Bio

Joacim is Program Director of the Firm Competitivness program at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) and Associate Professor (Docent) at Lund University School of Economics and Management. He holds a Ph.D. from Hanken School of Economics and has been a Fulbright Scholar at New York University.

He works on bringing Swedish registry data to the research frontier in labor and finance by studying firms and human capital. A central research question is how we can improve the competitiveness of firms and the economy at large through getting the right people to create, own, control, and work in the right firms. His research is detailed in over 30 publications and working papers and it has been featured in major national and international newspapers. It has over 1200 cites in Google Scholar and ranks top decile by all-time downloads worldwide in SSRN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Selected Research

Olsson, M, and J. Tåg. 2021.”What Is the Cost of Privatization for Workers?”

• The privatization of state-owned enterprises is on the agenda of policymakers across the globe. Using rich administrative data on firms and workers covering two decades, we study how privatization affects the careers and welfare of workers. Consistent with the effects of an initial reorganization of the workforce, wage income declines and unemployment increases. These effects are stronger for workers protected by state ownership. We do not find negative spillovers on family and health outcomes. We also demonstrate that privatization encourages workers to enter entrepreneurship. The firm-level productivity gains from privatization are approximately five times larger than the incumbent worker-level costs due to lost wage income.
• Presentations: AASLE, AFA (scheduled), ANU (scheduled), AEA, EALE, EFA (scheduled), EEA, IFN, IFN Stockholm Conference and the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

Keloharju, M., S. Knüpfer, and J. Tåg. 2020. “CEO Health and Corporate Governance.”

• Boards hire and fire CEOs based on imperfect information. Using comprehensive data on 28 cohorts in Sweden, we analyze the role of CEO health in corporate governance. Boards hire CEOs who are healthier than other high-skill professionals, in particular in mental health. After hiring, CEOs’ health develops similarly to a control group of executives. Health predicts turnover, measured at appointment and during tenure. These results are consistent with boards appointing CEOs with health robust enough to withstand the pressures of the job, correcting mismatches occurring at the time of appointment, and responding expediently to health shocks.
• Media coverage: fPlus, VD Tidningen, Vaasa Insider.
• Presentations: Aalto, AFA, Bologna, BI, EFA, FEIBS, Hannover, HU-Berlin, IFN, JIBS, KI, LFG Workshop at Booth, LU, Memphis, SSE House of Innovation, Southampton, and TSE.

Keloharju, M., S. Knüpfer, and J. Tåg. 2019. What Prevents Women from Reaching the Top?”

• We show that women are about one-half as likely to be large-company CEOs and about one-third less likely to be high earners than men. A wide range of observables do not explain the lack of women in top executive positions. Instead, slow career progression in the five years after the first childbirth explains most of the female disadvantage.
• Media coverage: Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Samhälle, Expressen, HBS Working Knowledge, Helsingin Sanomat, Huvudstadsbladet, Iltalehti, Nordic Business Report, Svenska Dagbladet, Talouselämä, Yle.
• Presentations: BI, BC, BU, City, CSEF, HBS, HKBU, HKU, IFN, LNU, NU, NHH, SBS, SHOF, SU, MoF, UoB, Exeter, UMass, HSG, UU, ORU, AFA, NCSE, and SOLE.

Colonnelli, E., J. Tåg, M. Webb, and S. Wolter. 2018. “A Cross-Country Comparison of Dynamics in the Large Firm Wage Premium.” AEA Papers and Proceedings 108 (May): 323–27.

• We provide stylized facts on the existence and dynamics over time of the large firm wage premium for Brazil, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The large firm premium exists in all these countries. However, we uncover substantial differences among them in the evolution of the wage premium over time and no evidence of common cross-country industry trends.
• Presentations: ASSA, IFN.

Olsson, M. and J. Tåg. 2017. “Private Equity, Layoffs, and Job Polarization.” Journal of Labor Economics 35: 697–754.

• We argue that ownership change is one driver of job polarization by showing that private equity buyouts of low productive firms are coupled with productivity enhancing investments in automation and offshoring. As a result, workers performing routine or offshorable job tasks in these firms tend to get laid off.
• Media coverage: Affärsvärlden, Dagens Industri, Dagens Nyheter, Sveriges Radio, Svenska Dagbladet.
• Presentations: EEA, EFA, EIEF, IFN, KTH, NHH, LU, Ratio, SHOF, KU, GU, and Illinois.

Baziki, S., PJ Norbäck, L.Persson, and J. Tåg. 2017. “Cross-Border Acquisitions and Restructuring: Multinational Enterprises and Private Equity-Firms.” European Economic Review 94 (May): 166–84.

• A large share of cross-border acquisitions are undertaken by private equity firms. We propose a model with endogenous financial frictions in which multinational firms and foreign private equity firms bid for domestic assets. Stronger firm-specific synergies, lower restructuring costs, higher exit costs, better access to internal capital markets, a higher risk premium on lending, higher moral hazard problems, and higher trade costs favor multinational firms. Cross-country acquisition patterns are consistent with these predictions.
• Presentations: EEA, IFN, Lund, Uppsala.

Tåg, J, T. Åstebro, and P. Thompson. 2016. “Hierarchies and Entrepreneurship.” European Economic Review 89 (October): 129–47.

• We show that firms with flatter hierarchical structures spawn more entrepreneurs. We investigate two potential explanations for this distinctive hierarchy effect. Part of the effect could be to be due to preference sorting by employees, and part due to employees in firms with fewer layers having a broader range of skills (ability sorting). We show that entrepreneurhip entry increases with a worker’s prior rank in an organization, which is consistent with ability sorting and inconsistent with preference sorting.
• Presentations: Amsterdam, Carlos III (Madrid), Bergen, Cambridge, CBS, Census Center, CEPR, IFN, Leuven, Lund, Milano, REER, Uppsala.