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Economist writes about the welfare state of tomorrow, today and int he future and finds that the criticisms are growing, both right and left: "On the right, critics accuse it of sucking the dynamism from capitalism and individuals alike." The left, as seen in the grainy nostalgia [...] lays claim to the welfare state as a left-wing creation, and thinks it is under unceasing threat." Economist states that "It is not so much a left-wing creation as a product of an intellectual coalition, in which the critical strand was liberalism". And, the article refers to research by Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson, IFN.

Researchers from IFN were invited by external organizations to be part of numerous panels and presentations during “Almedalen”. This is an eight day event in Visby on the Baltic island of Gotland. This annual event take place at the beginning of July when politicians, opinion leaders, media, corporations and interested Swedes come together and have the opportunity to attend over 4 000 seminars and numerous informal events.
 

For the first time, IFN is organizer of a seminar in Almedalen: "Den svenska kunskapssynen – beror utbildningsproblemen på hur kunskap värderas?"(The Swedish perspective of knowledge: Is the problems in the education system an effect of how knowledge is valued?) will be held .Monday July 2, at 10.00-11.00. The seminar is organized in cooperation with the Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum. The panel includes Helene Hellmark Knutsson, Minister for higher education, Erik Bengtzboe, (M), Johan Eklund, Entrepreneurship Forum, Åsa Fahlén, Teachers' Association, and Magnus Henrekson, IFN.
 

Lars Calmfors, IFN, is one of the editors of the anthology "Framtidens arbetsförmedling" (Future Employment Service) (Fores 2018). The publication was presented on Monday with Calmfors as moderator. A message in the book is that politicians should refrain from chasing "the big clip," that is, a radical reform that is carried out in a single shot. Instead, one should study what works well and gradually implement minor improvements in individual areas. One of the commentators at the seminar was Björn Tyrefors, IFN.

Three of IFN's research assistants have been admitted to doctoral studies at Swedish universities starting in the fall of 2018. One of the assistants will continue his career as an analyst and consultant at Copenhagen Economics. All four of them say that the time at IFN has provided a good insight into the work of a researcher and what it takes to succeed.

June 14-15, the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) hosted an international conference on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation: past, present and future”. The attending researchers came from Sweden, USA, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Germany, UK and Canada. The topics included discussions on how entrepreneurial and innovative activity are determined by institutional settings and how they affect society through interactions with the political process, financial markets, labor markets, and product markets.

June 7, Magnus Henrekson, IFN, participated in a panel discussing the Swedish ownership taxes. "Eleven years ago it was chaos – the system was distorted by the way people acted to avoid wealth tax. We would have the same result today if this tax would be reintroduced," said Henrekson. The German researcher Florian Neumeier, Ifo, initially presented a study demonstrating that in developed countries there is no correlation between reduced inequality and increased growth. Also, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), which organized the seminar, presented a report, concluding that "the tax rate on capital gains and dividends ought to be reduced from today's nominal 30 percent to 20 percent”.

The report Globalisering och svensk arbetsmarknad (Globalization and Swedish Labor Market, SNS 2018), written by Fredrik Heyman, IFN, and Fredrik Sjöholm, Lund University, affiliated to IFN, was presented on June 6, at a seminar organized by SNS (Centre for Business and Policy Studies). The accolades were many from those who commented on the report. "I have picked up the positive keynote of globalization and technological development," said Ylva Johansson (S), Minister for Employment. Carola Lemne, CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), acknowledged “an excellent report”. Hans Stråberg, Chairman of Atlas Copco and SKF, also welcomed the report explaining that In many instances "the globalization has undeservedly been blamed for many problems in society”.  

Seven steps suggest researchers in the interdisciplinary project Fires, which includes IFN, in order for more to dare to take the step of becoming entrepreneurs and thereby boost growth in Europe. Which seven steps? The answer is in this video:

Seven steps suggest researchers in the interdisciplinary project Financial and Institutional Reforms for the Entrepreneurial Society (Fires), which includes IFN, in order for more to dare to become entrepreneurs and thereby boost growth in Europe. The researchers in Fires presented on Thursday, for the European Commission, its research findings and a toolbox for politicians who want to promote entrepreneurship. On Friday May 25, there was a closing public conference in Brussels where researchers, organizations and entrepreneurs participated.

