Publications

How does AI change the case for markets relative to central planning? Better forecasts help both, but planning more in the model. When AI expands the set of ideas, markets can still gain more because…

This paper models voucher systems for welfare services as contracts through which the public sector pays firms to discover cost-reducing innovations. By allowing providers to retain the difference bet…

Chinese acquisitions of Western firms have become central to debates over technology transfer, national security, and investment screening. Understanding their economic consequences requires evidence…

This paper studies the efficiency cost of pay-as-you-go pension systems. The return on pension contributions – typically average income growth – is lower than the market return on capital. Because the…

We examine how taxation of intergenerational transfers affects the allocation of productive assets within family firms. Using administrative registry data on family-farm successions in Sweden around t…

This paper develops a comprehensive framework for analyzing the revenue, efficiency and social welfare implications of top income taxation. It generalizes the Saez (2001) formula for the optimal top t…

We examine how the geography of entrepreneurial quality differs from the geography of entrepreneurial quantity by analyzing spatial variation in high-growth firms (HGFs) across Swedish municipalities…

In this paper, we investigate how the lockdown-induced exposure to remote work affected the likelihood of switching to longer commutes using a longitudinal full-population register of Swedish employee…

High-growth startups often lose money before they make it. This column examines whether differences in financing capacity are reflected in the cash flow and growth trajectories of startups in Sweden,…

We study how anonymity affects fake-news sharing on social media using a natural experiment on Flashback, a large Swedish online discussion forum. In 2014, journalists obtained information that allowe…

Experimentation can reveal better ways of doing things, but many departures from established practices at once can disrupt coordination and create risks. The paper shows how informal sanctions based o…

This study examines how economic-political uncertainty during formative years affects adult tolerance. Using the World Uncertainty Index and European Social Survey, findings show that uncertainty, esp…

This introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Economics presents seven studies of institutional change and places them in the wider literature. It is described how rules and norms…

Sweden’s dual income tax (DIT) system, introduced through the 1990–1991 tax reform, relies on income-splitting rules for active owners of closely held corporations to limit income shifting. This artic…

Little is known about how democratic process affects terrorism. We outline three mechanisms and test their implications in a large panel dataset of 76 countries. Voter turnout is associated with fewer…

The increasing electoral success of populist radical-right parties poses a significant challenge to established political parties in Western democracies. While mainstream parties often maintain a poli…

Carbon taxation is one of the main policy instruments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet there is still limited evidence on its effects on firms and workers. This paper studies the environment…

I examine the pricing behavior of municipal and private firms in the unregulated Swedish district heating market, characterized by geographically bounded local monopoly networks. Conditional on exogen…

This paper examines how automation shapes intergenerational income mobility. Using Swedish  register data on parents and children from 1985 to 2019, we study how parental exposure to robots at th…

Previous studies have treated economic crisis as causes of coup attempts but theoretical considerations suggest that coups may also cause crises. Across 200 coups in Latin America and the Caribbean be…

We study the wage effects of an expansion of for-profit preschools in Sweden, which followed after a reform in 2006 removed municipalities’ right to veto private entry. The expansion decreased prescho…

This study asks whether populism weakens civil society in a panel of 79 countries from 1970 to 2019. Greater right-wing populist representation in legislatures is associated with declines in civil-soc…

Populist parties have grown rapidly in popularity in most European countries, and are increasingly common in government coalitions. Analyzing 183 populist parties in 33 European countries from 1980 to…

Economic Perspectives on Monetary History approaches the history of money through the economic problems that monetary systems had to solve. Coins, hoards, mint records, inscriptions, and written sourc…

Private equity buyouts have sparked debates among labor unions and worker representatives on how they affect workers. This chapter provides an overview of academic evidence on how private equity buyou…

Startups face a trade-off between short-term profitability and long-term growth. Their cash flows are said to follow a so-called J-curve. The shape of the curve depends on investors' financing capacit…

Sweden abolished its century-old wealth tax in 2007 after it punished entrepreneurship and raised little revenue. California risks making the same mistake.

We analyze provider differences in preschool using linked worker–workplace data that span 20 years and that include the full population of municipal, for-profit and non-profit preschools in Sweden. We…

Professors Albert N. Link and Donald S. Siegel are the joint recipients of the 2026 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Over several decades, their scholarship has fundamentally reshaped our u…

This article discusses welfare quasi-markets, a promising yet under-explored area of study in entrepreneurship research. Many countries have implemented quasi-markets to enhance entrepreneurship…

We examine whether culturally transmitted time and risk preferences help explain differences in preventive health care uptake. We combine individual-level survey data from 27 European countries with c…

How do municipalities use social media? For place marketing, civic information, or dialogue with citizens? We address this question by classifying 35,930 tweets from 15 municipal Twitter accounts in t…

To bolster entrepreneurship and innovation in welfare service provision, numerous countries have established quasi-markets. Yet, the actual benefits from these reforms have often been modest. We posit…

