Ingvild Almås
Biographic Data
| ID | 1145788 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ingvild Almås |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ingvild |
| FAMILY NAME | Almås |
| SIGNATURE | ALMÅS I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stockholm University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6340-1384 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The expenditure elasticity for food and calories
Accurate estimates of food and nutrient elasticities are important inputs for the design of efficient policies targeting the poor. In this paper we estimate the expenditure elasticity of food and calories using exogenous variation in budget from two unconditional cash transfer programs in rural Kenya, combined with detailed data on food expenditure, nutrition and prices. We find an elasticity of food expenditure of 0.86 and of calories of 0.66. A…
Historical manufacturing census of Sweden
This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw dat…
Destructive Behaviour, Judgement and Economic Decision-making under Thermal Stress
Accumulating evidence indicates that environmental temperature substantially affects economic outcomes and violence, but the reasons for this linkage are only partially understood. We study whether temperature directly influences behaviour by evaluating the effect of thermal stress on multiple dimensions of economic decision-making, judgement and destructive behaviour with 2,000 participants in Kenya and the United States who were randomly assign…
Inequality acceptance in China
Growing inequality poses a fundamental challenge to China’s socialist market economy. In a large-scale comparative study, we examine fairness views and beliefs about the source of inequality in China and compare them with those in two other major economies: the United States and Germany. We find that people in China consider hard work and talent much fairer sources of inequality than luck, and tend to believe that hard work and talent are much mo…
The macroeconomics of pandemics around the world
The COVID-19 pandemic led governments around the world to impose unprecedented restrictions on economic activity. Were these restrictions equally justified in poorer countries with fewer demographic risk factors and less ability to weather economic shocks? We develop and estimate a fully specified model of the macroeconomy with epidemiological dynamics, incorporating subsistence constraints in consumption and allowing preferences over "lives vers…
Predicted Covid-19 fatality rates based on age, sex, comorbidities and health system capacity
Early reports suggest the fatality rate from COVID-19 varies greatly across countries, but non-random testing and incomplete vital registration systems render it impossible to directly estimate the infection fatality rate (IFR) in many low- and middle-income countries. To fill this gap, we estimate the adjustments required to extrapolate estimates of the IFR from high-income to lower-income regions. Accounting for differences in the distribution …
Saving and Bequest in China
Particularly high saving rates among the elderly in both rural and urban China call for an investigation of the involved bequest motive. Utilizing unique survey data from a diverse group of Chinese households, we document that the magnitude of the bequest from parent to child is associated with the level of personal assistance from child to parent. Moreover, we find indicative evidence that both bequest and assistance are increasing in the parent…
Cutthroat Capitalism versus Cuddly Socialism
There are striking differences in inequality and redistribution between the United States and Scandinavia. To study whether there are corresponding differences in social preferences, we conducted a large-scale international social preference experiment where Americans and Norwegians make distributive choices in identical environments. Combining the infrastructure of an international online labor market and that of a leading international data col…
Measuring and Changing Control
This paper studies how targeted cash transfers to women affect their empowerment. We use a novel identification strategy to measure women's willingness to pay to receive cash transfers instead of their partner receiving it. We apply this among women living in poor households in urban Macedonia. We match experimental data with a unique policy intervention (CCT) in Macedonia offering poor households cash transfers conditional on having their childr…
Rags and Riches
Fairness and family background
Fairness preferences fundamentally affect individual behavior and play an important role in shaping social and political institutions. However, people differ both with respect to what they view as fair and with respect to how much weight they attach to fairness considerations. In this article, we study the role of family background in explaining these heterogeneities in fairness preferences. In particular, we examine how socioeconomic background …
Fairness and the Development of Inequality Acceptance
Fairness or Equality? Inequality in payments may be seen as inherently unfair, or as appropriate when it reflects differential achievement. Using an economic exchange game, Almås et al. (p. 1176 ) mapped how judgments changed from 5th-grade students to 13th graders: Fifth graders expressed a preference for equal division of rewards, whereas the 13th graders tolerated unequal outcomes, as long as they had been provided with evidence of unequal inp…
