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The International English School was founded by Barbara Bergström 25 years ago. On Tuesday, this was celebrated with the release of the book Tough Love. International English School - the first 25 years by Hans and Barbara Bergström. The book tells the story of how IES has grown into a company with 36 schools, 26,000 students and a turnover of 2.5 billion. The book was commented by Henrik Jordahl, IFN, Pontus Brauner Hjelm, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum and KTH, as well as Torkel Klingberg, Karolinska Institutet. The moderator was PJ Anders Linder, Axess Magasin.

On Monday, Olav Sorenson, Professor at Yale School of Management, received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2018. The prize was presented by Helene Hellmark Knutsson, Minister for Higher Education and Research. Sorenson was awarded the prize for increasing the understanding of the notion that entrepreneurial activity and innovation are strongly embedded in socially and spatially bounded relationships. Global Award is the world-leading prize in entrepreneurship research with a prize of 100,000 euros.

On Thursday, IFN arranged a well-attended seminar on research on the seniority rules in the employment protection legaislation (Las). Per Skedinger and Martin Olsson, IFN presented a report and an article has also been published in the same subject in Economic Debate. They found, among other things, that the so-called two-round increase increases staff turnover, acts as a growth barrier, increases productivity and reduces the absence of the companies in question, with a maximum of 10 employees. In a subsequent panel, Per Skedinger, IFN, Carin Ulander-Wänman, Umeå University, Mikael Sandström, TCO, Thomas Carlén, LO, and Martin Ådahl, Center Party. Willy Silberstein was the moderator.

Timbro, a think tank with the mission "to build opinion in favor of market economy" has for the first time during three weekends organized an education in economics. The participants have learned about practical economic policy and economics research "relevant to the economic policy debate". Five of the lecturers were IFN researchers. Henrik Jordahl was first out and lectured on profit in the public sector. Andreas Bergh lectured on "The capitalist welfare state". Magnus Henrekson spoke of entrepreneurship, Gabriel Heller Sahlgren lectured on "A functioning school market" and Pär Holmberg about the Swedish electricity market.

On Wednesday Magnus Henrekson participated on a round table discussion  and presented the conclusions in the book of Kunskapssynen och pedagogiken (Knowledge and Educational Studies) (Dialogos), of which he is editor and co-author. A presentation was also made by Ralph Townsend, former Rector of Winchester College – Britain's oldest boarding school – and Staffan Erlandsson, School Director of Österåkers Municipality. The seminar was organized by Ebba Braheskolan in Nacka and the real estate company Kvalitena.

Niclas Berggren, Andreas Bergh, Christian Bjørnskov and Shiori Tanaka have employed data from 29,000 immigrants in the European Social Survey and found evidence that the persistence of life satisfaction from the country of origin is strong for migrants from developed countries and close to zero for migrants from formerly communist countries. They also find that persistence for second-generation immigrants is similar but weaker than for their parents.

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Henrik Jordahl, IFN, and Karin Edmark, Stockholm University and affiliated to IFN, are two of the authors the report "Istället för vinstförbud – bättre reglering av välfärdsföretag" (Fores) (Instead of a Ban on Profits – Better Regulation of Welfare Companies". Henrik Jordahl has studied whether companies in the welfare sector are "cherry-picking", for example, accept students with few problems or patients with more uncomplicated diseases. "Existing Swedish studies do not indicate that cherry-picking is a major problem in the welfare sector," Jordahl said. It is largely housing segregation that drives segregation in schools, Karin Edmark explained. She suggested, among other things, that the size of school vouchers be weighted according to the students' socio-economic background.

On Monday, Magnus Henrekson and Louise Johannesson presented the study Born Globals – Facts and Wishful Thinking (Karl-Adam Bonniers Stiftelse), which they wrote in cooperation with Shon Ferguson. All three are researchers at IFN. They explain that the government is now implementing financial support programs specifically aimed at born globals. But, the researchers write, a rapid internationalization of businesses might result in fewer, not more jobs. And at worst, the government programs will rush promising companies out into the world before they are ready.

