Nils Karlson

About

Nils Karlson is the founder and first CEO (2002-2021) of the Ratio institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He is an economist and political scientist, a Professor at Linköping University, working in the fields of institutional economics, political theory, public choice, industrial relations and constitutional political economy. Prior to Ratio he was the president of the City University of Stockholm. After postgraduate studies in economics at George Mason University and in political science at Uppsala University he worked as a university lecturer, government advisor and editorial writer. He has led numerous research projects and has published over 25 books with Swedish and international academic publishers, as well as a large number academic papers and book chapters. He is a board member of the Mont Pelerin Society and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

His research is focused on the interaction between politics, markets and civil society in Western democracies and welfare states. Major interests in statecraft and liberal, welfare-enhancing reform, constitutional design and consequences of welfare state expansion. Special interests in labour market models and collective bargaining, education and skills formation, virtue ethics, entrepreneurship and market processes, and the future of the European Union.

You can read the full CV here, or read more about his research here.

Here you can find a summary of his book Statecraft and Liberal Reform in Advanced Democracies.