Using data from 31 European countries, this paper shows that the adoption of consent-based sexual assault laws reduces fertility by about 4% relative to the mean. The decline appears to be driven prim…

Using matched employer–employee data, we examine how workforce knowledge characteristics relate to firm productivity in the equine sector. Using panel data on Swedish equine firms from 2010 to 2022, w…

Treating development as the ability to participate in complex, non-subsistence, globally comparable activities, this paper proposes participation in elite activities as an indicator of global developm…

This paper explores the impact of experience in foreign-owned firms on worker mobility, with a focus on Swedish companies acquired by foreign multinationals. We posit that international experience, by…

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are transforming how scientists conduct and validate research, offering promise as tools to improve scientific reproducibility. However, computational repr…

Capital income is known to increase income inequality when measured on an annual basis, but the role of personal capital income in long-run inequality is rarely studied. Theoretically, capital in…

This paper examines how Russian imports were reoriented after the 2022 sanctions. Using annual bilateral trade data at the product level, it asks whether direct Chinese export gains to Russia were con…

This paper brings metaethical beliefs into Buchanan and Tullock’s constitutional calculus. A truth-commitment parameter captures how strongly citizens moralize politics. Stronger commitment can tighte…

As universities and journals set limits on AI in research, this paper argues that the rules may reflect politics inside academia. Researchers who gain less from AI may push for restrictions to reduce…

This paper examines how medieval Swedish minting authorities (1277–1540) appear to have maintained relative price stability despite repeated debasement and silver shortages. Written sources are scarce…

Encouraging citizens to buy homes and save for the long term serves a dual purpose: creating wealth and promoting economic equality.

This paper analyzes Sweden’s entrepreneurial performance from an institutional and evolutionary perspective, using the concept of the collaborative innovation bloc. It argues that economic development…

A strong rule of law correlates positively with trust in journalists, as robust legal institutions punish deceit and fraud effectively. The study identifies quality legal institutions as crucial for c…

This study critically examines the European Union’s and the United Kingdom’s plans for achieving a fossil-free energy system by 2050, centered on massive electrification and large-scale deployment of…

This study critically examines HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology), a Swedish flagship project—led by the government-owned iron ore company LKAB—to produce fossil-free sponge iron usi…

Newly developed data show that after successful coups, there is a 42 percent chance that a new constitution is implemented. We explore these constitutions, and that military coup plotters tend to draw…

Coups d’états tend to lead to more repression as well as economic decline. Yet, because left-wing governments are often supported by organisations with potential for mass mobilisation, overthrowing le…

We introduce a choice-set approach to defining markets and a novel method to empirically recover geographic markets using machine learning, Spatial and Categorical Bayesian Clustering (SCBC). SCBC lev…

This ninth edition of Interdisciplinary European Studies, The EU Charting its Course in a Geopolitical World, explores whether the EU’s evolving policy framework and expanded powers are adequate…

In the introductory chapter of the book, the authors discuss the implications for the European Union (EU) of the transformation of the international system and the return of geopolitics. Since the mid…

In the final chapter of the book, the authors draw together the different strands of measures taken by the European Union (EU) in response to the evolving geopolitical world order and reflect on wheth…

This chapter critically examines the European Union’s (EU) turn towards large-scale green industrial policies. It highlights the risks inherent in government-directed resource allocation, including in…

We examine how gender-based occupational sorting before the release of ChatGPT relates to predicted exposure to generative AI and its potential implications for the gender wage gap. Using Swedish admi…

The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 gave rise to an unprecedented number of emergency declarations across the world. Recent research shows that the transfer of substantial discretionary power to th…

Higher social trust weakens rule-following norms, letting civic types selectively violate overinclusive rules in harmless cases while obeying when violations cause harm. This generates flexible enforc…

Feminists have claimed that capitalism and ‘neoliberal reforms’ are associated with femicide. Employing a panel of 163 countries between 1990 and 2023, we find no significantly positive relationship b…

This paper combines individual-level data from the European Social Survey with indicators of economic, political, and social globalisation. We exploit variation in exposure to globalisation during ind…

In a study by Heyman and Olsson (2026), the authors examine how parental exposure to automation affects children’s educational choices, earnings, and labor market outcomes in adulthood. The analysis i…

Using data for 76 democracies since 2000, we show that populist parties are linked to weaker freedom-related institutions, especially when they align ideologically with legislative majorities. Right-w…

The study examines the reproducibility and robustness of 110 articles published in leading journals in economics and political science by reproducing the original results using the same data and code…

Populists typically frame politics as a conflict between a corrupt elite and a virtuous people and are skeptical of institutional constraints, including those protecting freedom of expression, as they…

The case against membership of the single currency looks much less clear-cut than it did in the 1990s.

