This paper examines how local economic shocks affect entrepreneurship, considering entry (extensive margin) and performance of existing entrepreneurs and their firms (intensive margin). Exploiting Sweden's 2004 mining boom as an exogenous shock, we use administrative data (2000–2015) and difference-in-differences estimates comparing individuals within 80 km of a mine to those 80–150 km away. The boom increased entrepreneurial entry but not the number of new firms, as many entrants were hybrid entrepreneurs reallocating effort to existing ventures. Incumbents gained through higher capital income and lower exit risk, while treated firms expanded employment and wage costs without improving operating profits.

Urban 'third places' foster informal interactions and face-to-face contact that is critical to the development of new innovations and start-up businesses. Our research utilises extensive microdata in combination with telephone interviews with over 200 start-up companies in Stockholm, Sweden. Our findings indicate that access to third places has a significant impact on the number of new high-tech start-ups (both by entrepreneur place of residence and work) in their vicinity. This suggests that third places play a demonstrable role in innovation and economic growth.

In this paper, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of entrepreneurs. We surveyed a representative sample of Swedish entrepreneurs and wage employees at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey data, combined with register data, show that the COVID-19 outbreak has a negative effect on the well-being of entrepreneurs in terms of increased perceived stress. However, this negative effect is weaker for entrepreneurs who feel younger than their chronological age and entrepreneurs who are geographically distant from the epicenter of the crisis.

This article studies upward job mobility in different types of local economies. Relying on Swedish register data, we disentangle the impacts stemming from local labour market size, the presence of related industries and occupations and the size of own-industry and own-occupation concentrations. Results show that the local economic structure is important in shaping upward mobility outcomes. However, we observe different impacts from local industry-versus-occupation agglomerations and depending on whether people move from lower-paid or higher-paid jobs. The results have important implications for understanding the drivers of upward job mobility in times of increasing labour market polarization and regional divergence. 

This paper studies how labor market pooling, calculated as regional concentrations of employment in related industries and related occupations, affects the job outcomes of displaced workers. Using matched employer-employee data for displaced workers between 2003-2009 in Sweden, the results show that all workers experience a drop in earnings after displacement. However, the earning losses of workers who lose their jobs in markets with higher labor market pooling are lower. Two mechanisms are highlighted to why this is the case - (1) better job match and (2) higher probability of getting a better job than the pre-displacement one.

This paper relies on a regional knowledge production function to examine the heterogeneous determinants of knowledge creation across five US manufacturing sectors and 853 metropolitan counties over the period 2001–08. Using a Tobit model with state fixed effects, the results indicate that local intra- and inter-sectoral research and development (R&D) investments by the private sector as well as university R&D play a key role in knowledge creation across all sectors under study. We also find that the role of short- versus long-distance interregional spillovers on knowledge creation varies greatly across sectors. These key features improve the design of future local and national innovation policies.

This paper studies how the previous experience among workers relates to the labor productivity of the creative industries in Sweden. Effective knowledge transfers are dependent on the cognitive distance among employees. Using longitudinal matched employer-employee data, I measure the portfolio of the skills within a workplace through (i) the workers' previous occupation, and (ii) the industry they have been working in previously. Estimates show that diversity of occupational experience is positive for labor productivity, but the diversity of industry experience is not. When distinguishing between related and unrelated diversity, the relatedness of occupational experience is positive for labor productivity, while unrelated occupational experience instead shows negative relationship with productivity. These results point towards the importance of occupational skills that workers bring with them to a new employment, for labor productivity.

Loss of specific human capital is often identified as a mechanism through which displaced workers might experience permanent drops in earnings after job loss. Research has shown that displaced workers who migrate out of their region of origin have lower earnings than those who do not. This paper extends the discussion on returns to migration by accounting for the type of jobs people get and how related they are to their skills. Using an endogenous treatment model to control for selection bias in migration and career change, we compare displaced stayers with displaced movers in Sweden. Results show that migrants who get a job that matches their occupation- and industry-specific skills display the highest earnings among all displaced workers. If migration is combined with a job mismatch, earning losses are instead observed. This group experiences the lowest earnings among all displaced workers.