News

Using the World Management Survey method the researchers analyse management quality in Swedish primary care centres. On average private providers have higher management quality than public ones. Centres with a high overall social deprivation among enrolled patients tend to have higher management quality. Regarding quality of care  the researchers find that management quality is positively associated with accessibility, but not with patient reported experience.

A new study shows that Western Europe is underperforming in all four measures of high-impact Schumpeterian entrepreneurship relative to the U.S. In addition, once the researchers account for Europe’s strong performance in technological innovation, an “entrepreneurship deficit” relative to China and East Asia becomes apparent. This underperformance is missed by most standard measures. China is found to perform surprisingly well in Schumpeterian entrepreneurship, especially compared to Eastern Europe.

“Globalization and New Technology: Effects on Firms and Workers” was the theme of a conference organized by the Research Institute of Industrial Economics, IFN, on June 15-16, 2017. The conference brought together researchers with the objective to shed light on the effects of globalization and new technology. In total, 16 papers were presented.

In an study Fredrik Heyman, Pehr-Johan Norbäcka and Lars Persson show that increased product market competition can reduce discrimination against female managers. Due to the glass ceiling effect, female managers will, on average, be more skilled than male managers. Using detailed matched employee-employer data, the researchers find that:

• more intense competition leads to relatively higher wages for female managers 

• the share of female managers is higher in firms in more competitive industries

Daniel Waldenström, IFN, is part of a group of international researchers that have received funding from Norface, New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe, a collaborative partnership of national research funding agencies from 19 European countries. In the project ”Impact of childhood circumstances on individual outcomes over the life-course” the researchers will study what conditions are needed for a person to succeed in life. The question is the significance of family background and the policy's approach to creating equal opportunities, and how this affects the results.

In the latest newsletter from IFN  two new books are presented: Kunskapssynen och pedagogiken – varför skolan slutade leverera och hur det kan åtgärdas (The notion of knowledge and education – Why the Swedish school ceased to deliver and how it can be restored; Dialogos) by Inger Enkvist, Magnus Henrekson (IFN), Martin Ingvar and Ingrid Wållgren. In the book, the authors reason about the fact that today's educational theories undermine knowledge. The second book is an anthology: Nationalekonomins frågor  (The issues of economics; Studentlitteratur) by, among others, IFN researchers Magnus Henrekson, Henrik Jordahl, Mikael Stenkula, Karin Edmark, Mikael Elinder, Johanna Möllerström, Maria Persson and Johanna Rickne. This is a new type of textbook designed to show the width of Economics.

Soccer players born in the fall are overrepresented as winner of Guldbollen (awarded to the best male Swedish footballer each year), researchers Per Hjertstrand, Pehr-Johan Norbäck and Lars Persson, IFN, show in a new study. Using a skill formation model they show that the reason for this is that players born in the fall must work harder as young to be selected for elite educational programs than those born earlier in the year. This means that those born late, but not too late, will thus end up with the highest skill levels as adults. However, those born too late will not make the cut.

On Sunday Assar Lindbeck, IFN and Stockholm University, received the Global Economy Prize 2017 in the category of economics. The prize is awarded by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The prize committee consists of former winners, most of whom are also Nobel Laureates. In his price lecture, Lindbeck explained that, yes you can make research on economic issues. And he ended on a most optimistic note, pointing out "the possibilities to gradually increase the precision and robustness of economic research –  in particular as a result of important methodological advances in quantitative economic analysis, i.e. econometrics, in recent decades".

June 15-16 IFN is organizing an international two-day academic conference: “Globalization and New Technology: Effects on Firms and Workers”. The conference brings together researchers studying how new technology and globalization affect firms' organizational structure and ownership, as well as different labor market outcomes for workers.  Apart from Sweden the participants come from the UK, US, France, Germany, Finland and Norway.

On Friday Lovisa Persson, IFN, participated in a seminar in which Vårdföretagarna launched a booklet, Privat Vårdfakta 2017. She proposed that in the future individual's freedom of choice will increase within the respective welfare sector. For example, you will have a choice between meeting the doctor in person or remotely using new technology. What about the general cap on profits in the tax-financed service sector that has been proposed by Illmar Reepalu, the moderator asked. Lovisa Persson explained that, in particular, small businesses would suffer severely if Reepalu’s proposal was implemented.

