2016

Finally, something’s going viral that’s worth your time and attention, the lifestyle site Cheat Sheet writes, meaning "productivity". The author refers to an article by professors Matthew Lindquist, Jan Sauermann, and Yves Zenou (affiliated to IFN), who have dug into literature and several studies relating to productivity. "The conclusion of these researchers is that productivity is indeed contagious, although not always for the same reasons."

The Atlantic explains that regulations aren’t the only option the government has for discouraging companies from taking on too much risk, referring to research by Alexander Ljungqvist of New York University (affiliated to IFN), Liandong Zhang of City University of Hong Kong, and Luo Zuo of Cornell. Their research show that lowering taxes didn’t have the expected effect of inducing more risk. "The authors conclude that this may be the case because regulators or investors also weigh in, dissuading companies from taking on risky new endeavors. In other words, taxes can be a blunt tool for curbing risk-taking, but they don’t seem to be useful for encouraging it."

Sweden's prime minister has become the unexpected victim of a global meme, after a lonely-looking picture from parliament went viral, The Local writes about the event citing a tweet from the IFN researcher Richard Öhrvall.

According to a study by Matti Keloharju, affiliated to IFN, and Petri Hukkanen, investors who in mergers and acquisitions offer “precise” bids for company shares yield better market outcomes than those who offer round-numbered bids. “It turns out that if you make a precise bid, the targets are more likely to accept it, and more likely to accept it at a cheaper price. And with cash bids, they’ll generate a more positive market reaction,” says Matti Keloharju to Forbes.

The corporate sector beyond Silicon Valley is not trying all that hard to reach the next breakthrough, claims The American Prospect, quoting research by John Asker, Alexander Ljungqvist [affiliated to IFN], and Joan Farre-Mensa: "Publicly traded companies devote just half the percentage of their assets to investment that their privately held counterparts do".

"In an election with the highest turnout in over 20 years, young voters and new immigrants turned out in near-record numbers" writes Metro Canada. Professor Daniel Rubenson, Ryerson University och affilierad to IFN, is quoted saying: “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that turnout was up among young people when both the Liberals and the NDP were looking very strong.” Rubenson believes that “young people tend not to support the Conservative Party.”

Economic freedom alone is not the answer to our current woes, writes Shailesh Chitnis in Outlook India. He refers to research by Niclas Berggren and Therese Nilsson, IFN: "They find that a stable monetary policy and a strong legal system are consistently associated with greater tolerance. Countries with greater economic freedom and wealth are also more open to homosexuals."

Wolf von Laer,  Ph.D. Student, writes at the Hufftington Post Blog that "growth requires the three P's: Property Rights, Prices, and Profit and Loss to achieve the three Is of Innovation, Information, and Incentives. Too much government activity disturbs the rules of the game and undermines property rights."

Bloombergs, Forbes and Harvard Busioness School's Working Knowledge writes about research by Matti Keloharju, Samuli Knüpfer and Joacim Tåg, IFN, documenting "what many already believe: women get fewer opportunities at top positions and lower pay when they get those positions". WK writes: "The worse news is there doesn’t seem to be much women can do to close that gap—no matter how talented, educated, skilled, lucky, ambitious, or genetically gifted they are—unless they can figure out a way to thwart discrimination."

In a collaboration between the School of Economics and Management and the independent foundation Executive Foundation Lund, newly arrived academics will be able to get a business education in the evening and experience during the day “All education will be in English. Presently the Swedish language is a major problem that prevents a lot people from entering the job market”, says Fredrik Andersson, head of the School of Economics and Management and affiliated to IFN.

In a Sweden grappling with an unprecedented inflow of refugees, many unthinkable things are becoming thinkable, Bloomberg states, mentioning a lower minimum wage as one of the hot topics in the public debate. “The Swedish model was a competitive advantage when Sweden was a homogeneous industrial society,” said Andreas Bergh, IFN, to Bloomberg: “But now it’s become an obstacle as no one really knows who should take responsibility for the changes that need to be made.”

