Bio

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

His research is focused on technological change, startups, corporate ownership 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. He also works on how to regulate new tech and how to support entrepreneurial ecosystems. 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 1500 cites in Google Scholar and ranks top decile by all-time downloads worldwide in SSRN. You can follow him on Twitter, e-mail him at joacim.tag@ifn.se, or call him at +46 73 033 7977.

Selected Research

Coraggio, L, M. Pagano, A. Scognamiglio and J. Tåg. 2023.”JAQ of All Trades: Job Mismatch, Firm Productivity and Managerial Quality”

• We present a novel measure of job-worker allocation quality (JAQ) by exploiting employer-employee data with machine learning techniques and validate it in various ways. Our measure correlates positively with earnings and negatively with separations over individual workers’ careers. At firm level, it increases with competition, non-family firm status, workers’ human capital and has a robust correlation with productivity. The quality of rank-and-file workers’ job matches responds positively to improvements in management quality. JAQ can be constructed for any employer-employee data including workers’ occupations, and used to explore research questions in organization and labor economics, as well as in corporate finance.
• Presentations: AFA, Bristol-Exeter-Lancaster, Brucchi Luchino, Ca’ Foscari University, CSEF, EFA, EIEF, ESWM, IFN, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki GSE, NICE 2023 (scheduled), Ratio, Swedish Conference in Economics, UNC Kenan-Flagler, WFC and Örebro University.

Gardberg, Malin, Fredrik Heyman and Joacim Tåg. 2023. “Importing Automation and Wage Inequality Through Foreign Acquisitions”

• Is technology or trade driving increases in wage inequality? We propose that technology interacts with trade in the form of foreign direct investments to widen domestic wage inequality. We show that foreign acquisitions of domestic firms disproportionately affect wages for workers who perform tasks sensitive to the technology specialization (software or robotics) of the acquiring firm. Based on Swedish matched employer-employee data covering two decades and staggered difference-in-differences methods we find wages to decline by up to 5.2% annually over an eight-year post period. Our results suggest that a trade policy aimed at attracting foreign companies with high technological capabilities can help countries advance technologically, but this may come at the cost of increased domestic wage inequality.
• Presentations: CSEF-RCFS Conference on Finance, Labor and Inequality (scheduled), IFN, NICE 2022, Swedish conference in Economics.

Keloharju, M., S.Knüpfer, D. Müller, and J.Tåg. 2022. “PhD Studies Hurt Mental Health, But Less Yhan You Think”

• We study the mental health of PhD students in Sweden using comprehensive administrative data on prescriptions, specialist care visits, hospitalizations, and causes of death. We find about 7% (5%) of PhD students receive medication or diagnosis for depression (anxiety) in a given year. These prevalence rates are less than one-third of the corresponding survey-based prevalence rates reported in the literature, and even after adjusting for difference in methodology, 44% (72%) of the prevalence rates reported in the literature. We also document PhD students’ mental health significantly worsens relative to their peers after they have entered the program. This deterioration is consistent with doctoral studies having a negative causal effect on mental health.

Olsson, M, and J. Tåg. 2021.”What Is the Cost of Privatization for Workers?” Revise and resubmit at The Journal of Finance.

• 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, ANU, AEA, EALE, EFA, EEA, IFN, IFN Stockholm Conference and the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

Keloharju, Matti, Samuli Knüpfer, and Joacim Tåg. 2023. “CEO Health” The Leadership Quarterly 34(3):101672.

• Using comprehensive data on 28 cohorts in Sweden, we analyze CEO health and its determinants and outcomes. We find CEOs are in much better health than the population and on par with other high-skill professionals. These results apply in particular to mental health and to CEOs of larger companies. We explore three mechanisms that can account for CEOs’ robust health. First, we find health predicts appointment to a CEO position. Second, the CEO position has no discernible impact on the health of its holder. Third, poor health is associated with greater CEO turnover. Poor CEO health also predicts poor firm outcomes: we find a statistically significant association between mental health and corporate performance for smaller-firm CEOs.
• Media coverage: Arbetarskydd, fPlus, VD Tidningen, Tidningen Chef, 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. 2022. What Prevents Women from Reaching the Top?” Financial Management 51(3):711-738. (Lead Article, Selected Top 1 paper in Fall Issue, Pearson Prize for best paper 2020-2022.)

• We use rich data on all business, economics, and engineering graduates in Sweden to study the lack of women among chief executive officers (CEOs). A comprehensive battery of graduates’ characteristics explains 40% of the gender gaps in CEO appointments and 60% among graduates with children. The explanatory power mostly comes from absences and unemployment, which are about twice as likely for women as men. These gender differences increase following childbirth, and they persist in the long run. The large contribution of labor market attachment to the explained share suggests work–family trade-offs are an important part of the story.
• 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.