News

Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy, University of Virginia, held this year's Swedish, Schumpeter Lecture on the subject  "Two Decades of effectuation Research: Implications for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Policy". Professor Magnus Henrekson, IFN commented. "We should prepare people in Sweden better for the kind of entrepreneurship that professor Sarasvathy is talking about," he explained. The panel included Cecilia Bergh, founder and CEO of Mando Group. The discussion was moderated by Professor Johan Eklund, Entrepreneurship Forum (Entreprenörskapsforum).

Assar Lindbeck, IFN and Stockholm University, has been awarded the Global Economy Prize 2017. The prize is awarded by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The Prize Committee consists mostly of former winners of the Global Economy Prize, of which the majority have also been awarded the Nobel Prize. The Global Economy Prize highlights the achievements of "those who view globalization as an opportunity to tap our creative potential. The prize winners recognize that our standard of living can be protected only through free market activity itself."

Richard Öhrvall, IFN and Linköping University, will present his research during this year's Göteborg Book Fair on September 22. Presentations will be made in the Forskartorget and in the Linköping University booth. Who are the voters in elections? Do parents, upbringing, school, and friends affect the likelihood that you will get involved in politics? These are some of the questions Öhrvall will answer.

An op-ed by Magnus Henrekson and Henrik Jordahl, IFN, is published in Dagens Industri. The basis for the article is the proposal to limit profit to 8 percent of capital invested in tax financed services, i.e. education, healthcare and so on. Henrekson and Jordahl found several errors with Joachim Landström’s analysis of the matter, explaining that "a reasonable mandate would be to investigate whether a profit control is at all needed in tax financed services (and whether it is consistent with the Swedish Constitution and the European legislation Sweden is subject to)."

On Friday, September 2 well-known economist Deirdre McCloskey, professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, opened a seminar entitled "The idea is the idea of growth". Bettina Kashefi, chief economist at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, and Ola Pettersson, chief economist at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, participated in the subsequent panel. Professor McCloskey spoke about her book Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World. She explained how ideas – liberal ideas – are the basis of economic growth.

Per Hjertstrand, IFN, has been appointed associate editor of Macroeconomic Dynamics, published by Cambridge Journals. The journal is a renowned specialized periodical in macroeconomics that publishes theoretical, empirical and quantitative research. "As an associate editor, I help decide who will review the texts sent to the journal," explains Hjertstrand. At the next stage, he is also involved in deciding which articles are eventually published.

Andreas Bergh, IFN, and Lund University, has on behalf of the think tank Fores written the report Hela staden – varför vinner vi inte (mer) på invandringen? (The entire town - why don’t we gain (more) from the immigration?). The report was presented at a seminar on Wednesday. Bergh explained that the major stumbling blocks for immigrants to enter the labor market is inflexible job market institutions (collective agreement between trade unions and employers, as well as high minimum wages) and that Sweden, so far, has advocated  integration above ethnic enclaves such as Chinatown in New York.
 

Andreas Bergh, IFN, Gissur Ó Erlingsson, Linköping University, Mats Sjölin Linné University, and Richard Öhrvall, IFN, are the authors a a new book:  A Clean House? Studies of Corruption in Sweden (Nordic Academic Press 2016). The researchers describe how countries typically viewed as low-corruption states can have particular problems that should not be underestimated nor neglected. By revealing causes, scope and consequences of the corruption in Sweden, the authors point out shortcomings in the international evaluations of corruption.

Matilda Orth, IFN, and Florin Maican, affiliated to IFN, have been awarded The International Journal of Industrial Organization's Best Paper Award 2016. This prize is awarded to the best two papers published each year. The papers are selected by the editorial board of the journal. "A dynamic analysis of entry regulations and productivity in retail trade", by Orth and Maican, was published in May 2015.

