The sorting of high-ability workers is often advanced as one source of spatial disparities in economic outcomes. There are still few papers that analyze when human capital sorting occurs and whom it involves. Using data on 16 cohorts of university graduates in Sweden, we demonstrate significant sorting to urban regions on high school grades and education levels of parents, i.e., two attributes typically associated with latent abilities that are valued in the labor market. A large part of this sorting has already occurred in deciding where to study, because the top universities in Sweden are predominantly located in urban regions. The largest part of directed sorting on ability indicators occurs in the decision of where to study. Even after controlling for sorting prior to labor market entry, the best and brightest are still more likely to start working in urban regions. However, this effect appears to be driven by Sweden's main metropolitan region, Stockholm. We find no influence of our ability indicators on the probability of starting to work in urban regions after graduation when Stockholm is excluded. Studies of human capital sorting need to account for selection processes to and from universities, because neglecting mobility prior to labor market entry is likely to lead to an underestimation of the extent of the sorting to urban regions.

It is often claimed that there are locally embedded values and attitudes towards entrepreneurship, exerting a strong influence on the rate and level of entrepreneurial activity in regions. The concept of regional entrepreneurship culture aims to capture such phenomena, and refers in a general sense to the level of social acceptance and encouragement of entrepreneurs and their activities in a region. This chapter discusses regional entrepreneurship culture as a source of persistent differences in regional rates of new firm formation, and presents a number of empirical regularities for Sweden to illustrate the empirical relevance of the main arguments. Using data on rates of new firm formation across Swedish regions over time, the chapter further explores the association between start-up activity and the business cycle, as well as how the geographic distribution of start-up rates changes during a major economic crisis.

Denna rapport presenterar dels en översikt över vad modern forskning inom urban och regional ekonomi och ekonomisk geografi säger kring städers och stora stadsregioners betydelse i ekonomin. Ett särskilt fokus riktas mot vad forskningen säger om utvecklingen framåt för stadsregioner som Stockholmsregionen i ljuset av pandemin (Covid-19), teknikutveckling, automatisering och andra globala trender. Rapporten analyserar  också Stockholmsregionens ekonomiska utveckling över tid och relaterar utvecklingen  i Stockholmsregionen till de trender och mönster pekas ut i internationell forskning. 

Med fokus på densvenska sidan av Öresundsregionen är syftet att studera vilka avtryck Öresndsbron har gett på regionens näringsliv i termer av både struktur och tillväxt. Modern regionalekonomisk teori pekar på att regionförstoring kan resultera i betydande tillväxt- och strukturomvandlingseffekter. Det finns flera orsaker till detta. Reducerade tidsavstånd medför till exempel att hushåll och företag, för en given ”tidsbudget”, möter en bredare arbetsmarknad respektive ett bredare arbetskraftsutbud.Detta gör att matchningen på arbetsmarknaden kan förväntas bli bättre. Samtidigt blir den lokala marknaden större vilket stimulerar till ett mer diversifierat utbud av såväl hushålls- som företagstjänster. Därmed ökar regionens attraktivitet för både företag och hushåll. På detta sätt kan investeringar i transportinfrastruktur initiera och förstärka kumulativa och självförstärkande regionala utvecklingsprocesser.

Rapporten är upplagd på följande sätt: Kapitel 2 presenterar modern teoribildning kring sambanden mellan transportsystem, regionförstoring och regional utveckling. Framställningen är starkt präglad av forskningsresultat (både med avseende på teori- och metodutveckling) som tagits fram vid Internationella Handelshögskolan i Jönköping (IHH) under det senaste decenniet. Inledningsvis behandlas region som begrepp, där en viktig poäng är att regionbegreppet är flytande i den mening att antalet och storleken på regioner på ett avgörande sätt beror på transportinfrastrukturens kvalitet. Kapitel tre presenterar en analys av utvecklingen av Öresundsregionen med avseende på nettoinflyttning och fastighetspriser, arbetskraftens utbildning, nyföretagande och sysselsättning, löner och internationell handel. Utvecklingen i den svenska sidan av Öresundsregionen ställs mot riket som helhet samt Sveriges övriga två storstadsregioner (Göteborg och Stockholm). Resultaten sätts i relation till teoribildningen i kapitel 2. Kapitel fyra sammanfattar studien och presenterar slutsatser.

