Erik Lakomaa

In an important and much cited study, Pettersson-Lidbom (2008) identifies significant left-wing majority coalition effects on economic outcomes for Swedish local governments, 1974-1994. We first replicate the original study and then extend the original research by applying Pettersson-Lidbom's empirical model using new and more detailed coalition data, compiled from registry books and register data recently made available from Statistics Sweden. The data allows us to test for left party policy outcomes including previously undefined coalitions, such as left minority coalitions and coalitions with local or emerging parties. We find that Pettersson-Lidbom's previous results hold and are even strengthened using the new data and some alternative specifications, but the results are heavily dependent on the definition of left-wing rule. When including left wing minority coalitions and left-wing coalitions including the Green Party, previous significant differences between the left and right are no longer discernable.

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 change in how much parents voice their concerns. These results offer new insights into the unintended consequences of school competition reforms, highlighting how marketbased policies may shape school quality beyond their intended effects.

Regeringen har nu överlämnat sitt förslag till ändringar i vapenlagen till Lagrådet som har att granska det över julledigheten. Förslaget beskrivs av regeringen som innebära lättnader för jägare och sportskyttar. En närmare genomgång visar dock att de föreslagna ändringarna sammantaget innebär en påtaglig skärpning av restriktiviteten i vapenregleringen. Därutöver innehåller förslaget flera bestämmelser som – oavsett graden av restriktivitet – är olämpligt utformade ur ett rättssäkerhetsperspektiv.

Achieving and maintaining a monopolist position is often assumed to be among the objectives of a firm. However, there are instances where it is better to operate in a competitive market than remain a monopolist. Monopolistic firms may, therefore, push for deregulation - at least on their terms. We introduce the concept of monopolists for competition to analyse two such companies, Swedish telecom operator Televerket and the Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE). Thus, the paper contributes to the literature on incumbent action and corporate political activity (CPA) by state-owned/state-controlled companies, a field that has received little interest in business history research. We find that the personal political skills of the companies' managers played a crucial role in the deregulatory process, as institutional obstacles prevented them from using many standard CPA tools. Fear of being perceived as monopolistic also restricted them from leveraging their market positions when controlling the evolving market structures.

Regeringen föreslog tidigare i år att jägare som innehade vissa halvautomatiska jaktvapen skulle få licenserna för dessa indragna och vapnen skulle tvångsinlösas. Samtidigt skulle nya licenser för sådana för jakt stoppas genom en ändring i vapenförordningen: denna beslutades i juli med verkan från augusti. I debatten har dessa vapen ofta kallats ”AR-15” men definitionen som infördes i vapenförordningen omfattar långt fler modeller; i praktiken de flesta på marknaden förekommande. I klass 2 (dvs. jaktgevär som används för rådjursjakt) omfattas exempelvis samtliga modeller av halvautomatiska gevär som saluförs i Sverige utom två.

I takt med att Europas säkerhetsläge försämras har intresset för Sveriges beredskapsplanering under kalla kriget ökat. Hur byggdes beredskapen upp – och vad kan vi lära av det i dag? Historien visar att ett fungerande totalförsvar kräver långsiktighet, samverkan mellan stat och näringsliv, samt att samhällets existerande resurser tas tillvara. Men för att dessa lärdomar ska kunna omsättas i praktiken krävs inte bara historisk förståelse, utan också en uppdatering av regelverk och synen på hur näringslivet kan och vill bidra.

Propaganda, aimed at one's own and the enemy's side, is as old as war. In connection with the emergence of 'total war,' the home front became as important as the front line. At the same time as wars became total, the modern advertising industry emerged, and with this, advertisements came to be used to inform and influence the population. It could be done to maintain the will to resist, recruit volunteers, inform about rationing, sell war bonds, and prevent the spread of information that could help the enemy. The chapter examines how advertising and information were used to influence the home front during First World War until the Cold War. Such activities were carried out by government authorities-military and civilian-and by private advertising companies collaborating with the government. Military-civilian cooperation in war advertising occurred in many belligerent and non-belligerent countries. The forms varied as well as scope and scale. In some cases, the government war contracts provided crucial income to the advertising industry at a time when blockades or the transformation to a war economy caused the civilian advertising market to collapse. The chapter gives an overview of the previous literature. Also, it provides an empirical contribution in which this activity in a great power that has repeatedly participated in wars, the United States, is compared with a non-aligned and neutral small state, Sweden, to isolate the central aspects of advertising in war information services.