Publications

Ample evidence demonstrates that early-life adversity negatively affects morbidity and survival in late life. We show that disease exposure in infancy also has a continuous impact on reproduction and…

This chapter explores the relationship between long-term exposure to neighborhood income inequality and adult mortality in Landskrona during a period of declining economic disparities. Using geocoded…

This chapter examines the evolution of social class segregation in the city of Landskrona during the twentieth century. The city’s population was initially spatially mixed with regards to social class…

This chapter presents and discusses the main findings and conclusions of the volume and puts them into a broader perspective. Taken together, the different chapters contribute to closing the gap betwe…

This chapter introduces the research presented in the volume. It starts by highlighting the importance of an individual-level perspective to understand how long-term economic and societal changes conn…

This report investigates how migration aspirations within the Russian population have evolved following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. It primarily focuses on the impact of the…

Little is known about how democratic process affects terrorism. We outline three mechanisms and test their implications in a large panel dataset of 76 countries. Voter turnout is associated with fewer…

We develop a novel measure of job-worker allocation quality (JAQ) by exploiting employer-employee data with machine learning techniques. Based on our measure, the quality of job-worker matching correl…

This is an English version of the non-peer reviewed paper ”Familjeföretagens betydelse för motståndskraften och omställningskraften i näringslivet”. Ekonomisk Debatt 50(7), 14–26. Family firms balance…

This paper examines the long-term effects of early sports selection using a regression discontinuity design. I show that Swedish track and field athletes who qualified for a one-time appearance with t…

The power exchange and the real-time markets used by the system operator differ in how system constraints are managed. This can result in regulatory arbitrage, which can increase consumer costs, incre…

This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to World War I drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during S…

We document the socioeconomics of wind power expansion in Sweden using two metrics. First, we compute the difference in socioeconomic status (SES) between residents exposed to wind power (0-2 km from…

We analyze the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the partial military mobilization, and the Wagner Group rebellion on a broad set of sentiments in the Russian population, using the exogenous ti…

We estimate the causal effects of parental incarceration on children’s short- and long-run outcomes using administrative data from Sweden. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in parent…

The chapter acknowledges the changed geopolitical map and the new adjacent political mindset and examines the current state of the relationship between MNEs and governments/central banks. The focus is…

We estimate the causal effects of parental incarceration on children’s short- and long-run outcomes using administrative data from Sweden. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in parent…

Electronic monitoring (EM) has emerged as a popular tool for curbing the growth of large prison populations. Evidence on the causal effects of EM on criminal recidivism is, however, limited, and it is…

The increasing electoral success of populist radical-right parties poses a significant challenge to established political parties in Western democracies. While mainstream parties often maintain a poli…

Many governments introduced temporary adjustments to counter the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. We study the importance of already existing government transfers and pandemi…

This paper presents evidence that anonymous grading benefits female university students based on a university-wide reform. Female grades improve by 0.04-0.06 standard deviations relative to males, wit…

The European Union’s Directive on minimum wages aims to ensure an adequate minimum wage for all workers in the Union and thereby counteract poverty among the low paid. This chapter examines the underl…

Quasi-markets in the provision of public services are increasingly common but also highly contested. We formulate a conceptual framework based on economic theory to describe how quasi-markets differ f…

This paper investigates the relationship between the log change in mobile broadband latency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth based on data for 130 countries. It finds that there is a strong…

There is widespread concern, especially in certain feminist circles, that a market-oriented economic system, or capitalism, disfavors women. This could take many forms, such as lower wages for the sam…

Borrowing ideas from the medical sciences, we propose tentative guidelines for reliable causal inferences that cover aspects related to both the study itself and its fit with background knowledge. We…

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the generational wealth transfer within Sweden’s public pay-as-you-go pension system introduced in 1960. Using extensive administrative registers, the p…

This article analyzes new evidence on long-run trends in aggregate wealth accumulation and wealth inequality in Western countries. The new findings suggest that wealth-income ratios were lower before…

The privatization of state owned enterprises is on the agenda across the globe. Using Swedish data covering two decades, we show that productivity gains and headcount reductions are coupled with econo…

In medieval Europe’s coinage systems, the introduction of small denomination coins was a significant challenge due to their higher relative production costs, often leading to shortages. To address thi…

Academic freedom is a cornerstone of modern academic life. It is not only implied by basic liberal principles but also contributes to scientific progress and economic growth. It is therefore important…

We study responsiveness of owner-managed companies to a corporate income tax kink using Dutch tax records linking firms to their owners. The corporate taxable income elasticity (CETI) is 0.08, but tax…

This paper examines long-term trends in aggregate wealth and inheritance and in their distributions, focusing on developed economies. A key stylized fact is that wealth is less equally distributed tha…