Syftet med denna rapport är att studera betydelsen av unga växande företag i Sverige underperioden 2003 till 2022. Vi studerar relationen mellan tillväxt i antal anställda och företagensålder och storlek med hjälp av registerdata över svenska privata aktiebolag. Mer specifiktbesvarar vi följande frågeställningar: Vilken betydelse har de unga företagen för jobbtillväxten i Sverige? Hur har nyföretagande och unga snabbväxande företag utvecklats över tid? Bör politiken fokusera på att stimulera framväxt av nya företag i Sverige och vilkareformer är effektiva för att utveckla ett dynamiskt näringsliv i Sverige med fler ungaväxande företag?

This paper analyzes how different R&D strategies of incumbent firms affect the quantity and quality of their entrepreneurial spawning. By examining entrepreneurial ventures of ex-employees of firms with different R&D strategies three things emerge: First, firms with persistent R&D investments with a general superiority in sales, exports, productivity, profitability and wages are less likely to generate entrepreneurs than firm with temporary or no R&D investments. Second, start-ups from knowledge intensive business service (KIBS) firms with persistent R&D investments have a significantly increased probability of survival. No corresponding association between the R&D strategies of incumbents and survival of entrepreneurial spawns is found for incumbents in manufacturing sectors. Third, spin-outs from KIBS-firms are more likely to survive if they start in the same firm, indicating the importance of inherited related knowledge. The findings suggest that R&D intensive firms spur fewer entrepreneurs, but their entrepreneurial spawns tend to be of higher quality.

We examine the role of regional import flows for renewal of regional industries. The hypothesis is that imports stimulate renewal of local industries by being vehicles for technology diffusion and means by which local firms can exploit advantages of global specialisation. We find robust and positive relationships between high-quality imports and renewal of regional exports, where the latter are measured by the introduction of novel export products of local firms. Connectedness to international markets via import networks appears to be a stimulus for the renewal of regional exports.

The mobility of workers from multinational enterprises (MNEs) to other local firms is increasingly recognized as an important externality mechanism. However, MNEs have strong incentives to curb this mobility to prevent leakage of firm-specific assets. This research note investigates the likelihood and nature of such mobility patterns. Using longitudinal, matched employer–employee data for Sweden with detailed information on individuals, establishments, and firms, we find that workers employed in MNEs are more likely to leave their employers compared to similar workers employed in non-MNEs with similar characteristics. This effect is particularly strong for high-wage workers and managers. While we find that workers who leave MNEs are more likely to move to other MNEs, our results identify significant mobility toward start-ups, thus leading to important industrial dynamics in the host country. We discuss the implications of these results for research on the externalities from MNEs, and international business theory. © 2022, Academy of International Business.

Plain English Summary We show that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located outside the main city regions are more dependent on internal cash flow in their investments compared to SME urban city regions. Our findings clearly show that, as access to agglomerated economies decreases, financial constraints faced by the SMEs increase. The investment ability of SMEs in rural regions depends on own cash flow more but revenues in smaller regions tend to be smaller too-implying that the cash flow is likely to be lower. As a result, SMEs in smaller and more remote places would find it harder to invest and, therefore, to grow or increase productivity. The fact that such a consistent pattern of increasing investment-cash flow sensitivity is clearly observable in Sweden, one of the least regionally unequal countries, only reinforces the importance of considering the spatial dimension in policies targeted at closing SME financing gap. It is well established that there is uneven availability of credit across space, in particular for SMEs. The evidence on whether this translates into differences in actual business investments remains scarce. We assess this question by using firm-level data for Swedish firms and estimate the extent to which the average investment-cash flow sensitivities of firms vary across the urban-rural hierarchy. We find that the world of financing is not yet flat for the majority of Swedish SMEs. Companies located in non-metro regions are most dependent on own cash flow in their investments. The results hold for all firms, firms of different sizes, firms operating in low-end services, unaffiliated firms and those belonging to domestic corporations. In contrast, investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms operating in high-tech services and those belonging to a multinational enterprise does not differ geographically. On average, regional investment-cash flow sensitivity is lower in bigger, denser and more educated local labour market regions; it is higher in regions with greater concentration of SMEs.

