Publications

I develop a model of public sector contracting based on the multitask framework by Holmström and Milgrom (1991). In this model, an agent can put effort into increasing the quality of a service or redu…

This paper models the interaction between individuals' identity choices and redistribution. Both redistributive polices and identity choices are endogenous, and there might be multiple equilibria. The…

We analyze the evolution of culture when parents socialize children to the cultural variants that maximize child lifetime utility. Parents invest in cultural transmission by taking into account that c…

I use Swedish establishment-level panel data to test the hypothesis of Bertola and Rogerson (Eur Econ Rev 41:1147–1171 1997) of a positive relation between the degree of wage compression and job reall…

Timor-Leste is among the youngest nations in the world. It began its independence under difficult circumstances: poverty is widespread, education is poor, the industrial sector is non-existent, and pol…

Theories of taste-based discrimination predict that competitive pressures will drive discriminatory behavior out of the market. Using detailed matched employer-employee data, we analyze how firm takeo…

It is often claimed that small and young firms account for a disproportionately large share of net employment growth. We conduct a meta analysis of the empirical evidence regarding whether net employm…

In the era of China’s economic growth and urbanisation, providing adequate and affordable housing for rural–urban migrants in urban areas is crucial for the success of China’s multifaceted reforms. Ye…

This study presents new homogenous series of top income shares in Sweden over the period 1903–2004. We find that, starting from levels of inequality approximately equal to those in other Western count…

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether weak ties play an important role in explaining criminal activities. We first develop a model where individuals learn about crime opportunities by interac…

We present new evidence on the influence of income inequality on generalized trust. Using individual panel data from Swedish counties together with an instrumental variable strategy, we find that diff…

Taxation theory rarely takes entrepreneurship into consideration. We discuss how this omission affects conclusions derived from standard models of capital taxation when applied to entrepreneurial inco…

It is useful to distinguish between exogenous and endogenous factors behind contemporary and expected future problems for the welfare state. This paper tries to identify major problems of both types a…

It has been alleged since its inception that the WTO Dispute Settlement (DS) mechanism is biased against developing countries, as manifested in e.g. allegedly too low rates of dispute initiation. To s…

I use Swedish establishment-level panel data to test Bertola and Rogerson’s (1997) hypothesis of a positive relation between the degree of wage compression and job reallocation. Results indicate that…

We examine a relatively neglected aspect of intergenerational transmission of economic standing, namely culturally determined status markers and their valuation in the marriage market. We take nobilit…

We discuss network neutrality regulation of the Internet in the context of a two-sided market model. Platforms sell broadband Internet access services to residential consumers and may set fees to cont…

Intellectual property rights and competition policy are intimately related. In this paper I survey the economic literature analyzing the interaction between intellectual property law and competition l…

Crime is unevenly distributed across space and tends to be concentrated in poor areas. Recent theoretical advances show that social interactions and peer effects can explain this pattern because of co…

In this introduction to a collection dealing with the political economy of entrepreneurship, we argue, based on a suggested unifying framework, that political economy is a fruitful approach to entrepr…

This is the fourth round of Reporters' Studies undertaken in the context of the American Law Institute project 'Principles of World Trade Law: The World Trade Organization'. The aim of the project is…

External financing is important when inventors and small technology-based firms commercialize their inventions. However, the private information of inventors about the quality of their products causes…

We examine the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI). Starting out from the theory of FDI, we show that corruption can have different effects on horizontal investments, which are pri…

Consider a market where producers submit supply functions to a procurement auction with uncertain demand, e.g. an electricity auction. In the Supply Function Equilibrium (SFE), every firm commits to t…

Trading nations exchange tariff concessions in the context of trade liberalizing rounds. Tariffs, nonetheless, are not the only instrument affecting the value of a concession. Domestic instruments aff…

* Also published in The WTO Case Law of 2004–2005. Henrik Horn and Petros C. Mavroidis (eds.). New York: Cambridge.

