News

Erik Lundin has been promoted to Senior Research Fellow. For such a promotion, IFN’s researchers need to have reached a certain amount of publications, and the articles must, after peer review, be published in highly regarded journals that provide publication points according to a set scoring scale. One of Erik’s latest publications is an article in Energy Economics. Read more about Erik. Congratulations!

How can small and medium-sized countries preserve their room for manoeuvre when great-power rivalry hampers international cooperation? At a policy seminar at IFN on 24 September, Wing Thye Woo, Professor at Liaoning University and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, presented a proposal for a broad partnership between Europe and countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Henrik Horn, Professor and Senior Research Fellow at IFN, commented on the proposal.

We are pleased to welcome Natalie Irmert, Elin Molin, and Jonatan Riberth to IFN as new researchers, all of whom hold postdoctoral positions. Natalie’s research focuses on labor economics and the economics of education, while Elin examines various policy-relevant issues, including the causes and consequences of debt problems. Jonatan studies healthcare utilization, inequality, and the health effects of children’s screen time, among other topics.

How can international cooperation be revitalized when rivalry among the United States, China, and Russia makes it harder to find common solutions to issues such as AI, climate change, trade, and security? Welcome to a policy seminar on Thursday, 24 September, where Professor Wing Thye Woo will discuss these challenges. Read more and register

On 24–25 August, the project team and steering group of the Nordic Microdata Database (NMD) met for a conference. NMD is a collaboration between Aalto University, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), IFN, and the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). The project aims to create a shared database of Nordic firm-level microdata. 

Adrian Mehic has been promoted to Senior Research Fellow. IFN researchers receive such a promotion when they have reached a certain publication volume, and the articles must, after peer review, be published in highly respected journals that award points according to an established point scale. Check out Adrian's page for his publications. Congrats Adrian!

On June 15, Elin Colmsjö participated in the Economic Opportunity European Conference, where she presented her research “A Flying Start: Intergenerational Transfers, Wealth Accumulation and Entrepreneurship of Descendants.” In the paper, Elin analyzes how parents’ financial support in the housing market contributes to their children’s long‑term wealth accumulation. The conference was hosted by Sciences Po in Paris and was the first of its kind in Europe.

At the CESifo Junior Workshop on Labor Economics in Munich on May 28, 2016, Elin Colmsjö was awarded the Best Paper Prize. The paper, "Workplace Violence", co-authored with Daphne Skandalis, University of Copenhagen, examines the health and economic consequences of experiencing violence in the workplace. The paper will be released as a working paper later this year. 

On April 30–May 1, Hans Grönqvist participated in the NBER Children and Families Program Meeting, where he presented the paper “Criminal Records, Family Formation and Violence Against Women” (co-authored with Susan Niknami, SOFI, Stockholm University, and Jeffrey Grogger, University of Chicago and NBER). The presentation focused on how criminal background information affects individuals’ future employment opportunities and the risk of continued criminal behavior. The conference took place at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Daniel Waldenström recently visited the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Fiscal Affairs Department in Washington, D.C. During the visit, Daniel Waldenström delivered two presentations. In the first, he presented recent research findings on capital taxation, an area of major importance in the ongoing international tax policy debate.

Henrik Horn participated in the Greek Public Policy Forum, held on Crete on April 18–19. He presented research on "Trade Treaty Trouble," highlighting possible reforms to the WTO. The conference was attended, among others, by academic lawyers, political scientists and economists, politicians, and officials from the European Commission. The participants discussed current issues ranging from the global to the local level. Henrik Horn's co-author is Petros C. Mavroidis, Professor at Columbia Law School. 

On April 20, Lars Persson was invited to talk at the Industry Forum 2026, at Hanaholmen, Finland. The theme was how multinational cooperation can strengthen and dynamize the business sector. The opening speech was given by Central Bank Governor Erik Thedéen, Sweden, who spoke about how companies can handle the new security and geopolitical landscape and how cooperation in the Baltic Sea region can be strengthened. Lars spoke about the importance of formal and informal institutions for the Nordic tech industry.

Daniel Waldenström, researcher at IFN and chairman of the Swedish Economic Association, discussed economic inequality in advanced economies with Gabriel Zucman, Paris School of Economics, with a particular focus on Sweden.

Since the year 2000, IFN has organized an annual conference in Stockholm, the IFN Stockholm Conference, in research areas that are important to the institute. The hosting rotates between IFN's research programs. In December 2025, the conference was organized within the research program The Economics of Entrepreneurship, with Lars Persson as the program director and jointly with Pehr-Johan Norbäck.

Lars Oxelheim participated when the European International Business Academy held its 51st annual conference from December 11 to 13. This year's conference took place in Athens with over 700 participants. Lars Oxelheim contributed two research papers and had the pleasure of seeing one of them – co-authored with colleagues from England and Norway – awarded the prize for the best paper in the field of international finance and corporate governance.

On November 24, Daniel Waldenström was invited to speak about ownership, distribution, and capital taxation at the Norwegian ownership conference Eierkonferansen. The conference was organized by the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, and Family Business Network Norway.

Alexandra Allard, Ph.D. student at Örebro University and Södertörn University, and also affiliated as a Ph.D. student with IFN, defended her dissertation on October 24. The title of her dissertation is Employment, Externalities, and Exploitation: Empirical Essays on Maritime Sectors and Renewable Resource Management.

Daniel Waldenström was invited to speak at the European Family Business conference held in Lisbon on October 13–14. Daniel participated in two sessions. First, in a panel discussion on wealth taxation and experiences from Sweden, and then in a presentation based on his book Richer and More Equal – A New History of Wealth in the West, with a discussion on ownership and distribution as well as growth and lessons from history.

We welcome Jimmy Karlsson, a new postdoctoral researcher at IFN. Jimmy defended his dissertation on September 26 at the University of Gothenburg with the thesis The Economic Impacts of Carbon Taxation and Climate Change. His research lies at the intersection of environmental economics and labor economics, focusing on the distributional effects of the green transition across firms and workers.