Swedish Taxation – a greatly valued story

5 May 2015

In the brand new book Swedish Taxation (Palgrave Macmillan, New York), Magnus Henrekson and Mikael Stenkula (editors) take a historical approach to taxation. Swedish Taxation examines the development of taxation in Sweden since 1862.

This historic tax project has been headed by Mikael Stenkula, IFN. Additional participants in the research team are Gunnar Du Rietz, Dan Johansson, Magnus Henrekson and Daniel Waldenström. The taxes studied are tax on work, capital, property, inheritance and gifts, goods and services and real estate.

Taxes have profound effects on economic behavior and affect the real economy by distorting choices. Therefore, the tax system is one of society’s most fundamental institutions, as it influences many economic decisions, such as labor supply, the amount of savings and entrepreneurial activities. Detailed knowledge on the structure and evolution of taxation is essential to understanding the choices made by individuals and firms.

Professor Magnus Henrekson is CEO of the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) in Stockholm, Sweden. Mikael Stenkula has a Ph.D. in economics and is research fellow at IFN.