This paper analyzes city system dynamics, based on a theoretical framework relating interaction potentials to agglomeration economies and density externalities. It employs new historical time series data on population size of cities in Sweden over two centuries (1810-2010) and introduces two schematic growth factors: (i) the intra-city potential and (ii) the extra-city potential located in in rings encircling each city. The first factor is measured by each city's population size, while the second is a vector of distance-discounted population size for each of a city's urban rings. In this way, we can explain a city's growth as a function of its interaction potential inside the city, as well as inside the first, second hand third ring. A robust finding is that cities with large ring potentials follow different development paths than those with small ring potentials. We also find clear evidence of structural change between the two centuries 1810-1910 and 1910-2010. In the first period, city growth is positively impacted by the size of the intra-city potential, whereas the same potential dampens or reduces the growth in the second period. Moreover, the ring potentials outside the city tend to switch from having negative growth stimulation in the first period to having positive stimulation in the second period.

The editors-in-chief of the Annals of Regional Science offer an overview and analysis of recent developments at the journal from January 2020 through December 2021, a time period hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Annal’s Impact Factor increased substantially to 2.646 in 2020. Moreover, submissions increased from pre-COVID times. A new development is the shifting of source regions for articles accepted for publication. For the first time, China tied with the USA to lead the distribution of acceptances by country. Special Issues continue to be important components of the journal. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

There is no tradition in Annals of Regional Science that the editors write editorials. However, as of 2020, the editors will each year write an editorial in which we report as well as reflect on recent developments of the journal. We hope that this will be of interest for our readers. This editorial is the first one and marks the start of the strategy to write a yearly editorial.We, i.e., Martin Andersson (Sweden), Hong Sok Kim (South Korea) and Janet Kohlhase (USA), are by some standards a rather new constellation of editors-in-chief (EICs). Janet Kohlhase became an editor in 2011, replacing professor Roger Stough.1 Martin Andersson joined as editor in 2014 and replaced professor Börje Johansson. Hong Sok (Brian) Kim became an editor in 2019 by replacing profes-sor Euijune Kim. The former EICs continue to be part of the journal in the capacity as members of the advisory board of former editors. We are all delighted to serve as EICs and are committed to maintain as well as to further develop the journal’s tradition of publishing high-quality and influential research that pushes the field of regional science forward.

The geographic scale at which density externalities operate is analysed in this paper. Using geocoded high-resolution data, the analysis is focused on exogenously determined within-city squares (‘neighbourhoods’) of 1 km2. The analysis confirms a city-wide employment density–wage elasticity and an economically significant density–wage elasticity at the neighbourhood level that attenuate sharply with distance. Panel estimates over 20 years suggest a neighbourhood density–wage elasticity of about 3%, while the city-wide elasticity is about 1%. It is argued that the neighbourhood level is more prone to capture learning, e.g. through knowledge and information spillovers. This interpretation is supported by (1) significantly larger neighbourhood elasticities for university educated workers and (2) sharper attenuation with distance of the effect for such workers.

We estimate the respective importance of spatial sorting and agglomeration economies in explaining the urban wage premium for workers with different sets of skills. Sorting is the main source of the wage premium. Agglomeration economies are in general small, but are larger for workers with skills associated with non-routine job tasks. They also appear to involve human capital accumulation, as evidenced by the change in the wage of workers moving away from denser regions. For workers with routine jobs, agglomeration economies are virtually non-existent. Our results provide further evidence of spatial density bringing about productivity advantages primarily in contexts when problem-solving and interaction with others are important.

We analyse the rate of formation, the characteristics, and the performance of different types of new firms in Sweden over a decade. Comparisons with Denmark, Brazil, and the United States suggest that the environment for new firm formation in Sweden is not markedly different than elsewhere. In line with previous studies, spin-offs of incumbents perform better than other types of new firms, particularly if their parent firm continues to operate. A novel finding is that the larger the size of their parent, the greater is the rate of employment growth of spin-offs. This contrasts sharply with findings for firms with a single owner.

