Ingress: Åtgärderna för att hålla uppe efterfrågan med sänkta räntor och beredskapen att vidta finanspolitiska åtgärder är föredömliga. Men de aviserade krispaketen löser inte det som kan beskrivas som en efterfrågekollaps, skriver tre nationalekonomer och föreslår kort- och långsiktiga lösningar samt en reformkommission.
Ingress: Åtgärder som fungerade under 1990-talskrisen och finanskrisen har inte samma verkningskraft i dag. Räntekostnader bör nu sättas till noll där det är möjligt och ett tillfälligt moratorium införas vad gäller företagens amorteringar och räntor, skriver tre nationalekonomer.
This year Swedish Economic Forum Report examines industrial policy. Over the 20th century industrial policy has been used for promoting economic development in both advanced industrialized countries as well as in developing countries. However, there is no real consensus as to what industrial policy encompasses orhow effective it is for achieving economic development. In recent years, geopolitical and geoeconomic considerations have spurred a renewed interest and advocacy for the use of industrial policy.
In the report we assess this new interest for industrial policy from a Swedish and international perspective. The various chapters in the report describes experiences and impacts of conducting industrial policies in Sweden, UK, Germany, and China. The chapters address different theoretical and empirical perspectives of industrial policies.
It is well established that there is uneven availability of credit across space, in particular for SMEs. The evidence on whether this translates into differences in actual business investments remains scarce. We assess this question by using firm-level data for Swedish firms and estimate the extent to which the average investment-cash flow sensitivities of firms vary across the urban–rural hierarchy. We find that the world of financing is not yet flat for the majority of Swedish SMEs. Companies located in non-metro regions are most dependent on own cash flow in their investments. The results hold for all firms, firms of different sizes, firms operating in low-end services, unaffiliated firms and those belonging to domestic corporations. In contrast, investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms operating in high-tech services and those belonging to a multinational enterprise does not differ geographically. On average, regional investment-cash flow sensitivity is lower in bigger, denser and more educated local labour market regions; it is higher in regions with greater concentration of SMEs.
In countries with more secure property rights, the cost of capital is lower, suggesting higher investment rates. Using data from 49 countries we extend the conventional capital-asset pricing model (CAPM) to include a property rights risk-factor. In the conventional CAPM model only a single risk factor—systemic risk—is considered. However, when using a world market portfolio to estimate systemic risk in national portfolios, little of the required rate of return is explained in less developed as compared to more developed countries. Adding a factor representing institutional risk increases predictive power substantially. Further, we find that property rights affect the transmission of information, which suggests that markets price information differently, and allocate resources less efficiently, in countries with less secure property rights. We find that the CAPM model performs better in countries with more secure property rights.
This paper examines how institutional investors influence investment decisions and returns on investment. To measure investment performance, we use marginal q, which measures the ratio of the return on investment to the cost of capital. Institutional owners are found to have a positive but marginally diminishing effect on performance. Our paper uses longitudinal data on Swedish firms from 1999 to 2005; during this period, the ownership structure of Swedish firms underwent dramatic changes as institutional investors increased their ownership shares, while ownership by Swedish households decreased. However, controlling owners - who were often founding families - maintained their control of firms by resorting to extensive use of dual-class shares. This was an important determinant of firm performance that eradicated the positive influence of institutional ownership.
This paper contributes to the literature of ownership, control and performance by exploring these relationships for Swedish listed companies (1997-2002). A marginal q will be used as measures of economic performance. Marginal q was presented in an article by Mueller and Reardon in 1993 and has recently been used in empirical studies of ownership and performance by among others Gugler and Yurtoglu (2003). Frequently an average Tobin’s q is used in studies of this type, but Tobin’s q has a number of disadvantages which can be circumvented by employing a marginal q. In addition to marginal q estimations have been made with the valuation ratio as performance measure. The valuation ratio is interesting from a theoretical viewpoint, as it is an efficiency measure that plays a central role in Marris (1964) growth model of the firm. It is also easy to compute and is related to Tobin´s q. This study adds to earlier studies by using Swedish data with its specificities in form of pyramid ownership and a vote differential. The relationships between the two performance measures and different ownership characteristics like ownership concentration and foreign ownership is investigated. We find that firms, on average, are making inferior investment decisions and that the Swedish corporate governance system have some efficiency drawbacks.
