Suchergebnisse

The Henry James novel The American (1877) is analyzed on the basis of a conflict between the twoforms of liberty, which Isaiah Berlin in the end of the 1950s designated as negative and positive. Theconcept of negative freedom is in this interpretation of the novel connected to a contrast between thestate and the clan. With starting point in Francis Fukuyama's The Origins of Political Order (2011),and Mark S Weiner in The Rule of the Clan (2013), modern rule of law is in the analysis of the novelregarded as something radically different from clan society.Based on an understanding of the modern state as a guarantee for individual autonomy and liberty, inBerlin's negative meaning, James depicts in The American, the problems of maintaining liberty, in thenegative sense, in a community organised around the clan.In the novel, the American protagonist Christopher Newman with his lack of prejudices represent forhis French fiancée Claire de Cintréa possible way to freedom. What Newman does, is to offer Claire theopportunity to move from the French aristocracy to the economically strong Americanbourgeoisie—from a kind of feudalism to capitalism. The proposed move coincides with thedevelopmental curve of the novel, which with respect to Claire runs from clan to state.In striking contrast to Newman's optimized sort of freedom, where neither any internalized norms norany economic limitations prohibit the protagonist from acting in the way that he desires, Claire is thedaughter of a family that represents the old world, with all its limitations and restrictions on negativeliberty. In a highly concrete manner she is prohibited from acting as she wants. This is emphasized inthe question of who to marry.The analysis connects Claire's family to the ultramontanists and legitimists circles of 19th centuryParisian aristocracy. The terms refer to the ultra-conservative and fiercely anti-liberal movements that,after the French revolution, turned against the modern state power that allegedly forced on the French Catholics secular values.Legitimism and ultramontanism are in the novel intimately connected to maintaining an organisationaround the clan. In contrast to the clan, rule of law, democracy and individual freedom is seen asconsequences of the framework of the modern, liberal state.

Theories of inter-jurisdictional tax and yardstick competition assume that the tax decisions of one jurisdiction will influence the tax decisions of other jurisdictions. This paper empirically addresses the issue of horizontal dependence in local personal income tax rates across jurisdictions. Based on a large data set covering Swedish municipalities over a period of 14 years, we test for interactions across municipalities that share a common border, across municipalities within a distance of 100 km of each other, and across municipalities with similar political representation in the local council. We also test the hypothesis that the tax rate of relatively larger municipalities has a greater influence on their neighbors' tax rate compared to the influence of their smaller neighbors. Our results suggest that when lagged tax rates are controlled for, the horizontal correlation across municipalities that share a common border or are within a distance of 100 km from each other becomes insignificant. This result is of importance as it suggests that lagged tax rates should be included or at least tested for when testing for horizontal interactions or mimicking in local tax rates. However, our results support the hypothesis of horizontal interactions across municipalities that share a common border when the influence of neighboring municipalities is also weighted by their relative population size, i.e. relatively larger neighbors tend to have a greater impact on their neighbor's tax rates than their relatively smaller neighbors. This is of importance as it suggests that distance or proximity matters, although only in combination with the relative population size. We also find some evidence of horizontal dependence across municipalities with similar political preferences.

This paper investigates factors that determine the average income growth and net migration using Swedish data. The main issue is to test the hypothesis that the growth rate in one municipality is affected by the growth rates in its neighboring municipalities. Our results support this hypothesis: we found a positive correlation between the growth rates in neighboring municipalities. In addition, we found a negative correlation between the initial level of average income and the subsequent average income growth, which can be interpreted in terms of conditional convergence. We also found that local government policy variables such as local public investments, expenditures, and income tax rates were important determinants of net migration and average income growth. ; Inom EU-finansierade projektet Urban Design.Revised and extended in CERUM Working Paper no 2003:67.Published in Regional Studies ISSN 0034-3404 2006 vol 40 no 3 pp 303-316. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1080/00343400600631566Changesmay have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication.

