On the Importance of Foreign Factors for the Norwegian Economy

Abstract

The objective of this note is to describe two recent studies that both quantify the importance of foreign factors for the Norwegian economy by using time series econometric models. Furlanetto, Ravazzolo and Sarferaz (2013) use a Vector Autoregression (VAR) while Aastveit, Bjørnland and Thorsrud (2011) use a Factor Augmented Vector Autoregression (FAVAR) to identify the foreign factors and their geographical origin. Both studies find that foreign disturbances are extremely important for the Norwegian economy: in fact, they explain more than 50 percent in the fluctuations of Norwegian macroeconomic variables. Notably, the studies reach similar conclusions using different methodologies.