Access to commercial services in both rural and urban areas is crucial to achieve a sustainable development in all regions of Sweden. Examples of frequently debated policy tools are a recently implemented subsidy to firms in rural areas and regional planning of entry of new firms.
| Project manager: |
Matilda Orth and Florin Maican, IFN and KU Leuven |
The purpose of this project is to evaluate and quantify the effects of such public policies for consumers, firms and society as a whole. We model consumer behavior and strategic interaction between firms over time in regions with different characteristics. We use novel data on all Swedish services firms and evaluate policy tools that are directly in the hands of policymakers. This facilitates the practical importance of our results for policymakers, public authorities, politicians, interest groups, firms and consumers.
The project is financed by The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning.
Time period: 2017-