Entrepreneurship can have important positive effects linked to job creation, wealth and income generation, innovation and industry competitiveness. Scholars and policy-makers around the world have turned to the regulatory environment as a mechanism through which entrepreneurship can be encouraged, grown and its economic benefits harnessed. The effect of regulatory conditions on entrepreneurship however is not well understood, and can be nuanced given the wide range of regulatory tools and possible areas of impact. This paper serves as the introduction to a special issue, which seeks to shed some light on the relationship between regulation, firm dynamics and entrepreneurship. We identify some foundational considerations relevant to this relationship and discuss key questions, followed by a brief overview of each of the papers contained in the special issue.
I en global ekonomi där talang, teknik och kapital blir allt rörligare måste de svenska skatterna ses i ett omvärldsperspektiv. Kraven på anpassning blir allt tydligare och de svenska ramvillkoren utmanas. En förutsättning för att Sverige ska behålla sin konkurrenskraft och säkra en framtid som kunskapsnation är entreprenörskap och innovation. Dessvärre, med undantag av några framgångsrika enhörningar, presterar Sverige medelmåttigt vad gäller entreprenörskap och skattetrycket är fortsatt högt.
I Skatterna och entreprenörskapet – företagsbyggande, optioner och tillväxt undersöks hur förutsättningarna för svenskt entreprenörskap ser ut idag och på vilket sätt skatterna påverkar entreprenörskapet. I rapporten lyfts även svenska skatter i ett internationellt perspektiv och författarna presenterar policyförslag för att främja innovation och entreprenörsdriven tillväxt.
We present a modified version of the entrepreneurial choice model, where it is shown that the expected utility of becoming an entrepreneur is decreasing in both the levels of taxes and the tax administrative burden. We extend previous empirical findings by examining how these variables influence entrepreneurs at different stages in the entrepreneurial life cycle. Our findings imply that the effect of the tax administrative burden varies over the entrepreneurial life cycle from strongly negative to insignificant. The most pronounced negative effects appear in the early stages of entrepreneurship. We conclude that a 10% reduction in the tax administrative burden increases the propensity for new business establishments by 4%. Our findings support the idea that tax simplification is one way to encourage entrepreneurship, without any reduction in tax revenues.
Från förordet: Årets rapport kartlägger det svenska entreprenörskapets utveckling under en turbulent tid präglad av pandemi, restriktioner och nedstängningar av hela samhällen vilket du kan läsa om i kapitel två. Trots pandemin ökar svenskt entreprenörskap under 2021 till nio procent (TEA) vilket är den högsta siffran som redovisats i GEM-projektet för Sveriges del sedan 2010. En minst sagt glädjande siffra.
Det är emellertid inte en anledning att luta sig tillbaka. Världen står inför stora utmaningar i form av komponentbrist, störningar i leveranskedjor samt en oroande geopolitisk situation, inte minst i och med Rysslands invasion av Ukraina. Därtill kan tilläggas att Sverige dras med olösta och kända problem som till exempel en dysfunktionell arbetsmarknad präglad av kompetensbrist kombinerat med hög arbetslöshet och låg självförsörjningsgrad bland stora delar av befolkningen.
I årets rapport görs även nedslag i entreprenörernas relation till miljömässig- och social hållbarhet. Svenska entreprenörer uppvisar på intet sätt det största engagemanget för bland annat miljömässig hållbarhet globalt sett. Men det finns anledning att tro att det åtminstone delvis kan bero på att företagare i Sverige ställer högre krav inom sin verksamhet, speciellt jämfört med företagare i utvecklingsländer.
This article extends discussions of potential biases that can exist in applying cost–benefit analysis. While there is extensive evidence that capture can result in stakeholder manipulation of inputs, there are also claims that the analysis is inherently theoretically bias in favour of over acceptance. The article shows that, contrary to these latter claims, treating projects in isolation is unlikely to produce such bias; indeed, it is as likely as not to lead to suboptimally low acceptance rates. The reason for excessive acceptance of projects therefore is largely due to institutional capture of the analysis for either self-interest or natural human over-optimism.
Håller vårt nuvarande svenska integrationspolitiska samhällskontrakt på att lösas upp? I starten av projektet ”Integration Sverige” genomfördes en Sifoundersökning (2019) som visar att åtta av tio svenskar dömer ut integrationspolitiken och inte heller tilltros det politiska etablissemanget om att kunna lösa problemen. Idag saknar, lågt räknat, 600 000 utrikes födda i arbetsförålder (20–64 år) självförsörjning. Den ekonomiska integrationen av utrikesfödda har till stor del havererat.
