Adam Jacobsson, Lecturer

Stockholm University Department of Economics SE-106 91 Stockholm Sweden

+46-8-161756

Short presentation

I obtained my PhD in 2003 at the Department of Economics, Stockholm University and have since then held a position as a lecturer. Since spring 2009 I am director of studies for the master program in economics.

Research interests

In general, I find analysis of strategic interaction between agents to be of great use in explaining different economic, political and social phenomena in real life. Therefore I apply game theory in my research focusing on the following fields:

  • The political economy of conflict and appropriation - Arms races, resource conflicts, analysis of illegal drugs markets
  • Media economics - Issues of news media independence, quality and competition
  • Efficient environmental inspection and enforcement (EMT). - I am project leader (joint with Mathias Herzing) for the project EMT which is funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Link to project homepage.

Current teaching

Working papers

"The impact of market competition on journalistic performance.". With Jacobsson, E., Becker, L., Vlad, T., Hollifield, C. A., (2008, July). Paper presented at the conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research, Stockholm, Sweden. (File available at the Cox Center, Georgia)
"Click here to get to the Cox Center for a video and powerpoint presentation..


"Political media contests and confirmatory bias", Working Papers in Economics 2002:3, Department of Economics, Stockholm University.

Selected publications


“War and peace – cyclical phenomena?”. Public Choice, Vol 141, Numbers 3-4, December 2009, pp 467-480. Available at Online first.

“Counter-intuitive effects of domestic law enforcement policies in the United States” (with Alberto Naranjo). Economics of Governance. Vol 10, Number 4, November 2009, pp 323-343. Available at Online first.

“Is more always better? Examining the adverse effects of competition on media performance” (with Lee B. Becker, C. Ann Hollifield, Eva-Maria Jacobsson and Tudor Vlad). Journalism Studies, Vol. 10. No 3, 2009, pp 368-385. YouTube comment and abstract available here.

Tillämpad mikroekonomi second edition (co-editor with Jonas Häckner and Astri Muren). Studentlitteratur, 2009.

"Quality of news" (with Eva-Maria Jacobsson) in Donsbach, W. (ed), The Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Communication, 2008.

Chapter 12 on "Defense" in Dufwenberg, Isaksson, Lundholm, (eds), Tillämpad mikroekonomi, Studentlitteratur, 2000 (This is a textbook for first-year economics students.)


Additional information