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The 2010s have raised questions about the influence of small central banks in an integrated economy. This thesis investigates the efficacy of the Swedish Riksbank and the effect of economic integration since the adoption of a floating exchange rate in 1993. Theoretically, I examine how financial integration and trade may impact the Mundell-Fleming trilemma. To investigate the impact of integration, and the efficacy of the Riksbank, two VARs are modelled. The first includes control variables for the Eurozone and US economies, the second does not. The difference between the models is the effect of economic integration as a confounding variable. The first model shows the efficacy of the Riksbank’s monetary policy. I find that the Riksbank has only weak efficacy, not able to significantly affect other variables when control variables are introduced. The effect of integration is shown to be large, with most variables being statistically insignificant. Both results concur with the general literature.

The Riksbank’s purpose with the policy rate is to create price stability in the economy and achieve the inflation target. The Swedish real estate market is interest rate sensitive, thereby affected by the economy in Sweden. This thesis investigates the policy rates impact on the volatility of the Swedish real estate market, during the years 2002-2024, using an event study approach with panel regressions. Further, if an increase or decrease of the policy rate have a greater impact of the volatility. By using a quantitative method this thesis uses historical data representing each firm as well as some other independent variables, as OMX Stockholm Real Estate GI. The study provided evidence that the policy rate has an impact on the volatility of the Swedish real estate market, as the majority of the events demonstrated a relationship between the policy rate and the volatility. However, the thesis could not conclude if an increase or decrease of the policy rates has had a greater impact.

In this thesis I examine the Riksbank’s monetary policy for five periods from 1995-2023 to see if the Riksbank follows the Taylor rule. I do so by conducting a diagram of the actual policy rate and the suggested policy rate from the Taylor rule. I also conduct reaction functions using the inflation gap and the output gap and the dynamic Taylor rule’s reaction function. The results gives that the reaction function based on Taylors original rule gave positive and overall statistically significant outcomes for the first periods, while the last two periods had negative and statistically insignificant outcome. The dynamic Taylor rule gave no significant results and evidence for interest smoothing cannot really be concluded. The graphical interpretation shows a similar result as the reaction function. The conclusion is that the Riksbank can be said to have followed the Taylor rule for the first two periods (1995-2005 and 2005-2010), but not for the last three periods (2010-2015, 2015-2020 and 2020-2023).

When Sweden left the gold standard on September 27, 1931, the Swedish government declared that the aim of monetary policy should be to stabilize the domestic purchasing power of the Swedish currency, the krona. With this step, price level targeting officially became for the first time the goal for a central bank. Soon after, the Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) sent a questionnaire to three prominent economics professors, Gustav Cassel, David Davidson and Eli Heckscher, asking for advice about the new monetary situation. In a few weeks, the Riksbank received their replies.This paper presents the three reports, for decades kept as classified documents in the archives of the Riksbank. The reports give an excellent view of the monetary thinking in the early 1930s of the first generation of modern Swedish economists, prior to the outbreak of the world depression of the 1930s and the emergence of the Stockholm School in macroeconomics. The reports are strikingly modern. They deal with the central issues in the present discussion on inflation targeting, such as the choice of price index to target, the proper instrument to use, the importance of creating public credibility for the new monetary rule, potential legal changes to anchor the new standard, and the appropriate central bank response to changes in the exchange rate. In short, the three economists prepared the first practical guide to inflation targeting at the zero rate.The paper also considers the impact of the reports on the policy of the Riksbank. Most strikingly, the Riksbank started to construct and collect a weekly consumer price index to use as a guide for implementing the new policy of price stabilization. This task was carried out by Dag Hammarskjöld under the guidance of Erik Lindahl.

