Do Politicians Free-ride? - an empirical test of the common pool model

In the twentieth century there was a significant trend towards larger local governments through amalgamations in the western world. Amalgamations provide potential economic benefits but might also give rise to costs driven by opportunistic political behavior. This study uses a compulsory amalgamation reform of municipalities in Sweden to test for such behavior. The reform gives a local government incentives to accumulate debt before the amalgamation takes place, since the cost will be shared by all tax payers in the new municipality. The strength of this incentive to free ride will be determined by the locality's population size, relative to the future size of the new locality. We find an economically large and statistically significant free riding effect and the result is robust.common pool; amalgamations; free riding; local government; difference-in-difference

Ethnic Discrimination in High School Grading: Evidence from a Field Experiment

We rigorously test for ethnic discrimination in high school grading in Sweden. A random sample of the national tests in the Swedish language is graded both non-blind by the student’s own teacher and blind without any identifying information. The increase in the test score due to non-blind grading is significantly higher for students with Swedish background compared to students with foreign background. This discrimination effect is sizeable, and explains the entire difference in test scores between students with Swedish and foreign background.Discrimination; Field experiments; Education

Are boys discriminated in Swedish high schools?

Girls typically have higher grades than boys in school and recent research suggests that part of this gender difference may be due to discrimination of boys. We rigorously test this in a field experiment where a random sample of the same tests in the Swedish language is subject to blind and non-blind grading. The non-blind test score is on average 15 % lower for boys than for girls. Blind grading lowers the average grades with 13 %, indicating that personal ties and/or grade inflation are important in non-blind grading. But we find no evidence of discrimination against boys. The point estimate of the discrimination effect is close to zero with a 95 % confidence interval of ±4.5 % of the average non-blind grade.Discrimination; Field experiments; Grading; Education; Gender

Two new types of assays to determine protein concentrations in biological fluids using mass spectrometry of intact proteins with cystatin C in spinal fluid as an example

There is no reference method that is generally acknowledged to be unbiased for the determination of the concentration of any protein in biological fluids. This is probably because mass spectrometry (MS) methods acknowledged as reference methods for determination of low molecular mass substances in biological fluids, e.g. creatinine, have been difficult to adapt for proteins. Here we suggest two tentative MS methods, which might be used as reference methods for the determination of protein concentrations in biological fluids. One is based upon the addition to the fluid of a non-proteome reference protein, very similar to the one to be measured, and analyzing the ratio between the corresponding peaks in a selected ion monitoring (SIM) chromatogram. We call this method LC-MS-NPRP (NPRP, Non-Proteome Reference Protein). The other method is based upon the classical standard addition assay for low molecular mass substances. The results of these assays for cystatin C in spinal fluid were compared to those obtained by an immunoassay. Both methods indicated lower concentration than the immunoassay. This was found to be due to the presence of a significant fraction of monohydroxylated cystatin C in spinal fluid. It turned out that the sum of the unhydroxylated and hydroxylated cystatin C concentrations, determined by either of the two MS methods, were close to the results obtained by the immunoassay. These MS-based methods analyze intact proteins and therefore seem more suitable for the determination of protein concentrations in biological fluids than other MS-based methods requiring proteolytic degradation with its inherent lack of precision

Hur gemensamt värde kan appliceras i verkligheten och hur det bidrar till en cirkulär ekonomi : En fallstudie på en inredningsprodukt från ett småföretag

Vi har i denna uppsats undersökt hur ett småföretag kan skapa gemensamt värde kopplat till en av deras produkter, och hur skapandet av gemensamt värde kan bidra till en cirkulär värdekedja. För att undersöka frågeställningen har teorier om värdekedjor, gemensamt värdeskapande samt cirkulär ekonomi applicerats på en produkt, Clamp Tray, som säljs av det svenska småföretaget NAVET. Genom intervjuer och annat informationssamlande, har en tydlig värdekedja av Clamp Tray byggts upp, och denna har slutligen analyserats med en kombination av teorierna gällande gemensamt värde och cirkulär ekonomi. Resultaten visar att Clamp Tray redan har kommit en god bit på vägen till en cirkulär värdekedja, och att det även finns en stor potential inför framtida utveckling, genom bland annat omdefinierande av produktiviteten i värdekedjan, återupptagandet av produkter och marknader samt möjliggörandet av lokala kluster, faktorer som är centralt inom gemensamt värdeskapande.

Hur gemensamt värde kan appliceras i verkligheten och hur det bidrar till en cirkulär ekonomi : En fallstudie på en inredningsprodukt från ett småföretag

Vi har i denna uppsats undersökt hur ett småföretag kan skapa gemensamt värde kopplat till en av deras produkter, och hur skapandet av gemensamt värde kan bidra till en cirkulär värdekedja. För att undersöka frågeställningen har teorier om värdekedjor, gemensamt värdeskapande samt cirkulär ekonomi applicerats på en produkt, Clamp Tray, som säljs av det svenska småföretaget NAVET. Genom intervjuer och annat informationssamlande, har en tydlig värdekedja av Clamp Tray byggts upp, och denna har slutligen analyserats med en kombination av teorierna gällande gemensamt värde och cirkulär ekonomi. Resultaten visar att Clamp Tray redan har kommit en god bit på vägen till en cirkulär värdekedja, och att det även finns en stor potential inför framtida utveckling, genom bland annat omdefinierande av produktiviteten i värdekedjan, återupptagandet av produkter och marknader samt möjliggörandet av lokala kluster, faktorer som är centralt inom gemensamt värdeskapande.

Do merging local governments free ride on their counterparts when facing boundary reform?

The Western world exhibited a significant trend towards larger local governments in the twentieth century, which was driven to a large extent by boundary reforms. Boundary reforms can provide economic benefits, but may also give rise to costs driven by opportunistic political behavior. This study uses a Swedish compulsory reform to test for such behavior. The reform gives a local government the incentive to accumulate debt before a merger takes place, since the taxpayers in the new locality will share the cost. The strength of the incentive to free ride is determined by the population size of the initial locality relative to that of the new locality. I find an economically large and statistically significant free riding effect.Amalgamations Annexations Boundary reforms Common pool Difference-in-difference Fiscal policy Free riding Local governments