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In 1993, economist JB Taylor (1993) observed that the monetary policy in the USA is described by a simple rule, which today is known as the Taylor rule. Since then, many studies were conducted to determine whether Taylor rule explains the monetary policy of central banks all over the world. This study aims to investigate whether the Taylor rule can describe monetary policy in Sweden as initially specified by Taylor (1993). Monetary policy in Sweden from 1995: Q1 to 2018: Q2 is compared to the monetary policy of the USA during the Greenspan years ( 1987: Q4 to 2006: Q1). An ordinary least squares regression method (OLS) is used to estimate the reaction function of the monetary policy of both Sweden and the USA. The results of this study show that the Taylor rule does no describe Monetary policy in Sweden. In contrast, the results show that the US monetary policy during the Greenspan years can be described by the Taylor rule.

Due to health problems and the negative externalities associated with cigarette consumption, many governments try to discourage cigarette consumption by increasing its price through taxation. However, cigarette, like the other addictive goods, is viewed as that it is not sensitive to demand rules and the market forces. This study analyses the effect of price increase on cigarette consumption. We used Swedish time series data from 1970 to 2010.

Our results reveal that though cigarette is addictive substance its demand is sensitive to changes in the price. Estimates from this study indicate short-run price-elasticity of -0.29 and the long run price elasticity of -0.47.

This thesis is an application of the Almost Ideal Demand System approach of Deaton and Muellbauer,1980, for a particular pharmaceutical, Citalopram, in which GORMAN´s (1971) multi-stage budgeting approach is applied basically since it is one of the most useful approach in estimating demand for differentiated products. Citalopram is an antidepressant drug that is used in the treatment of major depression. As for most other pharmaceuticals whose the patent has expired, there exist branded and generic versions of Citalopram. This paper is aimed to define its demand system with two stage models for the branded version and five generic versions, and to show whether generic versions are able to compete with the branded version. I calculated the own price elasticities, and it made me possible to compare and make a conclusion about the consumers’ choices over the brand and generic drugs. Even though the models need for being developed with some additional variables, estimation results of models and uncompensated price elasticities indicated that the branded version has still power in the market, and generics are able to compete with lower prices. One important point that has to be taken into consideration is that the Swedish pharmaceutical market faced a reform on October 1, 2002, that aims to make consumer better informed about the price and decrease the overall expenditures for pharmaceuticals. Since there were not significantly enough generic sales to take into calculation before the reform, my paper covers sales after the reform.

This paper analyzes empirically the effect of crude oil price change on the economic growth of Indian-Subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). We use a multivariate Vector Autoregressive analysis followed by Wald Granger causality test and Impulse Response Function (IRF). Wald Granger causality test results show that only India’s economic growth is significantly affected when crude oil price decreases. Impact of crude oil price increase is insignificantly negative for all three countries during first year. In second year, impact is negative but smaller than first year for India, negative but larger for Bangladesh and positive for Pakistan.

The effect of Swedish regional investment grants during 1990-1999 on firm performance, in terms of returns on equity and number of employees, were studied using a propensity-score matching-method to control for sample selection. Firms that received grants did not perform better in terms of returns on equity when compared to matched firms in the control group. In most years, recipient firms also did not hire more employees. The results thus cast doubt on the use of regional investment grants as a general policy instrument to improve firm performance.

Sweden’s gender pension gap is about 33 percent at retirement, reflecting thegender earnings gap – itself a reflection of a structural gender difference in low-pay jobs forwomen and men and career advancement opportunities. The individual nonfinancialdefined contribution (NDC) account data examined show that the allocation of time toinformal care work in the home versus formal market work is the main determinant of thegaps. A case is presented for sharing accounts as the default, making the cost of women’stime in home care explicit and negotiable, reducing the minimum guarantee pension’s roleas an implicit tax-financed spousal subsidy. The paper also analyzes the likelihood ofneeding a guarantee and the effect of sharing under various circumstances.

