News

On Wednesday, as part of a joint IFN-SNS project called From welfare state to a welfare society, professor Anders Lindbom presented a chapter in a forthcoming report entitled "Welfare services under private management - the growth and motivation ." The anthology will be presented in its entirety on November 13. In his research Lindbom has found that different traditions of thought within the the Social Democratic Party form geographic clusters with the result that some (S)-municipalities are in favor of privatization and other are more or less against. A panel including former party leader Mona Sahlin (S) commented on the report.

Special Feature Articles have been published in IFN newsletters since 2006. Starting with Newsletter 2-2013 these research summaries will be translated into English. “To facilitate an eloquent policy discussion we highlight relevant empirical ties, based on substantiated theory” explained Professor Lars Persson, IFN, one of the authors of the first article translated into English: “Effects of Privatisation on Competition and Efficiency” by Fredrik Heyman, Pehr-Johan Norbäck and Lars Persson.

For a month Steven Kelman, Professor of Public Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, has been guest researcher at IFN. On Wednesday, he and Anders Wijkman, former politician and analyst of procurement, spoke at a seminar organized by SNS (Centre for Business and Policy Studies). The question asked was how public procurement can be improved. Steven Kelman's advice to Sweden was to maximize the business perspective – what in Wijkman's procurement analysis is called doing "good deals". The U.S. has also introduced that officers responsible of procurement, from a certain level, must have training in business administration. A measure that he suggested that Sweden takes after.

Johanna Rickne, IFN, has been awarded the Intersentia FISS-prize for the best paper 2013 presented at the annual conference organized by the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security (FISS), this year in Sigtuna, Sweden. The title of the paper is "Firm Ownership and Social Insurance Inequality in Transitional China: Evidence from a Large Panel of Firm Data", which is co-authored with Qin Gao.
 

Faced with a large and eloquent audience Nobel Laureate in Economics (2006) Edmund Phelps gave a lecture on the good life, characterized as "flourishing". He explained that mass prosperity came with the mass innovation in the 19th century. Magnus Henrekson, IFN, and Solveig Wikström, Stockholm University, commented on this lecture and discussed, among other things, what creates this good life. Vladimir Kvint, La Salle and Moscow University, addressed the issue of quality in various aspects, and how it is essential for social development – and ultimately whether a society can endure. Torbjörn Becker from Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics commented on this lecture.

Morten Søberg, resigning State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Finance on Monday gave a lecture at IFN on "the new Norwegian banking regulations as a tool for financial stability" . Moreover, Ola Borten Moe, the resigning Minister for Oil & Energy, also attended the seminar. Søberg explained that in regards to financial stability there is only one issue separating the outgoing and incoming governments - judging by election promises – namely, how much capital that home buyers need to deposit. So far 15 percent has to be paid up-front , while the incoming government wants to reduce this to the Swedish level, that is 10 percent.

Thursday September 26, IFN organized a seminar with Professor David Rose, University of Missouri-St Louis, who presented his book Moral Foundation of Economic Behavior. Inga-Britt Ahlenius, former Director General of the Swedish National Audit Office and Niclas Berggren, Associate Professor, IFN, commented. Faced with an eloquent audience David Rose explained his thoughts on why opportunism thrive in large groups and how we can embrace a morality that makes it feel wrong to execute a certain action, even if a person does not come to harm - albeit a larger group.

Johanna Möllerström, who earned her PhD in March 2013 at Harvard University and who is affiliated to IFN, is new as contributor on Ekonomistas – a blog written by "economists on society, politics and science." Johanna Möllerström's thesis addressed the issue of how affirmative action affects the willingness to cooperate within a group.

On Friday Carol Propper, Professor of Economics and Head of the Health Management Group, Imperial College in the UK was the key note speaker at a seminar organized by IFN and SNS. The seminar was part of cooperation between IFN and SNS:  From welfare state to a welfare society. The theme of the seminar was "Competition in health care: what can we learn from England?" Professor Proppers answer was straightforward: With more competition quality and efficiency increases.

