News

In early March, Andreas Bergh and Niclas Berggren, both IFN researchers, participated in the annual conference organized by the Public Choice Society, an academic association focused on political economy, founded in 1963 by, among others, Nobel Laureate James Buchanan. This year’s conference was held in Louisville, Kentucky.  In connection with the conference, Niclas Berggren was elected to the Executive Committee of the Society, which is responsible, among other things, for organizing the annual meetings. https://www.publicchoicesociety.org/about/

Niclas Berggren, Associate Professor at IFN and Prague University of Economics and Business, is a new editorial board member of the Journal of Comparative Economics. 

IFN organized a workshop at the Prague University of Economics and Business on May 23–26, 2024, within the research project “Cultures of Trust and Institutions of Freedom,” funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The workshop was organized by IFN researcher Niclas Berggren (affiliated with the Prague University of Economics and Business) and IFN-affiliated Christian Bjørnskov (Aarhus University).

In a new bibliometric analysis of research on economic freedom, it emerges that IFN is one of the world's leading research centers in this area. It is primarily IFN researchers Niclas Berggren and Andreas Bergh, as well as Christian Bjørnskov, a Danish researcher affiliated with IFN, who have studied how the degree of market economy explains various important outcomes.

IFN arranged a policy seminar on March 7, 2024, entitled “Is the Market Economy Culturally Harmful?”. It 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

At the end of September 2022, 16 scholars from different disciplines and countries came together in the Old Town of Stockholm to present and discuss new research on trust and institutions. They were all united in a quest to explore how social science can help us better understand what is needed for modern societies to function well, both economically and socially.

During two days in June, IFN hosted the 2022 IFN Stockholm Conference in Vaxholm, in the archipelago of Stockholm.  The theme for this year's conference was the Economics of Cultures and Institutions.

Sweden has one of the highest trust levels in the world. At a recent policy seminar, research on how the pandemic has affected trust levels in Sweden was presented.

Digitization, migration, and the Covid crisis have brought on a rapid change in the Swedish business sector. To better respond to the need for high-quality analysis of the various factors relevant to the function of the business sector, IFN is developing two of its research programs.

Niclas Berggren, IFN, has been appointed a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Public Choice.