In my dissertation, I study factors that affect the value-creating interactions between value producers and value consumers on two-sided platforms (e.g., Freelancer and Kickstarter). In the first essay, I study how bid price dispersion affects the value-creating interactions (i.e., contracting) between service providers (freelancers) and buyers in online labor markets. I find that bid price dispersion has a negative effect on buyers' offering a contract and service providers' tendency to accept the contract if offered one. I theorize that both service providers and buyers face uncertainty over price as to how much to charge or to pay for IT services and a higher bid price dispersion leads to higher uncertainty, and thus a lower contracting rate. In the second essay, I examine the role of the lottery in value-creating interactions (namely backings) in crowdfunding platforms. I find that the lottery, when designed as an option with a participation cost, decreases backers' average contribution and the total value created for a project, albeit it incentivizes more low-value interactions (i.e., more low-value backings). I theorize that the lottery, on the one hand, incentivizes low-value interactions that would otherwise not happen, but on the other hand, transforms high-value interactions into low-value interactions. In the third essay, I study the effect of backers' online identity concealment on the value-creating interactions (i.e., backings) in crowdfunding platforms. Contradictory to a common practice that crowdfunding platforms often maintain a public list of all backers’ identity information, assuming a positive observational learning effect among peer backers, the empirical results demonstrate with backers' online identity concealed completely, campaigns on average gain more backings and money as well as become more likely to succeed. And this effect is larger for donors-those back a campaign without receiving any reward-than for rewardees-those back the campaign for the reward. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems

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The transition to working life is a difficult process for young people with neuropsychiatric disabilities. The transition to adulthood involves a complex interplay between one's visions, social and economic “opportunity structures'' that society delivers. In this essay, the focus has been to cast light on young adults with neuropsychiatric diagnosis, how their experiences and perception has shaped them to choose to further educate themselves or establish themselves in the labor market. The method “life stories'' has been used as inspiration to bring out the interviewees' stories and to look back on their previous schooling. The study was also performed using a qualitative method. Theoretical starting points for this study were the concepts of inclusion, exclusion, and stigma. The transcribed interviews have been analyzed according to the method thematic analysis and the following main themes were identified: experiences of knowledge level about NPD among teachers, experiences of exclusion and inclusion in the school environment, strategies that have emerged to manage their everyday school life,experiences of support in previous schooling, the desire for more information about what support measures are available in further studies and the transition between further studies and establishment in the labor market. In summary the results showed a huge lack of knowledge among teachers regarding NPD andhow the support needs to be adapted for students with NPD. The results also showed that teachers stigmatized NPD students by negative statements related to NPD and NPD students’need of adapted support. This has resulted in that needs of NPD diagnoses have been identified during the later parts of the schooling period for most of the interviewed persons. This early exclusion and stigmatization resulted in a late inclusion during the schooling. The experiences of the interview persons also showed a lack of support and information when making their choice to continue their education or establishment on the labor market. There are also positive experiences that interviewees felt included in the education at some points during their schooling. However, the positive experiences were very few. Choosing to either study further or establish oneself in the labor market after high school is ultimately an individual choice based on people's previous experiences, but also personal interests.

Arbetsrelaterad stress är ett utbrett samhällsproblem. Som en konsekvens av den flexibla arbetsmarknaden ökar tidsbegränsade anställningar, vilket kan orsaka arbetsrelaterad stress. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad som kan predicera att människor upplever generell arbetsstress, och om stressen skiljer sig utifrån anställningsform. Arbetsrelaterad stress mättes flerdimensionellt genom generell arbetsstress, krav-kontroll-stöd-modellen och anställningsotrygghet. Enkäten besvarades av 181 deltagare varav 69% var kvinnor och 31% män, 76% hade en visstidsanställning och 27% hade en tidsbegränsad anställning. Resultatet visade att de med tidsbegränsade anställningar hade högre anställningsotrygghet än tillsvidareanställda. Vidare framkom att anställningsotrygghet, krav, stöd, och kön kan predicera generell arbetsstress, men inte anställningsform, kontroll och ålder. Krav förklarade störst andel variation i generell arbetsstress, därefter stöd, anställningsotrygghet och kön. Totalt förklarades 44% av variansen av generell arbetsstress. På grund av högre anställninsgotrygghet riskerar anställda med tidsbegränsad anställning mer negativa hälsoeffekter än tillsvidareanställda. Eftersom stöd har en dämpande effekt mot stress, kan det vara anledningen till att resultatet inte visade en skillnad mellan anställningsformerna gällande generell arbetsstress.

