| 1. |
- Aalto, Aino-Maija, et al.
(author)
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Childcare - A safety net for children?
- 2018
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We analyze how access to childcare affects health outcomes of children with unemployed parents using a reform that increased childcare access in some Swedish municipalities. For 4–5 year olds, we find an immediate increase in infection-related hospitalization, when these children first get access to childcare. We find no effect on younger children. When children are 10–11 years of age, children who did not have access to childcare when parents were unemployed are more likely to take medication for respiratory conditions. Taken together, our results thus suggest that access to childcare exposes children to risks for infections, but that need for medication in school age is lower for children who had access.
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| 2. |
- Aggeborn, Linuz, 1986-
(author)
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Essays on Politics and Health Economics
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Essay I (with Mattias Öhman): Fluoridation of the drinking water is a public policy whose aim is to improve dental health. Although the evidence is clear that fluoride is good for dental health, concerns have been raised regarding potential negative effects on cognitive development. We study the effects of fluoride exposure through the drinking water in early life on cognitive and non-cognitive ability, education and labor market outcomes in a large-scale setting. We use a rich Swedish register dataset for the cohorts born 1985-1992, together with drinking water fluoride data. To estimate the effect we exploit intra-municipality variation of fluoride, stemming from an exogenous variation in the bedrock. First, we investigate and confirm the long-established positive relationship between fluoride and dental health. Second, we find precisely estimated zero effects on cognitive ability, non-cognitive ability and education. We do not find any evidence that fluoride levels below 1.5 mg/l have negative effects. Third, we find evidence that fluoride improves labor market outcome later in life, which indicates that good dental health is a positive factor on the labor market.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Ahlin, Åsa, et al.
(author)
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Effects Of Decentralization On School Resources : Sweden 1989-2002
- 2007
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Sweden has undertaken major national reforms of its school sector which, con- sequently, has been classified as one of the most decentralized ones in the OECD. This paper investigates whether school resources became more un- equally distributed across municipalities in connection with the reforms and if local tax base, grants, and preferences affected local school resources differently as decentralization took place. Using municipal data the paper studies how per pupil spending and the teacher-pupil ratio has evolved over the period 1989– 2002, separating between three different waves of decentralization. As nothing much has happened with per pupil spending, the teacher-pupil ratio has become more evenly distributed across municipalities. Municipal tax base affects per pupil spending in the same way regardless of whether the school sector is cen- tralized or decentralized, but has a smaller effect on teacher-pupil ratio after the reforms. The less targeted grants are, the fewer teachers per pupil do the mu- nicipalities employ. The results for local preferences are less clear cut.
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| 6. |
- Ahlin, Åsa, et al.
(author)
-
Effects of decentralization on school resources
- 2008
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In: Economics of Education Review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0272-7757 .- 1873-7382. ; 27:3, s. 276-284
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sweden has undertaken major national reforms of its school sector, which, consequently, has been classified as one of the most decentralized ones in the OECD. This paper investigates whether local tax base, grants, and preferences affected local school resources differently as decentralization took place. We find that municipal tax base affects per pupil spending in the same way regardless of whether the school sector is centralized or decentralized, but has a smaller effect on teacher–pupil ratio after the reforms. The less-targeted grants are the fewer teachers per pupil do the municipalities employ. The results for local preferences are less clear-cut.
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| 7. |
- Andersson, Tommy, et al.
(author)
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2020 års Ekonomipris till Paul Milgrom och Robert Wilson
- 2020
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In: Ekonomisk Debatt. - : Nationalekonomiska Föreningen. - 0345-2646. ; 48:8, s. 5-12
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien har beslutat dela ut årets Ekonomipris till Paul Milgrom och Robert Wilson, båda från Stanford University, USA, för ”förbättringar av auktionsteorin och uppfinningar av nya auktionsformat”. Årets pristagare har i sin forskning sammanfört teori och praktik, till nytta för enskilda individer, företag och samhällen världen över.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bergström, Pål, et al.
(author)
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The effects of grants and wages on municipal labour demand
- 2004
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In: Labour Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0927-5371 .- 1879-1034. ; 11:3, s. 315-334
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper we investigate the determinants of municipal labour demand in Sweden 1988–1995. Utilising a major grant reform in 1993, through which a switch from mainly targeted to mainly general central government grants occurred, we are able to identify which type of grants that have the largest effects on municipal employment. We find a larger municipal employment elasticity with respect to grants before the reform, which we interpret as evidence that general grants have less employment effects than specific ones. We further find a short run wage elasticity of approximately -0.5 and a long run ditto of approximately -0.9, and a quite sluggish adjustment process: only 60% of the desired change in municipal employment is implemented in the first year.
