Konferensen handlade om urbanisering och städernas allt större betydelse för samhällsekonomin.

Talare

 

Raj Chetty

Professor i nationalekonomi vid Harvard University och en av världens mest citerade ekonomer. Chetty studerar bland annat hur uppväxtort påverkar framgång i livet: Hur kan vi ge barn från utsatta förhållanden bättre förutsättningar att lyckas?

 

 

 


Edward Glaeser

Professor i nationalekonomi vid Harvard University och världsledande forskare när det gäller innovativa miljöer och städer som tillväxtmotorer. Glaeser är författare till den omtalade boken ”Triumph of the City” (utgiven på svenska av SNS).

 

 

 

 


Fran Tonkiss

Professor i sociologi vid London School of Economics (LSE) och tidigare chef för Cities Programme vid LSE. Tonkiss forskar om ojämlikhet, stadsutveckling och segregation i städer. Hon är författare till boken ”Cities by Design: The social life of urban form”.

 

 

 

 


Ahmed Abdirahman

Grundare av The Global Village, en ideell organisation som verkar för integration, kultur och utbildning i Stockholms förorter. Ett av hans initiativ är Politikerveckan i Järva. Abdirahman arbetar på Stockholms handelskammare med integrationsfrågor.

 

 

 

 


Niklas Adalberth

Grundare till Norrsken Foundation, en stiftelse som stödjer och investerar i tech-entreprenörer med fokus på att bidra med innovativa lösningar på samhällsproblem. Adalberth är också medgrundare till Klarna, där han tidigare har arbetat i flera ledande positioner.

 

 

 

 


Jan Bosaeus

VD för Nobina Sverige och vice VD i Nobinakoncernen, Sveriges största kollektivtrafikföretag som driver trafik för bland andra Stockholms Lokaltrafik, Västtrafik och Skånetrafiken. Nobina är först i Norden med egna självkörande bussar. Bosaeus är även ordförande i Sveriges Bussföretag, styrelseledamot i Transportföretagen och Alectas överstyrelse.

 

 

 


Maria Börjesson

Professor i nationalekonomi vid Statens väg- och transportforskningsinstitut (VTI). Börjesson forskar om transportekonomi, transportpolicy och transportmodeller, och studerar bland annat samspelet mellan transportsystemet och tillväxt och sysselsättning. Hon är medförfattare till ”Konjunkturrådets rapport 2016. Vart är vi på väg? Systemfel i transportpolitiken”.

 

 

 

 

Mikael Damberg

Närings- och innovationsminister.

 

 

 

 

 


Jonas Eliasson

Trafikdirektör i Stockholms stad och tidigare professor i transportsystemanalys vid KTH. Eliasson är en aktiv röst i diskussionen om trafikplanering i Stockholm och Göteborg. Hans forskning rör bland annat samhällsekonomiska analyser av transportsystem.

 

 

 

 


Lena Erixon

Generaldirektör för Trafikverket. Erixon har tidigare varit bland annat generaldirektör för Vägverket och Försvarets materielverk, ekonomidirektör i Södertälje kommun och departementssekreterare på Finansdepartementet.

 

 

 

 


Ulrika Francke

Styrelseordförande i Vasakronan och ordförande för Formas kommitté för forskningssatsning inom hållbart samhällsbyggande. Francke var tidigare stadsbyggnadsdirektör och gatu- och fastighetsdirektör i Stockholm stad.

 

 

 

 


Mats Hederos

Vd för AMF Fastigheter, ett av Sveriges största fastighetsbolag. Hederos har lång erfarenhet av fastighetsbranschen där han arbetat med teknik, finansiering och som investment banker. AMF Fastigheter driver många projekt i Stockholms innerstad, exempelvis MOOD Stockholm, Epicenter och Urban Escape.

