The National Institute of Economic Research (NIER) performs analyses and forecasts of the Swedish and international economy and conducts related research. The Institute is a government agency accountable to the Ministry of Finance. Like other Swedish government agencies, NIER has an independent status and is responsible for the analyses and forecasts that it publishes. NIER is financed largely by public funds. The remaining source of financing is commissioned assignments, primarily in the fields of macroeconomics and environmental economics. Some 60 persons, most of them economists, are presently employed by NIER.The activites of NIER can be subdivided into the following areas: Analyses and Forecast, Business Tendency Surveys, Research, and Commissioned Assignments.
Analyses and forecasts
NIER monitors the current development of the economy. Four times a year, it publishes its latest analysis and forecast in series of reports entitled The Swedish Economy. Here, forecasts for one to two years ahead are presented and systematically analysed. Twice a year, these shorter-term forecasts are supplemented by medium-term analyses for the next five years. The NIER forecasts serve as a basis for the Spring Financing Proposal in April and for the Budget Proposal in September/October.
Business Tendency Surveys
Each month, NIER asks a large number of business firms for their assessment of the development of the economy. These surveys cover manufacturing, the building sector, and portions of the private services sector. Firms are questioned concerning output, new orders, employment, prices, etc., and the results are published in the series of reports entitled Monthly Business Tendency Survey and Quarterly Business Tendency Survey (the latter is more comprehensive). Similar surveys are conducted in other EU countries.
Research
The Environmental Economic Research Division at Sweden´s National Institute of Economic Research conducts economic impact analyses to provide a better basis for decisions on Sweden´s environmental policy.
With the environmental quality objectives adopted by the Swedish Parliament, environmental policy decisions must meet higher standards of cost effectiveness and be preceded by economic impact analyses.
We evaluate environmental policy instruments through our research, our commissioned assignments and our work on developing models.
Commissioned Assignments
NIER accepts various kinds of commissioned assignments in the areas of macroeconomics and environmental economics. The principal clients are the Swedish Government Offices, government agencies, and organizations representing various interests. An assignment may take the form of a study or a model simulation to describe the effects of a change in economic policy or economic shocks of various kinds. Examples of completed assignments include macroeconomic calculations and environmental supplements to the report of the Long Term Planning Commission, analyses of the effects of shorter working hours, and studies on the impact of demographic changes on government expenditure. Another assignment, of a kind that has become more frequent in recent years, concerns administrative assistance for the benefit of countries seeking to join the EU.