In a forthcoming report presented by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Henrik Jordahl, IFN, is comparing the systematic quality work of the three largest private school corporations and three municipalities of comparable size. In Dagens Nyheter Jordahl writes: "The municipalities systematic quality work, in this comparison, appears as neglected." Henrik Jordahl explains that improved systematic quality work in the municipalities "would be a welcome step in the right direction." He concludes: ”To attack private schools profits and dividends will prove futile. The Swedish education crisis can not be met by an ideological shot in the dark.”

Associate Professor Therese Nilsson, IFN and Lund University, together with Professors Martin Karlsson, University of Duisburg-Essen and Sonia Bhalotra, University of Essex, has studied the introduction of a free infant care program introduced on a trial basis in Sweden in the 1930s. The program provided information, support and monitoring of infants. The research shows that the care significantly improved health. The result indicates the importance of infant care to combat sickness among young children and ill health later in life. Therese Nilsson explains that the children who received the free care lived longer and the risk was reduced of being diagnosed with cancer decades later.

Selling to incumbent firms encourage creators to focus on high-quality research projects, write Pehr-Johan Norbäck, Lars Persson and Roger Svensson in a blog post for the London School of Economics' Business Review. The research results "suggest that industry policies that disfavour innovation for sale over innovation for entry may be harmful," writes Norbäck, Persson and Svensson. They propose policies to improve the merger and acquisition market: "... making the tax system neutral between keeping and selling a firm, or improving the legal system to reduce the transaction costs associated with acquisitions in order to ensure a bidding competition over target firms".

During the Almedalen Week July 3–10, a number of IFN-researchers participated in seminars and other events. Andreas Bergh, IFN and Lund University,  participated in a seminar organized by the think tank Fores, ”Ökad invandring – hur påverkas social tillit?”(The impact of increased immigrationon on social trust?) Lars Calmfors, Mårten Blix and Therese Nilsson also attended events at the beginning of the week.

Psychology is crucial to understanding today's society, explained Professor Jonathan Haidt, Stern School of Business at New York University, during a breakfast seminar in Stockholm. He commented on Brexit and said that mass immigration and the multi-cultural urban elite's positive attitude towards immigration means that more and more people will join the ranks of conservative ideas. Aida Hadzialic, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training, explained that the government must respect the people's sentiments – 70% of Swedes are concerned about immigration. They believe that basic Swedish values are threatened. Hadzialic added that "we must build a national identity that includes everybody".

June 18–19, 2016, the Institute for Research of Industrial Economics (IFN), in cooperation with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), organized the Third CEPR European Workshop on Entrepreneurship Economics in Stockholm, Sweden. Researchers from all over the world attended the conference to discuss topics concerning entrepreneurship.

On June 16, the ESO report "Digitaliseringens dynamik” (Digitization dynamics) was presented. The study is authored by IFN researchers Fredrik Heyman, John Norbäck and Lars Persson. They are among the first to study the effects of automation over a longer period, from 1996 to 2013. The researchers explain that digitization can give Swedish companies competitive advantages. "Sweden has successfully leveraged automation," said Lars Persson at the seminar where the report was presented.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem iss the theme of an anthology presented by Esbri on Wednesday. Magnus Henrekson has together with Pontus Braunerhjelm authored the chapter " "Från utbildning, forskning och innovation till växande företag och stigande välstånd" (From education, research and innovation to growing businesses and growing prosperity). He explained that government should not, as in the recent IT bubble, "throw money" at businesses. That has proven to be expensive for taxpayers.

June 9─10 a group of researchers from Sweden, United States and Britain attended IFN’s annual academic conference in Vaxholm. This year’s topic was “Efficient Provision of Public Services”, within the framework of the IFN research project Public services in the future. Subjects discussed ranged from education reforms to for-profit corporations in the welfare sector and the use of antibiotics.

A study by Jonas Vlachos, Stockholm University and affiliated to IFN, and Björn Tyrefors Hinnerich, has created debate in Swedish media. Vlachos and Tyrefors find that students at upper-secondary voucher schools on average score 0.06 standard deviations lower on externally graded standardized tests. At the same time voucher schools are 0.14 standard deviations more generous than municipal schools in their internal test grading.