Det här kapitlet handlar om hur kön och andra sociala kategorier som t.ex. klass, ålder, etnicitet, religiös tillhörighet och sexualitet, påverkar processerna som skapar psykosomatiska problem, liksom för vägen till tillfrisknande. De nu mest tongivande teorierna beskrivs, liksom de specifika utmaningar forskare inom detta område möter, samt framtida forsknings- och utvecklingsområden. Exempelvis saknas konsensus för hur psykosomatiska tillstånd ska dokumenteras och klassificeras vilket medför svårigheter i att beräkna förekomsten av tillstånden, och därmed även att exempelvis göra hälsoekonomiska analyser. Vi som skriver detta kapitel är nationalekonomer och hoppas att du som läsare kan se vårt tvärvetenskapliga synsätt som en möjlighet att berika och utveckla medicinsk diagnostik, klinisk tillämpning och forskning.

Det saknas ofta ett genusperspektiv när man ska fördela samhälleliga resurser och besluta om investeringar. En viktig fråga är därför hur vi kan integrera ett genusperspektiv när vi synar samhällsekonomin och de offentliga budgetarna. I detta kapitel kommer vi att ge exempel på hur en verksamhet kan genomföra genusmedvetna budgetanalyser. Vår budgetanalys bygger på insamlad statistik från två förvaltningar i Botkyrka kommun under 2008, 2009 och 2010. Det är omsorg- och serviceinsatser till äldre samt kultur- och fritidsverksamhet. Förutom att beskriva analysens olika steg visar vi vilka resultaten kan bli och hur man kan tänka kring förändring av den ojämställdhet som framkommer.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the possible wage and employment effects generated by the reintroduction of the ROT-deduction in 2008. The reintroduction was seen as a permanent measure, and the aim was to counteract undeclared work and to stimulate and increase the building in Sweden. With this paper, we want to evaluate the wage and employment effects that the ROT-deduction contributed to in Swedish construction companies, more specifically limited companies in the ROT industry. A difference-in-difference method will be used to analyze data collected from limited companies in Sweden, aggregated to industry level. Aggregation is made for our results to be directly comparable to previous studies, and to not exclude the effect caused by new companies in the ROT-industry that may have started due to the reform. The difference-in-difference method involves that a treated group consisting of the construction industries affected by the introduction of the ROT-deduction is compared to a control group consisting of other industries before and after the reform. Our results show that the average wage per employee is not affected by the reform, while the reform has increased the average number of employees in the ROT-industry.

För att uppnå högt ställda trafiksäkerhetsmål måste trafikanterna förmås att sänka hastigheten. Artikeln argumenterar för att smarta försäkringspremier som belönar dem som kör trafiksäkert kan bli ett viktigt instrument för detta ändamål. Försäkringsbolagen blir därmed samhällets agenter i kampen för att successivt minska antalet olyckor.

This work has been done with the purpose to evaluate the employment effects in Swedish limited liability companies from the introduction of the RUT deduction. The RUT deduction was introduced in 2007 and means that individuals can make a tax deduction for various kinds of household work. The data used in this study is annual report data for all Swedish limited liability companies during the years 2000 – 2010, aggregated to the three-digit SNI-code level for all Swedish municipalities. Based on this data the employment effects of the RUT deduction were analyzed using a Difference-in-Difference model. The result shows that the RUT deduction has led to 6930 new jobs created in Swedish limited liability companies in the RUT sector. This means that the RUT deduction has had a positive effect on employment.

We examine if the Nordic power market, Nord Pool, has been competitive or if electricity suppliers have had market power. Specifically, since the evolution from national markets to a multi-national and largely deregulated power market has taken place stepwise, we also examine how the degree of market power has evolved during this integration process. The Bresnahan-Lau method together with weekly data during 1996-2004 are used in the analysis, which shows that electricity suppliers have had small, but statistically significant, market power, but that the market power has been reduced as the Nord Pool area has expanded

This paper looks for evidence of co-integration to the German inflation rate between the countries Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. The method applied is based on econometrics since some certain statistical tests need to be performed to obtain more accurate results. The main tests used are Dickey-Fuller and Augmented version of this test which is vital to test for unit-root and co-integration in this paper. Since the data need to be stationary to perform the analysis in this paper, second difference and the deseasonalisation methods are also used for this purpose. Deseasonalisation method helps this paper progress in two means; to determine the months which have seasonal effect and to form another model with the help of the seasonal months, to obtain stationary series. Finally the original co-integration model is then tested again after deseaonalisation with Dickey-Fuller and Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests. After the tests, I found evidence that Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Turkey are co-integrating with German inflation rate whereas there is no evidence for Spain.

