News

During the Almedalen Week July 3–10, a number of IFN-researchers participated in seminars and other events. Andreas Bergh, IFN and Lund University,  participated in a seminar organized by the think tank Fores, ”Ökad invandring – hur påverkas social tillit?”(The impact of increased immigrationon on social trust?) Lars Calmfors, Mårten Blix and Therese Nilsson also attended events at the beginning of the week.

Psychology is crucial to understanding today's society, explained Professor Jonathan Haidt, Stern School of Business at New York University, during a breakfast seminar in Stockholm. He commented on Brexit and said that mass immigration and the multi-cultural urban elite's positive attitude towards immigration means that more and more people will join the ranks of conservative ideas. Aida Hadzialic, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training, explained that the government must respect the people's sentiments – 70% of Swedes are concerned about immigration. They believe that basic Swedish values are threatened. Hadzialic added that "we must build a national identity that includes everybody".

June 18–19, 2016, the Institute for Research of Industrial Economics (IFN), in cooperation with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), organized the Third CEPR European Workshop on Entrepreneurship Economics in Stockholm, Sweden. Researchers from all over the world attended the conference to discuss topics concerning entrepreneurship.

On June 16, the ESO report "Digitaliseringens dynamik” (Digitization dynamics) was presented. The study is authored by IFN researchers Fredrik Heyman, John Norbäck and Lars Persson. They are among the first to study the effects of automation over a longer period, from 1996 to 2013. The researchers explain that digitization can give Swedish companies competitive advantages. "Sweden has successfully leveraged automation," said Lars Persson at the seminar where the report was presented.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem iss the theme of an anthology presented by Esbri on Wednesday. Magnus Henrekson has together with Pontus Braunerhjelm authored the chapter " "Från utbildning, forskning och innovation till växande företag och stigande välstånd" (From education, research and innovation to growing businesses and growing prosperity). He explained that government should not, as in the recent IT bubble, "throw money" at businesses. That has proven to be expensive for taxpayers.

June 9─10 a group of researchers from Sweden, United States and Britain attended IFN’s annual academic conference in Vaxholm. This year’s topic was “Efficient Provision of Public Services”, within the framework of the IFN research project Public services in the future. Subjects discussed ranged from education reforms to for-profit corporations in the welfare sector and the use of antibiotics.

A study by Jonas Vlachos, Stockholm University and affiliated to IFN, and Björn Tyrefors Hinnerich, has created debate in Swedish media. Vlachos and Tyrefors find that students at upper-secondary voucher schools on average score 0.06 standard deviations lower on externally graded standardized tests. At the same time voucher schools are 0.14 standard deviations more generous than municipal schools in their internal test grading.

Thomas Tangerås, director of IFN's research program The Economics of Electricity Markets, participated on Thursday in a lunch seminar organized by Energiföretagen Sverige and Elforsk. The theme was "Today's research findings build future electricity markets". At the seminar Thomas Tangerås presented his research about capacity reserves in a integrated European electricity market. The title of his lecture was "Renewable electricity generation and national security of an integrated European electricity market."

During the week, two researchers visited IFN to present their research at academic seminars and to discuss their results with IFN-researchers. Randi Hjalmarsson, Gothenburg University, spoke about "The Causal Effect of Military Conscription on Crime and the Labor Market". She did so at a research seminar on Wednesday. On a brown bagseminarium Maria Polyakova, Stanford University, presented her study "Private Provision of Social Insurance: Drug-Specific Price Elasticities and Cost-Sharing in Medicare Part D".
 

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Professor Haidt's research focus on the moral foundations of politics, and on ways to transcend the “culture wars” by using recent discoveries in moral psychology to foster more civil forms of politics. On June 28 Jonathan Haidt will open a seminar in Stockholm with a presentation. In addition to the participants are: Aida Hadzialic, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training, Lotta Gröning, Historian and Columnist Expressen, Magnus Henrekson, Professor and Managing Director IFN, and Johan Hakelius, Editor in Chief Fokus. Niklas Ekdal, writer and commentator, will moderate the seminar.