Andreas Bergh, IFN, is new columnist for Svnska Dagbladet's editorial page. His first column will be published Saturday, September 7. Andreas Bergh is associate professor of economics. His research focuses on public and institutional economics. At the time he is working on an English version of the book Den kapitalistiska välfärdsstaten. He is also giving lectures in microeconomics to students at Lund University .

Venture capital is a good thing seen from an economic perspective, noted Jocaim Tåg, IFN, when speaking at a seminar on "Venture Capitalists Help Building the Country" organized by Timbro. He presented his own and others' research on the venture capital industry. At the seminar Janerik Larsson,presented his book The new industrialists. In addition Gabriel Urwitz, Chairman of private equity firm Segulah and Magnus Agervald, President of ByggMax participated in the presentation.

A report "Energy markets, ownership and climate" (SNS Förlag) written by Thomas Tangerås, IFN, Tommy Lundgren, Jesper Stage and Bjorn Carlén was presented on August 29. The authors warn that it might be expensive and inefficient to let municipally owned companies take responsibility for the climate. In an article in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet writes Thomas Tangerås about the report: "A logical conclusion would be (partial) privatization of operations in competitive markets."

Ewa Lazarczyk, IFN, received the "IAEE Student Paper Award" at a conference in Düsseldorf 18-21 August. The conference and the award is organized on an annual basis by the International Association for Energy Economics. The title of Ewa Lazarczyk's winning essay was "Market specific news and its impact on forward premia on electricity markets". Ewa Lazarczyk is currently a PhD student at Stockholm School of Economics. At IFN she is part of the research program "Economics of Electricity Markets".

August 29, SNS (Centre for Business and Policy Studies) will present a new book about the separate rules and regulations for privately owned and municipal utilities. How does the form of ownership affect customers? Are different regulations justified? And are the rules tailored for the future of energy markets?

Author is Thomas Tangerås, IFN, Tommy Lundgren, Umeå School of Business/SLU and Jesper Stage, Mid Sweden University.

Professor Magnus Henrekson, IFN, has been awarded Jacob Palmstierna's Prize for 2013 of SEK 100 000 for significant contributions in economic education. The motivation for awarding the prize to Magnus Henrekson is his important contributions in articles, books, and public events, "to public understanding of science-based facts in regards to crucial social issues with an economic focus."

On Friday a group of Chinese business people, alumna from Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, visited IFN. The visit was arranged within the framework of the Tsinghua CEO Group. The graduates are currently active at the management level of domestic and foreign companies in China. Professor Lars Oxelheim gave a speech entitled "The global crisis - micro and macro economic aspects".

We are looking for two research assistants for employment starting September 2013. As a research assistant you will work closely with the institute’s researchers, assisting them in their different research projects. The work ranges from data collection and processing to advanced econometrics. Last date for application is August 12. 

Yossi Spiegel from Tel Aviv University is for the second time taking part in IFN's annual research conference in Vaxholm. This year the theme being "Industrial Organization and Corporate Finance." Why does he travel to Sweden and Vaxholm? "Here I have an opportunity to learn what is new and exciting in this well-defined subject area. From earlier, I also know that the scientists involved are serious and that it’s a good conference."

For the 15th year in a row, an international scientific conference on European integration is organized in Mölle, Skåne. Professor Lars Oxelheim, IFN and Lund University, Chairman of the Swedish Network for European Studies in Economics and Business (SNEE), is in charge of the event. Included on this year's list of 150 guests are Richard Sweeney, Georgetown University and Rym Ayadi, researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. Several journalists will also attend, including Adrian Wooldridge from The Economist. Among the speakers during the four-day conference can be found approximately ten researchers from IFN.

Maryann Feldman, Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, has been awarded the prestigious Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research 2013. On Wednesday, she received the price during a ceremony in which Anders Borg, Minister for Finance, participated. She held a prize lecture on "The Character of Place: Economic Development, Business Strategy and Prosperity." The price sum is 100,000 euros. The partners behind the Award are Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum (Entreprenörskapsforum) and the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN). Vinnova is sponsoring the price and businessman Melker Schörling is a donor.