The Institute for Local Government Economics (ILGE) is an independent unit within Stockholm University’s Department of Business Administration.

ILGE’s function is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge relating to problems, theories and methods of local-government economics. This is done by means of research, training, dissertation supervision, seminars and conferences.

Established in 1987
ILGE, which has been funded by the City of Stockholm and the Stockholm County Council since its inception in 1987, is now in its 11th year. From 1990, the Institute is also — through the Stockholm County Association of
Local Authorities — supported by the majority of
local authorities in the Association.

ILGE’s research, which focuses on developing and evaluating methods to measure and promote efficiency
in local-government administration, is consistently pursued in close association with the international research community.

For the past few years, comprehensive efforts have been made to modernise Swedish local authorities and county councils. Decentralisation, competition or other methods of promoting efficiency have been introduced. The issue of whether these methods have had the desired impact is being dealt with in one of ILGE’s current research projects, as exemplified below.

Evaluation of the urban-district reform
Since January 1997, responsibility for the City of Stockholm’s activities has been largely transferred to 24 urban district committees. The aims of this reform are to attain greater public influence and a more efficient organisation. To find out whether these aims are likely to be fulfilled, the City of Stockholm has commissioned ILGE to carry out a scientific evaluation of the urban-district reform.

This evaluation, which is to last more than five years, will include a study of how the reform has been implemented, as well as its effects. Those taking part in the evaluation will be researchers from the Department of Business Administration at Stockholm University, the School of Public Administration at Göteborg University and the Department of Accounting and Managerial Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics. Reports will be issued successively on the results from the various phases of the evaluation, and the final report is due in March 2001.

Research-based conferences, seminars and other activities
ILGE’s other activities are co-ordinating research-based conferences and seminars in local-government economics, holding courses in financial control and other subjects for public-service employees, evaluation and macroeconomic cost-revenue analysis. In co-operation with the City of Stockholm and Stockholm County Council, ILGE awards annual prizes for essays on issues of local-government economics written by students at Stockholm University’s Department of Business Administration.