This chapter examines the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation for the taxation of labor and capital in advanced economies. It synthesizes empirical evidence on worker displacem…

The net-zero agreement on carbon emission from Paris 2015 gives a key role to fossil-free energy technologies with an expected multifold growth rate over the coming decades, when successively replacin…

Over the past 30 years, the use of municipally owned corporations (MOCs) has increased rapidly in Sweden. Proponents of MOCs claim that they promote efficiency. However, at the same time, critics stre…

Differences in the handling of bottlenecks between the power exchange and the real-time markets used by the system operator can give rise to arbitrage opportunities. This can cause increased consumer…

Why do we obsess about money? Are products made to break? Why do we work so hard? How do we help the poor? Why do humans create markets everywhere they go? A fact-filled research-based graphic non-fic…

The looks of political candidates can influence voter behavior, often serving as a shortcut for those lacking detailed information. Attractive candidates are often viewed as more competent and may gai…

Private equity buyouts have sparked debates among labor unions and worker representatives on how they affect workers. This chapter provides an overview of academic evidence on how private equity buyou…

This paper provides a brief and accessible guide to the Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF) and offers some new perspectives on its application to the evaluation of tax policy. Specifically, the pap…

We study how the presence of promotion competition in the labor market affects household specialization patterns. By embedding a promotion tournament model in a household setting, we show that special…

Startups face a trade-off between short-term profitability versus long-term growth. Their cash flows are said to follow a so-called J-curve. The shape of the curve depends on investor tolerance for pr…

The discussion of the growth consequences of socialism has fulminated for a century, sparked off by the Calculation Debate in the 1920s and 30s, and has concerned the performance of the Soviet Union i…

This paper investigates the role of individualism in explaining cross-country differences in working from home (WFH). Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) of the United States and the E…

The renaissance of industrial policy has been promoted by a breed of public intellectuals with considerable financial interests as they are well paid consultants for governments.

The US and its allies risk paying a higher longer-term price if they fail to repel Russian aggression.

We study how sourcing of applied and basic knowledge is related to the likelihood and speed at which inventions become innovations as well as their profitability. By using a patent database with uniqu…

Commenters regularly claim that parliament leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean favor their birth regions. Using granular data on nightlight intensity from up to 183,000 micro regions across 25…

We study the mental health of PhD students in Sweden using comprehensive administrative data on prescriptions, specialist care visits, hospitalizations, and causes of death. We find that about 7% (5%)…

Since comprehensive data became available five years ago, a literature about academic freedom has emerged. This paper surveys studies on the causes and consequences of academic freedom. The new litera…

A majority of the world’s countries ban forms of blasphemous expressions, often arguing that such legislation is necessary to prevent conflicts and terrorism. We explore the association between types…

Not only do corporations discriminate, but states do as well. We relate measures of government discrimination against various groups to measures of institutions and culture. We find that states behave…

This article integrates findings from several different case studies on mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) and makes use of the existing literature to briefly describe three other missions:…

We examine immigrant self-employment in Sweden during 2011–2021 – a turbulent decade with a large influx of refugees into the country and the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Four outcome var…

Protecting biodiversity will require the phase-out of harmful production at a large scale. However, some of these stranded investments will be foreign-owned, and can therefore be protected by the more…

Once there were princes and peasants and very few between. The extremes of wealth and poverty are still with us, but that shouldn't blind us to the fact our societies have been utterly transformed for…

Urban Lives emphasizes the importance of a micro-level approach in examining the lives of individuals and families in an industrial city, spanning over a century. The work deepens the understanding of…

Aging populations strain pension systems, prompting policymakers to introduce partial retirement schemes to incentivize workers to retire later. I study the impact of introducing partial retirement wi…

This paper studies how a special wage increase for assistant nurses in Sweden affected income and employment. Workers in the public sector receive wages based on negotiations between unions and employ…

We study how financing constraints affect the cash holdings of small and medium-sized enterprises. There has been little empirical work on this topic, even though these firms often face financial cons…

This paper develops a comprehensive framework for analyzing the revenue, efficiency and social welfare implications of top income taxation. It generalizes the Saez (2001) formula for the optimal top t…

Using the random assignment of university engineering students to peer groups during introductory freshmen weeks, this paper studies how a student's parental income and facial attractiveness affect th…

Populist parties have grown rapidly in popularity in most European countries, and are increasingly common in government coalitions. Analyzing 183 populist parties in 33 European countries from 1980 to…

This paper examines the electoral impact of increased foreign tourism, using data from Croatia. Exploiting exogenous variation in travel times to coastal municipalities from improved road infrastructu…

We investigate the role of gender norms in shaping parental childcare following changes in the relative take-home pay of mothers and fathers. Exploiting variation from Swedish tax reforms, we estimate…