Many countries have undertaken central-bank independence reforms, but the years of implementation differ. What explains such differences in timing? This is of interest more broadly, as it sheds light on factors that matter for the speed at which economic reforms come about. We study a rich set of potential determinants, both economic and political, but put special focus on a cultural factor, i.e. social trust. We find empirical support for an inverse u-shape: Countries with low and high social trust implemented their reforms earlier than countries with intermediate levels. We make use of two factors to explain this pattern: the need to undertake reform (which is more urgent in countries with low social trust) and the ability to undertake reform (which is greater in countries with high social trust). Overall, our findings imply that culture matters for institutional change.

Central banks have become more independent in many countries. A common rationale has been the existence of a credibility (or lack-of-trust) problem for monetary policy. This indicates a possible and until now unexplored link between social trust and central-bank independence. Our empirical findings, based on data from 149 countries, confirm such a link, in the form of a u-shaped relationship. We suggest that two factors help explain this finding: the need for this kind of reform and the ability with which it can be implemented. At low trust, the need for central-bank independence is sufficiently strong to bring it about, in spite of a low ability to undertake reform. At high trust, the ability to undertake reform is sufficiently strong to bring high independence about, in spite of a low need for it. At intermediate trust levels, lastly, neither need nor ability is strong enough to generate very independent central banks.

In 2009 and 2010, the Swedish pharmaceuticals market was reformed. One of the stated policy goals was to achieve low costs for pharmaceutical products dispensed in Sweden. We use price and sales data for off-patent brand-name and generic pharmaceuticals to estimate a log-linear regression model, allowing us to assess how the policy changes affected the cost per defined daily dose. The estimated effect is an 18 % cost reduction per defined daily dose at the retail level and a 34 % reduction in the prices at the wholesale level (pharmacies’ purchase prices). The empirical results suggest that the cost reductions were caused by the introduction of a price cap, an obligation to dispense the lowest-cost generic substitute available in the whole Swedish market, and the introduction of well-defined exchange groups. The reforms thus reduced the cost per defined daily dose for consumers while being advantageous also for the pharmacies, who saw their retail margins increase. However, pharmaceutical firms supplying off-patent pharmaceuticals experienced a clear reduction in the price received for their products.

We study the effect of the degree of exclusivity for the lowest bidder on the average price of generic pharmaceuticals in the short and long terms. Our results indicate that a 1-percentage-point gain in market share of the lowest bidder reduces average costs by 0.2% in the short term and 0.8% in the long term, but also reduces the number of firms by 1%. We find that reducing the number of firms has a strong positive (and hence counteracting) effect on average prices, a 1% reduction raising prices by approximately 1%.

Economic analysis and evaluation of sport events and sports infrastructure is a widely researched topic, especially when it comes to mega-sports events. As many of major and mega events require large amount of resources, governments and municipalities worldwide have to make decisions regarding support for the events. To determine whether and to what extent events should be subsidised with public resources, a thorough analysis of potential impacts of the event has to be conducted. Most of the studies within this field choose Economic Impact Analysis as a method, while many researchers point out a need for costbenefit analysis, as only a comprehensive analysis of costs and benefits for society can justify public subsidies for sport events and sports infrastructure. This paper presents a cost-benefit approach of sports venue evaluation. A cost-benefit analysis made in this paper, on the case of Swedish outdoor area of Lugnet, Falun, presents possible effects of sports infrastructure investments on social welfare. Analysis was aimed towards investments made prior to hosting 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun. Presenting results for three alternative scenarios, this study compares different effects on social benefit. This research paper highlights areas that need to be investigated to ensure the better quality of the results, thus it can be beneficial for further studies of the topic. Results presented in this paper can also be beneficial for policy makers, as many of the potential welfare effects were described.

