Örebro Studies in Economics 42 I
ÖREBRO 2020 2020AN
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anton gidehag (b. 1990) began his undergraduate studies in Economics in 2009. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Stockholm University and a Master’s degree in Economics from Uppsala University. In 2015, he enrolled as a Ph.D. student in Economics at Örebro Uni-versity and the Institute of Retail Economics.
His doctoral thesis consists of four essays on the topic of firm behavior and how it is shaped by institutional reforms and firms’ recruitment decisions. The first essay studies how the recruitment of key personnel alters the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The findings illustrate that the mobility of key personnel can be of crucial importance for the productivity development among these firms. The second and third essay analyze the labor market effects of a youth payroll tax reform, which generated considerable firm-level labor cost savings. From these two essays, it is concluded that reduced labor costs promote firm-level employment and, particularly, the employment of youths and marginalized immigrant groups. The fourth essay estimates the tax revenues and costs associated with the implementation of compulsory staff registers within the Swedish restaurant and hairdresser industries. The total costs are found to exceed the collected tax revenues in every instance, suggesting that staff registers are not economically justified.
The institutional setting in which firms operate is crucial for their per-formance and growth opportunities. A general conclusion from this thesis is that institutional reforms can have a large impact on firm behavior. To foster firm behavior, it should thus be of high priority for policymakers to implement accurate institutional reforms. However, such reforms should be carefully planned prior to implementation since they may have unintended consequences for firm behavior.
issn 1651-8896 isbn 978-91-7529-318-9