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| 10. |
- Boadway, Robin, et al.
(author)
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Fördelning av makt och ansvar
- 2003
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In: Staten och kommunerna. - Stockholm : SNS förlag. - 9789171508850
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 11. |
- Cipullo, Davide
(author)
-
Political Careers, Government Stability, and Electoral Cycles
- 2021
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Essay 1: This essay investigates the impact of voter support on the representation of women in the political profession. The empirical analysis exploits two-stage elections in the United States and Italy to hold the selection of candidates constant. In two-stage elections, candidates are admitted to the second round of voting based on the outcome of the first round. I find that among candidates who marginally qualify for the final round, women are 20 percent less likely than men to be elected to the US House of Representatives and 40 percent less likely to be elected mayor in Italian municipalities. Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, I then show that the gender gap in the probability of being elected has long-lasting effects on career trajectories. Women are substantially less likely than men to win future elections and to climb the political hierarchy. My findings suggest that one of the reasons that few women reach the top in politics is that female candidates face hurdles at the beginning of their careers.Essay 2 (with Felipe Carozzi and Luca Repetto): This essay studies how political fragmentation affects government stability. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we show that each additional party with representation in the local parliament increases the probability that the incumbent government is unseated by 5 percentage points. The entry of an additional party affects stability by increasing both the probability of a single-party majority and the instability of governments when such a majority is not feasible. We interpret our results in light of a bargaining model of coalition formation featuring government instability. Essay 3 (with André Reslow): This essay introduces macroeconomic forecasters as political agents and suggests that they use their forecasts to influence voting outcomes. We develop a probabilistic voting model in which voters do not have complete information about future states of the economy and have to rely on macroeconomic forecasters. The model predicts that prior to a referendum, it is optimal for forecasters with an economic interest (stake) in the outcome and influence over the public to publish biased forecasts. We test our theory using high-frequency data at the forecaster level surrounding the Brexit referendum. The results show that forecasters with greater stakes and influence released much more pessimistic and incorrect estimates of GDP growth under the Leave outcome scenario than other forecasters.Essay 4 (with André Reslow): This paper documents the existence of Political Forecast Cycles. In a theoretical model of political selection, we show that governments release overly optimistic GDP growth forecasts ahead of elections to increase the reelection probability. The bias arises from lack of commitment if voters are rational and from manipulation of voters’ beliefs if they are naive and do not expect the incumbent to be biased. Using high-frequency forecaster-level data from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, we document that governments overestimate short-term GDP growth by 10 to 13 percent during campaign periods. Furthermore, we find that the bias is larger when the incumbent government is not term-limited or constrained by a parliament led by the opposition. Consistent with the model, we also find that the election timing and amount of available information determine the size of the bias at different forecast horizons.
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| 12. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, 1966-, et al.
(author)
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Aktivering av socialbidragstagare i Sverige
- 2008
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In: Søkelys på arbeidsmarkedet. - Oslo : Institutt for samfunnsforskning. - 0800-6199 .- 1504-7970. ; 25:2, s. 277-289
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 13. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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Do politicians' preferences correspond to those of the voters : an investigation of political representation
- 2004
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper investigates to what extent voters and politicians have the same preferences for locally provided welfare services. We make use of two different types of survey questionnaires; one directed towards voters and one directed towards politicians. We reach two main conclusions in the paper. First, we find that politicians have preferences for significantly different spending on locally provided welfare services compared to voters. Second, this difference remains even after controlling for politicians and voters having different socio-economic characteristics. For example, when analyzing female representation, we find that female politicians have significantly different preferences for spending than female voters. One implication of the latter result is that an increase in the ratio of female to male politicians may not be the only way to deal with the desire to increase the political representation of women.
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| 14. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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Do Politicians’ Preferences Matter for Voters’ Voting Decisions?
- 2011
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Using unique survey data that allows us to observe both voters’ and politicians’ preferences for local public spending as well as voting decisions, this paper tests if voters typically support parties in which the politicians’ preferences are closest to their own. Doing so would be rational for the voters to do if politicians’ preferences matter for policy outcomes, as is the case in e.g. the citizen-candidate model. It is found that this is indeed the case. This finding is in line with theoretical models such as the citizen-candidate model arguing that politicians cannot credibly commit to election platforms that differ from their true policy preferences.