Software is at the core of digitalisation and is often claimed to play a central role in innovation and in shaping competition across industries and firms. There are yet few studies of the extent and nature of software development across firms. We employ a unique firm-level survey comprising 3,929 firms across Sweden to analyse the distribution and characteristics of firms that invest in software development and the orientation of their investments. The results confirm that software development activities are present in most industries, but heterogeneously distributed across firms. Internal software development is associated with innovation-oriented large firms in high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries, and is often affiliated with MNEs. The results suggest that software development is comparable to R&D investments and constitutes an example of digital innovation. This strengthens the value of studying software development activities to understand how firms invest in and build competitive advantage in the digitalised economy. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

A number of scholars and industry professionals have claimed that there has been a ‘software-biased shift’ in the nature and direction of innovation, in that software development is a core part of innovation activities in firms across a wide array of industries. Empirical firm-level evidence of such a shift is still scant. In this paper, we employ new and unique firm-level survey data on the frequency and nature of software development among firms in Sweden, matched with the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). We find robust evidence supporting a software bias in innovation, in that software development is associated with a higher likelihood of introducing innovations, as well as higher innovation sales among firms in both manufacturing and service industries. Furthermore, this positive relationship is stronger for firms that employ in-house software developers than for those that only use external developers, suggesting that there is a hierarchy but possibly also a complementarity between in-house and external software development. We also find support for complementarity between software-based technology and human capital; the estimated marginal effect of software development on innovation is particularly strong for firms that combine in-house software development with a highly educated workforce in both STEM and other disciplines. © 2021

Författarna går igenom modern forskning kring förtätningens ekonomiska drivkrafter och tydliggör vad forskningen säger; dels om generella konsekvenser av förtätning, dels om hur förtätningens effekter sprids i geografin. Vad förklarar de senaste årtiondenas starka urbanisering? Rapporten avslutas med en diskussion om framtida utmaningar för såväl forskning som fysisk planering.

Spatial variations in rates of new firm formation are large and spatially persistent over long periods of time. A common explanation of this empirical regularity is so-called local entrepreneurship cultures, which refer to spatially embedded social characteristics that change in slow processes. This paper discusses perspectives on the development of such cultures and focuses on the role of historical industry structures in forming the long-run entrepreneurial character of regions. To illustrate the empirical relevance of arguments and findings in the literature, we use historical data on voting patterns in municipalities in Sweden, as well as indications of their early industrial concentrations, and assess their correlations with present-day entrepreneurial activity. We show that places with a high share of left-wing votes in the period 1917-1948 and early historical presence of heavy industry have lower rates of new firm formation, less positive public attitudes toward entrepreneurship as well as larger average establishment sizes in the twenty-first century. The empirical patterns are consistent with the argument that regions' historical industry structure is one factor that influences the development of local entrepreneurship cultures.

We show that entrepreneurs are co-located within cities. One plausible source of such spatial clustering is local social interactions, where individuals' decisions to become entrepreneurs are influenced by entrepreneurial neighbors. Using geo-coded matched employer-employee data for Sweden, we find that sharing residential neighborhood with established entrepreneurs has a statistically significant and robust influence on the probability that an individual leaves employment for entrepreneurship. An otherwise average neighborhood with a 5% point higher entrepreneurial intensity, all else equal, produces between six and seven additional entrepreneurs per square kilometer, each year. Our estimates suggest a local feedback-effect in which the presence of established entrepreneurs in a neighborhood influences the emergence of new local entrepreneurs. Our analysis supports the conjecture that social interaction effects constitute a mechanism by which local entrepreneurship clusters in cities develop and persist over time.

Do workers benefit from proximity to other workers with similar skill sets? This question dates back at least to Alfred Marshall. We use occupation groups to proxy skill sets and show that the answer likely depends on geographical levels, as well on regional hierarchy. Using longitudinal Swedish data, we document robust evidence consistent with highly localized spillovers at the level of sub-city districts between individuals in similar occupations. We further demonstrate less distance-sensitive benefits of working in districts and regions, characterized by high overall density (of employees in other occupations). We find no evidence of benefits from overall density outside Sweden’s three main metropolitan areas. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Denna rapport sammanfattar forskning kring sambanden mellan städer, agglomerationsekonomier, det vill säga ekonomiska fördelar av täta miljöer, och näringslivsdynamik. Ett särskilt fokus riktas mot hur värdet av agglomerationsekonomier skiljer sig åt mellan olika grupper av aktörer.