In 2020, the European Union launched its Green Deal. Six years later, investments in hydrogen-based projects have collapsed, and electricity prices are twice as high as in the US and China. Europe is…

We provide evidence of a positive association between independent directors’ reputation incentives and the magnitude of the CEO pay gap, defined as the difference in compensation between the CEO and l…

I estimate the cross-border effects of Swedish nuclear outages using hourly data on day-ahead prices, generation, and consumption across 15 bidding zones in Northern Europe from 2021 to 2024. I exploi…

We propose a novel dynamic panel estimator. Different from the commonly used difference and system GMM, our proposed estimator requires only one of the cross-sectional dimension (N) or the time dimens…

Since the 2008 financial crisis, environmental policy has shifted away from simply managing negative externalities and gradually converged with regular industrial policy. Various ‘green deals’ have be…

When the euro was introduced, Sweden chose to remain outside. But we now livein a very different economic and political reality than at the turn of the millennium.Sweden’s economy is stronger and more…

Something is going very wrong in European football. The sport has never been richer, yet it has rarely felt flatter. The great promise of football – its unpredictability, its capacity for genuine surp…

This book offers a critical examination of large-scale, state-led green industrial policies, with a particular focus on the European Union. Drawing on empirical evidence from sectors such as ethanol,…

Hayek's ”road to serfdom" is not about big budgets, it is about case-by-case discretion replacing general rules. A formal model shows crises tempt voters toward leaders promising swift, targeted actio…

The study examines how government venture capital affects SME growth and financing. Results show increased employment, higher sales, and improved access to both equity and bank credit, with strongest…

This paper extends the Aghion–Howitt growth model by adding an entrepreneurial commercialization stage and replacing known risk with ambiguity. Ambiguity shortens perceived rent horizons, curbing comm…

This essay examines the rise of “Green Deals” as large-scale state-sponsored active industrial policies to accelerate a transition toward climate neutrality. Building on the concept of mission-oriente…

Green Deals have been introduced across Western economies as large-scale, mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) intended to combine economic growth with environmental sustainability. Rooted in…

The study examines how an expansion of the highway network in Croatia contributed to increased tourism and reduced voter support for the country’s largest national conservative party in coastal munici…

Green Deals have been introduced across Western economies as large-scale, mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) intended to combine economic growth with environmental sustainability. Rooted in…

This essay examines the rise of “Green Deals” as large-scale state-sponsored active industrial policies to accelerate a transition toward climate neutrality. Building on the concept of mission-oriente…

This paper formalizes a tradeoff between experienced well-being and the refinement of wants. Drawing on Knight and Schopenhauer, it shows that pursuing higher standards raises the benchmarks against w…

How are preferences for innovation formed, and what determines the long-run direction of technological change? This paper shows that early-life exposure to environmental accidents can durably reorient…

Using matching methods across 117 countries, this article finds no evidence that large increases in economic globalization reduce five-year income growth for the middle class. Most effects are insigni…

In this thesis I examine how Swedish farms adapt to structural, economic, and environmental pressures, and how knowledge shapes the adaptation processes. The thesis consists of four empirical studies…

The European football (soccer) market increasingly funnels rents to superstar players and intermediaries while weakening competitive balance. We trace this dynamic to two forces: (a) technological inn…

This study examines how parenting styles predict children’s lifetime outcomes. Using a Swedish dataset which combines rich survey information on parenting styles with administrative records tracking c…

Inequality-as-externality models can justify very high top tax rates. This paper shows those results lean on abstractions that mute top-end responses. Once entrepreneurship and its spillovers enter, h…

This thesis examines the long-term tax incentives for Swedish entrepreneurs, using active owners of closely held corporations as a proxy for entrepreneurship. A general analytical framework is develop…

I study the digital market for attention in a freemium mobile game where users choose between paying with money or by watching 30-second video ads. Using unique event-level data, I estimate consumers’…

Our use of longitudinal register data combined with a unique survey allows us to offer a more comprehensive picture of rural self-employment than in previous studies. We find that self[1]employed in r…

Welfare services such as healthcare, elderly care, and education are key to ensuring quality of life generally, and vital for rural communities across urbanizing countries. While these sectors are lar…

This paper formalizes Buchanan’s "relatively absolute absolutes" as a game where citizens choose a neutral lottery rule or costly conflict. The rule is self-enforcing in ordinary politics because defe…

Welfare services such as healthcare, elderly care, and education are key to ensuring quality of life generally, and vital for rural communities across urbanizing countries. While these sectors are lar…

The European football (soccer) market increasingly funnels rents to superstar players and intermediaries while weakening competitive balance. We trace this dynamic to two forces: (a) technological inn…

Firms relying on working capital raise prices following monetary tightening, and this paper demonstrates that the working capital channel plays a key role in partial and general equilibrium inflation…

What leads self-employed entrepreneurs to incorporate? I examine how tax incentives interact with the cost of incorporation to answer this question. I exploit the abolition of minimum capital requirem…

This study critically examines HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology), a Swedish flagship project—led by the government-owned iron ore company LKAB—to produce fossil-free sponge iron usi…