Referring to a study by Matti Keloharju, Samuli Knüpfer (both affiliated to IFN) and Joacim Tåg, IFN, Nordic business Report believe that their research "confirms that, although female executives are as equally skilled as their male counterparts, they don’t have equal opportunities to reach the top in the executive labor market or get equal pay. It also looks at what causes these gender gaps".

Critics of behavioral economics often accuse its practitioners of a tacit double standard: Human irrationality is a poor argument for government action because officials are human, writes Bryan Caplan, asking if behavioral economists can neglect such a basic critique of their position: "Yes. In “Time for a Behavioral Political Economy” (Review of Austrian Economics 2012), Niclas Berggren [IFN ]classifies over 300 papers in behavioral economics. The main finding is that "20.7% of all articles in behavioral economics ... contain a policy recommendation and that 95.5% of these do not contain any analysis at all of the rationality or cognitive ability of policymakers".

Nima Sanandaji states in Insider that policies did steer sharply to the left during the late 1960s in Sweden. He refers to research by Magnus Henrekson, IFN, who "has concluded that the effective marginal tax rate (marginal tax plus the effect of inflation) that was levied on Swedish businesses at times reached more than 100 percent of their profits".

The Swedish writer Johan Norberg argues in Free Republic that "Sanders' image of Scandinavia is just like the rest of his policies: stuck in the 1970s". He refers to Andreas Bergh, IFN, and Christian Bjørnskov, affiliated to IFN, researchers who have found that trust in others and social cohesion creates the welfare state rather than the other way around.

Banking Industry Today reports that "the growing costs of immigration and a housing bubble have paved the way for a 'deep' economic crisis in Sweden and the situation has already begun to deteriorate beyond repair, three Swedish economists wrote in a debate article in Dagens Industri." Andreas Bergh, IFN and Lund University, is one of the economists.

Tim Worstall in Forbes argues that we can not regulate away high rents.He quotes Assar Lindbeck, IFN and Stockholm university saying that Assar “in many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.”

a study of almost 294,000 people has identified variants in 74 genes that are associated with educational attainment. In other words, those who carry more of these variants, on average, complete more years of formal schooling, writes The Atlantic. One of the reserachers is Davis Cesarini, NYU and affilated to IFN.

Finnish educators are worried. PISA scores fell in 2009 and 2012, The Economist points out. Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, Centre for the Study of Market Reform of Education and affiliated to IFN, explains that "the key question is what led to the surge in Finnish performance between 1965 and 2000, not what is happening in schools today".

"Patents benefit society and individuals alike in fostering new markets and new products" IPWatchdog writes, adding that the patent system is in trouble. The author refers to research by Alexander Ljunqvist, NYU and affiliated to IFN: The Bright Side of Patents, USPTO Office of the Chief Economist, Working Paper No. 2015-2 (Jan. 2016).

General economic opinion is firmly against the idea of rent control, Forbes writes refering to a comment by Assar Lindbeck, IFN and Stockholm University: “In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.”

Standard-Examiner publishes a text about the research by Petra Persson, Stanford University and affiliated to IFN. Among other things the researchers have found that children who were in the womb when a relative died were 25 percent more likely to take medication for ADHD than those who were infants.

Does prospect theory help explain support for Brexit in the UK and for Donald Trump in the US, Bullfax asks. The author refers to research by Henrik Jordahl, IFN: "as Henrik Jordahl has shown, inequality breeds distrust so that even on those (rare?) occasions when elites are correct, many voters don’t believe them. Perhaps, therefore, support for Trump and Brexit are not so much diseases as symptoms of a wider malady."

For Washington-Post Wonkblog Carolyn Y. Johnson writes about research by Petra Persson, Stanford University and affiliated to IFN, and Maya Rossin-Slater: "They found children who were in the womb when a relative died were 25 percent more likely to take medication for ADHD than those who were infants. Those children grew up to be adults who were 13 percent more likely to take prescription drugs for anxiety and 8 percent more likely to take drugs for depression."

How can parents reduce the likelihood of having children who struggle with depression and ADHD, Vox asks: "One new research paper suggests a possible way forward. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation," by Petra Persson, (affilietad to IFN) and Maya Rossin-Slater, [...] find that mothers who have close relatives die during pregnancy are more likely to have children who then use anti-anxiety medicine later in life.