Författarna till projektets slutrapport presenterar ett integrationspolitiskt ramverk med fem vägar till bättre ekonomisk integration och självförsörjning. Det handlar om arbetsmarknads-, utbildnings- och entreprenörskapsinsatser liksom anställnings- och sysselsättningssubventioner och filantropiska insatser. Allt somallt levereras 27 policyrekommendationer som kräver att många existerande åtgärder förbättras eller omprövas för att ersättas av effektivare lösningar.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the efficiency of capital allocation, across levels of ownership, in the aftermath of pro-market reforms in India.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper measures investment efficiency using the accelerator principle and examines the effect of ownership type on capital allocation.
Findings – No significant improvement in capital allocation during the period studied is found. The findings suggest firms face significant costs in adjusting their capital stock.
Originality/value – The paper uses unique data to estimate the elasticity of capital with respect to output.
In line with the theory of creative destruction, industries where incumbent firms generate high profits will attract entry, which should drive down profits. This disciplinary effect of entry implies that profits above the norm should not exist in the long run. Factors that affect entry—such as entry regulations—could affect this profits convergence process. Using an unbalanced panel of firm- and country-level data for approximately 13,000 firms in 33 countries between 2005 and 2013, we examine the profit dynamics of incumbent firms in the context of entry and entry regulations.
Ingress: Den ekonomiska kris som följer pandemin kommer att blottlägga ett stort ekonomiskt utanförskap. Redan under högkonjunkturen saknade en klar majoritet av utrikes födda självförsörjning, skriver professor Johan Eklund.
Corporations have become the dominant organizational form in modern market economies, managing vast resources. Corporations are however associated with a number of governance problems. This dissertation deals with these corporate governance issues from an investment perspective. The dissertation comprises one introductory chapter and five, from each other independent, essays. These essays can be read independently, but are kept together by a corporate governance and investment theme. The essays mainly contribute to the empirical literature on corporate governance and investment behavior. In chapter 2 a measure of capital allocation, based on the acceleration principle, is estimated across 44 countries. Capital allocation is compared to ownership concentration and indicators of corporate governance. Support for the so-called economic entrenchment hypothesis is found, whereas the legal origin hypothesis is rejected. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 look at corporate governance and investment in Scandinavia, and Sweden in particular. Chapters 3 and 4 look into how ownership concentration affects firm investment performance. Performance is measured with marginal q. How dual-class shares affect this ownership-performance relationship is examined. Dual-class shares are, in chapter 4, found to reduce the so-called incentive effect and enhance the so-called entrenchment effect. The role of profit retentions for investment is examined in chapter 5. Scandinavian firms are found to rely on earning retentions to a higher degree than firms in other countries. Chapter 6 contains an analysis of how the quality of property rights and investor protection affect the cost of capital.
Intresset för entreprenörskap och frågan om hur entreprenörskap bäst främjas har vuxit under flera årtionden. Detta bygger på insikten att entreprenören är en förändringsagent som både driver samhällsutvecklingen och skapar stora samhällsvärden. Entreprenören skapar ekonomisk dynamik, förnyelse och högre välstånd genom sin unika förmåga att hantera risk, utmana existerande strukturer och bygga värden. Givet detta, kan entreprenörskap läras ut? Är det genetiskt och socialt betingat eller går det att lära sig som en metod?
Ingress: Den svenska sysselsättningsstatistiken är gravt missvisande och bör kompletteras med självförsörjningsstatistik. Det faktum att en individ är sysselsatt i den officiella statistiken innebär nämligen inte att vederbörande per automatik även har tillräckliga inkomster för att vara självförsörjande, skriver Johan Eklund.
In a frictionless milieu, retentions should have no impact on investment behavior. Empirical studies, however, typically find that retentions are an important determinant of investment. Managerial discretion and financial constraints are two alternative explanations that have been suggested. This article uses a panel of listed Scandinavian firms to examine the importance of earnings retentions as a determinant of investment. Measures of Tobin’s Q, marginal q, and sales accelerator are used to control for investment opportunities. Scandinavian firms are found to depend on earnings retentions to a high degree, more so than in other developed economies. This high dependence on retentions suggests that the Scandinavian capital markets are suffering from allocational inefficiencies. This can be assumed to have detrimental effects on the speed of structural change. Moreover, these market frictions appear too large to per se be caused by information asymmetries or managerial discretion phenomena. Possible institutional explanations are suggested.
Ingress: Kraftfulla ekonomiska insatser försenas på grund av en politisk rädsla för en betydligt högre statsskuld. Men finanspolitiska principer bör inte upprätthållas på bekostnad av många företags överlevnad, anser Martin Andersson, Pontus Braunerhjelm och Johan Eklund, alla knutna till Entreprenörskapsforum.