Lars Calmfors received his Ph.D. in Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics in 1978 and became an Associate Professor there in 1983. He is a Professor Emeritus of International Economics at the Institute of International Economics (Head 1995‒98), Stockholm University. He has held a number of Swedish and international assignments, being the member of the board of the European Economic Association 1991‒96, chairman of the Economic Council (Ministry of Finance) 1993-01, chairman of the EMU investigation (the Calmfors investigation) 1995‒96, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ economics prize committee 1996‒98 and 2003‒07, chairman of the SNS Scientific Council 1999-07, chairman of the European Economic Advisory Group at CESifo in Munich 2006‒08, chairman of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council 2007-11 and chairman of the Swedish Labour Policy Council 2015‒18. Lars is a member of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (board member 2001‒07) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. In 2007-12, he was a member of the Swedish Research Council’s board. He was a member of the Employment Committee in Norway 2018‒21 and of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Restart Commission in 2020. He is currently a member of the Ministry of Finance’s reference group for the corona crisis.
Among the questions that Lars Calmfors tries to answer with his research:
- Causes of unemployment
- How does wage formation affect employment and growth?
- What determines the degree of unionization?
- How can different institutional settings contribute to an appropriate economic policy?
- How do economic research and economic policy interact?