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| 2. |
- Bergh, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Municipally owned corporations in Sweden : A cautionary tale
- 2023
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Ingår i: Public Money and Management. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 0954-0962 .- 1467-9302.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- IMPACT: Municipally owned corporations (MOCs) exist across the globe and have become increasingly common. They are motivated by the need for flexibility, a desire to cut costs and to increase efficiency. This article summarizes Swedish experiences with MOCs. It shows that the stated motivations are not necessarily wrong, but that relying heavily on MOCs may have unintended and adverse side-effects. Such side-effects include blurring the role of local politicians, increasing corruption risks and giving rise to complex organizational structures within local governments. Ultimately, transparency and democratic accountability may suffer because of an excessive reliance on MOCs. In particular, councillors, mayors and MOC chief executive officers will benefit from reading these results, and ask themselves what kind of MOCs their municipality should operate, how many MOCs are appropriate to run, and also how members of MOC boards need to be educated.
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| 3. |
- Bergh, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Explaining the rise of populism in European democracies 1980-2018 : The role of labor market institutions and inequality
- 2022
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Ingår i: Social Science Quarterly. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 0038-4941 .- 1540-6237. ; 103:7, s. 1719-1731
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: This article aims to find country-level factors that explain the rise of populist parties in European democracies. While populism is often connected to inequality, we not that right-wing populist parties tend to thrive on fear, including fear of job loss. If flexible labor markets mean that unemployment is dedramatized because finding a new job is easier, labor market flexibility could dampen populism and inequality may be less important.Methods: We run country-level fixed effects regressions on populist party vote shares in 26 European countries from 1980 to 2018. We use two different classifications of right-wing and left-wing populist parties and control for employment protection strictness as measured by OECD, Gini coefficients of disposable income, and a large set of control variables.Results: Unemployment is positively associated with left-wing populism. Strict employment protection is positively associated with right-wing populism. Gini inequality of income is unrelated to (both types of) populism.Conclusion: Strong employment protection and low-income inequality may not be the most efficient way to combat right-wing populism. A strategy that promotes flexible labor markets, and job upgrading may be an alternative. More research on the link between labor market institutions and (in particular, right-wing) populism is needed.
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| 4. |
- Bergh, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Globalization and institutional quality - A panel data analysis
- 2014
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Ingår i: Oxford Development Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1360-0818 .- 1469-9966. ; 42:3, s. 365-394
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract in UndeterminedUsing data on institutional quality and the KOF Globalization Index, we examine over 100 countries from 1992 to 2010 to analyse the relationship between economic and social globalization and six measures of institutional quality, thereby testing Montesquieu's doux commerce thesis, that economic and social interaction lead to improved institutional quality. Results suggest that increasing economic flows and social globalization associate with improving institutions in rich countries, while correlations are negative in poor countries. Our findings also indicate that the negative relationship in poor countries relates to the abundance of natural resources, and should not be interpreted as a causal effect. In summary, results are consistent with the doux commerce thesis but also suggest that the previous findings of positive effects of trade on institutional quality are driven by the relationship in rich countries. We should not expect globalization alone to mitigate the adverse effects of the resource curse in developing countries
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| 6. |
- Bergh, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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More Open – Better Governed? Evidence from High- and Low-income Countries
- 2013
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Using World Bank data on institutional quality and the KOF Globalization Index, we examine over 100 countries from 1992 to 2010 to analyze the relationship between economic and social globalization and six measures of institutional quality. Theoretically, the incentives of elites to respond to globalization by improving institutions should differ between low-income and high-income countries. Empirically, increasing economic flows and social globalization are followed by improving institutions in rich countries, while the effect is the opposite for low-income countries. Previous findings of positive effects of trade on institutional quality are likely driven by rich countries.
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| 8. |
- Nilsson, Therese, et al.
(författare)
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When more poor means less poverty: On income inequality and purchasing power
- 2014
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Ingår i: Southern Economic Journal. - : Wiley. - 0038-4038. ; 81:1, s. 232-246
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We show theoretically that the poor can benefit from price changes induced by higher income inequality. As the number of poor increases, the market for products aimed toward the poor grows, and such products become more profitable. As a result, there are circumstances where an increase in income inequality associates with higher purchasing power of the poor. Using cross-country data on the price of one kilogram of rice and the price of a Big Mac hamburger, we confirm a negative association between income inequality and the price of inferior goods, robust to the inclusion of a large set of control variables. Results are also robust to a first difference specification and to a two-stage instrumental variables approach. Examining economic well-being, it is thus important to analyze not only the incomes of households, but also the prices of the products and services that they buy.
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| 10. |
- Berggren, Niclas, et al.
(författare)
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Migrants and Life Satisfaction : The Role of the Country of Origin and the Country of Residence
- 2020
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Ingår i: Kyklos. - : Wiley. - 0023-5962 .- 1467-6435. ; 73:3, s. 436-463
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigate how the life satisfaction of migrants is affected by life satisfaction in their background country and in their new country of residence. In particular, we contribute to the literature by differentiating between first- and second-generation immigrants and by differentiating between types of background country. Using data from the European Social Survey on 30,000 immigrants from 200 countries in 32 European countries, we find that for first-generation immigrants, the effect of the average life satisfaction of the background country is strong for migrants from developed countries, smaller for migrants from developing countries and zero for migrants from post-communist countries. Moreover, the effect from the country of residence is strong for all groups, indicating that while most of these immigrants retain ties to or are still under the influence of the culture of the old country, they develop important ties to the new country. However, second-generation immigrants are not influenced by the life-satisfaction of the background country at all, indicating that they are strongly attuned to life in the country in which they were born.
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