Pastoralist Economic Behavior: Empirical Results from Reindeer Herders in Northern Sweden

This paper presents a model of pastoralists, as illustrated by reindeer herders, together with an analysis based on a cross-sectional data set on Swedish reindeer-herding Saami. The intrinsic utility of being an active reindeer herder plays an important role in determining supply. Results show this can lead to unconventional supply responses among pastoralists, and suggest that the probability of a backward-bending supply response increases with stock size. Further analyses confirm that reindeer herders with backward-bending supply curves have significantly larger herds than herders with conventional supply responses. Relaxed externalities from forestry would cause most herders to increase their slaughter.backward-bending supply, externalities, pastoralist, reindeer husbandry, Livestock Production/Industries,

Self-employment grants vs. subsidized employment: Is there a difference in the re-unemployment risk?

Self-employment grants and employment subsidies are active labor market programs that aim at helping unemployed workers to escape unemployment by becoming self-employed or being hired at an initially reduced cost for the employer. In Sweden in the 1990's the participation rate in the self-employment program increased from virtually none to almost same as in the employment subsidy program. The advancement of the self-employment program is likely to be a result of (i) a change in the labor market program policy, and (ii) an increase in the supply of skilled unemployed workers. The justification for the policy change is unclear, however. The literature indicate that a rather specific group of unemployed workers may benefit from self-employment programs; Neither are there any strong reasons to believe in general that self-employment should be preferable to conventional employment through subsidies. We examine, ex post, the justification for the policy change by comparing the post-program duration of employment for the two programs. In addition, we focus in some detail on the outcome for female workers and workers of foreign citizenship. The reason for this is the explicit policy to direct those workers to self-employment. The data we study are the inflow to the two programs from June 1995 to December 1996. The program participants are followed to March 1999. The data contain detailed spell and background information on 9,043 unemployed workers who participated in the self-employment program and 14,142 who participated in the employment subsidy program. The second explanation, see (ii), for the increase in self-employment program implies a potentially serious selection problem. We discuss how the selection process may bias the effect estimate in the non-linear duration model that we use. Simulations help us to determine the magnitude of the selection bias in our application. Moreover, we exploit the existing behavioral heterogeneity across labor market offices to reduce the selection bias. We find that the risk of re-unemployment is more than twice as high for the subsidized employment program compared with the self-employment program. The large positive effect is, however, limited to male and female workers of Swedish origin. We thus conclude that the policy change in general has been successful, though we note that directing immigrant workers to self-employment is unlikely to improve the situation for this group of unfortunate workers on the Swedish labor market.Empirical Bayes methods; Employment duration; Program evaluation; Proxy variables; Selection bias; Simulations

Förslag till stadgar för konkordia, Förbund för kvinnostipendier

14 x 22 c

Svenska normsättare på redovisningsområdet – institutionella och politiska aspekter

Enligt institutionell teori imiteras framgångsrika organisationer i syfte att uppnå legitimitet men resultatet kan avvika till följd av en översättningsprocess vid implementering av idéer. Baserat på fallstudier jämförs svenska normsättare på redovisningsområdet med amerikanska FASB. Jämförelsen inriktas på dels oberoende (intressentgruppers representation samt bidrag till finansiering), dels insyn (öppenhet i normsättningsprocessen). Syftet är att försöka tolka om svenska normsättare har imiterat FASB. Studien visar att normsättarnas legitimitetsbaser varierar. FASBs höga legitimitet förklaras av ”due process”, som ger intressentgrupper möjlighet att påverka normsättningen. Bokföringsnämnden, Finansinspektionen och Redovisningsrådet utnyttjar ”hearing”, vilket tolkas som imitation av FASB. Bokföringsnämndens och Finansinspektionens användning av ”hearing” ger intressenterna möjlighet att påverka normernas innehåll och kan därmed stärka legitimiteten. Dessa normsättares legitimitet påverkas även av det statliga huvudansvaret för utveckling av god redovisningssed liksom för BFN av bred representation av intressenter. För Redovisningsrådet innebär dock målsättningen om anpassning i så hög utsträckning som möjligt till IASCs normer att intressenterna har ytterst marginella möjligheter att påverka normsättningen. Resultatet av att utnyttja ”hearing” blir därmed inte detsamma som för FASB, vilket tolkas som att en översättningsprocess förekommit. Redovisningsrådets roll som översättare av normer torde inte räcka som legitimitetsbas.Institutionell teori; legitimitet; normsättare; redovisningsområdet; översättningsprocess; politiska aspekter

Allocation and Ex Ante Cost Efficiency of a Swedish Subsidy for Environmental Sustainability: The Local Investment Program

We evaluate the allocation rationality and ex ante cost efficiency of a major Swedish investment subsidy program, the “Local Investment Program” (LIP). The LIP, effective between 1998-2002, had dual purposes: to step up the pace at which Sweden transforms into an ecologically sustainable society and to reduce unemployment. During the program period, more than 6.2 billion Swedish kronor (approximately Euro 670 million) were granted to different municipal projects. By using data on the projects’ subsidies and anticipated environmental and employment effects, we find that these effects to a high degree explain the magnitude of the subsidy granted. We find that the marginal LIP subsidy for carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions does not vary significantly over the projects, implying that the LIP was cost efficient for such reductions. Furthermore, for a majority of the projects, the marginal subsidy for CO2 reductions was lower than the, at the time, prevailing CO2 tax. Assuming successful project fulfillment, we conclude that the LIP was a low cost, cost efficient environmental policy for reducing CO2 emissions provided that the projects generate spillover effects large enough to justify the subsidy.Environmental policy; evaluation; greenhouse gas; spillover effect; subsidy

Stadgar för Konkordia, förbund för kvinnostipendier

13 x 19 c