In this paper, we test the hypotheses that recreational and cultural services provided at the local level of government are associated with bene…t spillovers between Swedish municipalities. We also test the hypothesis that municipalities with similar expenditure levels are more clustered than would be expected from merely a coincidence. A representative voter model is derived and the demand for recreational and cultural services is estimated using spatial SUR techniques. The results suggest that these expenditures are associated with bene…t spillovers and that municipalities with similar expenditure levels are clustered to a greater extent than would be expected from just a coincidence. ; Med stöd från Svenska komunförbundet. Published in Regional studies(ISSN 0034-3404)Vol 40 No 6 pp 631-644. Taylor & Francis. DOI:10.1080/00343400600868788 Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication.

This thesis consists of five papers, which concern expenditure decisions and economic growth within Swedish local government.Paper [1] explores the hypothesis that local fiscal shocks have short run effects on revenue and expenditure decisions made within local government. It is found that although fiscal shocks do not affect local authorities' revenue decisions, they do induce municipalities to change expenditures and financial costs along with short term loans. Local authorities are also found to respond more powerful to unfavorable fiscal shocks (deficit shocks) than to favorable fiscal shocks (surplus shocks).In Paper [2], we study the hypothesis that local (municipal) expenditures, in part, can be explained by regional (county) expenditures. We formulate and estimate a demand model for municipal services that is defined conditional on the county expenditures. The results imply a positive dependency between the provision of county and municipal services. Moreover, the results suggest that the hypothesis of weak separability between the provision of county and municipal services can be rejected. In addition, we cannot reject the hypothesis that the regional expenditures are weakly exogenous in the local expenditure equation.In Paper [3] the existence of spillover between Swedish municipalities in the provision of recreational and cultural services is analyzed. A representative .voter model is derived and the demand for recreational and cultural services is estimated using spatial SUR techniques. The results suggest a negative relationship between recreational and cultural expenditures provided by neighboring municipalities, which indicates that these services are substitutes.Paper [4] concerns the regional growth pattern in Sweden by analyzing what factors might determine the growth rate of regional average income levels and the net migration rates. Our results suggest a negative dependence between the initial average income level and the subsequent income growth, which supports the conditional convergence hypothesis. Among other things, we also find that the initial endowments of human capital have a positive effect on subsequent net migration while the initial unemployment rate is found to have a negative impact on net migration.Paper [5] complements the analysis made in Paper [4] by studying which factors determine average income growth and net migration at the local level of government. The conditional convergence hypothesis cannot be rejected. Local government investments are found to have a positive effect on the subsequent net migration while leaving the growth in mean income unaffected. This may indicate that the net migration caused by these investments does not significantly affect the proportion of skilled and unskilled labor. ; Härtill 5 delarbeten. ; digitalisering@umu

The purpose of this paper is to study what factors determined the average income growth and net migration at the municipal level in Sweden between 1981-1990. Our results suggest a negative correlation between the initial level of average income and the subsequent average income growth, which can be interpreted in terms of conditional convergence. We also find that local government policy variables are important determinants of net migration and average income growth. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the presence of a university or a university college in the municipality affects local growth and mobility patterns. ; Med stöd från HSFR. Published in The Review of Regional Studies, ISSN 0048-749X 2003 Vol 33 No 2 pp 110-134. Southern Regional Science Association. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication.

This paper concerns the short-run effects of local fiscal shocks on municipal expenditure and revenue decisions. It also explores the hypothesis that differences in political preferences lead to differences in the way municipalities adjust to fiscal shocks. A panel data set for Swedish municipalities is used in the empirical estimation. According to the results, fiscal shocks have an impact on expenditure and loan decisions, and political preferences matter in the adjustment process. However, there are no indications that fiscal shocks affect revenue decisions.Keywords: ; Rev. version av rapport med samma titel som ingår Umeå economic studies 454. ; digitalisering@umu

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.