ESSAYS ON CORPORATE DISTRESS AND BANKRUPTCY

enabling my many side-projects – I know it cannot have been easy. I also want to thank my co supervisors Frøystein Gjesdal and Maria Correia for the time spent reading and commenting on

my work and for your insightful guidance. It has undoubtably made me a better researcher. To

my coauthor Anna Gold, thank you for collaborating with me on our project, your experience

has been irreplaceable.

The papers in this thesis have benefited greatly from the comments received across various

conferences and seminar. Special thanks to Thomas Plenborg for his valuable feedback at my

midway evaluation; Aasmund Eilifsen for his constructive comments during the PhD day;

Zhifang Zhang and her insightful discussion at the Financial Accounting and Auditing

Workshop; and Liwei Zhu, my excellent discussant at the Nordic Accounting Conference. I

also appreciate the many comments I received during the doctoral colloquium at the Nordic

Accounting Conference in 2018; the parallel sessions at FIBE 2020 and the Nordic Accounting

Conference in 2021; and across the many brown bag seminars at NHH.

To my esteemed colleagues, many thanks for making work a fantastic place to be.

Particular thanks go out to the other PhD students that went through much of this journey with

me, Andreas, Dan-Richard, David, Hussnain, Joel, Kasper, Kyrre, Mikael, Saad, and Shrey,

you made the last four years both enjoyable and enlightening. Thank you Katarina Kaarbøe for

being a supporting PhD coordinator that is always looking out for the wellbeing of the PhD

students. My sincerest gratitude also goes out to the administration at the department,

particularly Maren Dale-Raknes and Ingrid Cecilia Sæthre, you more than made up for my

inherent lack of organization. Special thanks to Aksel Mjøs and SNF, the data provided by you

has been the basis for the third paper in this thesis as well as multiple other projects.

To my parents, refugees that left their old life behind and started over in a new country to

give their children the best life possible, I owe everything. I would literally not be here without

your sacrifice. Thanks to my little sister, the first student I ever taught. To my friends, thank

you for the joy you bring. Finally, I want to give my most heartfelt thanks to Kristine, who will

likely be my wife by the time I defend this thesis. You have been a constant source of happiness

throughout my PhD, always listening to my problems, ideas, and ramblings. Thank you for

being there for me, I am happy I could share this experience with you.