News

Johanna Möllerström, who earned her PhD in March 2013 at Harvard University and who is affiliated to IFN, is new as contributor on Ekonomistas – a blog written by "economists on society, politics and science." Johanna Möllerström's thesis addressed the issue of how affirmative action affects the willingness to cooperate within a group.

On Friday Carol Propper, Professor of Economics and Head of the Health Management Group, Imperial College in the UK was the key note speaker at a seminar organized by IFN and SNS. The seminar was part of cooperation between IFN and SNS:  From welfare state to a welfare society. The theme of the seminar was "Competition in health care: what can we learn from England?" Professor Proppers answer was straightforward: With more competition quality and efficiency increases.

Andreas Bergh, IFN, is new columnist for Svnska Dagbladet's editorial page. His first column will be published Saturday, September 7. Andreas Bergh is associate professor of economics. His research focuses on public and institutional economics. At the time he is working on an English version of the book Den kapitalistiska välfärdsstaten. He is also giving lectures in microeconomics to students at Lund University .

Venture capital is a good thing seen from an economic perspective, noted Jocaim Tåg, IFN, when speaking at a seminar on "Venture Capitalists Help Building the Country" organized by Timbro. He presented his own and others' research on the venture capital industry. At the seminar Janerik Larsson,presented his book The new industrialists. In addition Gabriel Urwitz, Chairman of private equity firm Segulah and Magnus Agervald, President of ByggMax participated in the presentation.

A report "Energy markets, ownership and climate" (SNS Förlag) written by Thomas Tangerås, IFN, Tommy Lundgren, Jesper Stage and Bjorn Carlén was presented on August 29. The authors warn that it might be expensive and inefficient to let municipally owned companies take responsibility for the climate. In an article in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet writes Thomas Tangerås about the report: "A logical conclusion would be (partial) privatization of operations in competitive markets."

Ewa Lazarczyk, IFN, received the "IAEE Student Paper Award" at a conference in Düsseldorf 18-21 August. The conference and the award is organized on an annual basis by the International Association for Energy Economics. The title of Ewa Lazarczyk's winning essay was "Market specific news and its impact on forward premia on electricity markets". Ewa Lazarczyk is currently a PhD student at Stockholm School of Economics. At IFN she is part of the research program "Economics of Electricity Markets".

August 29, SNS (Centre for Business and Policy Studies) will present a new book about the separate rules and regulations for privately owned and municipal utilities. How does the form of ownership affect customers? Are different regulations justified? And are the rules tailored for the future of energy markets?

Author is Thomas Tangerås, IFN, Tommy Lundgren, Umeå School of Business/SLU and Jesper Stage, Mid Sweden University.

Professor Magnus Henrekson, IFN, has been awarded Jacob Palmstierna's Prize for 2013 of SEK 100 000 for significant contributions in economic education. The motivation for awarding the prize to Magnus Henrekson is his important contributions in articles, books, and public events, "to public understanding of science-based facts in regards to crucial social issues with an economic focus."

On Friday a group of Chinese business people, alumna from Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, visited IFN. The visit was arranged within the framework of the Tsinghua CEO Group. The graduates are currently active at the management level of domestic and foreign companies in China. Professor Lars Oxelheim gave a speech entitled "The global crisis - micro and macro economic aspects".

We are looking for two research assistants for employment starting September 2013. As a research assistant you will work closely with the institute’s researchers, assisting them in their different research projects. The work ranges from data collection and processing to advanced econometrics. Last date for application is August 12. 

Yossi Spiegel from Tel Aviv University is for the second time taking part in IFN's annual research conference in Vaxholm. This year the theme being "Industrial Organization and Corporate Finance." Why does he travel to Sweden and Vaxholm? "Here I have an opportunity to learn what is new and exciting in this well-defined subject area. From earlier, I also know that the scientists involved are serious and that it’s a good conference."

For the 15th year in a row, an international scientific conference on European integration is organized in Mölle, Skåne. Professor Lars Oxelheim, IFN and Lund University, Chairman of the Swedish Network for European Studies in Economics and Business (SNEE), is in charge of the event. Included on this year's list of 150 guests are Richard Sweeney, Georgetown University and Rym Ayadi, researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. Several journalists will also attend, including Adrian Wooldridge from The Economist. Among the speakers during the four-day conference can be found approximately ten researchers from IFN.

Maryann Feldman, Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, has been awarded the prestigious Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2013. On Wednesday, she received the price during a ceremony in which Anders Borg, Minister for Finance, participated. She held a prize lecture on "The Character of Place: Economic Development, Business Strategy and Prosperity." The price sum is 100,000 euros. The partners behind the Award are Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum (Entreprenörskapsforum) and the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Vinnova is sponsoring the price and businessman Melker Schörling is a donor.

On June 4, IFN arranged a seminar on the ESO report "Job Dynamics in Swedish industry 1990-2009" (Expert Group on Public Economics). Economists Fredrik Heyman, Pehr-Johan Norbäck and Lars Persson, all IFN, presented the results of their study: What kinds of jobs have been lost or created? Do the employees have low or high education? How is the job dynamics between the service sector and manufacturing industry? Roland Bladh, European Commission's Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs attended the workshop and gave his views on the subject.

What if Sweden is like Iceland, warns researcher Andreas Bergh and refers to the report "Public benefit or personal gain? ESO report on corruption in Swedish." The report which has IFN researchers Andreas Bergh and Richard Öhrvall as co-authors was released on April 9. Corruption was basically unknown in regards to Iceland until the financial crisis exposed irregularities.

It is part of an IFN-researchers job to communicate their research beyond the research community. In terms of academic economists published in the largest Swedish morning paper Dagens Nyheter and its op-ed section (DN Debatt) between 2010 and 2012, IFN-researchers were in a leading position. 23 main opinion pieces had at least one IFN-researcher as co-author.

Funded by the Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), Professor Frank Wolak, electricity market researchers at Stanford University, will be visiting professor at IFN for six months in 2014. His stay in Sweden is made possible by the prestigious visiting professorship AES (the Swedish Energy Agency’s research program General Energy system studies).
 

Within the framework of cooperation between IFN and SNS a seminar was held on March 6. The question asked was "how to measure quality and outcomes of health care?". Elliott Fisher, leading expert in the American health care debate, together with Johan Calltorp, professor at the Jönköping Academy for Improvement of Health and Welfare, shared their perspectives.

In the photo: Elliots Fisher, left, and Johan Calltorp.

Professor Assar Lindbeck, IFN, is among Sweden's most important opinion makers. At number 71, he is the only scholar on this list. On the supplementary list of names that ended up "almost among the 100 most important" are two futher academics: Professor Lars Calmfors, Stockholm University and Professor Magnus Henrekson, IFN.

The anthology " Ett konkurrenskraftigt EU till rätt pris “ (A competitive EU at the right price) was presented at a seminar in Stockholm on February 6. Participation was among other Birgitta Olsson, Minister for EU-affairs, and Mikael Damberg (S). Panelists were IFN researchers Pär Holmberg and Thomas Tangerås, who also wrote a chapter in the book. So did Olle Folke and Johanna Rickne, both IFN. One of the editors, Lars Oxelheim, is affiliated to IFN.