 

 

 

 


Mia Horn af Rantzien

SNS vd. Horn af Rantzien har disputerat vid Handelshögskolan i Stockholm och har haft en lång karriär som svensk diplomat, bland annat som chefsekonom, ambassadör till WTO och CSR-ambassadör. Hon är styrelseledamot för Sida och Nobel Media, medlem av Svenska Institutets insynsråd samt ordförande Kungl. Ingenjörsakademins avdelning för ekonomi.

Jan-Olof Jacke

VD för AstraZeneca Sverige sedan 2013 och tillträdande vd för Svenskt Näringsliv. Jacke är styrelseordförande för Ung Företagsamhet och styrelseledamot för Svenska Mässan, ICC Sverige och Mentor Sverige.

Anna König Jerlmyr

Oppositionsborgarråd och gruppledare för kommunfullmäktigegruppen för Moderaterna i Stockholms stad.

Christer Larsson

Stadsbyggnadsdirektör i Malmö stad och adjungerad professor i arkitektur vid Lunds universitet. Larsson har varit verksam i Malmö stad i 20 år. Han är ordförande i tankesmedjan Nordic City Network och ledde 2015 den statliga utredningen Gestaltad livsmiljö – en ny politik för arkitektur, form och design.

Kieran Long

Överintendent för ArkDes. Long har en bakgrund som kritiker, programledare, lärare och författare inom arkitektur och design och har länge arbetat med arkitektur- och designfrågor. Innan han kom till Sverige 2017 var han chef för design- och arkitekturavdelningen på Victoria and Albert Museum i London.

Sarah McPhee

SNS styrelseordförande. McPhee är också ordförande för Fjärde AP-fonden och Houdini Sportswear AB. McPhee är styrelseledamot för Klarna Bank AB, Axel Johnson Inc och Bure Equity. Hon är ledamot av Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA) och har examen från Wesleyan University, Sciences Po, Stanford University och Handelshögskolan i Stockholm.

Charlotta Mellander

Professor i nationalekonomi vid Internationella Handelshögskolan i Jönköping. Mellanders forskning fokuserar på städer, kompetens och regional utveckling. Mellander är en mycket efterfrågad talare och har bland annat föreläst för FN, EU-kommissionen och IBM samt för svenska företag och kommuner.

Sonja Opper

Professor i nationalekonomi vid Ekonomihögskolan vid Lunds universitet. Opper har länge studerat entreprenörskap och hennes nuvarande forskning rör innovativa miljöer och startup-företag i Kina och Sverige. Hur skapas nya företag och hur kan städer attrahera dem? Hon är medförfattare till boken Capitalism from Below: Markets and Institutional Change in China.

Sara Rosengren

Professor i marknadsföring och detaljhandel och chef för Center for Retailing vid Handelshögskolan i Stockholm. Rosengrens forskning handlar om kundbeteende, marknadsföring och detaljhandel. Hennes nuvarande forskningsprojekt fokuserar på digitaliseringen av detaljhandelns erbjudanden.

Monica von Schmalensee

Arkitekt och ordförande för Rådet för hållbara städer, som inrättats av regeringen. von Schmalensee har tidigare varit vd för White Arkitekter och arbetar idag bland annat som rådgivare till Londons borgmästare Sadiq Khan i frågor som rör urban utveckling.

Karolina Skog

Miljöminister med särskilt ansvar för stadsmiljöavtal och urban utveckling.

Håkan Svedman

Landschef för IKEA-koncernen i Sverige, världens ledande möbel- och heminredningsföretag. Svedman leder IKEA:s verksamhet i Sverige, vilket inkluderar 20 IKEA-varuhus, e-handel och fler än 8 000 medarbetare. Han har lång erfarenhet från IKEA och har tidigare varit landschef för IKEA Danmark.

Moderatorer

 

Markus Karlsson

Programledare vid Bloomberg Radio i London och värd för det internationella nyhetsprogrammet Daybreak Europe. Han har tidigare varit Business Editor för nyhetsbolaget France 24 i Paris. Markus Karlsson bevakar näringsliv, ekonomi och politik i Europa.

