Search results

This paper concerns the effects of military closures on the local growth pattern in Sweden during the last decades. The main issue is to analyze to what extent the closures have affected the subsequent average income growth and net migration rates at the local level. The analysis is based on a data set covering Swedish municipalities with military bases during the period 1983-1998. Our main finding is that the closures have not had any significant impact on the subsequent income growth rate or the net migration rate in the affected minicipalities compared to other municipilaties. However, in accordance with previous studies based on Swedish data, we find the initial endowment of human capital to have a positive impact on the subsequent growth rate. ; Published in Defence and Peace Economics(ISSN 1024-2694)2007 vol 18 no 1 pp 87-97 doi:10.1080/10242690600924638Taylor & Francis.Changes may have been made in the published version.

An introduction of a kilometer tax for heavy goods vehicles can be constrained by the risk of that higher production costs than competitors in other countries will negatively affect regions and industries of policy concern. We estimate factor demand elasticities in the Swedish manufacturing industry using firm level data for the 1990-2001 period on input prices and quantities. The results show that the introduction of a kilometer tax for heavy goods vehicles decreases transport demand and increases labor demand. The effects are less pronounced in terms of changes in output, though some industries (e.g. wood, and pulp- and paper) can be expected to be affected more than others due to their dependence on road freight transport. The regional dimension regarding the consequences of a kilometer tax seems to be small or even non-existing. [author's abstract]