Lars Oxelheim, IFN and  Lund University, has written a Letter to the editor at Financial Times. Oxelheim states that helicopter money is used in many European countries, i.e. money printed, borrowed from abroad or taken from foreign aid are spent to provide migrants with a decent standard. "Hence, the last tool in the monetary policy tool box is already used".

Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh argued that when it comes to improving Australia’s tax system, there are no short cuts and no quick fixes. The paper refers to a study by  Alexander Ljungqvist (NYU and affiliated to IFN) and Michael Smolyansky: They find “little evidence that corporate tax cuts boost economic activity, unless implemented during recessions”.

David Cesarini, NYU and affiliated to IFN, an co-authors find in a study “no evidence” that wealth impacts winners’ risk of mortality except for a potential “small reduction” in the consumption of drugs. Cesarini explains: “Our findings suggest that in affluent countries with extensive social safety nets, causal effects of wealth are not a major explanation for the positive relationship between income and longevity, nor of the observed positive relationships between children’s outcomes and their parents’ incomes."

The independent socialist magazine Monthly Review writes about Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital claiming it to be "the single most influential work in Marxian political economy to emerge in the United States". Assar Lindbeck, IFN and Stockholm University, is quoted: "In The Political Economy of the New Left (1971), a book that drew much attention in the early 1970s, orthodox Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck focused his criticism on Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital, claiming that a Keynesian welfare state could resolve the systemic contradictions that they described."

Psychology Today writes about the fact that voters form an opinion (accurate or not) about a candidate´s competence, character, and qualifications  just by looking. The magazine refers to a paper (”The Looks of a Winner: Beauty and Electoral Success,”) by researchers Niclas Berggren and Henrik Jordahl, IFN.

Safehaven writes that Lacy Hunt (Hoisington's Second Quarter Review) takes on the widespread Keynesian belief that government spending boosts real (inflation adjusted) GDP. When explaining how deficit spending restrains economic growth Safehaven refers to a study by Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson, IFN, explaining that there is a "significant negative correlation" between the size of government and economic growth.

"Unions and tax officials say illegal workers have begun to push down average pay and deprive state coffers of income tax" writes Reuters about the influx of migrants into the Swedish labor market. "I see a danger that if we don't seek to solve this in a regulated manner, reality will come knocking all the same," Lars Calmfors, IFN, is quoted saying.

Wisconsin Public Radio News has interviewed Diana O'Brien about a study, "Gender Quotas and Women's Political Leadership", by O'Brien and Johanna Rickne, IFN. The researchers have looked at 15 years of data on local leadership appointments within the Social Democratic Party. "What we found time and time again is once you tell political parties or corporate boards that they need to find qualified women, then they do so," said O'Brien.

In an article by Nima Sanandaji at Policy Bazaar (Indian portal), about what Americans can and can not learn from the Nordic countries, Daniel Waldenström, IFN, is quoted: Swedish economists Jesper Roine and Daniel Waldenström, for example, explain that “most of a diminution [in income inequality in Sweden] takes place before a enlargement of a gratification state and by 1950 Swedish tip income shares were already revoke than in other countries.”

Chris Farrell writes about retirement age in Forbes and Next Avenue. He quotes Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, London School of Economics and affiliated to IFN,  saying that “continuing some form of paid work in old age is one way to ensure a healthier population”. 

Foreign Affairs, New Zeeland, published a text about South Africa. A statement by the Republic of South Africa was used as source: "Institutions also play a key role in our inflation process. An important argument in academic literature, specifically by Lars Calmfors [IFN] and John Driffill, connects unemployment to the kinds of collective bargaining rules used in a country.6 The basic idea is that a country can achieve better employment outcomes when costs take into account firm-level productivity or are guided at a very high, macroeconomic level."

"There is lots of evidence that discrimination still exists [in the corporate world]" writes Noah Smith, Bloomberg view. He refers to "evidence has multiplied. In 2013, economists Fredrik Heyman [IFN], Helena Svaleryd, and Jonas Vlachos [affiliated to IFN] found that companies that get bought out in a takeover tend to increase their percentages of female employees".

