News

On the 17th of August 2020, IFN will be hosting the first European conference of the Labor and Finance Group.The Labor and Finance Group is an initiative to bring together academics working at the intersection of finance, labor economics, and personnel economics.

On November 25, IFN celebrated 80 years of independent research with an anniversary seminar for specially invited guests. IFN Chairman of the Board Staffan Bohman emphasized the importance of fact-based analysis in his welcome speech:

- IFN has never had a more important task than today, as a factual voice in a debate and media climate where superficiality and fake news have become realities.

On Monday, IFN organized a seminar for a delegation from All-China Women's Federation. The federation is the leading organization for women's rights in China. Joacim Tåg presented his paper ”What Prevents Women from Reaching the Top?”

Magnus Henrekson, CEO of IFN, presented the book The Entrepreneurial Society – A Reform Strategy for the European Union, at ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim.

Joacim Tåg, IFN, presented the paper "What Prevents Women from Reaching the Top?" at the Joint Bank of England, Federal Reserve Board and European Central Bank conference Gender and career progression, in Frankfurt am Main on Monday.

Associate professor Shon Ferguson presented his study about so called born globals at the National Board of Trade today.

On Tuesday, a delegation from the European Commission visited IFN to take part of Fredrik Heyman, Pehr-Johan Norbäck and Lars Persson's research on how digitization and automation have affected Swedish business and industry.

Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, IFN and the London School of Economics (LSE), has defended his thesis Causal Inference in Social Policy: Evidence from Education, Health and Immigration at the LSE. He passed his viva voce with no corrections, an unusual outcome in the UK system.

How can the EU become more inclusive, innovative, and achieve sustainable growth? According to Magnus Henrekson, Niklas Elert and Mark Sanders, Utrecht University, entrepreneurship is the answer. This is the message of their new book The Entrepreneurial Society: A Reform Strategy for the European Union. This was also their message when Elert and Henrekson presented their research at a lecture arranged by ESBRI, the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research Institute.

The Italian economist Marco Pagano, University of Naples Federico II, visited the Research Institute of Industrial Economics this week. His area of expertise is Labor and Finance, an area that is central to IFN’s research program Globalization and Corporate Restructuring.

On Thursday Özge Öner, IFN and the University of Cambridge, received the Young Researcher Award 2019 for "significant contributions to our understanding of entrepreneurship," explained the chairman of the prize committee Martin Andersson, professor at Blekinge Institute of Technology. The prize sum is SEK 150,000 and is given every year, alternately to a man and a woman, by the Entrepreneurship Forum. "We try to understand what the place means for the economy and for, among other things, entrepreneurship," Öner explained in her prize lecture.

The EU needs reforms in six different areas for a more dynamic and competitive entrepreneurship, according to IFN:s Niklas Elert and Magnus Henrekson. They have co-authored the new book The Entrepreneurial Society: A Reform Strategy for the European Union with Mark Sanders, Utrecht University. Magnus Henrekson, CEO of the IFN, presented the book at a seminar open to the public at Näringslivets Hus on September 12th.

Magnus Henrekson, CEO of IFN, presenting the new book  The Entrepreneurial Society: A Reform Strategy for the European Union. Photo: Karl Gabor

How do Swedish taxes compare to other OECD countries? This is the topic of a report published by SNS.
Åsa Hansson, University of Lund and affiliated to IFN talked about the report at a seminar at SNS. Sweden, being a small country, needs to lower corporate taxes to be competitive on a global market, said Åsa Hansson.

Professor Magnus Henrekson, Managing director of IFN, has been appointed by the Government to propose who should be Chairman and further members of the Board of Lund University. He is one of two appointees that will give their suggestions for the operational period of May 2020 - April 2023. The other nominee is Maria Arnholm, former Minister of Gender Equality and the Liberals party secretary.

A report about digitalization in health care by Mårten Blix, IFN, and Charlotta Levay, Lund University, was presented by the Expert Group on Public Economics (ESO) in Swedish in December 2018 and is now published in English. "New technology enables citizens to better monitor their health, take preventive measures, and, if necessary, take more control of their health situation" Blix and Levay argue. "Technology can thus enable more and better quality care, despite fewer physical care visits."

In the summer of 2018, Hedda Nielsen started working as a research assistant at IFN. Now, a year later, she is leaving the institute to begin doctoral studies at the Berlin School of Economics & Humboldt University in Berlin. She explains that at IFN, she has gained insight into many different research areas and learned a lot about data processing.

On Monday, the first academic brown bag seminar of the fall was held at IFN (research at an early stage).  Johanna Möllerström, George Mason University in Washington DC and affiliate of IFN,  presented the study "A Meritocratic Origin of Egalitarian Behavior." In experiments, the researchers have studied how people (in the US and Norway) believe that it is fair to redistribute income - depending on who is responsible for the best performance. And what does it mean when you do not know for sure whose performance is the best?

"It was great that my time as a summer assistant at IFN started with this year's Summer get-together," says Kajsa Rudal. This event involves almost all researchers and employees. "I immediately learned who was who," she explains. Kajsa says she learned a lot about data processing, which she will benefit greatly from in the future. And, she has had no dull and monotonous tasks. "IFN is a friendly workplace, " she explains.