Hanna Lindström

Research

Working papers:

The effect of environmental protection expenditures on industrial employment in Sweden, CERE Working paper no 2023:3 (revise and resubmit in Environmental and Resource Economics, april 2024), with G. Amjadi, M. Bostian, T. Lundgren and M. Vesterberg.  Abstract: In this paper, we empirically investigate how environmental protection expenditures affect sector-level employment within manufacturing industries, using detailed firm-level data for Sweden for the years 2002–2021. We use a structural model that allows for a decomposition of the total employment effect of environmental protection expenditures within a sector into a cost effect, a factor shift effect, and a demand effect. We add to previous literature by using instrumental variables in our empirical framework, to account for endogenous environmental spending stemming from, e.g., corporate social responsibility and self-regulation. Our results reveal that increased environmental protection expenditures generally have no statistically significant effect on employment among the sectors studied, with the Paper and pulp sector being the exception, showing non-negligible negative effects on employment. 

The effects of electricity and fuel prices on Swedish industry: a panel VAR approach, with T. Lundgren and M. Vesterberg. Abstract: In this paper, we empirically investigate the dynamic effects of electricity and fuel price changes on factor demand, using detailed firm-level data for the Swedish manufacturing industry for the years 2004-2022 and a panel vector autoregressive model of factor inputs and associated prices. Our results reveal inelastic demand for the inputs electricity and fuel, both in the immediate period after a price change and over time. Furthermore, results show that the the effects of energy price shocks on labor demand are, in general, not statistically different from zero, and that there are no statistically significant effects indicating inter-fuel substitution.

Lindström, H. (2021). Price transmission for organic and conventional milk products in Sweden (No. 22). HFI Working Paper. Abstract: Although much empirical work addresses the efficiency of food supply chains by studying price transmission, studies on quality-differentiated food are scarce, and particularly for organic food vis-á-vis conventional food. This study adds to this scarce literature by analysing wholesale to retail price transmission for organic and conventional milk in the Swedish milk sector, using time-series analysis applied to monthly price data for the period Jan 2007–Nov 2017. Estimations are performed using the non-linear ARDL model which allows for asymmetric cointegration of prices and a simultaneous analysis of short- and long-run asymmetry, the latter of which has been largely overlooked in previous studies. In the case of conventional milk, results indicate positive asymmetries both in the short-run and the long-run. For organic milk, the long-run positive asymmetry is smaller and not statistically significant in all specifications. Organic consumers are therefore likely to experience smaller differences between surplus losses and gains, following positive and negative wholesale price changes, respectively.  Link here

Work in progress:

Industry factor demand and energy prices, a Difference-in-Differences approach, with T. Lundgren and M. Vesterberg.

The impact of the EU Emission Trading System on the environmental and economic performances of manufacturing firms in Sweden, with Jaraité, J., Lundgren, T., Schüsser, S., & Verde, S.

Early stage work:

Creating attractive procurement processes - strategic tools for more tenderers. Funder: Swedish Competition Authority. Project period: 2024–2026. PI: Assistant professor Hanna Lindström.  Co-applicants: Sofia Lundberg (Professor, department of Economics, USBE) and Johan Lundberg (associate professor, department of Economics, USBE). Project description: While an overarching aim of public procurement is to safeguard and make use of competitive markets, there are also political goals for public procurement concerning, for example, the environment and climate, and the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises. This three-year project studies how the design of the procurement process affects a potential supplier’s decision to submit a tender and the number of tenderers. An important contribution is that both actual and potential tenderers are included in the empirical analysis, which is based on a combination of survey data, procurement data and firm data.

Environmental economics and gender. Funder: Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS). Project period: 2024-2028. Project description: This doctoral student project aims to analyse economic behaviours within the fields of environment, climate and energy from a gender perspective. Furthermore, the projects sets out to analyse distributive effects of policies within these areas from a gender perspective, and whether they can be designed in a more cost-effective and equitable way. The project starts in September 2024, and supervisors for the PhD student are Senior Lecturer Göran Bostedt (department of Economics), Assistant Professor Hanna Lindström, and Professor Annika Nordlund (Department of Psychology, Umeå University)

Published articles:

Lindström, H. (2022). The Swedish consumer market for organic and conventional milk: A demand system analysis. Agribusiness, 38(3), 505-532. Link here

Lindström, H., Lundberg, S., & Marklund, P. O. (2022). Green public procurement: An empirical analysis of the uptake of organic food policy. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 28(3), 100752. Link here

Lindström, H., Lundberg, S., & Marklund, P. O. (2020). How Green Public Procurement can drive conversion of farmland: An empirical analysis of an organic food policy. Ecological Economics, 172, 106622. Link here   

Government reports

Lindström, H., & Lundberg, S. Att upphandla med miljöhänsyn. Commissioned work by Swedish Competition Authority, report 2022:5. Link here 

Teaching

Public procurement as an environmental policy instrument (7.5 ECTS) , spring 2024

Public procurement: theory, practice and economics (7.5 ECTS) , fall 2023, fall 2024

Microeconomic analysis (7.5 ECTS) introductory level, fall 2022, spring 2023, fall 2023

Macroeconomic analysis in the long run (7.5 ECTS) introductory level, spring 2022

Macroeconomic analysis in the short run (7.5 ECTS) introductory level, fall 2019 and fall 2020

Economics for social science teachers (5 ECTS) introductory level, spring 2020 and spring 2021

Responsibilities

• Scientific secretary for Centre for Environmental Resource Economics (CERE). 

• Responsible for CERE seminar series (jointly with Adan Martinez-Cruz).

• Singer in the department cover band.