Olav Sorenson, winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2018, grew up in a small town in South Dakota and set out wanting to be a consultant. Today he is professor at Yale School of Management and has in his research shown how important social networks are to entrepreneurship. In this podcast he reveals what he would ask for if he was granted a wish that would be fulfilled during his lifetime.

A knowledgeable panel and a dedicated audience participated on Thursday in a seminar organized by IFN on the topic of home care of elderly. With the help of new digitally collected data, IFN researchers have compared the quality and productivity of home care. It varies a lot between different units, explained Henrik Jordahl, IFN. The researchers have also studied LOV (a standardized model of choice and competition) and seen that the elderly are more satisfied with the home care when a municipality apply LOV. The panel discussed these and other issues. The panel included, in addition to Henrik Jordahl: Camilla Aho, Attendo, Veronica Magnusson, Vision, Annika Wallenskog, SKL, and Ulrika Winblad, Uppsala University.

The International English School was founded by Barbara Bergström 25 years ago. On Tuesday, this was celebrated with the release of the book Tough Love. International English School - the first 25 years by Hans and Barbara Bergström. The book tells the story of how IES has grown into a company with 36 schools, 26,000 students and a turnover of 2.5 billion. The book was commented by Henrik Jordahl, IFN, Pontus Brauner Hjelm, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum and KTH, as well as Torkel Klingberg, Karolinska Institutet. The moderator was PJ Anders Linder, Axess Magasin.

On Monday, Olav Sorenson, Professor at Yale School of Management, received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2018. The prize was presented by Helene Hellmark Knutsson, Minister for Higher Education and Research. Sorenson was awarded the prize for increasing the understanding of the notion that entrepreneurial activity and innovation are strongly embedded in socially and spatially bounded relationships. Global Award is the world-leading prize in entrepreneurship research with a prize of 100,000 euros.

On Thursday, IFN arranged a well-attended seminar on research on the seniority rules in the employment protection legaislation (Las). Per Skedinger and Martin Olsson, IFN presented a report and an article has also been published in the same subject in Economic Debate. They found, among other things, that the so-called two-round increase increases staff turnover, acts as a growth barrier, increases productivity and reduces the absence of the companies in question, with a maximum of 10 employees. In a subsequent panel, Per Skedinger, IFN, Carin Ulander-Wänman, Umeå University, Mikael Sandström, TCO, Thomas Carlén, LO, and Martin Ådahl, Center Party. Willy Silberstein was the moderator.

Timbro, a think tank with the mission "to build opinion in favor of market economy" has for the first time during three weekends organized an education in economics. The participants have learned about practical economic policy and economics research "relevant to the economic policy debate". Five of the lecturers were IFN researchers. Henrik Jordahl was first out and lectured on profit in the public sector. Andreas Bergh lectured on "The capitalist welfare state". Magnus Henrekson spoke of entrepreneurship, Gabriel Heller Sahlgren lectured on "A functioning school market" and Pär Holmberg about the Swedish electricity market.

On Wednesday Magnus Henrekson participated on a round table discussion  and presented the conclusions in the book of Kunskapssynen och pedagogiken (Knowledge and Educational Studies) (Dialogos), of which he is editor and co-author. A presentation was also made by Ralph Townsend, former Rector of Winchester College – Britain's oldest boarding school – and Staffan Erlandsson, School Director of Österåkers Municipality. The seminar was organized by Ebba Braheskolan in Nacka and the real estate company Kvalitena.

Niclas Berggren, Andreas Bergh, Christian Bjørnskov and Shiori Tanaka have employed data from 29,000 immigrants in the European Social Survey and found evidence that the persistence of life satisfaction from the country of origin is strong for migrants from developed countries and close to zero for migrants from formerly communist countries. They also find that persistence for second-generation immigrants is similar but weaker than for their parents.

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