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PublikationArtikel (med peer review)

Comment by Nils Karlson – Nordic Economic Policy Review 2025: Wage formation and the Nordic model

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Sammanfattning

Nils Karlson kommenterar Ejrnæs och Rasmussen och argumenterar för att deras analys av lönebildningen i den nordiska offentliga sektorn underskattar de strukturella problem som följer av centraliserad lönebildning. Han lyfter tre centrala utmaningar: offentliga budgetbegränsningar, Baumols kostnadssjuka och att konfliktdynamiken skiljer sig från den privata sektorn. Dessa faktorer gör det svårt att anpassa löner efter efterfrågan, motivera högpresterande och attrahera arbetskraft, samt bidrar till kompetensbrist och ineffektivitet. Karlson menar att problemen är mer omfattande än vad artikelförfattarna antyder och sannolikt kräver mer genomgripande reformer än de föreslagna.

Karlsson, N. (2025). Comment by Nils Karlson – Nordic Economic Policy Review 2025: Wage formation and the Nordic model [Comment on “Public sector wages” by M. Ejrnæs & A. Würtz Rasmussen]. Norden.org.

Detaljer

Författare
Nils Karlson
Publiceringsår
2025
Publicerat i

Nordic Economic Policy Review.

Relaterat

  • Bild av Nils Karlson, medarbetare på Ratio
    Professor & grundare Ratio

    Nils Karlson

    +46708670351nils.karlson@ratio.se

Liknande innehåll

Working paper

Ratio Working Paper No. 390: Fighting Populism by Rethinking Welfare

Karlson, N.
Ladda ner

Publiceringsår

2026

Publicerat i

Ratio Working Paper Series.

Sammanfattning

Populism thrives on discontent. It could be anything from migration and xenophobia to globalization and welfare failures. Populists deliberately use such discontent to promote polarization by demonizing opponents and attacking media, established elites, courts etc. in the name of the “true people”. As a consequence, democracy, the rule of law, and sound social and economic policies are undermined, with long-term disastrous effects. In many cases, however, the original discontent is caused by real policy failures that have not been properly solved. A major strategy for fighting back at the populist threats therefore must be to improve policy. This paper focuses on the policy failures of welfare states, a major source of discontent in many democracies. I argue that the concept of welfare has been captured and misinterpreted into government assistance programs, a presumption that needs to be abandoned and replaced by interpreting welfare as human flourishing, something that primarily can be promoted within markets and civil society, supported by a small, limited, and decent state.

Working paper

Ratio Working Paper No. 389: Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Academic Careers

Ejermo, O., & Holmström, P.
Ladda ner

Publiceringsår

2026

Publicerat i

Ratio Working Paper Series.

Sammanfattning

Using population-wide data on Swedish university researchers and teachers, we identify the effects of parenthood on academic careers. Leveraging staggered event-study models that compare mothers and fathers around first birth, we document widening gender gaps in publication output, wage income, promotion, and PhD completion. These gaps arise across all scientific fields. We further document substantial gender differences prior to first birth and among never-parents, indicating that child-related penalties explain only part of the overall academic gender gap.

Artikel (med peer review)

Competition and Voice in Public Education: Evidence from Sweden

Sebhatu, A., Wennberg, K., Lakomaa, E., & Brandén, M.

Publiceringsår

2026

Publicerat i

Education Finance and Policy, 1-40

Sammanfattning

While numerous studies examine the effects of school competition on student performance, little research directly addresses a key critique of competition: its potential to negatively affect parental engagement and voice. We draw on Hirschman’s theory of voice to argue that voucher-based school competition increases opportunities for exit but may crowd out voice. To assess the causal effects of competition on parental voice, we employ a robust two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences framework, comparing municipalities in Sweden that introduced competition with those that did not. Our findings indicate that school complaints decline following the introduction of competition. This decrease in voice is driven by neither a decrease in problems in school nor by changes in teaching staff quality or attrition. This suggests that the decrease in complaints is driven not by an increase in school quality but rather by a substitution from voice to exit.

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