The local economic impact of the Swedish higher education system

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Han Wang

Regional Studies, 2025, vol. 59, issue 1, 2462712

Abstract: This article examines the role of Swedish higher education institutions (HEIs) in economic development, focusing on the impact of their research capacities on local economic activity. Globally, HEIs are increasingly prioritising research, frequently at the expense of education and local economic engagement, as a means to climb the university ranking ladder. Sweden has been no exception. Our findings indicate that research intensity at Swedish HEIs does not correlate with higher local income. Rather, the opposite is the case: more emphasis on top-end research seems to undermine local income. We explore human capital and innovation as possible mechanisms for the limited local economic influence of Swedish HEIs. The results reveal that HEIs do not significantly improve local human capital. Moreover, despite Swedish HEIs holding intellectual property rights to foster innovation, the actual economic translation of this knowledge faces considerable hurdles, including a misalignment with industry needs and limited local business collaboration.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00343404.2025.2462712 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The local economic impact of the Swedish higher education system (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:regstd:v:59:y:2025:i:1:p:2462712

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CRES20

DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2025.2462712

Access Statistics for this article

Regional Studies is currently edited by Ivan Turok

More articles in Regional Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().