This paper analyzes economic-social interaction in China in connection with the country's change of economic system. I define an economic system in terms of a multi-dimensional vector of broad institu…

The common basis for this work is that it deals with money as a network good, i.e. that the value of a specific currency or payment technique is dependent on the number of users. This book analyzes mo…

The increasing amounts of money paid out in compensation to corporate executives have become the subject of a heated public policy debate on both sides of the Atlantic during the last decade. The magn…

Macroeconomic turbulence and volatility in financial markets can fatally affect firm's performance. Very few firms make serious attempts to inform market participants and other outsider stakeholders a…

This book brings together the 2004-2005 output of the American Law Institute (ALI) project on World Trade Organization Law. Each chapter focuses on a different dispute from the adjudicating bodies of…

Political economy has been at the core of entrepreneurship research since its conception. Although the entrepreneur is frequently regarded as the key figure in the capitalist system, academic research…

Political economy has been at the core of entrepreneurship research since its conception. Although the entrepreneur is frequently regarded as the key figure in the capitalist system, academic research…

Does the average level of sickness absence in a neighborhood affect individual sickness absence through social interaction on the neighborhood level? To answer this question, we consider evidence of l…

The publication of János Kornai’s memoirs, By Force of Thought, provides an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves of Kornai’s great contributions to economic research. This paper discusses both hi…

This report investigates how well competition in the TV-industry works, primarily focusing on distribution. For this purpose we suggest a framework of analysis and, at the same time, we apply this fra…

Numerous studies on firm-level data have reported higher average wages in foreign-owned firms than in domestically owned firms. This, however, does not necessarily imply that the individual worker's w…

The spatial mismatch hypothesis (SMH) argues that low-skilled minorities residing in US inner cities experience poor labour market outcomes because they are disconnected from suburban job opportunitie…

This paper examines the effect of FDI on job creation in the Chinese manufacturing sector. As one of the world’s largest recipients of FDI, China has arguably benefited from foreign multinational ente…

We study the development of wealth concentration in Sweden over 130 years, from the beginning of industrialization until present day. Our series are based on a wide array of new evidence from estate-…

This paper studies determinants of income inequality using a newly assembled panel of 16 countries over the entire twentieth century. We focus on three groups of income earners: the rich (P99-100), th…

The goal of this paper is twofold: First, to develop an estimable model of legislative politics in the US Congress, second, to provide a greater understanding of the objectives behind the New Deal. In…

How do exchange rate changes impact firms’ cash f lows? We extend a simulation method developed in industrial organization to answer this question. We use prices, quantities, and product characteristi…

We show that intermediate goods markets may be efficient, despite the presence of commonly accepted signs of market failure, such as high concentration (both among sellers and buyers), sparse trading…

This paper analyzes economic-social interaction in China in connection with the country’s change of economic system. I define an economic system in terms of a multidimensional vector of broad institut…

In their merger control, EU and the US have considered symmetric size distribution (cost structure) of firms to be a factor potentially leading to collusion. We show that forbidding mergers leading to…

Two non-discrimination principles underlie the World Trade Organization Agreement, as well as many regional trade agreements. The "Most Favored Nation" clause (MFN) essentially requires that equal tre…

We extend the literature on exclusive dealing, which assumes that entry can occur only by installing new capacity, by allowing the incumbent and the potential entrant to merge. This uncovers new effec…

An exemption in the Swedish Employment Security Act (LAS) in 2001 made it possible for employers with a maximum of ten employees to exempt two workers from the seniority rule at times of redundancies.…

We outline a politico-economic growth system centered around the entrepreneur. By defining entrepreneurs in relation to economic rents we are able to develop a more general theory comprising central a…

Using a unique database on Swedish patents owned by small firms and individuals, survival models estimate how different factors influence the decision to commercialize the patents. Such an analysis has…

This article examines the question of trust in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a special focus on the role of ethnicity. We find generalised trust to be low and declining in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moreove…

This paper reviews the literature on economic inequality and trust. Cross-country studies, within-country studies, and experiments all suggest that economic inequality exerts a negative influence on t…

This paper investigates labor productivity growth and the contribution to labor productivity growth in Swedish manufacturing during electrification and the ICT revolution. The paper distinguishes betw…

We present new data on asset allocations of mandatory pension funds in the new EU member states and in other transition countries. Our comparative national data presents a unique opportunity to compar…

Billions of dollars are allocated every year to university research. Increased specialization and international integration of research and researchers has sharply raised the need for comparisons of p…

We study the political opinions of Swedish social scientists in seven disciplines. A survey was sent to 4,301 academics at 25 colleges and universities, which makes the coverage of the disciplines inc…

As one of the world’s largest recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), China is emerging as a key global player in Research and Development (R&D). This rapid increase in R&D investment i…

In recent years, development agencies (DAs) have focused their activities on consulting projects rather than on financing turnkey projects when assisting emerging markets. The main reason is that the…

We develop a model in which nonwhite individuals are defined with respect to their social environment (family, friends, and neighbors) and their attachments to their culture of origin (religion or lan…