Urbaniseringen är inte bara begränsad till storstäderna och är inte ett nollsummespel där stad ställs mot landsbygd. Tvärtom kan både små och stora städer vara avgörande för den regionala utvecklingen och landsbygdens framtid. Urbanisering handlar nämligen inte om storstäder, utan om förtätning.

Social capital has often been conceived of as a set of theories more apt for the analysis of rural areas than for metropolitan cities. Yet cities are teeming with interaction and other network phenomena, analyzed in the urban economics literature on social interactions. In this chapter, we bridge these strands of theories by emphasizing link directness (depth of connections) and link thickness (frequency of interaction) as key characteristics for the analysis of social capital in urban and rural settings alike. We demonstrate how social capital and ‘network-of-network’ effects of thin links (abundant in cities) can strongly mimic effects of agglomeration economies. Our framework maintains that previous emphases on isolating the effects of agglomeration effects on economic outcomes should be complemented by an understanding of how effects of social capital pertain, for example, to attitudes to entrepreneurship and industriousness. We suggest that these effects may be understood through the following mechanisms: Peer effects and Learning, and Imitation and Emulation.

We employ geocoded data to explore the effects of ethnic enclaves in Swedish cities on the propensity of Middle Eastern immigrants to transcend from having no employment to self-employment. We demonstrate a robust tendency for immigrants to leave non-employment for self-employment if many co-ethnic peers in the enclave are business owners, while we observe weak effects emanating from business owners in other groups. Net of these effects, overall enclave size, measured by the local concentration of co-ethnic peers, has a negative influence on the propensity for a non-employed immigrant to become self-employed. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

I samhällsdebatten har frågor som rör integration och konsekvenser av segregation blivit alltmer framträdande. Ökad boendesegregation och negativ utveckling i områden med socioekonomiska utmaningar medför konsekvenser för både individer och samhället som helhet. I denna ESO-rapport analyseras hur egenskaper i grannskapet där personer med utländsk bakgrund växer upp samvarierar med olika utfall senare i livet. Rapporten bidrar till bättre kunskap om grannskapets betydelse för integrationen och segregationens utveckling i Sverige. 

This report presents a definition of large knowledge-intensive investments (LKI). It then surveys research on the drivers as well as effects of LKI, and provides conclusions with regards to the conditions for, and role of, public policy in promoting such investments. The purpose is to provide the Swedish government with evidence and knowledge to support and develop the government’s work on supporting innovation and structural change of businesses in Sweden.

We employ finely geo-coded firm-level panel data to assess the long-standing question whether agglomeration economies derive from specialization (within-industry), diversity (between-industry) or overall density. Rather than treating the city as a single unit, we focus our analysis on how the inner industry structures of cities influence firm-level productivity. Our results illustrate the co-existence of several externalities that differ in their spatial distribution and attenuation within cities. First, we find robust positive effects of neighborhood-level specialization on TFP as well as a small effect of diversity at the same fine spatial level. These effects are highly localized and dissipate beyond the immediate within-city neighborhood level. Second, we also find that firms benefit from the overall density of the wider city. The results emphasize the relevance of “opening up” cities to study the workings of their inner organization and support the idea that location in a within-city industry cluster in a diversified and dense city boosts productivity. © 2019

Cities exhibit a rich and complex heterogeneity in people and activities. This poses a sizable challenge for planners when planning new neighbourhoods or the reconstruction of old ones as well as when considering the allocation of supply of and demand for amenities, e.g. kindergartens or health facilities. However, individual preferences may also exhibit common denominators that may provide structure to this heterogeneity. One such denominator is age. In this paper we introduce the concept of neighbourhood age, defined as the mean age of people living in exogenously defined squares of 1km2 in a city. We use highly disaggregated geocoded data to map how the spatial distribution of neighbourhood age changes over a 20-year period from 1991 to 2011 in the city of Stockholm, Sweden. We then test the correlation between neighbourhood age and two categories of urban amenities: supply of local consumption amenities and distance to the city's central business district (CBD). The paper presents three main findings: First, neighbourhood age changes and polarizes significantly over the observed period, suggesting that different age groups are concentrating in different parts of the city. Second, there is a rejuvenation in the central parts of the city but also in more distant clusters of amenities. Third, over a long-term perspective, the results suggest that local clusters of consumption amenities outside the inner city may become increasingly attractive to younger people. Our conclusion is that neighbourhood age and age-related patterns over time provides a tool for planners to better understand the spatial distribution of age-related demand. © 2018 The Author(s). Regional Science Policy and Practice © 2018 RSAI

