Sector Committee for Research on Public Economics, Management and Leadership
Future welfare is largely dependent on economic growth and the ability to finance operations through taxes. Consequently, public finance is an important research area, not least in light of the rapidly changing demographic situation in Sweden. A shrinking population in combination with rapid changes in its composition, ethnically and culturally, affects both tax revenues and the need for social services.
The background of this sector committee, which started in 2004, can be found in the changing conditions of the external environment. Collaboration within the EU has given municipalities and regional bodies an international contact surface that did not exist 15 years ago. Globalisation has decreased both the significance and the freedom of action of nation states. At the same time, the expanded welfare system has contributed to a decrease in labour mobility. This is a growing political dilemma.
The work of the sector committee is aimed, with the help of seminars and other research initiated efforts, at strengthening the research environments that may contribute to the evaluation of the long term effects of the new economic politics.
Current social changes place increasingly higher demands on our societal organisation, which is organised and structured on the basis of traditional administrative limits. The structure of public financing does not coincide with the country’s administrative divisions. In addition to an increasing need for cross-border and multi-level cooperation, the collaboration across national borders is also increasing.
What is now needed is empirically focused comparative research regarding the development of the welfare system and the manner in which the conditions for welfare are changing due to globalisation, changing demographics and changing values. This also results in an increased need for comparative research regarding the conditions and transformation of societal organisations and regarding the role of leadership issues in this process.
Board Members
Professor Dan Brändström, Political Science (Chairperson)
Senior Lecturer Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg, Political Science, Uppsala University
Municipal Commissioner Acko Ankarberg Johansson (Christian Democrats)
Jan Edling, analyst, VINNOVA
Professor Gunnel Gustafsson, Political Science, Umeå University
Senior Lecturer Ingalill Holmberg, Stockholm School of Economics
Professor Bengt Jacobsson, Business Studies, Södertörn University
Bert Levin, Stockholm
Sonia Karlsson, MP (s)
Lennart Nilsson, Stockholm
Professor Inga Persson, Economics, Lund University
Professor Lennart Schön, Economic History, Lund University
Professor Daniel Tarschys, Political Science, Stockholm University
Gunnar Wetterberg, socio-political director, Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations
Kerstin Stigmark, Research Secretary RJ (Secretary)
Last updated 26 March 2009