Ratio Working Paper No. 258: Effects of work-based learning on companies involved in VET education
Karlson, N. & Persson, K. (2015). Effects of work-based learning on companies involved in VET education. Ratio Working Paper No. 258.
Karlson, N. & Persson, K. (2015). Effects of work-based learning on companies involved in VET education. Ratio Working Paper No. 258.
The paper studies the effects on companies from taking on apprentices for work-based learning. What are the benefits and costs that can be identified? In a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews with companies and school representatives, we study the effects of work-based learning at five Swedish companies that run their own VET schools. Our overall conclusion is that there are significant net benefits to the companies themselves, primarily through lower recruitment costs but also through positive effects on the skills of supervisors and other staff, as well as of the companies’ brand and community commitment. These long-term benefits clearly outweigh the short-turn cost of time-loss and strenuous for staff to supervise the trainees.
Karlson, N. & Persson, K.
2015
Ratio Working Paper
2022
Ratio Working Paper
This paper investigates whether an increased use and reinterpretation of what has been called “fair competition” has occurred at the expense of “free competition” among the central institutions of the European Union. We are also interested in assessing how frequently these terms have been used by the various EU institutions over time.
We have empirically examined this through a quantitative survey of more than 12,000 public documents, out of totally 242 000 documents containing 630 million words, in the EUR-lex database over the last 50 years, from 1970 to 2020. Our conclusion is that the emphasis of the common policies in the EU is likely to have shifted from free competition and an open market economy to “fair competition” in the sense of a level playing field, in official EU documents, such as treaties, EU acts institutions, preparatory documents relating to EU directives and recommendations including motions and resolutions, case law and more.
The European Commission has been a driving force in this development, followed closely by the European Parliament and subsequently by the Council of Ministers. This change entails a risk that the regulation of the European internal market has shifted so that the dynamics of the internal market and thus the EU’s competitiveness will weaken. The change also entails a centralization of decisions at EU level at the expense of the Member States.
2021
Ratioakademiens sjukvårdsprojekt
Sammanfattning:
Syftet med denna rapport är att analysera sjukvården utifrån ett polycentriskt perspektiv, i jämförelse med ett monocentriskt, mer centraliserat, samt att diskutera hur ökade polycentriska inslag skulle kunna utveckla svensk vård och omsorg. Författarnas hypotes är att vård- och omsorgssystem som utmärks av en mångfald av finansiärer och utförare, med stora inslag av valfrihet och spritt ansvar, klarar vårduppdraget lika bra eller bättre än mer centraliserade och helt skattefinansierade system.
2020
Liberalism is losing ground, while populist or even authoritarian nationalist regimes are on the rise. This paper argues that the causes of the decline are, at least partly, endogenous, that a narrow focus on economic efficiency and the successful critique of socialism and the welfare state have created an idea vacuum that has opened up for these illiberal tendencies. The conclusion is that a central challenge for liberalism is to offer a comprehensive idea and narrative about meaning and community that is not socialistic, conservative or nationalistic, but distinctly liberal, to counter these developments.