The global financial crisis that started in the USA affected several countries around the world. This study focuses on only three countries; the USA, Sweden, and Italy, which are examples of economies with three different labor market models. The purpose of this study is to investigate if and in that case how Okun's law was affected by the global financial crisis in the three countries’ labor market models and if there are any differences in the correlations before and after the global financial crisis. Okun’s difference version was used in this study. Quarterly time series data was used in this study during the time period 1985-2019. The Chow test was used to test the hypothesis. The results show that the global financial crisis affected Okun’s law after the crisis in all three countries. The USA, Sweden, and Italy were affected differently

I cover three topics in empirical microeconomics. In the first chapter, titled Investor Attention to Firm versus Market-wide Information Shocks: Evidence from North Korean Missile Tests, I study whether attention towards salient political events leads to underutilization of firm-specific information in the South Korean stock market. I find that companies with earnings surprises in the top quartile experience a 1.6% increase in the abnormal return on the announcement day, but a same-day missile test takes away 70% of the positive response. In the second chapter, titled Does Cultural Proximity Mitigate the Effect of Immigration on Electoral Outcomes? (with Gerard Domènech), we study the effect of immigration on electoral outcomes using individual-level administrative data in Spain. In a multiple instrumentations framework, we find that recent immigrants who arrived within two years are associated with an increase in the vote share of the extremist parties. Such an effect persists for additional two years but dissipates in the long-term. When split by regions of origin, African immigrants have the greatest impact, followed by Latin American immigrants. European immigrants do not affect the extremist vote shares. An analysis of the unemployment rate and the number of children suggests that immigrants tend to assimilate over time. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that cultural proximity mitigates the political reaction to immigrants. In the third chapter, titled The Effect of Daddy Quota on Gender Labor Market Outcomes (with Petra Niedermeyerova), we study the impact of a father-specific parental leave policy on labor market outcomes in Quebec, Canada. Using a province-level difference-in-difference approach, we find that the so-called daddy quota increases the probability of employment for women and decreases the wage of younger men. The results suggest that the daddy quota promoted equal opportunities for women in the labor market. In a theoretical framework, we show that policy-driven changes in gender norms are consistent with our findings.

This paper studies the Covid-19 pandemics effect on female labor market participation in Sweden and Denmark. Previous studies have various assessments on whether women were affected to a different extent than men. Studies from the United States indicate that women have been hit harder than men as a result of the pandemic. According to the Swedish data, women were not affected significantly more than men. This study contributes to the research by examining how the gender gap develops during the pandemic in Sweden and Denmark. This is warrant by the different policies that the countries have introduced. In this study panel data between 2014 and 2021 is used, the results of this study indicate that there is no significant effect of the pandemic on women's unemployment rate in Sweden while the results from Denmark is significant at a 1 percent level. The results show that the pandemic has affected the gender gap in Sweden more than in Denmark.

Non-compete covenants are clauses in employment contracts that forbid employees from competing with their former employers during a given time period. Recent literature has identified non-compete covenants as a new type of entry barrier to entrepreneurship within high-tech industries, impeding regional innovation, growth and employment. In Europe, the legal regime is highly heterogeneous, suggesting that certain regions might gain a competitive advantage in innovation. This study uses Fixed Effects regression and Poisson Fixed Effects regression models to investigate the ways in which non-compete covenants effect how venture capital investments stimulate regional innovation and entrepreneurship. The data set was constructed using data from The European Patent Office, the Eurostat, the World Bank and the OECD Economic Outlook. Ius Laboris overview was used to assess the enforceability of non-compete covenants in sample countries. The results show that increased supply of venture capital increases innovative activity in all regions. Relative to countries that enforce non-compete covenants, countries that restrict the use of these contracts experience higher rates of patenting activity. The level of enforceability was not found to have significant effects on new firm formation. The results suggest that financial intermediates and the legal regime have an important role in promoting regional innovation.

In my paper, I argue that the underlying social ideals of the late modern labor market, namely flexibility and singularity, undermine human flourishing as conceptualized by Martha C. Nussbaum. It is on these grounds, that we should be critical of late modernity. For an account of late modernity, I rely on the sociological works of Ulrich Beck (1992), Zygmunt Bauman (2000; 2007a), and Andreas Reckwitz (Reckwitz & Pakis, 2020). My account of this socio-historical era focusses on the three main components that set it apart from the previous industrial modernity according to the aforementioned sociologists: the revolution in ICT, the creative economy, and the socio-cultural revolution within the new middle class. It becomes clear that these three components contribute to a more liquid, flexible, and singularized setting. On this basis, then, I will introduce the ethical theory of Martha C. Nussbaum: The Capabilities Approach. I will justify the methodological choice of using her theory, and not that the Capabilities approach of Amartya Sen. My focus on human flourishing will be defended against the accusation of being universalist or biased, and the suggestion that preference utilitarianism would be a better fit for my research objective.  The main body of my paper is the ethical analysis and weighing of arguments for and against my thesis, that we ought to object to the social ideals promoted by the late modern labor market because they undermine human flourishing. I will give two main arguments in support of this thesis, each corresponding to one of Nussbaum's central Capabilities. The first one identifies a conflict between the requirements for our emotional Capability and the kind of self-sufficiency needed to achieve the social ideal of flexibility. I show, that flexibility has become a necessary coping strategy for the late modern individual, making the conflict a pressing one to solve. My second argument draws out a lack of respect and dignity granted to those who perform functional labor (mostly in the service sector) in late modernity, because the functional worker can not live up to the social ideal of singularity. The lack of respect for functional workers pushes them below the threshold required for human flourishing. Finally, I will consider the counterargument, that the late modern labor market provides better opportunities for creative expression and self-actualization. Is that not the epitome of human flourishing i.e. the actualization of one's potentialities? However, I refute this counterargument on multiple grounds: firstly, the goal is not human flourishing, but economic profit. Secondly, it promotes a kind of consumerism, that seems to conflict with emotional needs. Lastly, the workers who are enabled creative expression, are and will remain few.