Policy seminars

The seminar featured the presentation of two studies from the research project “Cultures of Trust and Institutions of Freedom”, financed by the John Templeton Foundation. The studies have been carried out and were presented by Niclas Berggren, Associate Professor of Economics at IFN, and Christian Bjørnskov, Professor of Economics at Aarhus University and affiliated with IFN. 

Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy received the world's foremost prize on entrepreneurship research, the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, at a prize ceremony and lecture in Stockholm.

There has been a shift in economic activity and away from young firms toward large, mature ”superstar” firms, said professor John Haltiwanger in his prize lecture when he received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research.

Boyan Jovanovic is the 2019 winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. According to the Prize motivation, Boyan Jovanovic received the Award “for pioneering research that advances our understanding of the competitive dynamics between incumbent firms and new ventures, entrepreneurial learning and selection processes, and the importance of entrepreneurship for the economy.”

“What I believe is missing in Italy is not the reforms, but believing in the reforms”, said Guiseppe Bertola, University of Turin, when presenting this years' EEAG Report on a seminar in Stockholm. He added that "the solution is not to do the reforms that Germany is doing, it’s not to become Danish and it’s not to do what you did when the country did well. The solution is to understand the surrounding”. 

Olav Sorenson, professor at Yale School of Management, received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2018.

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. 

Edward Lazear of Stanford University has studied immigration to the United States, as well as to Sweden, and found that the underlying mechanisms are much the same in both countries. He explained that the success of the new arrivals is more dependent on the rules set by the recipient country than the country from which new arrivals have come. 

Magnus Henrekson presented the study Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe 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. 

Hernando de Soto, founder of the think-tank Institute of Liberty and Democracy (ILD), in Lima, Peru, has been awarded the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2017. "Five billion people are poor because they are not part of social networks of trust," said Soto when he received the award in Stockholm, Sweden. 

The EEAG Report 2017 was presented at a seminar in Stockholm. What drives populism, asked Professor Clemens Fuest, CESifo, Munich, at the seminar titled “Economic policy and the rise of populism”. His answer was the large influx of immigrants, but also globalization and people’s perception of losing out. 

What can we learn from the research on automation and digitalization? This question was answered at a seminar organized by IFN on Monday. Keynote speaker was Professor Melanie Arntz, ZEW in Mannheim and Heidelberg University. She has studied the effects of automation on labor markets in the OECD. Arntz explained that the discussion is often too doom-laden. From IFN Professor Lars Persson and Ph.D. Mårten Blix presented their research in the field. 

The well-known economist Deirdre McCloskey, Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, opened a seminar entitled The idea is the idea of growth.  McCloskey spoke about her book Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World. She explained that not economics but “humanomics” explains our riches. 

Jonathan Haidt presented his research about morality at a seminar on June 28, 2016. He explained how it can be that left and right views are so different (in most countries), and what capitialism does to consciousness and to conscience – how it changes values. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. 

Professor Philippe Aghion, Collège de France, received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2016 on an award ceremony  at Grand Hotel in Stockholm. Faced with an ample audience Aghion held a prize lecture on growth and innovation. Global Award is the world's leading award in entrepreneurship research, with a prize sum of almost one million. Philippe Aghion is one of today’s  most influential researchers in the field of economics.

Harold James, Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton University, presented the 2016 EEAG Report and a chapter about intergenerational fairness in today’s Europe. Mats Persson, Professor of Economics at Stockholm University, commented on the report. 

Does policy uncertainty curb economic growth, was the key question asked and answered by Professor Steven Davis, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, at a seminar organized by IFN. Davis is co-founder of the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, which measures economic uncertainty and its impact on production, investment and employment. 

GDP is problematic as a measure of growth, but this does not mean that GDP is useless, explained Professor Diane Coyle, University of Manchester, in a seminar organized by IFN May 7. Coyle said that GDP is insufficient as a measure and what is probably needed is a dashboard of indicators. 

GDP is problematic as a measure of growth, but this does not mean that GDP is useless, explained Professor Diane Coyle, University of Manchester, in a seminar organized by IFN May 7. Coyle said that GDP is insufficient as a measure and what is probably needed is a dashboard of indicators. 

Alexander Ljungqvist , Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business and affiliated to IFN , launched a breakfast seminar entitled The Decline and Fall of the Stock Market . Primarily he explained how the U.S. market works and explained that the number of IPOs have become fewer, yet larger. A