Ilinca Benson

Vice vd och kommunikationschef för SNS. Benson har disputerat vid Handelshögskolan i Stockholm.

Helena Stålnert

Rådgivare inom kommunikation och ledarskap. Stålnert har stor erfarenhet från både media och näringsliv, bland annat som vice VD för flyg- och försvarsföretaget Saab AB och stålföretaget SSAB. Hon har varit redaktionschef, ankare och utrikeskorrespondent för SVT:s Aktuellt. Idag är hon ordförande i Institutet för Mediestudier och i Förvaltningsstiftelsen för public service-företagen.

Pehr Wissén

Ek dr och seniorrådgivare vid forskningsinstitutet Swedish House of Finance (SHOF). Wissén leder Finanspanelen, ett mötesforum för den finansiella sektorn som arrangeras av SNS och SHOF. Wissén har bland annat varit vice vd vid Handelsbanken och adjungerad professor vid Handelshögskolan i Stockholm.


Referat från konferensen

 

Edward Glaeser: Why cities are the greatest invention of our time – and how we should solve the challenges facing them in the 21st century

Our modern societies are increasingly urbanised. Today, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population live in urban areas, a number which is expected to rise significantly in the near future. Cities are important drivers of economic growth, but they also represent challenges that policy-makers need to handle. These challenges, as well as the opportunities that cities represent, were discussed at the SNS Tylösand Summit 2018.

The session began with a keynote speech by Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University and one of our time’s most renowned economists within the field of urbanisation studies. His 2011 book The Triumph of the City received critical acclaim and fame well outside of academia and thus reinforced his position as one of the world’s most influential thinkers on urbanisation.

urbanisation is all about people and human interaction

Glaeser often refers to cities as the greatest invention of our time, as they are the central drivers of economic growth in the world of today. He began his speech by offering a definition of cities that captures the focus of his research on urbanisation. According to him, cities are “the absence of physical space between people”. In other words, cities are made up of their inhabitants rather than by the buildings and the infrastructure that make the wheels turn. In Glaeser’s view, it is the “economic magic of human interaction” that drives growth in cities.

However, the same population density that enables interaction also comes with a set of challenges. Glaeser refers to these challenges – for example crime and poverty – as “demons of density”. These challenges need to be addressed by policy-makers in order to reap the benefits of urbanisation while keeping the standard of living of cities at a satisfying level.

segregation and the urban-rural divide pose challenges in sweden

A panel of policy-makers and academics were invited to comment on Glaeser’s research in a Swedish context. Mikael Damberg, Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, mentioned Stockholm’s position as an important start-up hub in Europe, but also highlighted the challenges of segregation that Swedish cities face. He stressed the importance of making cities work for a diversity of people, as well as making sure that economic growth and hopes for the future produced and generated in urban areas benefit the entire population, including more rural areas of Sweden.

Charlotta Mellander, Professor of Economics at Jönköping International Business School, zoomed out from the city-focus as she highlighted the importance of not letting rural areas fall too much behind. She also stressed that urbanisation to a large extent has been driven by the “export” of young individuals from rural areas to cities, but that these rural areas do not get a significant proportion of the wealth cities create in compensation.

Karolina Skog, Minister for the Environment with a special responsibility for urban development, highlighted two major challenges in Swedish cities: transportation and climate change. According to her, most Swedish cities are constructed to make car transportation as convenient as possible. In Skog’s opinion, this is something that needs to be addressed if Swedish cities are to become greener and more climate-friendly.

Raj Chetty: The geography of social mobility and why unequal life chances are problematic not only as a matter of justice and fairness

The American Dream is fading away. Children in the U.S. who are entering the labour market today are much less likely to earn more than their parents did relative to children born in the middle of the 20th century. However, there is substantial variation in children’s prospects of upward mobility across different regions and neighbourhoods of the United States. The local environment in which children grow up plays a key role in determining their life chances. Raj Chetty, William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University, spoke about these issues at the SNS Tylösand Summit 2018.

