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- Andersson, David Emanuel, et al.
(author)
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Unemployment in European regions: structural problems versus the Eurozone hypothesis
- 2015
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In: Journal of Economic Geography. - Oxford University Press : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1468-2702 .- 1468-2710. ; 15:5, s. 883-905
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Unemployment rates differ dramatically across European regions. This article analyses these differences by integrating institutional and spatial perspectives into a unified dynamic framework distinguishing between slow and fast processes of change. The framework forms the basis for an econometric model that is used to analyse labour market differences among European Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques 2 regions. The results of random-effects models indicate that four key factors—all of which are of the slowly changing type—explain a large part of the variation in unemployment as well as employment rates. Flexible labour market regulations and above-average levels of interpersonal trust are institutional factors that reduce unemployment. Accessibility factors such as inter-regional transport connectivity and local access to skilled workers have similarly substantial effects. Whether a region belongs to the Eurozone or not seems to be less important.
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- Hårsman, Björn, et al.
(author)
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On the quality and impact of residential energy performance certificates
- 2016
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In: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier. - 0378-7788 .- 1872-6178. ; 133, s. 711-723
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper addresses quality and impact issues concerning Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) by means of a dataset based upon the Swedish EPCs for single-family houses. Assuming that the quality of the certificates plays an important role for their impact, we examine to what extent various characteristics of the firms and experts issuing the certificates are influencing their assessments of energy consumption and energy conservation. Exploiting the information on biased assessments, we also investigate the relationship between the transaction price of a house and its EPC label. Doing so, we distinguish the attributes that can be observed by visiting the house and those that a buyer only can inform herself about through the EPC. Applying regression analyses we find that firm and expert characteristics matter quite a lot implying that the EPC-quality could be improved considerably by increasing the inter-rater reliability. The results also show that the price impact of the energy label is related to information that the buyers can obtain by visiting the house rather than to information uniquely provided by the EPCs. Hence, the EPCs per se are unlikely to stimulate energy conservation through the price mechanism.
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4. |
- Hårsman, Björn, et al.
(author)
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The income return to entrepreneurship : theoretical model and outcomes for Swedish regions
- 2018
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In: The annals of regional science. - : Springer Nature. - 0570-1864 .- 1432-0592. ; 61:3, s. 479-498
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper investigates the income return to entrepreneurship and wage employment by means of Lazear's model of occupational choice. The paper has two major aims. The first is to develop a new theoretical framework for analyzing the income return to entrepreneurship by combining the Lazear model with the assumption that the skill profiles in a population are Frechet-distributed. The second is to demonstrate that the resulting theoretical derivations can be used for a new type of regional analysis of the income return to entrepreneurship and wage employment. The empirical analysis is based on data for individuals with a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. We compute their income return to self-employment and wage employment in three parts of Sweden: the Stockholm region, the combined Gothenburg and Malmo region, and the Rest of Sweden. The results show that the average return to self-employment is less than 5% in all regions and smaller in the Gothenburg and Malmo region than in the other two regions. The regional differences are explained by the differential supply curves and market values of entrepreneurial talent. The theoretical derivation of the income return to entrepreneurship is the main contribution of the paper. Another contribution is the derivation of regional supply curves for entrepreneurs.
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5. |
- Wahlström, Marie, 1970-, et al.
(author)
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Residential energy consumption and conservation
- 2015
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In: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-7788 .- 1872-6178. ; 102, s. 58-66
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Swedish energy performance certificates for single-family housing provide rich information on energy consumption and various physical attributes. They also include estimates of the energy conservation potentials resulting from implementing cost-efficient energy saving measures. By matching the certificates issued for single-family houses in 2009 and 2010, with socio-economic data about the residents, local climate data and information about recent improvements of the building we have created a unique database, which can be used to explore a wide variety of questions related to energy consumption and conservation. One aim of this paper is to assess the role for energy consumption played by socio-economic characteristics of the residents as compared to physical attributes of the house. Another is to estimate the influence of housing attributes and climate on the "engineering estimates" of the conservation potentials. Our results show that while the quantitative impact of physical attributes dominate the energy use for heating and cooling, the opposite holds for household electricity. The assessed conservation potential, amounting to 15% of the energy consumption, is significantly related to both the housing attributes and the use of energy. The results also indicate a need to improve the information provided by the performance certificates.
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