1.
Bäckman, Olof, 1965-
(författare)
Longitudinal Studies on Sickness Absence in Sweden
1998
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The research object of this thesis is sickness absence taking behavior in Sweden. In four empirical studies, using longitudinal data, the thesis investigates sickness absence taking behavior as a result of the impact of specific structural factors.The first empirical study (Chapter II) examines the relationship between the annual national sickness absence and unemployment rates for the period 1935-1990. The effects of changes of the replacement level are also studied. The analyses show that the widespread notion of an inverse relationship between the unemployment rate and the sickness absence rate cannot be verified by a closer analysis of available data.The remaining three empirical studies use micro-data to study sickness absence behavior. Chapter III closely examines the effect of the reduction in sickness cash benefits of March 1 1991 on the short-term absence rate. The theoretical perspective is derived from rational choice theory. Intensity regressions on duration data show that the objectives that were linked to the reduction of benefits-lower sickness absence rates and an equal distribution of the burdens brought about by the reduction-are incompatible. The weaker groups that are likely to have the greatest need for sickness absence reduce their absence taking more than stronger groups in the labor market.Chapter IV, co-authored with Joakim Palme, addresses the question of how conditions in childhood affect absence taking in adulthood. Analyses of data of a Stockholm cohort reveal how conditions in childhood and early adolescence structure the absence taking behavior of individuals. The chapter shows the endurance of these effects, a finding that is most clearly manifested in what has been labeled "the social imprint effect".The fourth of the empirical studies (Chapter V) treats the issue of gender differences in short-term absence rates. The study focuses on the impact of the gender composition of work places, but hierarchical positioning and integration among workers are also investigated. The results indicate that numerical representation conditions the short-term absence rate of women in the sense that women at workplaces where they constitute a small minority have a lower short-term absence rate than other women. For men, the hierarchical position in which they work is a more important determinant for the short-term absence rate.The results provide new insights for the study of sickness absence from a sociological perspective by specifying the mechanisms through which the social structure, in terms of institutional constraints, incentives, social stratification, and organizational traits of job sites, influences the behavior of individuals.
2.
Kahlmeter, Anna, 1981-
(författare)
Stressful life events and risks for social exclusion in the youth-to-adulthood transition : Findings from Swedish longitudinal data
2022
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Family background and childhood conditions have long held a special position in the academic literature as an explanation for young people’s life chances. Less attention has been paid to circumstances and events on the cusp of adulthood. This thesis aims to improve the understanding of how stressful life events are associated with future trajectories of education and labour market attachment. The thesis comprises three empirical studies, all of which draw on longitudinal micro data from Swedish administrative registers.Study I examines different types of housing instability events, among students in upper secondary school still in the parental nest, focusing on non-forced moves as well as eviction threats and forced relocations. It assesses the association between housing instability and educational attainment, operationalized as graduation from upper secondary school. The results suggest that the instability and stress following forced relocations, repeated relocations and long-distance relocations are of particular significance for understanding the link between housing instability and educational outcomes. Single short-distance relocations seem to have little impact on educational success. Findings also indicate that eviction threats, where a forced relocation was arrested, still may have implications for educational attainment. However, sensitivity tests showed that these estimates were not robust to confounding. Averting an eviction, even at this late stage of housing instability, may thus protect against early school leaving. Further research is however needed.Study II follows young individuals from the time of their residential emancipation and maps their labour market establishment trajectories until their mid-thirties, by means of sequence analysis. It then investigates to what extent the experience of economic hardship, measured as different degrees of social assistance receipt, is associated with adverse labour market trajectories. The results indicate that, for a majority of social assistance recipients, the system works as intended, and they transition to education or work rather swiftly, particularly if economic hardship is brief. Extensive hardship, however, is associated with elevated risks of long-term labour market exclusion that persists well into adulthood.Study III draws on register data for 12 complete successive cohorts and examines the link between severe violent victimization in young adulthood and labour market exclusion at ages 25 and 30. It puts particular emphasis on the moderating role of offending and gender. The findings suggest that victimized women are a particularly disadvantaged group, having faced a range of social and financial strain. Female victims of violent crime also face elevated risks of labour market exclusion, both in the short- and the long-term, and regardless of criminal offending. For men, however, violent offending moderates the association. While violent victimization adds to the risk of labour market exclusion for male violent offenders, male non-offenders display no elevated risks.Taken together, the thesis demonstrates that the experience of these life events in the transition from youth to adulthood place young individuals at heightened risk of educational shortfall and exclusion from the labour market, both in the immediate aftermath and later in life. Implications of the findings are that a long-term perspective is warranted in considerations of both preventive and reactive measures.
3.
Sirén, Sebastian, 1985-
(författare)
Social Policy in Development Contexts : Drivers, Mechanisms and Outcomes
2022
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Economic growth amidst staggering inequality in many low- and middle-income countries makes the quest to end global poverty more topical than ever. Calls to leave no one behind in the course of development underscore the need to reconsider the role of policy frameworks in emerging economies. Social policies have been expanded across the Global South during the last decades, and social protection is increasingly highlighted as a fundamental component of the global sustainable development agenda. This thesis, comprising three self-contained studies, analyses the drivers, mechanisms and outcomes of social policy reform in development contexts, asking which economic institutions could enable more rapid advancement towards ending poverty and reducing inequalities, and what conditions promote the expansion of such institutions?Study I investigates the driving forces of changes in social spending across 46 more recent democracies, with particular attention to the role of partisan politics. Using data from 1995 to 2015, multivariate fixed effect regressions reveal a positive association between left government and public social expenditures, also when controlling for structural and institutional factors. This finding indicates that interests and ideologies, articulated through partisan politics, matter for the evolution of social policy, also in development contexts.In light of the findings from this quantitative analysis, Study II investigates the mechanisms driving, and hampering, progress towards social policy expansion in a specific case. The politics surrounding a healthcare reform with the ambition to universalise access to public healthcare in Bolivia is examined using theory-guided process tracing methods. The study highlights how policy is shaped through an interaction between societal and state actors as well as how interests and ideas are intertwined in the process, but also how policy legacies give rise to reactive sequences militating against change.In Study III, the focus is on the outcomes of social policy. The study presents analyses of how government cash transfer systems moderate the effect of economic growth in both absolute and relative child poverty. Longitudinal data from 16 low- and middle-income countries included in the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) are analysed by means of descriptive statistics and multivariate regression techniques. Findings show that both economic growth and the expansions of transfer schemes are associated with declining absolute poverty. Meanwhile, growth is found to be related to reductions in relative child poverty primarily when combined with sufficiently extensive systems of government transfers, thus pointing to the relevance of social protection for inclusive growth.The findings from the three studies illustrate that central concepts from comparative welfare state research can be employed also in development contexts, converging on an analytical approach where changes in poverty and inequality are influenced by politics. Continued comparative analyses of social policies and their determinants in development contexts can accordingly generate much-needed insights into the causes of global poverty and inequality. Future research should further explore feedback effects of policy on politics and consider the potential synergies between social policy, equality, and economic growth.