Raj Chetty has been named one of the top economists in the world by the New York Times and The Economist. He specialises in public economics in general, and equality of opportunity and social mobility specifically.

Research and policy concerning urbanisation and cities typically focuses on indicators of labour market productivity such as job growth. Chetty’s work instead focuses on the role that cities play in the production of human capital – where do highly productive and successful individuals come from, and how can we give more children chances of rising up the social ranks?

differences in social mobility exist both across the country and within cities

Chetty shows that the economic activity associated with cities does not necessarily go hand in hand with development of human capital. Even if an urban area is productive economically – as is the case in cities in the south-eastern U.S. such as Atlanta and Charlotte – it does not necessarily follow that the children from that area will reap the benefits in terms of upward social mobility. Instead, workers from other parts of the country may move in to the city and get the high-paying jobs that it offers. Hence, it is important for cities to focus on human capital development independently of simply creating greater job growth.

In order to understand how to improve opportunity for children within cities, it is important to recognise that differences in social mobility not only exist at a regional level across the country, but also within cities. Chetty’s research demonstrates that the neighbourhood and the environment in which kids grow up are among the most important factors affecting social mobility. The research also shows that the age at which an individual moves from an area characterised by low upward mobility to one characterised by high upward mobility affects the chances of moving upwards in terms of income. The earlier one moves, the higher are the chances of moving up the ladder of society.

improving neighbourhoods is more sustainable than relocating children

While moving kids from low upward mobility areas to high upward mobility areas might be an effective way of increasing social mobility, this solution has some inherent limitations in terms of scalability. One cannot move everyone from a low upward mobility area to high upward mobility areas without affecting the nature of the areas themselves. Instead, a more long-term sustainable solution is to turn low upward mobility areas in to high upward mobility areas, or at least to move them in that direction.

High upward mobility areas are characterised by better integration of ethnic groups, a larger middle class, more stable family structures, greater so-called social capital and higher quality of education. Low upward mobility areas represent a mirror-image of this. Thus, one big step in improving social mobility may be to address issues of segregation.

Neighbourhoods do not necessarily have the same effect on all subgroups; an area that is good for one group may not be good for another. In the case of the U.S., the most important example of such differences is in the context of race. For example, black men are, on average, likely to earn significantly less than white men from the same neighbourhood. Interestingly, however, the same is not true for black women, who are in fact likely to earn slightly more than white women from the same neighbourhood. Chetty’s research shows that the differences between the sexes in racial disparities can be partly attributed to mass incarceration that leads to an absence of fathers in many black families and to factors such as racial bias.

equality of opportunity is in everyone’s best interest

Finally, it is important to note that social mobility is not only a matter of social justice. In fact, improving social mobility can help an economy to utilise its human capital more efficiently. Chetty’s research shows that talented children – by measure of their score on a 3rd grade maths test – are much more likely to become inventors if they come from a high-income family. In other words, a lot of potentially economically productive talent is wasted when social mobility is low. Hence, equality of opportunity – a fundamental concept on which the American and many other Western democracies are built – also matters for economic growth.

Fran Tonkiss: The inequalities of urbanisation and how to address them

Increasing urbanisation goes together with increasing inequality. At the 2018 SNS Tylösand Summit Fran Tonkiss, Professor of Sociology at London School of Economics, spoke about inequalities in urban areas and what can be done to address the challenges that these represent. A panel of experts and politicians gave their perspective on the issue.

The mega-trend of urbanisation has many virtues. It fosters innovation, prosperity and human interaction. However, it is often accompanied by a rise of inequalities as well. Fran Tonkiss specialises in the field of urban and economic sociology and has studied the effects of growing inequalities in cities.

segregation is not only a problem for the poor

Inequalities and segregation in European cities are generally smaller in size than in the developing part of the world, but they nevertheless exist. Segregation is a term often associated with areas characterised by poverty and minority populations. However, Tonkiss argues that the term can, and should, be used to describe all segments of society. In Stockholm, the wealthiest are in fact more segregated than the poorest.