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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Intergovernmental Grants and Bureaucratic Power
- 2008
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In their role as agenda setters and implementers of political decisions, bureaucrats potentially have the power to influence decisions in their own favor. It is however difficult to empirically test whether bureaucrats actually are involved in such actions. In this paper we suggest and apply a new way of testing the hypothesis that bureaucrats can and do in fact affect policy to their own benefit. Making use of a discontinuity in the Swedish grant system, we estimate causal effects of intergovernmental grants on different types of personnel employed by the local governments. On the margin, we find a large, positive effect of grants on the number of bureaucrats in the central administration, but no effects on the number of personnel in other important sectors runby the local government (child care, schools and elderly care). These results support theview that bureaucrats are able to, and do indeed, affect the allocation of grants withinmunicipalities to support own goals.
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| 18. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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Is There an Election Cycle in Public Employment? : Separating Time Effects from Election Year Effects
- 2011
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In: CESifo Economic Studies. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1610-241X .- 1612-7501. ; 57:3, s. 480-498
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Do governments increase public employment in election years? This article answers this question by using data from Sweden and Finland, two countries that are similar in many respects but in which local elections are held at different points in time. These facts make it possible for us to separate an election effect from other time effects. Our results indicate that there is a statistically significant election year effect in local public employment, a production factor that is highly visible in the welfare services provided by the local governments in the Scandinavian countries. The effect also seems to be economically significant; the municipalities employ 0.6 more full-time employees per 1000 capita in election years than in other years (which correspond to an increase by approximately 1%).
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| 19. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
-
Is there an election cycle in public employment? Separating time effects from election year effects
- 2008
-
Reports (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Do governments increase public employment in election years? This paper investigates this question by using data from Sweden and Finland, two coun¬tries that are similar in many respects but in which local elections are held at different points in time. We can thereby separate an election effect from other time effects. Our results indicate that there is a statistically significant election year effect in local public employment, a production factor that is highly visi¬ble in the welfare services provided by the local governments in the Scandina¬vian countries. The effect also seems to be economically significant; the municipalities employ 0.6 more full-time employees per 1,000 capita in election years than in other years (which correspond to an increase by approximately 1 percent).
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| 20. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
-
Jobbtorg Stockholm - resultat från en enkätundersökning
- 2013
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I denna studie undersöker vi med hjälp av enkätdata hur deltagarna vid Jobbtorgen i Stockholms stad ser på sin situation som arbetslösa och vilken hjälp och stöd de anser att de får av coacher och socialsekreterare. Vi fokuserar på gruppen utrikes födda, då bortfallet bland svenskfödda är stort. Vi undersöker även hur coacher och socialsekreterare ser på Jobbtorgen samt varandras arbete med arbetslösa försörjningsstödstagare.En analys av svaren visar att deltagarna anser sig ha en svag ställning på arbetsmarknaden. De allra flesta uppger att de söker aktivt efter jobb, men att de inte har haft något jobb på länge (eller kanske aldrig). De tror att deras chanser att få ett arbete inom kort är små. Majoriteten av de svarande deltagarna tycker att aktiviteten de deltar i är dålig och skulle hellre delta i någon annan aktivitet. Även om många tror att Jobbtorget kan hjälpa dem att få ett jobb, skulle de hellre söka jobb via Arbetsförmedlingen eller på egen hand. De deltagare som träffar sin coach relativt ofta och uppger att samarbetet med denne fungerar bra är mer positiva till den aktivitet de deltar i och tror i större utsträckning att Jobbtorget kan hjälpa dem att hitta ett arbete.
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| 21. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
-
Kommunanställda byråkraters dubbla roll
- 2005
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In: Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv. - 1400-9692 .- 2002-343X. ; 11:3, s. 171-177
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)
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| 22. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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Mandatory Activation of Welfare Recipients – Evidence from the City of Stockholm
-
Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper investigates whether mandatory activation programs for welfare recipients have effects on welfare participation, employment and disposable income. In contrast to earlier studies, we are able to capture both entry and exit effects. The empirical analysis makes use of a Swedish welfare reform in which the city districts in Stockholm gradually implemented mandatory activation programs for individuals on welfare. On average, we find that mandatory activation of welfare recipients increases employment as well as disposable income. However, these sizes of the estimated effects must be considered relatively small. There are some indications of larger effects for single-headed households.
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| 23. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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On mandatory activation of welfare receivers
- 2008
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper investigates whether mandatory activation programs for welfare receivers have effects on welfare participation, employment and disposable income. In contrast to earlier studies we are able to capture both entry and exit effects. The empirical analysis makes use of a Swedish welfare reform in which the city districts in Stockholm gradually implemented mandatory activation programs for individuals on welfare. The reform is well suited for investigating effects of such programs for several reasons. First, the reform was not combined with any other policy instruments, like time limits or tax credits, making sure that we will capture effects of mandatory activation policies and nothing else. Second, the reform was initiated at different points of time in different city districts, which ease identification. Third, using data from city districts within a single local labor market we can control for confounding macro economic shocks. Overall, we find that mandatory activation of welfare receivers reduce overall welfare participation and increases employment. We also find that mandatory activation programs appear to work best for young people and for people born in non-Western countries. For disposable income, we do not find a statistically significant effect.