On Tuesday Professor Philippe Aghion, Collège de France, received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2016. The award ceremony was held at Grand Hotel in Stockholm. Faced with an ample audience Aghion held a prize lecture on growth and innovation. Global Award is the world's leading award in entrepreneurship research, with a prize sum of almost one million. Philippe Aghion is one of today’s  most influential researchers in the field of economics.

Researchers from Europe and the US, with interest in the field of entrepreneurship, will be attending a workshop in Stockholm June 18-19. Emphasis will be on topics with policy relevance, e.g.  entrepreneurship and institutions, financing entrepreneurship (venture capital/business angels), job creation and entrepreneurship and so on.

On Tuesday, Liberalerna (the Liberals) organized a seminar in Parliament: "Stock options - the possibility for co-workers to become co-owner?" Magnus Henrekson, IFN, was part of a panel that discussed ideas about the business climate in general and stock options in particular. The Incentives commission's (Incitamentsutredningen) proposal for stock option rules was criticized by all four speakers. The panel also included Annika Linde, SUP 46, Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist, Swedish Venture Capital Association and Knut Frängsmyr, Klarna.

In the latest issue of Ekonomisk Debatt (published by Nationalekonomiska Föreningen; the Swedish Economic Association), Andreas Bergh, IFN, writes about three books by Roland Paulsen, all concerned with working life. In addition, Johanna Rickne, Stockholm University, and affiliated with IFN, is one of the authors of an article on "meritocratic government". Niclas Berggren, IFN and Editor of Ekonomisk Debatt, writes in an editorial piece about the global "elite" which is increasingly criticized for pursuing a policy that has provoked populism.

Arbetsmarknadsekonomiska rådet (Labor Economic Council) with Lars Calmfors, IFN, as chairman, unveiled on Thursday a report: "The German Labor Market Miracle: An Assessment". In the report Professor Michael C. Burda of Humboldt University in Berlin, analyzes how labor market reforms and changes in wage formation in Germany have affected employment.

Like in all of the Western countires, growth is low in France and, among other things, automation poses challenges for the economy, said Daniel Waldentröm in Ekonomiekot Lördag (Swedish Public Radio). He explained that there are three presidential candidates that have presented more or less serious economic programs in the presidential campaign: Emmanuel Macron, Francois Fillon and Benoit Hamon.

The link between air travel and economic activity is very strong, explained Shon Ferguson, IFN, and Richard Forslid, Stockholm University, in the SNS report "Flyget och företagen” (Aviation and business) which was presented on Tuesday. They show that a municipality with half as much distance to the airport has 50 percent higher production. The study also shows that knowledge-intensive industries (such as IT and finance) are most dependent on aviation.

David Cesarini, IFN and New York University, has been awarded over SEK 6 million from the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation to study how millions of genetic markers related to various economic and social behaviors and attitudes. Sven Oskarsson, Uppsala University, is coapplicant. Studies led by the two researchers have begun to identify genetic associations with behavioral outcomes such as educational attainment, personality and subjective well-being.

Within the framework of the EU project FIRES a first IFN-working paper has been published by Niklas Elert, IFN, and Selin Dilli, Utrecht University. In their study they have examined how 21 European countries and the United States cluster in entrepreneurial and institutional dimensions. The results reveal six country clusters, or entrepreneurial regimes. The main implication is that different reform strategies are appropriate to promote entrepreneurship and economic growth in European countries in different clusters.

The 2016 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research is awarded to Professor Philippe Aghion, Collège de France and previously at Harvard University. Global Award is the most prominent international award in entrepreneurship research with a prize sum of € 100 000. Professor Aghion, who has been one of the World’s most influential scholars in economics during the last two decades, is awarded for his analyses of the importance of innovation for business development.