Why are segregation and inequality problematic? According to Tonkiss, inequality is economically inefficient, as it leads to a suboptimal use of human capital. Further, she argues that it is also socially unsustainable. If certain parts of a given society are constantly dissatisfied with the present situation, polarisation and conflict are more likely to arise. One example of when such tensions surfaced, brought up by Tonkiss, is the 2011 London riots.

Tonkiss’ speech was followed by comments from a panel consisting of Christer Larsson, Director of City Planning, City of Malmö, Ahmed Abdirahman, Founder of Järvaveckan and The Global Village, and Anna König Jerlmyr, The Opposition’s Vice Mayor, City of Stockholm.

cities can be designed to deliberately encourage integration

Larsson spoke about his experiences of dealing with issues of inequality and segregation in Malmö. One valuable insight from this is how a city can be designed and planned to make its inhabitants visit neighbourhoods that they would have otherwise never gone to, thereby encouraging integration. As an example of this he brought up a public swimming area in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Malmö. This public space is designed to be attractive enough for all citizens of Malmö to visit, which ideally leads to more interaction between the different socioeconomic groups of the city.

Abdirahman commented on Tonkiss’s remark on segregation among the wealthiest, as he stressed that the people of the poorest areas have not actively chosen to live in segregation. One way to decrease inequality and segregation is to encourage the middle class to move to these areas. However, better security and better schools need to be provided if that is to happen, according to Abdirahman.

On a similar note, Anna König Jerlmyr spoke about the importance of attracting entrepreneurs and small business owners to these areas in order to create a livelier and more vibrant environment. She also stressed the importance of increasing the presence and visibility of the police in Stockholm in general, and in the poorest areas in particular.

Stockholm as a start-up hub and the importance of networks

What role do cities play in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship? Social interaction and the formation of networks, which are both central elements of the modern city, are key to understanding the rise and spread of innovative ideas. The last session of the 2018 SNS Tylösand Summit covered innovation and entrepreneurship in Swedish cities.

The session consisted of a panel discussion where Niklas Adalberth, Founder of Klarna as well as Founder and Executive Chairman of Norrsken Foundation, Jan-Olof Jacke, CEO of AstraZeneca Sweden as well as incoming CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, and Andreas Hatzigeorgiou, Chief Economist and incoming CEO of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, offered their perspectives and insights on the Swedish start-up scene.

networks and eco-systems of innovation attract talent and capital

Hatzigeorgiou started by praising Stockholm’s position as the best region next to Silicon Valley in terms of producing so-called unicorns – i.e. privately held start-up companies valued at over USD 1 billion – in recent years. He proceeded to talk about the fact that middle-weight cities, such as Stockholm, as opposed to mega cities such as Beijing or Los Angeles, will be increasingly important as drivers of growth and innovation in the future. He, however, also argued that policy-makers need to de-regulate the housing market and sections of the labour market if the city is to truly reach its potential as a city of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Adalberth stressed the importance of networks and eco-systems of innovation in cities, which enable access to talent and capital. He praised the development of Stockholm in the last 10–15 years, which he argued has helped in producing unicorns such as Klarna, which Adalberth co-funded, as well as Spotify and Skype. He further argued that these types of companies are vital as role models for young entrepreneurs.

Jacke discussed an initiative that AstraZeneca has undertaken to promote innovation within the bio-tech sector. The initiative meant that start-ups and entrepreneurs got access to parts of AstraZeneca’s resources and data. Jacke described that sceptics were initially worried that this initiative would increase competition and ultimately cause harm to the company. However, so far the result has rather been a creation of an entrepreneurial network where innovative ideas are generated and where the actors involved learn from each other, including AstraZeneca itself.