The relationship between gender, family and employment is often depicted as the outcome of rational allocation between time in paid work and time spent on family-related tasks, such as household chores and care for children and other dependent persons (Becker, 1991). This balancing process may be framed in purely economic terms as a question of which spouse should be most active in the labour market when the goal is that of maximizing the total family income. It may also be conceived as deliberations over gender role norms (e.g. Petersen, 2002). If spouses have similar earning capacity, or if they accord relatively little importance to variation in pecuniary income, they may instead decide the employment pattern on the basis of norms of fairness or gender equality. In both cases the couple making the decision is portrayed as context-free actors maximizing a simple set of values: family income or gender equity.