How did the Nobel Prize in Economics come about? This question is asked by Bloomberg View: "Åsbrink asked the Nobel question of a young economic adviser, Assar Lindbeck [IFN], and Lindbeck’s response was that yes, a Nobel economics prize could work. Then Lindbeck set out to make it happen."

"The sense of trust is so high in Scandinavia that to some researchers it seems to be the most mysterious and potentially important factor of all for explaining why Scandinavians lead the world in considering themselves prosperous" writes Daily Scandinavian. Andreas Bergh, IFN, is interviewd: “The honest answer is we don’t know where trust comes from.”

Irish Economy writes about The Nobel Factor, a new book that traces the development of the Nobel Prize in economics: Assar Lindbeck, IFN, is mentioned: "There’s a great chapter focusing on Assar Lindbeck, a forceful personality and someone who shaped the Prize".

Avner Offer, the co-author of The Nobel Factor is interviewed in The Atlantic. Among other things he refers to a conversation with Assar Lindbeck, IFN: "With regard to Galbraith, I actually discussed this with the long-standing chairman of the prize, Assar Lindbeck, and he said that he regarded Galbraith as a belletrist, a writer of essays. I actually beg to differ."

Avner Offer is co-author (with Gabriel Söderberg) of The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn (Princeton University Press, 2016) and writes about the Nobel prize in an article published in a number of papers: "Many economists have responded to the failure of their discipline’s core premises by retreating into empirical investigation. But the resulting validity comes at the cost of generality: randomized controlled trials in the form of local experiments cannot replace an overarching vision of the social good. A good way to begin acknowledging this would be to select Nobel Prize recipients accordingly."

In a review of the book The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn, by Avner Offer and Gabriel Söderberg, Siddharth Singh writes: "There’s something about the appeal of data to economists who are attracted to social democracy. The wretched condition of the poor, [...]. Who in her right mind will deny these facts? If only economists were to theorise keeping in mind these facts, then maybe, just maybe, the world will be a better place."

When writing about private equity The Economist refers to a paper by Alexander Ljungqvist, Lars Persson, Joacim Tåg, IFN, “Private Equity’s Unintended Dark Side: on the Economic Consequences of Excessive Delistings”: "As companies shift from being owned by public shareholders to private-equity funds, direct individual exposure to corporate profits is lost."

In the ValueWalk Michael Edesess asks if "the Nobel Prize in economics been a cause of the global economic woes of the last 20 years", Stating that the book The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn, "makes a good case that it has". Edesses refers to Assar Lindbeck, IFN, as having helped to establish the prize.

Hideo Hayakawa, Fujitsu Research Institute, writes that "Japan seems to be a long way from achieving its 2 per cent inflation target". When explaining slow wage increase Hayakawa refers to Assar Lindbeck, IFN, who introduced the insider–outsider theory in labour economics.

Too few refugees, not too many, are working in Europe, The Economist states. Adding that "fears are mounting about the social impact of the two-tier labour market that is developing". The magazine has interviewed Magnus Henrekson, IFN. He "fears further ghettoisation and alienation".

It is true that people are not just reading and listening, they are looking, The Huffington Post states when commenting on the US presidential election. A study by Niclas Berggren and Henrik Jordahl, IFN, and Panu Poutvaara is quoted saying that "attractiveness is more highly linked with electoral success than either trustworthiness or perceived competence".

Forbes is calling François Fillon (who has secured the French Republican Party Presidential nomination) a "free market champion". In regards to wealth taxes Forbes cites research by David Seim, affiliated to IFN: "Seim found that Sweden’s wealth tax, which was abolished in 2007, also spurred significant tax evasion and capital flight."

Daniel Waldenström, IFN and visiting professor at the Paris School of Economics, is being interviewed in World Politics Review. The topic is inequality in Sweden and the fact that eventough Sweden has one of the lowest rates of inequality in the world, "it is experiencing a wave of anti-etablishment nationalism [...] by a backlash against immigration."

Two new studies suggest women pay a steep price for pursuing careers, Slate magazine writes. IFN researchers Olle Folke and Johanna Rickne, "have convincingly shown that female career progression is harmful to marriages there". Slate asks: "If even in Sweden men can’t abide by their spouse’s ambitions, what hope is there for the rest of us?"