Baby Booming Inequality? Demographic Change and Earnings Inequality in Norway, 1967-2000
In this paper, we demonstrate how age-adjusted inequality measures can be used to evaluate whether changes in inequality over time are due to changes in the age-structure. To this end, we use administrative data on earnings for every male Norwegian over the period 1967–2000. We find that the substantial rise in earnings inequality over the 1980s and into the early 1990s, is to some extent driven by the fact that the large baby boom cohorts are ap…
Equalizing income versus equalizing opportunity
Germany has lower posttax income inequality than the United States and hence is doing better according to a strict egalitarian fairness ideal. On the other hand, the United States is doing better than Germany according to a libertarian fairness ideal, which states that people should be held fully responsible for their income. However, most people hold intermediate (responsibility-sensitive) positions, and this paper studies fairness of the income…
Cutthroat Capitalism versus Cuddly Socialism
There are striking differences in inequality and redistribution between the United States and Scandinavia. To study whether there are corresponding differences in social preferences, we conducted a large-scale international social preference experiment where Americans and Norwegians make distributive choices in identical environments. Combining the infrastructure of an international online labor market and that of a leading international data col…
Measuring and Changing Control
This paper studies how targeted cash transfers to women affect their empowerment. We use a novel identification strategy to measure women's willingness to pay to receive cash transfers instead of their partner receiving it. We apply this among women living in poor households in urban Macedonia. We match experimental data with a unique policy intervention (CCT) in Macedonia offering poor households cash transfers conditional on having their childr…
Fairness and family background
Fairness preferences fundamentally affect individual behavior and play an important role in shaping social and political institutions. However, people differ both with respect to what they view as fair and with respect to how much weight they attach to fairness considerations. In this article, we study the role of family background in explaining these heterogeneities in fairness preferences. In particular, we examine how socioeconomic background …
Inequality acceptance in China
Growing inequality poses a fundamental challenge to China’s socialist market economy. In a large-scale comparative study, we examine fairness views and beliefs about the source of inequality in China and compare them with those in two other major economies: the United States and Germany. We find that people in China consider hard work and talent much fairer sources of inequality than luck, and tend to believe that hard work and talent are much mo…
Baby Booming Inequality? Demographic Change and Earnings Inequality in Norway, 1967-2000
In this paper, we demonstrate how age-adjusted inequality measures can be used to evaluate whether changes in inequality over time are due to changes in the age-structure. To this end, we use administrative data on earnings for every male Norwegian over the period 1967–2000. We find that the substantial rise in earnings inequality over the 1980s and into the early 1990s, is to some extent driven by the fact that the large baby boom cohorts are ap…
Saving and Bequest in China
Particularly high saving rates among the elderly in both rural and urban China call for an investigation of the involved bequest motive. Utilizing unique survey data from a diverse group of Chinese households, we document that the magnitude of the bequest from parent to child is associated with the level of personal assistance from child to parent. Moreover, we find indicative evidence that both bequest and assistance are increasing in the parent…
Rags and Riches
Equalizing income versus equalizing opportunity
Germany has lower posttax income inequality than the United States and hence is doing better according to a strict egalitarian fairness ideal. On the other hand, the United States is doing better than Germany according to a libertarian fairness ideal, which states that people should be held fully responsible for their income. However, most people hold intermediate (responsibility-sensitive) positions, and this paper studies fairness of the income…
Fairness and the Development of Inequality Acceptance
Fairness or Equality? Inequality in payments may be seen as inherently unfair, or as appropriate when it reflects differential achievement. Using an economic exchange game, Almås et al. (p. 1176 ) mapped how judgments changed from 5th-grade students to 13th graders: Fifth graders expressed a preference for equal division of rewards, whereas the 13th graders tolerated unequal outcomes, as long as they had been provided with evidence of unequal inp…
Baby Booming Inequality? Demographic Change and Earnings Inequality in Norway, 1967-2000
In this paper, we demonstrate how age-adjusted inequality measures can be used to evaluate whether changes in inequality over time are due to changes in the age-structure. To this end, we use administrative data on earnings for every male Norwegian over the period 1967–2000. We find that the substantial rise in earnings inequality over the 1980s and into the early 1990s, is to some extent driven by the fact that the large baby boom cohorts are ap…
