Centre of Equality, Social Organization, and Performance (ESOP) is a research centre funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) at the Department of Economics. ESOP was established January 1, 2007. The general objectives of ESOP are: To explore the links between equality, social organization, and economic performance, both in rich and poor countries. The ambitions are: - to confront economic theory with the Nordic lessons: do we need to change the basic behavioral and institutional assumptions or can the Nordic lessons be explained in a standard economic approach when only the details get right? - to understand the linkages between economic performance, distribution, and social disparities: What are the costs and benefits of more equality? - to explore the sustainability of generous welfare states and the viability of egalitarian market economies: What determine their performance and their economic and political feasibility? - to understand the interaction between policies, institutions and long term development: What set of policies and institutions may generate an egalitarian development path within a consistent arrangement? - to bring these research topics to the international research frontier: What are the general lessons for economics?