Despite the comprehensive previous research on different aspects of inventions and externalities spanning both the micro and macro levels, no prior studies have, to our knowledge, examined the relatio…

The application of machine learning (ML) to big data has become increasingly important. We propose a model where firms have access to the same ML, but incumbents have access to historical data. We sho…

The creation and scaling of startups are inherently linked to risk-taking, with various types of owners handling these risks differently. This paper investigates the influence of an active venture cap…

Local resistance towards wind power is a central challenge for the energy transition, implying that legally imposed compensation schemes for nearby residents may become more prevalent in the near futu…

Research indicates that education quality – measured by test scores in international student surveys – predicts economic growth. In this paper, we extend previous findings up to 2016 and analyse test…

All organizations need to allocate labor to production and administration. In many cases – particularly within the public sector – the optimal allocation is far from obvious. Indeed, vocal concerns ha…

The mentality of Build Back Better is not just confined to the US. Around the world, governments are resorting to the ancient tradition of using massive amounts of resources to build things that glori…

Can competition and the existence of profit-seeking actors in the school market improve educational quality? To see cost-efficient, long-term improvements, we identify the school system’s capacity for…

The EU and many countries have committed to be climate-neutral by 2050. Combined with the Paris Agreement, this means there is strong presure to transition to climate-neutral technoligies. This pressu…

Developing countries have 1300+ investment treaties with developed countries. Investment treaties are often alleged to constrain developing country climate policies. This paper examines four treaty re…

Many countries have implemented quasi-markets to enhance entrepreneurship and innovation in welfare service provision. However, the benefits have generally been limited; this can also be observed in S…

Terrorism causes anger and fear among citizens, but also often leads to counterterrorist legislation (CTL). We explore determinants of CTL and whether it affects the likelihood of terrorism and limits…

In the first chapter, the authors review the evolution of borders throughout European history. The modern concept of borders as dividing lines is a fairly recent phenomenon and constitutes somewhat of…

As the European Union (EU) grapples with increased external and internal trade barriers, it stands at a crossroads. This paper examines the EU's changing perspective on globalization, reflecting a shi…

In the last chapter, the authors take stock of the challenges which are besetting the European Union’s (EU) internal and external borders from the perspective of contemporary events and crises, and ev…

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the generational wealth transfer within Sweden’s public pay-as-you-go pension system introduced in 1960. Using extensive administrative registers, the p…

This study outlines how the corporate governance of emerging market firms is influenced by corporate affiliation and institutional embeddedness. We argue that the stronger the business group affiliati…

This book examines the implications for the EU of a radically changed international context characterized by systemic rivalry, competition over norms and regulations, and growing strategic tension. Gl…

Our use of longitudinal register data combined with a unique survey allows us to offer a more comprehensive picture of rural self-employment than in previous studies. We find that self-employed in rur…

This thesis comprises four self-contained papers that rely on applied micro-econometric methods to understand which factors are important in shaping the gender wage gap in globalized firms and how fir…

This chapter is the introduction to the Handbook of Research on Economic Freedom, an overview of research on the causes and consequences of the market economy. The chapter places current research in a…

The increase in support for populist politicians has led to an intensive search for explanations. A free market economy that creates winners and losers due to rapid economic transformation has been su…

This chapter surveys the literature on the association between economic freedom and de facto respect of human rights. Noting that a plethora of theoretical channels might connect the two, empirical ev…

We study the causal effects of previous experience and language skills when newly arrived refugees in Sweden apply for job openings by means of a field experiment. Applications were sent from randomly…

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current research on economic freedom, including studies on how more market-oriented policies affect growth, entrepreneurship, and equality

Academic freedom is a cornerstone of modern academic life. It is not only implied by basic liberal principles but also contributes to scientific progress and economic growth. It is therefore important…

This comprehensive report delves into the economic policy responses of the Nordic countries amidst the tumultuous period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent recovery phase, the energy cris…

Politicians and international organisations advocate for increased regulation and government control of industry in order to handle climate change and reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. However,…

We evaluate a non-targeted summer youth employment program (SYEP) for high school students aged 16–19 in Stockholm, Sweden, where public sector job offers were as good as randomly assigned. In contras…

The European Union (EU) is becoming more inward looking and more hesitant towards globalization. This paper examines recent transformations in EU's economic policies, with a focus on international tra…

This open access book raises some central questions: Do we need moonshot policies to spur innovation and economic growth? What are the risks associated with such policies?

The notion that society should be organized around large so-called missions has gained momentum in public debate, and the reemergence of active industrial policy across the world has been inspired by…

This chapter integrates findings from several different case studies on mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) and makes use of the existing literature to briefly describe three other missions:…