För närvarande är Långbryggan i Rättvik gjord av impregnerat trä. Förr eller senare kommer

det behövas en renovering och då står kommunen inför ett val. Denna studie presenterar två

av de möjliga alternativen - renovera i impregnerat trä eller träkomposit. Frågan har

studerats ur ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv med extra fokus på samhällsekonomisk

effektivitet. Vi använde oss av en kostnadsnyttoanalys för att bestämma vilket projekt av de

två som är det lönsammare. I vår analys inkluderade vi kostnader för den initiala

investeringen, underhållskostnader samt kostnader för olycksfall. Vi testade våra resultat i

en känslighetsanalys där vi använde oss av Monte Carlo-simulering med avseende på

diskonteringsräntan och olycksfallskostnader. I vår studie har vi visat möjliga effekter som

de båda projekten kan ha på trä- och träkompositsmarkander, arbetsmarknaden, Rättviks

kommun, Långbryggans säkerhet och miljön. Resultatet av våra analyser visade att båda

projekten har ett negativt nettonuvärde, dock är träkompositprojektet mer

samhällsekonomiskt lönsamt eftersom det har ett lägre negativt värde.

The repo rate, which is the key interest rate, set by the central banks has been declining for many years and hitting zero in Sweden in late 2014. We analyse the effectiveness on the economy from a change in the repo rate, comparing two time periods with high and low repo rate environments. We use quarterly data on GDP and its components, between 1994 and 2019. For analysing the effectiveness, we use multiple Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modelling to compute a total of 12 models. In our findings, we saw that the effectiveness of a change in repo rate has been increased in the low repo rate environment, making it harder to increase the rate without harming the economy but also increasing the effect of a decrease in the repo rate. Also, we found that the investment component of GDP may exhibit extra high effectiveness in the low repo rate environment. This method of analysing the repo rates impact on the economy could be used for decision makers regarding monetary policies.

The Swedish government gathers information that helps identify family-owned businesses and enabled us to analyze every business in the economy over a longer period than has heretofore been reported. Using these data, we found that family-owned businesses account for up to one fourth of total employment and one fifth of GDP in Sweden. These shares have increased over time, due in part, to economic policy. We compare our findings with other studies and suggest how Sweden and other governments might make family firm data more readily available for researchers.

Self–employment is the most frequently used measure of entrepreneurship. However, its definition varies between countries, which makes comparisons difficult. We present an analysis of Swedish self–employment data and show that even within one country, the depicted development differs greatly depending on the source used. Unlike previous claims in cross–country studies, we find that there is no basis for categorising Sweden as having increased its self–employment rate more than others. This demonstrates a need to carefully specify the characteristics of the data, and their advantages and disadvantages, before drawing conclusions about the frequency of entrepreneurship in different countries.

In this paper we investigate how attitudes to health and exercise in connection with cycling influence the estimation of values of travel time savings in different kinds of bicycle environments (mixed traffic, bicycle lane in the road way, bicycle path next to the road, and bicycle path not in connection with the road). The results, based on two Swedish stated choice studies, suggest that the values of travel time savings are lower when cycling in better conditions. Surprisingly, the respondents do not consider cycling on a path next to the road worse than cycling on a path not in connection to the road, indicating that they do not take traffic noise and air pollution into account in their decision to cycle. No difference can be found between cycling on a road way (mixed traffic) and cycling in a bicycle lane in the road way. The results also indicate that respondents that include health aspects in their choice to cycle have lower value of travel time savings for cycling than respondents that state that health aspects are of less importance, at least when cycling on a bicycle path. The appraisals of travel time savings regarding cycling also differ a lot depending on the respondents’ alternative travel mode. The individuals who stated that they will take the car if they do not cycle have a much higher valuation of travel time savings than the persons stating public transport as the main alternative to cycling.

Hos gemene man anses partihandel ofta vara detsamma som ledet mellan producent och detaljhandlare. Partihandeln är emellertid betydligt mer komplex än så. Partihandeln består av flera olika delbranscher som kan vara mycket olika varandra. En del partihandelsbranscher ligger närmare detaljhandeln, medan andra har mycket gemensamt med tillverkningsindustrin. I denna artikel presenteras statstik över den Svenska partihandelns betydelse i ekonomin, dess geografiska spridning illustreras grafiskt, och slutligen genomförs tre fallstudier av Svenska partihandelsföretag. I de tre fallstudierna anges några faktorer ha större betydelse än andra för partihandlarnas framtid. Dessa faktorer, som diskuteras utförligt i artikeln, är bland annat teknologisk utveckling, internationalisering, och en förändrad konkurrenssituation.