Investment liberalizing countries are often concerned that cross-border mergers and acquisitions, in contrast to greenfield investments, might have an adverse effect on domestic firms and consumers. H…

The growing number of cross-border acquisitions has in many countries raised concerns about labor demand consequences. In this study, we use detailed firm level data to examine how increased internati…

FDI can be an important channel for developing countries’ ability to get access to new technology. The impact of FDI on domestically-owned firms’ technology development is less examined but it is freq…

In this paper entrepreneurs are defined as agents who bring about economic change by combining their own effort with other factors of production in search of economic rents. The institutional setup is…

Also published in Jurnalul National, 30 maj, Financial Times Deutschland, 7 September, etc.

We analyse voter turnout using data from 309 local Norwegian language referendums carried out during 1965e2005, emphasising the effect of referendum type and changes in suffrage. The largest determina…

This paper uses matched employer–employee data set for Sweden to study the relationship between firm age and wages, systematically addressing a variety of possible explanations for observing a firm age–…

Cambodia has been growing rapidly over the past few years but still remains one of the poorest countries in East Asia. In particular, poverty is widespread in rural Cambodia. This paper examines rural…

We conduct an extensive robustness analysis of the relationship between trust and growth by investigating a later time period and a bigger sample than in previous studies. In addition to robustness te…

We develop a model of vertical pricing in which an original manufacturer sets wholesale prices in two markets that are integrated at the distributor level by parallel imports (PI). The manufacturing fi…

Israel M. Kirzner is the 2006 winner of The International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. In this essay, we present and evaluate his main contributions to the economics of entr…

We examine the effects of foreign entry on productive efficiency during the Polish investment liberalization. The performance of foreign acquisitions is compared to foreign firms entering the market t…

We develop a model of vertical pricing in which an original manufacturer sets wholesale prices in two markets integrated at the distributor level by parallel imports (PI). In this context we show that…

We discuss the prospects for Chinese money market development and transition to market-based monetary policy operations based on a comparative historical analysis of the present Chinese situation and…

The existence of parallel imports (PI) raises a number of interesting policy and strategic questions, which are the subject of this survey article. For example, parallel trade is essentially arbitrage…

This paper presents a survey of the literature on property rights and economic growth. It discusses different theoretical mechanisms that relate property rights to economic development. Lack of protec…

This paper studies whether the degree of women’s representation in Swedish local councils affects local public expenditure patterns. Theoretically, the individual preferences of elected representative…

Minimum wages in Sweden are collectively agreed and differ by industry. Within agreements, the rates are also highly differentiated. Minimum wages are higher in Sweden than in any of the countries wit…

By explicitly considering the spatial dimension of local regional labor markets, we develop a simple dynamic model that explains the spatial correlation between unemployment rates. We then test this m…

This article extends the theory of multinational firms by allowing for agglomeration forces in firmlevel activities such as R&D as well as in production. We develop a two-country general-equilibri…

The objective of this paper is to study the dynamics of the wealth distribution over the path of economic development. More specifically, we are interested in distinguishing between changes which seem…

Imagine that you are advising a client on a planned merger with one of their competitors. Informal communication with the competition authority reveals that they are worried that the merger will reduc…

A fundamental problem in all political systems is that the people in power may extract rents to the detriment of the general public. In a democracy, electoral competition and information provided by t…

This paper examines how Science and Technology (S&T) contribute to job creation in the Chinese manufacturing sector. The ambition of transforming China into an innovation-oriented nation and the e…

We discuss the prospects for Chinese money market development and transition to market-based monetary policy operations based on a comparative historical analysis of the present Chinese situation and…

Science & Technology (S&T) is high on the Chinese policy agenda but there are large uncertainties on the actual S&T development. For instance, previous studies tend to focus only on large…

In a framework where mergers are mutually excluding, I show that firms pursue anti- rather than (alternative) pro-competitive mergers. Potential outsiders to anti-competitive mergers refrain from purs…

This paper analyzes the interplay between social structure and information exchange in two competing activities, crime and labor. We consider a dynamic model in which individuals belong to mutually ex…

This paper investigates how the entry mode of foreign direct investment (FDI) affects the affiliate R&D activities using unique data on Swedish multinational firms over a long period of time (1970…

This note provides sufficient conditions for immediate agreement in an extensive form model of interdependent bilateral bargaining. The model is suggested by Björnerstedt and Stennek (2006) as a work…