The rise of ICT and the shift toward jobs with more flexibility in working hours and places of work sparked popular debates about potential for a ‘rural renaissance’. A key argument was that there are increasing possibilities to live in the countryside while being employed in large cities. This paper uses data spanning two decades to examine trends in and characteristics of employee–employer ties between rural and urban areas in Sweden. Our main results suggest that rural-to-urban long-distance commuting is rapidly increasing, but not as fast as commuting flows elsewhere. Compared to the rural population at large, rural residents working in large cities constitute a strongly selected group of workers who are well paid, have long educations, are young and also have advanced knowledge-intensive occupations. Only about 30 percent of those who become rural-to-urban long-distance commuters have moved from urban areas; the vast majority constitute those who already lived in rural areas before starting to commute to urban areas. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

This paper examines innovation among very small firms and provides new insights into both internal and external determinants of patenting. Applying a non-linear panel data approach to about 160,000 observations on manufacturing firms in Sweden for the period 2000-2006, the following facts emerge: (i) in contrast to larger firms, innovation in micro firms with 1-10 employees is not sensitive to variation in internal financial resources, (ii) skilled labour is even more important for innovation among micro firms compared to other firms, (iii) affiliation to a domestically owned multinational enterprise group increases the innovation capacity of small businesses, (iv) small firms' innovation is closely linked to participation in international trade and exports to the G7-countries, and (v) there is no statistically significant evidence that proximity to metropolitan areas, or presence in a specialized cluster, increases the innovativeness of the smallest firm

Idag transplanteras med framgång bl.a. hjärta, lungor, njurar och lever. Behovet av organ ökar men tillgången minskar. Det finns många olika sätt att göra sin vilja känd om sin inställning till organdonation. Om den avlidnes vilja inte är känd är det anhöriga som måste ta beslutet om organdonation. Att mista en närstående plötsligt och oväntat är i många fall förenat med ett chocktillstånd. Att i det tillståndet bli tillfrågad av en läkare om tillåtelse att ta den avlidnes organ, kan medföra både skuldkänslor och ångest, speciellt eftersom beslutet tas under tidspress och psykisk stress. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie var att genom intervjuer beskriva vårdpersonals erfarenheter av hur de stödjer och hjälper anhöriga vid beslut om organdonation. I studien används Watson som teoretisk referensram, Watson har en syn på människor som passar bra att använda sig av när en människa står inför en stor förändring. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av Burnards analysmetod. I resultatet förekommer det att information till anhöriga är mycket viktigt. Informationen skall vara lättförståelig, upprepad och tydlig. Det är till en början viktigt att de anhöriga förstår vad hjärndöd innebär, det är en förutsättning för att kunna gå vidare. Det är också viktigt att anhöriga får ta farväl av den avlidne, det underlättar förståelsen att den närstående är död. I många fall är det kaotiskt för de anhöriga och då spelar vårdpersonalen en viktig roll att ge de anhöriga stöd och hjälp. Den vårdpersonal som intervjuats menar att det är deras erfarenhet som gör att de på ett bra och effektivt sätt kan ge de anhöriga stöd och hjälp.

Inter-firm job switching of workers is a much cited but seldom measured source of the productivity advantages of spatial employment density. It has been advanced as a conduit for localized knowledge flows as well as labor market matching efficiency. Using a matched employer–employee dataset for Sweden, we estimate the influence spatial employment density has on the probability of inter-firm job switching of private sector workers. Our estimates suggest that a doubling of employment density per square kilometer increases the probability that a random worker switches employer by 0.2 % points. The same effect is substantially higher for more skilled workers. While the effect of a doubling of density is limited, the actual differences in density across the regions in our data amount to a factor over 40, rendering differences in density an important explanation for regional variations in rates of inter-firm job switching.

