In this note we study how the share of workers in a corporation located in a high gender wage gap country impacts the wage gap in their home country operations. Our findings support the hypothesis that firms with strong intra-firm linkages to a high gender wage gap country also display a relatively large gender wage gap at home. 

The aim of this article is twofold. First, we analyze whether the decision of where to import from is affected by firms' ex-ante characteristics. Second, we analyze how the origin of imports affects firms' productivity, export sales, and the number of export markets. Using extensive data on Swedish manufacturing firms from 2007 to 2020, we uncover several significant insights. Nearly 80% of the firms engage in international trade. The smallest firms operate exclusively as exporters, medium-sized firms as importers, and the largest firms engage in two-way trading. While most imports originate from high-wage countries, there has been a gradual shift to low-wage countries over time. Self-selection is evident, with highly productive firms importing from all sources, followed by firms that exclusively import from either low-wage or high-wage countries, and the lowest-productive firms not importing. By controlling for self-selection using the Event Study approach and difference-in-differences matching estimator, we find that large importing firms exhibit no significant differences in productivity and export sales in comparison to their non-importing counterparts. However, small importing firms show increased productivity growth, driven by high-wage imports. Both small and large firms importing from high- and low-wage countries tend to access more high-wage export markets than non-importers.

This article examines imports by Swedish firms and the utilization of the tariff preferences offered by the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. To benefit from tariff preferences, the importer must make a formal request to use the preferences and also document the origin of the imported products (with a certificate of origin provided by the foreign exporter). This may be costly, and some importers choose to pay import tariffs even when tariff preferences are available. Hence, the preferences are not fully utilized. Using a detailed firm-transaction level data set on Swedish imports from South Korea, we analyse the determinants of preference utilization and how firms learn to use preferences. The results show that preference utilization is strongly correlated with potential duty savings, which depend on the preference margin and the size of the import transaction. From a learning perspective, we find that preference utilization is closely related to the number of import transactions undertaken by the firm, suggesting a learning-by-doing mechanism. The length of time the firm has been involved in importing activities plays a smaller role.

It is proposed that in a future Swedish investment screening mechanism, it will become mandatory for the Inspectorate of Strategic Products to consult with the National Board of Trade. A key role for the Board will be to contribute with analysis regarding the importance of the investment for the economy and the investment climate. We note a gap in the literature in the sense that the broad mass of economic analysis of foreign direct investments (FDI) focuses on the effects of production-oriented activities, while much of the security discourse also embraces ownership such as infrastructure and hospitals. It is shown that uncertainty is harmful to inward FDI. To minimize uncertainty and the potential FDI-dampening effects of an investment screening regulation, the range of affected sectors should be narrowly defined, accompanied by a swift and transparent review process that provides predictability to the transaction parties. Inward FDI in general and high-tech investments in particular can benefit innovation, stimulate investment, promote skill upgrading, improve resource allocation, sharpen competition, create high-wage jobs and increase economic growth. The literature has shown that many positive effects from FDI take place in the form of spillover effects that are difficult to measure directly. Many best practices attracting FDI include general policies rather than selective measures.

Most previous studies on the employment effects of government R&D grants targeting SMEs are characterized by data-, measurement-, and selection problems, making it difficult to construct a relevant control group of firms that did not receive an R&D grant. We investigate the effects on employment and firm-level demand for high human capital workers of two Swedish programs targeted toward growth-oriented SMEs using Coarsened Exact Matching. Our most striking result is the absence of any statistically significant effects. We find no robust evidence that the targeted R&D grant programs had any positive and statistically significant effects on the number of employees recruited into these SMEs, or that the grants are associated with an increase in the demand for high human capital workers. The lack of statistically significant findings is troublesome considering that government support programs require a positive impact to cover the administrative costs associated with these programs.

Starting from the discourse on the impact of private and governmental venture capital investments, we examine the effects of different types of venture capital on firms’ sales, employment and investment. Our results show that both private and governmental venture capital investments boost firm sales with a delay of 2–3 years. The results suggest that VC impacts sales primarily through efficiency gains and to some extent, investments in physical capital investments, whereas no employment effects can be traced. Finally, we find indications of governmental VC investors being more prone to make follow-up investments in stagnating, non-growing firms than private investors. 

This paper explores regional variation in the effects of publicly sponsored R&D grants on SME performance. The results suggest that there is no guarantee that the grants will impact firm growth, either positive or negative. Positive growth effects are most likely to be found for publicly sponsored R&D grants targeting SMEs located in regions abundant with skilled labor, whereas the opposite is found for SMEs located in regions with a limited supply of skilled labor.

For more than three decades, China has managed to combine rapid economic growth with a strictly regulated financial sector. The discrepancy between economic and financial development has raised the question of whether China might be an exception to the so-called finance-growth nexus. This study examines the relationship between finance and growth at the provincial level in China using a new set of measures of capital freedom and financial development. The results indicate that capital freedom and financial development are associated with both higher income and growth rates. In particular, we find that the marketisation of financial institutions and strengthening of legal and government institutions have a particularly strong impact on income and growth in low-income provinces.

Vi har under de senaste åren sett ett allt större intresse för innovationsdriven tillväxt. Några exempel på denna trend utgörs av EU:s tillväxtstrategi för perioden 2012-2020 (the Europe 2020 Strategy) där innovationer identifieras som nyckeln till framtida hållbar tillväxt. Ökade insatser på FoU förväntas leda till fler innovationer, stärkt konkurrenskraft, grönare tillväxt och även stärkt tålighet mot problemen som orsakats av finanskrisen (European Commission, 2013).

 Tanken på innovationsdriven tillväxt finns även i Sverige och det blir alltmer vanligt att beslutsfattare och forskare föreslår en mer aktiv roll för staten när det gäller att stimulera innovationer och företagstillväxt och ett vanligt förekoomande instrument är olika typer av direkt stöd riktat mot innovativ verksamhet.

I syfte att studera om denna inriktning har ett empiriskt stöd analyserar vi effekterna av två selektiva företagsstöd, VINN NU och Forska & Väx, som båda riktas mot innovativa små och medelstora företag i Sverige. Den kontrafaktiska effektutvärderingen är möjlig genom tillgång till en unik mikrodatabas över utbetalda företagsstöd. Resultaten indikerar inga statistiskt säkerställda effekter av stöden på antal anställda, arbetskraftsproduktiviteten, omsättningstillväxten, andelen högutbildade arbetstagare eller andelen forskare efter det att stödperioden upphört. Vi finner således inget stöd för att riktade stöd till innovationsbenägna små – och mellanstora företag är en effektiv politik för att få fler växande företag.

In this paper we examine whether China has benefited more from spending on R&D than other countries by conducting a meta-analysis of the relevant literature on a large number of countries at different stages of economic development. The results suggest that the growth-enhancing effect of R&D spending in China has been significantly weaker than that of other countries. It is thus unlikely that R&D spending has been successful as a key contributing factor to economic growth in China.