The topic of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how the institutional framework affects firms’ hiring decisions.

The first article focuses on a group of firms, called sleeping gazelles, that do not grow despite having high profits. Sleeping gazelles constitute a much larger share of the firm population than that of high-growth firms. If it is growth barriers that are hindering these firms from hiring more employees, many new jobs could be created if these barriers were removed. To investigate the effects of one of the suggested growth barriers in the literature, the second article, focuses on whether small-firm growth is hampered by lack of capital. Using survey data from business owners matched with register data, we find that firms may face a capital constraint paradox, whereby the supply of external capital might be sufficient, but firm owners might refrain from accessing it due to fear of losing control of their companies. The third article investigates whether employment protection acts as a growth barrier in Sweden. Using a reform of the Swedish last-in-first-out (LIFO) rule, we estimate the causal effects from a liberalization of the employment protection. We find that firm growth increased because of the reform and that a more expansive reform could provide new job opportunities and increase overall employment. The LIFO rule was introduced to protect older workers. The fourth article investigates whether the reform weakened the labor market position of these workers. It is found that more young individuals who were unemployed or previously not in the workforce were hired as a consequence of the reform, showing that the reform lowered youth unemployment. There is no indication of older workers leaving the workforce or becoming unemployed to any greater extent after the reform. The fifth article show that the positive effects of the reform were limited to native workers, with no effects on the labor market position of immigrants. The effects depend on the relative insider-status of employees, so that groups of employees who are closer to being insiders benefit more from less-strict employment protection legislation than groups that are further from being insiders.

Den stora merparten av alla detaljhandelsföretag karakteriseras av ingen eller en marginell tillväxt av antalet anställda. Dessa företag betraktas ofta som en homogen grupp bestående av företag med inga tillväxtambitioner och som näringspolitiken inte bör inriktas gentemot. I denna rapport visar vi dock att de företag som inte växer i själva verket är mycket heterogena. Mer än tio procent av alla detaljhandelsföretag som inte växer under en treårsperiod kännetecknas av en relativt hög lönsamhet. Dessa företag kallar vi för de sovande gasellerna eftersom tidigare studier har visat att hög lönsamhet är en viktig faktor för en långsiktigt hållbar framtida tillväxt av antalet anställda. Andelen sovande gaseller inom detaljhandeln är cirka 1,5 till 2,35 procentenheter fler än i ekonomin som helhet. Hälften av dessa detaljhandelsföretag kommer inte heller att öka antalet anställda i kommande perioder, trots att de fortsätter att ha en hög lönsamhet eller en lönsamhet i paritet med det genomsnittliga företaget. Detta visar att det finns en dold tillväxtpotential inom detaljhandeln i Sverige som inte har realiserat. Resultaten från studien visar också att de sovande gasellerna inom detaljhandeln inte är slumpmässigt dragna ur företagspopulationen, utan att det framförallt är små företag som väljer att inte expandera verksamheten mellan två treårsperioder. De sovande gasellerna är inte heller slumpmässigt fördelade geografiskt i Sverige. De kommuner som har en hög andel sovande gaseller inom detaljhandeln under en tidsperiod tenderar att även ha det i kommande tidsperioder, vilket indikerar att det finns geografiska förklaringar till varför vissa företag inte växer trots att de har en god lönsamhet. Avsaknaden av tillväxt hos dessa företag kan antingen förklaras av att de inte har några tillväxtambitioner, oavsett villkoren för företagande; alternativt att de vill växa, men inte under rådande förutsättningar. Om den senare förklaringen är giltig kan reformer som minskar tillväxtbarriärer för detaljhandelsföretagen generera många nya arbetstillfällen.