Wolf von Laer has received his PhD from King's College London. The title of his disseration is "Patterns of Lawmaking: The Entangled Political Economy of Crises". Wolf von Laer spent two years at IFN, before moving to the US to work with Students For Liberty. He explains that IFN provided a great work environment. During his time in Stockholm von Laer presented parts of this PhD at an IFN Brown Bag seminar. In the disseration he writes that he "particularly want to thank Magnus Henrekson, Niclas Berggren, Niklas Elert and Henrik Horn for their support an feedback on my PhD".

On Tuesday the study Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe was presented in Stockholm. The study is part of Fires, a research program funded by the European Commission. The seminar was jointly organized by the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) and the European Commission’s Representation in Sweden. In a panel Jeanette Andersson, Angel Investor, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, MEP, Magnus Henrekson, IFN, Håkan Hillefors, Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, and Peter Voigt, EU Commission, discussed the European entrepreneurial eco system or the lack thereof.

Former US President Bill Clinton has described Hernando de Soto as “the world’s most important living economist.” Mr. de Soto visited Sweden in May 2017 to receive the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. In this pod he takes the listeners into the world where he grew up and tells us why he returned to Peru to start his today renowned think tank the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD). And he explains how property rights can eradicate poverty!

Hernando de Soto, founder of the think-tank Institute of Liberty and Democracy (ILD), in Lima, Peru, has been awarded the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2017. "Five billion people are poor because they are not part of social networks of trust," said Soto when he received the award in Stockholm, Sweden. The award was presented by Minister for Finance Magdalena Andersson. During his prize lecture Mr. de Soto showed his passport and credit card to illustrate property rights; how people in developed countries can easily travel and do business, where people in poor countries are only trusted in smaller circles.

Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe (SpringerBrief in Economics 2017) is the title of a recently published book authored by the IFN researchers Niklas Elert, Magnus Henrekson and Mikael Stenkula. The study was conducted within the framework of the EU project Fires. The authors propose a series of institutional reforms to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and growth. A European reform agenda should have its eyes set on liberalization, the authors argue. Though, "it falls on reformers to creatively package the principles into institutional designs that are sensitive to local constraints and take advantage of local opportunities".

On Wednesday Ashwini Agrawal, London School of Economics, presented a study at IFN. The question asked in the study is whether mergers can have positive spillover effects on workers. It is often assumed that mergers lead to mass layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Agrawal and his co-author find that information technology plays a major role in explaining M&A activity.  The authors observe that workers of acquired firms, who are exposed to upgrades in production technologies, after their employers are acquired by IT-intensive firms experience higher long-run wages and shorter spells of unemployment.

Niclas Berggren, Associate Professor and Program Director at IFN, has been elected to the board of the European Public Choice Society. This happened at the annual EPCS conference held in Budapest April 19-22. EPCS is an association of mainly European researchers in political economics/public choice/institutional economics. The organization's purpose is to promote scientific research on the economic and interdisciplinary analysis of non-market decision making processes and institutions. Henrik Jordahl, IFN, has previously served as a board member of EPCS.

Andreas Bergh, IFN, is part of a newly appointed commission on the Swedish future collective bargaining model. It is Ledarna (Union representing managers) that has appointed the inquiry. The goal is a more modern, more well-oiled model than today's contractual structure, including a controversy between the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise about the industrial sector’s normative agreement in regards to wages. "In addition Ledarna argue that globalization, digitalization and individualization contribute to the need for an improved dialogue in the labor market," the daily paper Dagens Nyheter noted.

On Thursday the EEAG Report 2017 was presented at a seminar in Stockholm. What drives populism, asked Professor Clemens Fuest, CESifo, Munich, at the seminar titled “Economic policy and the rise of populism”. His answer was the large influx of immigrants, but also globalization and people’s perception of losing out. In a panel Professor Fuest was joined by Karolina Ekholm, State Secretary to the Minister for Finance, Assar Lindbeck, Professor IFN and Stockholm University and Alice Teodorescu, Editor-in-chief for opinion at Göteborgs-Posten.

This week Mark Thurber, Associate Director for Research at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University, visited IFN. His research includes various aspects of the use of energy sources, which is a hot topic in today’s United States as President Trump has said that he “will put an end to the war on coal”. Thurber explains that “as long as gas prices are low there will not be much coal used in the electricity sector”.