After World War II and prior to the financial deregulation of the 1980s, monetary policy in Sweden as well as in other western European countries rested chiefly on a system of far- reaching non-market-oriented controls of credit flows and interest rates. How was monetary policy conducted in such an environment of financial repression, where the central bank was unable to rely on traditional monetary policy instruments working on "free" and "unregulated" money and capital markets?This study provides an answer from the Swedish experience. It is based on a unique set of confidential minutes from about 160 monthly meetings between the Riksbank and the commercial banks during the years 1956-73. These minutes, written during or directly after the meetings, have not been available to scholars before. Most likely, a similar archive material does not exist for any other country.The examination of the minutes demonstrates that monetary policy was framed in a process involving threats and arguments in a small and closed club involving the central bank and the chief executives of the commercial banks. According to a joke assigned to Erik Lundberg “open market operations were replaced by open mouth operations” - albeit the dialogue was kept within the club.When Swedish financial markets were deregulated in the 1980s, the standard tools of monetary policy rapidly replaced the meetings between the central bank and the commercial banks. Today, the Riksbank communicates in an open way to all financial market participants, instead of turning to a small set of commercial bankers in meetings closed to outsiders.

The Riksbank is currently investigating the possibility of producing a Central Bank Digital Currency in Sweden, called “e-krona”, implemented through an “e-krona network” on a platform based on Distributed Ledger Technology. By applying the methodology of legal dogmatics, legal informatics, and a legal policy perspective, this thesis examines and analyses some of the fundamental differences in Sweden’s current payment system for transactions at the point of sale, comparing debit card-based transactions with payments using the model of the Riksbank’s e-krona pilot. This contribution will examine, in particular, technological, regulative and, democratic differences between the two payment systems. The thesis also aims to contribute and encourage a discussion on potential democracy-related impacts concerning traceability aspects of the end-users’ payment data in the e-krona pilot. The examination of the e-krona technology reveals that the transactions are recorded in a distributed ledger and that the e-kronor in the network are represented by tokens, traceable to the Riksbank as issuer and delegated monitor of the system. Banks and other payment service providers act as participants in the e-krona network, responsible for providing the e-kronor to their customers through e-krona wallets. With respect to the payment system of card-based transactions, the paper concludes that individuals’ payment data is only traceable to a certain extent and that access to a transaction chain requires that information is collected among the multiple segmented private actors involved in the transaction. In the e-krona network, on the contrary, more information is shared between the participants, which enables traceability of the end-users payment data at a detailed level, providing access to full transaction chains by default. This thesis furthermore argues that the e-krona system does not comply with current legal frameworks protecting the payment data of individuals and that legisl

This open access book presents case studies of twelve organisations which the public have come to view as institutions. From the BBC to Doctors Without Borders, from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra to CERN, this volume examines how some organisations rise to prominence and remain in high public esteem through changing and challenging times. It builds upon the scholarly tradition of institutional scholarship pioneered by Philip Selznick, and highlights common themes in the stories of these highly diverse organizations; demonstrating how leadership, learning, and luck all play a role in becoming and remaining an institution. This case study format makes this volume ideal for classroom use and practitioners alike. In an era where public institutions are increasingly under threat, this volume offers concrete lessons for contemporary organisation leaders.

The central bank of Sweden, the Riksbank, has for a long time controlled the lending to thepublic by the business banks. To control the credit market the Riksbank set up severalregulations, one of the most prominent a limit of how much the business banks could be lendingout to the public. In November 1985 the limit of lending was deregulated. How did thisderegulation affect the lending and the business banks? Why was this deregulation done and howcan we explain this in context to the economy? To answer these questions I’ve used data fromthe official statistics of Sweden and from the Riksbank to make figures. My result shows that thelending to the public bloomed after 1985 and that the business banks probably started borrowingmoney from abroad to finance the lending.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and explain the relation of changes in capital requirements on the profitability of Swedish banks. Method: A mixed model approach is used. The quantitative approach is con-ducted through the collection and analysis of statistics from Swe-dish banks and financial institutions. The qualitative research ap-proach is used to obtain further insights into the Swedish banking system and how banks are managing capital requirements. This is conducted through interviews with respondents from a large bank, a niche bank, and the Riksbank. Analysis: The analysis is made on yearly data from 1999 to 2015. Return on equity and net interest margin are individually used as dependent variables. The independent variables are various capital ratios which are defined by the Basel framework. The results from the quantitative analysis are in line with the findings from the qualita-tive interviews. Conclusion: On one hand, capital requirement ratios seem to have a negative and statistically significant correlation with the Return on Equity for both large banks and niche banks. On the other hand, capital re-quirement ratios seem to have a positive and statistically significant correlation with the Net Interest Margin for niche banks.