News

Several IFN researchers have published articles in the latest issue of Ekonomisk Debatt (Economic Debate). Lars Calmfors asks "How effective is the industry's branding?". Niklas Elert, Magnus Henrekson and Mikael Stenkula present research on "Institutional reforms for a more innovative and entrepreneurial Europe" that is part of the EU project Fires. Henrik Jordahl takes on the ESO report Dags för omprövning (Time for reconsideration). A report he believes "should not be the basis for political decisions". Last but not least, Niklas Elert reviews The Innovation Illusion: How So Little Is Created by So Many Working So Hard by Fredrik Erixon and Björn Weigel. Elert emphasizes "the importance of providing innovators and entrepreneurs who do not follow the norm, space to experiment".

Magnus Henrekson, IFN, was one of the commentators of the new book Högskola i otakt (University misaligned), authored by Johan Eklund and Lars Pettersson, Entreprenörskapsforum. The authors show how Sweden is increasingly educated, but its labor market is declining. This does not promote economic development. The panel discussed how important students’ choice of study and applications to university are. It is essential that students choose an education that is in demand on the labor market. "If Scania is not in Sweden in 20 years, it's not due to the tax system, but the poor educational system," said Magnus Henrekson.

On Friday Lars Calmfors, IFN and Chairman of the Swedish Labour Policy Council (AER), took part in a seminar together with Ylva Johansson (S), Minister for Employment and Integration, Mikael Sjöberg, Director General, Arbetsförmedlingen (Employment Services), Anders Forslund, Professor IFAU, and Martin Ådahl, Chief Economist, Center Party. Calmfors opened the seminar with a review of the current conditions. He explained, among other things, that Australia has a fully privatized employment agency, "which seems to have contributed to the downturn of unemployment". But, Calmfors added that there is no single reform that solves the problem of unemployment.

On Tuesday, IFN, in cooperation with Studentlitteratur (Student Literature), held a seminar called "Is research the antidote to fake news?" Magnus Henrekson, IFN, led a conversation in which Ulf Kristersson, M, explained that the political debate’s detachment from research is a problem. Simultaneously, he said that politicians often listen to what economists have to say. Marika Lindgren Åsbrink, LO, felt that both fake news and filter bubbles cause problems in the political debate. Three researchers who are also authors of the anthology Nationalekonomis frågor  (National Economics Issues), talked about their research: Johanna Möllerström, Maria Börjesson and Henrik Jordahl.

On Thursday, KvinnoKapital, a network of women working with asset management, visited IFN and listened to presentations by two IFN researchers. Björn Hinnerich talked about the study "Gender Quotas in the Board Room and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Credible Threat in Sweden". The researchers have concluded that the threat of gender quotas in boards of larger Swedish corporations gave effect. The number of women has increased in the boards and also corporate profits. Joacim Tåg presented an ongoing study of why so few women become CEOs in large Swedish firms. It turns out to be difficult for women, but not for men, to combine family and a senior career. The study is published in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday, the autumn's first academic seminar was held at IFN. The institute was visited by Professor Per Pettersson-Lidbom from Stockholm University. He presented the paper "Political Power, Resistance to Technological Change and Economic Development: Evidence from the 19th Century Sweden". The study is authored in cooperation with Björn Tyrefors Hinnerich, IFN, and Erik Lindgren. The researchers are studying the importance of political institutions for economic growth.

I have worked in corporate before but I like this better, said Rachael Ahn about working as a research assistant at IFN during the summer. ”The work here has been challenging but not stressful. In corporate it is the other way around”. Joel Gunnarsson agreed. He applied for the summer job at IFN as a way of finding out what it is like to be a researcher. And what is his conclusion? “I will possibly be a researcher”, he said.

The researchers find in this study that legal recognition of partnership, marriage and adoption rights, as well as an equal age of consent, relate positively to general life satisfaction. Consequently, same-sex marriage and similar reforms come at no “welfare” cost to society at large – if anything, the opposite appears to hold. They further build on previous research showing positive effects of economic freedom on happiness and on tolerance towards gay people and interact our rights measure with economic freedom. This reveals that the positive effect on general happiness of equal rights mainly appears in countries with low economic freedom. This likely follows because minority rights are perceived to indicate openness to much-desired reforms in other areas.

Using the World Management Survey method the researchers analyse management quality in Swedish primary care centres. On average private providers have higher management quality than public ones. Centres with a high overall social deprivation among enrolled patients tend to have higher management quality. Regarding quality of care  the researchers find that management quality is positively associated with accessibility, but not with patient reported experience.

