SV-411 Institutions and the economy (Autumn 2026)

• Understand how the economy internationally is rooted in cultural and institutional conditions, and know the basic theories and concepts about these relationships.
• Ability to apply theories, models and concepts from the discipline to make their own assessments and analyses of relevant empirical data for commercial strategic and political purposes.
• Ability to use knowledge actively by reflecting critically and independently about institutional factors influencing innovation behaviour, and how such behaviour can be influenced.

A main theme of the course is how different national economies are culturally and institutionally anchored. This is a theme which, inter alia, are discussed within the field of "Varieties of capitalism". Here we talk about different institutional national economic systems and how these are reflected, inter alia, in relation to globalisation and interaction, and changes within and between countries and regions. The discussion about what is called "the Nordic model" joins the international debate about the importance of different national models.

The course presents the principles, theories and models as a basis to discuss these topics. The course will have a historical part where you look at the debates between politics and economics associated with various theoretical traditions. Furthermore, the course will discuss the current debate about the meaning of institutions in the economy, the discussion about innovation systems, the importance of various national economic systems and the debate about the status of the Nordic model today.

The exam has two components:

• Individual term paper (40%)
• Individual written exam (60%)