A natural experiment is used to identify the causal relationship between employment protection legislation and fi…rm growth. The natural experiment occurred in Sweden in 2001, when an exemption made it possible for fi…rms with less than eleven employees to exclude two workers from the last-in-fi…rst-out principle when dismissing personnel. The estimated average treatment effect of the reform show that the number of employees increased with 0.135 percent in fi…rms with 5-9 employees relative to fi…rms with 10-15 employees, which corresponds to over 5,000 additional jobs per year created by the reform. Firms with ten employees, just below the size threshold, became 3.4 percent less likely to increase their workforce to a level surpassing the threshold, indicating that the last-in-…first-out rule prevented these …firms from growing. Thus, employment protection legislation seems to act as a growth barrier for small fi…rms.

A Swedish reform in 2001 made it possible for firms with less than 11 employees to exclude two from the last-in-first-out principle in case of layoffs. The reform increased employment growth with over 4000 additional jobs per year among firms with five to nine employees. Firms with 10 employees became 3.4 percentage points less likely to increase their workforce, indicating that the introduced threshold kept them from growing. Thus, employment protection legislation seems to act as a growth barrier for small firms.

Among 104,231 limited liability firms in Sweden with at least two employees during 1997- 2010, almost 10% did not hire new employees in any given 3-year period despite having high profits. Nearly half of these firms continued to have high or medium profits in the next threeyear period, but still no growth. Regression analysis indicates that these firms were not randomly distributed; rather they were small and young, did not belong to an enterprise group, and operated in local markets with high profit-opportunities. We conclude that it might be more beneficial to focus policy towards these firms instead of towards a few high-growth firms that, having just grown exponentially, may not be best positioned to grow further.

High-growth firms have recently received considerable attention in the firm growth literature. These firms might have grown despite the existence of growth barriers, and evidence also suggests that, having already grown exponentially, they may not be in the best position to grow further. Policies targeting high-growth firms may therefore be misdirected. We argue that entrepreneurship researchers should concentrate more on firms that are not hiring, despite having high profits. We call these firms “sleeping gazelles,” and demonstrate that they represented almost 10% of all limited liability firms in Sweden from 1997 to 2010. Nearly half of these firms continued to earn high or moderate profits in subsequent three-year periods, while still displaying no growth. Regression analyses indicate that these firms were significantly smaller, older, more likely to be active in industries with high profit uncertainty, and more likely to be located in less densely populated municipalities than were corresponding growing firms.

Among 104,231 limited liability fi…rms in Sweden with at least two employees during 1997-2010, almost 10 % did not hire new employees in any given 3-year period despite having high profi…ts. Nearly half of these …firms continued to have high or medium pro…fits in the next three-year period, but still no growth. Regression analysis indicates that these fi…rms were not randomly distributed; rather they were small and young, did not belong to an enterprise group, and operated in local markets with high profi…t-opportunities. We conclude that it might be more benefi…cial to focus policy towards these …firms instead of towards a few high-growth fi…rms that, having just grown exponentially, may not be best positioned to grow further.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of the entrepreneur’s quest for independence and control over the firm for governance and financing strategies with a special focus on family firms and how they differ from nonfamily firms.

Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on 1,000 telephone interviews with Swedish micro and small firms. The survey data are matched with firm-level data from the Bureau van Dijks database ORBIS.

Findings – The analysis shows that independence is a prime motive for enterprises, statistically significantly more so for family owners. Family owners are more prone to use either their own savings or loans from family and are more reluctant to resort to external equity capital. Our results indicate a potential “capital constraint paradox”; there might be an abundance of external capital while firm growth is simultaneously constrained by a lack of internal funds.

Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is that the study is based on cross-section data. Future studies could thus be based on longitudinal data.

Practical implications – The authors argue that policy makers must recognize independence and control aversion as strong norms that guide entrepreneurial action and that micro- and small-firm growth would profit more from lower personal and corporate income taxes compared to policy schemes intended to increase the supply of external capital.

Originality/value – The paper offers new insights regarding the value of independence and how it affects strategic decisions within the firm.