The 2017 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research is given to Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru. Over the last 30 years, Hernando de Soto has been a world-leading intellectual engaged in academic and public policy discussions on global development. He has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the informal economy and of the importance of property rights to unleash entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty and underdevelopment. His contributions have led to a new and better understanding of the role played by institutions in supporting entrepreneurship, especially in the Third World. Hernando de Soto’s work has also had major influences on policy worldwide, both in terms of conceptual understanding and practical policy measures. © 2017 The Author(s)

Exporting firms in a region may reduce export entry costs for other local firms either through market or non-market interactions. This paper tests this proposition by analyzing whether the probability of exporting among Swedish firms is positively associated with the local presence of exporters in their region and industry. Our results support this conjecture, while also providing some support for such export spillovers being more important in contract-intensive industries and small firms. The results for different industries and size-classes of firms are also sensitive to whether we focus on firms' export status or restrict the sample to export starters.

We analyze the frequency and nature by which new firms are acquired by established businesses. Acquisitions are often considered to reflect a technology transfer process and to also constitute one way in which a "symbiosis" between new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and established businesses is realized. Using a micro-level dataset for Sweden in which we follow new entrants up to 18 years after entry, we show that acquisitions of recent start-ups are rare and restricted to a small group of entrants with defining characteristics. Estimates from competing risks models show that acquired start-ups, in particular by multinational enterprises (MNEs), stand out from entrants that either remain independent or exit by being much more likely to be spin-offs operating in high-tech sectors, having strong technological competence, and having weak internal financial resources. Our overall findings support the argument that acquisitions primarily concern NTBFs in market contexts where entry costs are large, access to finance is important and incumbents have valuable complementary capabilities and resources. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

As Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen famously remarked in 2011, software is eating the world - becoming a pervasive invisible critical infrastructure. Data on the distribution of software use and development in society is scarce, but we compile results from two novel surveys to provide a fuller picture of the role software plays in the public and private sectors in Sweden, respectively. Three out of ten Swedish firms, across industry sectors, develop software in-house. The corresponding figure for Sweden's government agencies is four out of ten, i.e., the public sector should not be underestimated. The digitalization of society will continue, thus the demand for software developers will further increase. Many private firms report that the limited supply of software developers in Sweden is directly affecting their expansion plans. Based on our findings, we outline directions that need additional research to allow evidence-informed policy-making. We argue that such work should ideally be conducted by academic researchers and national statistics agencies in collaboration. © 2020 ACM.

This comprehensive Handbook presents thoughtful analysis on how regulations can impact innovation within a number of fields and markets, and provides a greater understanding of regulatory complexity and the challenging task it presents for future research. The Handbook of Innovation and Regulation embraces some of the key policy areas such as the regulation of markets, critical sectors, and global and regional aspects, focussing particularly on those regulations which target innovation. Reviewing these often interconnected policy areas in terms of both macroeconomic and microeconomic issues, this Handbook expertly studies how regulations in differing fields can affect innovative activities. By placing innovation centre stage, the contributors emphasise the direct and indirect effects of imposed regulations. Further, they illustrate the critically important overall impact of innovation to make firms competitive, promote economic growth and increase societal welfare. Addressing research and policy challenges, this Handbook would be an excellent resource for academics in regulatory economics, innovation and entrepreneurship, international trade, regional economics as well as environment and digitisation and policymakers in both national and international organisations. © Pontus Braunerhjelm, Martin Andersson, Knut Blind and Johan E. Eklund 2023. All rights reserved.

Economic thought on entrepreneurship goes at least as far back as to Richard Cantillon, Adam Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say in the 18th and 19th centuries, and by some accounts much further back. After being neglected throughout a large part of the 20th century, entrepreneurship research has risen to become one of the most forceful, dynamic and expansionary fields in social sciences, represented by variety of specialized journals and conferences and encompassing several academic sub-disciplines. This monograph attempts to provide an overview of primarily contemporary pioneers in entrepreneurship research who have been instrumental in defining, re-introducing and establishing entrepreneurship as a core research discipline through their seminal scientific endeavors. Besides of the founding fathers of entrepreneurship research, we have identified 45 pioneers from a list of several hundreds of potential candidates. Three of those made their most seminal contributions between the late 1940s and the late 1960s. The remaining 42 contemporary pioneers were decisive for the establishment of the research field. Our ambition is thus to provide answers to how, by whom and when these pioneering contributions were made. By necessity, given how large and diverse the field has become, many researchers and topics have been left out of this review. We humbly recognize that we may have left out researchers who deserve to be mentioned; nevertheless we feel confident that selection of scholars are all worthy pioneers in the entrepreneurship research field.