Fairness and family background
Fairness preferences fundamentally affect individual behavior and play an important role in shaping social and political institutions. However, people differ both with respect to what they view as fair and with respect to how much weight they attach to fairness considerations. In this article, we study the role of family background in explaining these heterogeneities in fairness preferences. In particular, we examine how socioeconomic background …
Rags and Riches
Measuring and Changing Control
This paper studies how targeted cash transfers to women affect their empowerment. We use a novel identification strategy to measure women's willingness to pay to receive cash transfers instead of their partner receiving it. We apply this among women living in poor households in urban Macedonia. We match experimental data with a unique policy intervention (CCT) in Macedonia offering poor households cash transfers conditional on having their childr…
Cutthroat Capitalism versus Cuddly Socialism
There are striking differences in inequality and redistribution between the United States and Scandinavia. To study whether there are corresponding differences in social preferences, we conducted a large-scale international social preference experiment where Americans and Norwegians make distributive choices in identical environments. Combining the infrastructure of an international online labor market and that of a leading international data col…
Predicted Covid-19 fatality rates based on age, sex, comorbidities and health system capacity
Early reports suggest the fatality rate from COVID-19 varies greatly across countries, but non-random testing and incomplete vital registration systems render it impossible to directly estimate the infection fatality rate (IFR) in many low- and middle-income countries. To fill this gap, we estimate the adjustments required to extrapolate estimates of the IFR from high-income to lower-income regions. Accounting for differences in the distribution …
Saving and Bequest in China
Particularly high saving rates among the elderly in both rural and urban China call for an investigation of the involved bequest motive. Utilizing unique survey data from a diverse group of Chinese households, we document that the magnitude of the bequest from parent to child is associated with the level of personal assistance from child to parent. Moreover, we find indicative evidence that both bequest and assistance are increasing in the parent…
The macroeconomics of pandemics around the world
The COVID-19 pandemic led governments around the world to impose unprecedented restrictions on economic activity. Were these restrictions equally justified in poorer countries with fewer demographic risk factors and less ability to weather economic shocks? We develop and estimate a fully specified model of the macroeconomy with epidemiological dynamics, incorporating subsistence constraints in consumption and allowing preferences over "lives vers…
Destructive Behaviour, Judgement and Economic Decision-making under Thermal Stress
Accumulating evidence indicates that environmental temperature substantially affects economic outcomes and violence, but the reasons for this linkage are only partially understood. We study whether temperature directly influences behaviour by evaluating the effect of thermal stress on multiple dimensions of economic decision-making, judgement and destructive behaviour with 2,000 participants in Kenya and the United States who were randomly assign…
Inequality acceptance in China
Growing inequality poses a fundamental challenge to China’s socialist market economy. In a large-scale comparative study, we examine fairness views and beliefs about the source of inequality in China and compare them with those in two other major economies: the United States and Germany. We find that people in China consider hard work and talent much fairer sources of inequality than luck, and tend to believe that hard work and talent are much mo…
The expenditure elasticity for food and calories
Accurate estimates of food and nutrient elasticities are important inputs for the design of efficient policies targeting the poor. In this paper we estimate the expenditure elasticity of food and calories using exogenous variation in budget from two unconditional cash transfer programs in rural Kenya, combined with detailed data on food expenditure, nutrition and prices. We find an elasticity of food expenditure of 0.86 and of calories of 0.66. A…
Historical manufacturing census of Sweden
This article presents a comprehensive database featuring the digitized, cleaned, geocoded, and linked data of the Swedish manufacturing censuses between 1863 and 1900. The data covers close to the universe of Swedish manufacturing activity and includes establishment-level information on workers, the sum of production value, and toll as output value. The article describes how the data was originally collected and the steps taken to go from raw dat…
Economics (12 works) · Inequality (8 works) · Demographic economics (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Economic inequality (5 works) · Income, Poverty, and Inequality (5 works) · Public economics (5 works) · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Psychology (4 works)