The purpose of this thesis has been to study what the introduction of the RUT deduction 2007

has meant for employees in existing Swedish limited companies in the RUT industry. The

RUT deduction is a tax subsidy that allows the public to buy household services at a reduced

price. The study has been conducted by empirically studying how average wages per

employee and average number of employees in existing Swedish limited companies have

changed within the RUT industry between 2006 and 2008, ceteris paribus. For this, a

Difference-in-Difference method was used with fixed effects and robust standard errors. The

data used for the study was accounting data from companies, collected by PAR. The dataset

consisted of 2,506 companies in the RUT industry and a total of 74,798 observations. The

result shows that on average, within the existing companies in the industry, 1.4 new jobs have

been created per company and the annual salary for employees in these companies has

increased by an average of SEK 10,931 per employee. In total, 3,065 new jobs have been

created in these existing limited companies, which can be compared with previous studies

where the average number of employees on average was approximately 5,700. Previously,

wage effects resulting from the RUT deduction have not been studied, which means that this

work contributes to new research in a previously unexplored area.

Firm entry into local markets has often been studied using administrative areas such as municipalities as the assumed relevant markets. However, administrative areas and the actual relevant markets based on local demand for firms’ products often do not coincide, which could bias the results of studies treating administrative areas as the relevant markets. Based on a behavioral assumption regarding how retailers act when purchasing products from wholesale trade firms, we create alternative markets using Voronoi diagrams. We then compare the empirical results of investigating the determinants of firm entry using municipalities as the relevant markets with the results obtained using Voronoi markets. The results indicate that, in both cases, the same variables are statistically significant in affecting entry, though the estimated effects differ in size.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate willingness to pay and consumer surplus

for the Peace & Love festival 2016 and then compare it to an earlier study of

willingness to pay and consumer surplus for the Peace & Love festival 2011. The

study of the festival year 2011 is written by Dahlqvist and Laham (2016). The

study of the festival year 2016 is done by means of a regression analysis. The

analysis is built on data from a survey conducted during the festival. The visitors

self-reported total budget, which is the dependent variable, is treated as their

maximum willingness-to-pay. The independent variable gender was found not to

be statistically significant,

ceteris paribus, while income has a positive effect on

the total budget by an average of 281 SEK per income group of 10 000 SEK

(monthly and before taxes). Furthermore, it was found that a tourist spends in

average 652 SEK more than a non-tourist. Moreover, if the respondents paid the

ticket themselves it affects the total budget negatively by an average of 1 695 SEK

while the number of days they spent at the festival increases the total budget by an

average of 413 SEK for each day. Lastly each additional year of age decreases the

total budget with 17 SEK, on average. When the ratio between an independent

variable and a dependent variable is described, every other independent variable is

presumed to be held constant,

ceteris paribus. Visitors average willingness to pay

was estimated at 2 223 SEK per visitor and 31 122 000 SEK for all 14 000 visitors.

Average consumption was estimated at 2 444 SEK per visitor and 34 211 965 SEK

for all visitors. Additionally, the consumer surplus is estimated at -221 SEK per

visitor and for all visitors the consumer surplus is estimated at -3 089 965 SEK,

which means a change of -130 percent from the year 2011 when the estimated

consumer surplus was around 37 million SEK.

We develop a method for empirically measuring the difference in carbon footprint between traditional and online retailing (“e-tailing”) from entry point to a geographical area to consumer residence. The method only requires data on the locations of brick-and-mortar stores, online delivery points, and residences of the region’s population, and on the goods transportation networks in the studied region. Such data are readily available in most countries, so the method is not country or region specific. The method has been evaluated using data from the Dalecarlia region in Sweden, and is shown to be robust to all assumptions made. In our empirical example, the results indicate that the average distance from consumer residence to a brick-and-mortar retailer is 48.54 km in the studied region, while the average distance to an online delivery point is 6.7 km. The results also indicate that e-tailing increases the average distance traveled from the regional entry point to the delivery point from 47.15 km for a brick-and-mortar store to 122.75 km for the online delivery points. However, as professional carriers transport the products in bulk to stores or online delivery points, which is more efficient than consumers’ transporting the products to their residences, the results indicate that consumers switching from traditional to e-tailing on average reduce their CO₂ footprints by 84% when buying standard consumer electronics products. 