Pär Holmberg’s research focuses on auctions and he has shown how a minor change in market trading rules could save taxpayers billions of dollars. In this podd he talks about the electricity market in general and auctions of electric power in particular. Pär Holmberg is Associate Professor in Economics and has a Ph.D. in Electric Power Engineering.

IFN researcher Louise Johannesson has received her Ph.D. in economics from Örebro University, with the dissertation Settling Disputes at the World Trade Organization. The thesis deals with issues related to dispute resolution within the World Trade Organization.  Louise Johannesson started out as a research assistant at IFN and was affiliated to the institute during her time as a PhD student. She will continue to be affiliated to IFN. At the beginning of April she begins an employment at the OECD in Paris.

On Friday the EEAG-report 2018 in general and in particular a chapter titled “It’s ok to be different: Policy coordination and economic convergence” was presented at a seminar in Stockholm by Professor Clemens Fuest, CESifo, Munich. This was followed by a discussion about the future of the EU. Katarina Areskough Mascarenhas, Head of the European Commission Representation in Stockholm, and Professor Lars Calmfors, IFN and Professor Emeritus at Stockholm University, participated in the panel discussion which was moderated by Thomas Gür, writer and entrepreneur.

Two researchers affiliated to IFN, Erik Lindqvist, Stockholm School of Economics, and David Cesarini, New York University, have been awarded funding from Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse for the research project "Förmögenhetsbildning över livscykeln och mellan generationer" (wealth formation over the lifecycle and generations), together with Robert Östling, Stockholm University. This is one of two current Ragnar Söderberg projects in economics.

The 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research goes to Professor Olav Sorenson, Professor Yale School of Management. Sorenson is awarded for showing how entrepreneurial activity and innovation are strongly embedded in socially and spatially bounded relationships. The Global Award is the foremost international award in entrepreneurship research with a prize sum of € 100,000.

The national curriculum for Swedish schools is an expression of “postmodern constructivist understanding of what knowledge is". This undermines genuine knowledge, explained Magnus Henrekson, IFN, in Swedish Public Radio (Studio ett). Children of immigrant parents had done better in the traditional school, he believes. Henrekson is interviewed and explains that immigrant families who are not perfect in the Swedish language are left without guidance. In fact, students are expected to analyze, evaluate and compare without first having sufficient knowledge skills.

Professor Alexander Ljungqvist, affiliated to IFN, has been appointed to the Stefan Persson Family Chair in Entrepreneurial Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics. Ljungqvist has previously in cooperation with several IFN researchers been studying among other things the importance of the stock market for the industry. He most recently held the Ira Rennert Chair in Finance and Entrepreneurship at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has taught at universities world wide, including Oxford University and Harvard Business School. Ljungqvist has served on the Nasdaq Listing Council and one a council of experts on behalf of the World Economic Forum.

Even if service companies grow rapidly and dominate modern economies, there is barely any knowledge of their productivity. In an article in Ekonomisk Debatt Matilda Orth, IFN, and Florin Maican, affiliated to IFN, present new methods for analyzing productivity in service companies where investment in new technology is key. They have investigated the extent to which supermarket establishments and the level of regulation of new stores, affect the productivity and closure of existing stores as well as the supply for consumers. Among other things, they find that consumers in large municipalities are winners when new stores open up.

Union membership is going down due to changed behavior among workers rather than structural changes on the labor market, explains the Swedish Labour Policy Council (AER) in a new report. "The rate of unionization has sunk with 16 percent", said Lars Calmfors, IFN and chair of AER. The council points to Germany as a warning example. In Germany the unionization has fallen with almost 30 percent during the last three decades. It shows that change can come rapidly [in Sweden too], said Calmfors.

Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research has a new updated website. The award is unique in its kind with its price sum of a 100 000 euro and a global focus. The award is given by the Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum and the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Vinnova is co-financier and the price sum comes from Stockholms Köpmansklubb.