A new study shows that Western Europe is underperforming in all four measures of high-impact Schumpeterian entrepreneurship relative to the U.S. In addition, once the researchers account for Europe’s strong performance in technological innovation, an “entrepreneurship deficit” relative to China and East Asia becomes apparent. This underperformance is missed by most standard measures. China is found to perform surprisingly well in Schumpeterian entrepreneurship, especially compared to Eastern Europe.

“Globalization and New Technology: Effects on Firms and Workers” was the theme of a conference organized by the Research Institute of Industrial Economics, IFN, on June 15-16, 2017. The conference brought together researchers with the objective to shed light on the effects of globalization and new technology. In total, 16 papers were presented.

In an study Fredrik Heyman, Pehr-Johan Norbäcka and Lars Persson show that increased product market competition can reduce discrimination against female managers. Due to the glass ceiling effect, female managers will, on average, be more skilled than male managers. Using detailed matched employee-employer data, the researchers find that:

• more intense competition leads to relatively higher wages for female managers 

• the share of female managers is higher in firms in more competitive industries

Daniel Waldenström, IFN, is part of a group of international researchers that have received funding from Norface, New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe, a collaborative partnership of national research funding agencies from 19 European countries. In the project ”Impact of childhood circumstances on individual outcomes over the life-course” the researchers will study what conditions are needed for a person to succeed in life. The question is the significance of family background and the policy's approach to creating equal opportunities, and how this affects the results.

In the latest newsletter from IFN  two new books are presented: Kunskapssynen och pedagogiken – varför skolan slutade leverera och hur det kan åtgärdas (The notion of knowledge and education – Why the Swedish school ceased to deliver and how it can be restored; Dialogos) by Inger Enkvist, Magnus Henrekson (IFN), Martin Ingvar and Ingrid Wållgren. In the book, the authors reason about the fact that today's educational theories undermine knowledge. The second book is an anthology: Nationalekonomins frågor  (The issues of economics; Studentlitteratur) by, among others, IFN researchers Magnus Henrekson, Henrik Jordahl, Mikael Stenkula, Karin Edmark, Mikael Elinder, Johanna Möllerström, Maria Persson and Johanna Rickne. This is a new type of textbook designed to show the width of Economics.

Soccer players born in the fall are overrepresented as winner of Guldbollen (awarded to the best male Swedish footballer each year), researchers Per Hjertstrand, Pehr-Johan Norbäck and Lars Persson, IFN, show in a new study. Using a skill formation model they show that the reason for this is that players born in the fall must work harder as young to be selected for elite educational programs than those born earlier in the year. This means that those born late, but not too late, will thus end up with the highest skill levels as adults. However, those born too late will not make the cut.

On Sunday Assar Lindbeck, IFN and Stockholm University, received the Global Economy Prize 2017 in the category of economics. The prize is awarded by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The prize committee consists of former winners, most of whom are also Nobel Laureates. In his price lecture, Lindbeck explained that, yes you can make research on economic issues. And he ended on a most optimistic note, pointing out "the possibilities to gradually increase the precision and robustness of economic research –  in particular as a result of important methodological advances in quantitative economic analysis, i.e. econometrics, in recent decades".

June 15-16 IFN is organizing an international two-day academic conference: “Globalization and New Technology: Effects on Firms and Workers”. The conference brings together researchers studying how new technology and globalization affect firms' organizational structure and ownership, as well as different labor market outcomes for workers.  Apart from Sweden the participants come from the UK, US, France, Germany, Finland and Norway.

On Friday Lovisa Persson, IFN, participated in a seminar in which Vårdföretagarna launched a booklet, Privat Vårdfakta 2017. She proposed that in the future individual's freedom of choice will increase within the respective welfare sector. For example, you will have a choice between meeting the doctor in person or remotely using new technology. What about the general cap on profits in the tax-financed service sector that has been proposed by Illmar Reepalu, the moderator asked. Lovisa Persson explained that, in particular, small businesses would suffer severely if Reepalu’s proposal was implemented.

Wolf von Laer has received his PhD from King's College London. The title of his disseration is "Patterns of Lawmaking: The Entangled Political Economy of Crises". Wolf von Laer spent two years at IFN, before moving to the US to work with Students For Liberty. He explains that IFN provided a great work environment. During his time in Stockholm von Laer presented parts of this PhD at an IFN Brown Bag seminar. In the disseration he writes that he "particularly want to thank Magnus Henrekson, Niclas Berggren, Niklas Elert and Henrik Horn for their support an feedback on my PhD".

On Tuesday the study Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe was presented in Stockholm. The study is part of Fires, a research program funded by the European Commission. The seminar was jointly organized by the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) and the European Commission’s Representation in Sweden. In a panel Jeanette Andersson, Angel Investor, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, MEP, Magnus Henrekson, IFN, Håkan Hillefors, Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, and Peter Voigt, EU Commission, discussed the European entrepreneurial eco system or the lack thereof.