We develop a method for empirically measuring the difference in carbon footprint between traditional and online retailing (“e-tailing”) from entry point to a geographical area to consumer residence. The method only requires data on the locations of brick-and-mortar stores, online delivery points, and residences of the region’s population, and on the goods transportation networks in the studied region. Such data are readily available in most countries, so the method is not country or region specific. The method has been evaluated using data from the Dalecarlia region in Sweden, and is shown to be robust to all assumptions made. In our empirical example, the results indicate that the average distance from consumer residence to a brick-and-mortar retailer is 48.54 km in the studied region, while the average distance to an online delivery point is 6.7 km. The results also indicate that e-tailing increases the average distance traveled from the regional entry point to the delivery point from 47.15 km for a brick-and-mortar store to 122.75 km for the online delivery points. However, as professional carriers transport the products in bulk to stores or online delivery points, which is more efficient than consumers’ transporting the products to their residences, the results indicate that consumers switching from traditional to e-tailing on average reduce their CO₂ footprints by 84% when buying standard consumer electronics products. 

We develop a method for empirically measuring the difference in transport related carbon footprint between traditional and online retailing (“e-tailing”) from entry point to a geographical area to consumer residence. The method only requires data on the locations of brick-and-mortar stores, online delivery points, and residences of the region’s population, and on the goods transportation networks in the studied region. Such data are readily available in most countries. The method has been evaluated using data from the Dalecarlia region in Sweden, and is shown to be robust to all assumptions made. In our empirical example, the results indicate that the average distance from consumer residence to a brick-and-mortar retailer is 48.54 km in the studied region, while the average distance to an online delivery point is 6.7 km. The results also indicate that e-tailing increases the average distance traveled from the regional entry point to the delivery point from 47.15 km for a brick-and-mortar store to 122.75 km for the online delivery points. However, as professional carriers transport the products in bulk to stores or online delivery points, which is more efficient than consumers’ transporting the products to their residences, the results indicate that consumers switching from traditional to e-tailing on average reduce their transport CO₂ footprints by 84% when buying standard consumer electronics products. 

To finance transportation infrastructure and to address social and environmental negative externalities of road transports, several countries have recently introduced or consider a distance based tax on trucks. In competitive retail and transportation markets, such tax can be expected to lower the demand and thereby reduce CO₂ emissions of road transports. However, as we show in this paper, such tax might also slow down the transition towards e-tailing. Considering that previous research indicates that a consumer switching from brick-and-mortar shopping to e-tailing reduces her CO₂ emissions substantially, the direction and magnitude of the environmental net effect of the tax is unclear. In this paper, we assess the net effect in a Swedish regional retail market where the tax not yet is in place. We predict the net effect on CO₂ emissions to be positive, but off-set by about 50% because of a slower transition to e-tailing.

To finance transportation infrastructure and to address social and environmental negative externalities of road transports, several countries have recently introduced or consider a distance based tax on trucks. In the competitive retail market such tax can be expected to lower the demand and thereby reduce CO₂ emissions of road transports. However, as we show in this paper, such tax might also slow down the transition towards e-tailing. Considering that previous research indicates that a consumer switching from brick-and-mortar shopping to e-tailing reduces her CO₂ emissions substantially, the direction and magnitude of the environmental net effect of the tax is unclear. In this paper, we assess the net effect in a Swedish regional retail market where the tax not yet is in place. We predict the net effect on CO₂ emissions to be positive, but off-set by about 50% because of a slower transition to e-tailing.

In this paper, the p-median model is used to find the location of retail stores that minimizes CO2 emissions from consumer travel. The optimal location is then compared with the existing retail location,and the excess CO2 emissions compared with the optimal solution is calculated. The results show that by using the environmentally optimal location, CO2 emissions from consumer travel could be reduced by approximately 25percent. 

In this paper, the p-median model is used to find the location of retail stores that minimizes CO²-emissions from consumer travel. The optimal location is then compared with the existing retail location,and the excess CO²-emissions compared with the optimal solution is calculated. The results show that by using the environmentally optimal location, CO²-emissions from consumer travel could be reduced by approximately 25 per cent.