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| 24. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, 1966-, et al.
(author)
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Power Properties of the Sargan Test in the Presence of Measurement Errors in Dynamic Panels
- 2008
-
In: Applied Economics Letters. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1350-4851 .- 1466-4291. ; 15:5, s. 349-353
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper investigates the power properties of the Sargan test in the presence of measurement errors in dynamic panel data models. The conclusion from Monte Carlo simulations, and an application on the data used by Arellano and Bond (1991), is that in the very likely case of measurement errors in either the dependent or any of the independent variables, we will, if we rely on the Sargan test, quite likely accept a mis-specified model and end up with biased results.
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| 25. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
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Public Employment and the Double Role of Bureaucrats
- 2005
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Bureaucrats in the government sector have a double role since they are both suppliers and demanders of public employment; they are publicly employed (supply labor) and they have an important say in deciding the size of the municipal employment (demand labor). In this paper we present and estimate a theoretical model that focuses on this double role of bureaucrats. The predictions from the theoretical model are supported by our empirical results: The estimates, based on data from Swedish municipalities 1990–2002, show that wages have smaller effects on the demand for bureaucrats than on the demand for other types of public employees. Actually, wages have no significant effect on the number of bureaucrats the municipality employs.
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| 26. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
-
Public Employment and the Double Role of Bureaucrats
- 2006
-
In: Public Choice. - 0048-5829 .- 1573-7101. ; 126, s. 387-404
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bureaucrats in the government sector have a double role since they are both suppliers and demanders of public employment; they are publicly employed (supply labor) and they have an important say in deciding the size of the municipal employment (demand labor). In this paper we present and estimate a theoretical model that focuses on this double role of bureaucrats. The predictions from the theoretical model are supported by our empirical results: The estimates, based on data from Swedish municipalities 1990–2002, show that wages have smaller effects on the demand for bureaucrats than on the demand for other types of public employees. Actually, wages have no significant effect on the number of bureaucrats the municipality employs.
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
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| 29. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, et al.
(author)
-
Using a discontinuous grant rule to identify the effect of grants on local taxes and spending
- 2006
-
Reports (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- When investigating the effects of federal grants on the behavior of lower-level governments, it is hard to defend the handling of grants as an exogenous factor affecting local governments; federal governments often set grants based on characteristics and performance of local governments. In this paper we make use of a discontinuity in the Swedish grant system in order to estimate the causal effects of general intergovernmental grants on local spending and local tax rates. The formula for the distribution of funds is used as an exclusion restriction in an IV-estimation. We find evidence of crowding-in, where federal grants are shifted to more local spending, but not to reduced local tax rates. Our results thus confirm a flypaper effect for Sweden.
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| 30. |
- Dahlberg, Matz, 1966-, et al.
(author)
-
Using a discontinuous grant rule to identify the effect of grants on local taxes and spending
- 2008
-
In: Journal of Public Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0047-2727 .- 1879-2316. ; 92:12, s. 2320-2335
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- When investigating the effects of federal grants on the behavior of lower-level governments, it is hard to defend the handling of grants as an exogenous factor. Federal governments often set grants based on characteristics and performance of decentralized governments. In this paper we make use of a discontinuity in the Swedish grant system in order to estimate the causal effects of general intergovernmental grants on local spending and local tax rates. The formula for the distribution of funds is used as an exclusion restriction in an IV-estimation. We find evidence of crowding-in, where federal grants are shifted to more local spending, but not to reduced local tax rates.
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| 31. |
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| 32. |
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| 33. |
- Edmark, Karin, et al.
(author)
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Evaluation of the Swedish earned income tax credit
- 2012
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Over the last twenty years we have seen an increasing use of in-work tax subsidies to encourage labor supply among low-income groups. In Sweden, a non-targeted earned income tax credit was introduced in 2007, and was reinforced in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The stated motive of the reform was to boost employment; in particular to provide incentives for individuals to go from unemployment to, at least, part-time work. In this paper we try to analyze the extensive margin labor supply effects of the Swedish earned income tax credit reform up to 2008. For identification we exploit the fact that the size of the tax credit, as well as the resulting average tax rate, is a function of the municipality of residence and income if working. However, throughout the analysis we find placebo effects that are similar in size to the estimated reform effects. In addition, the results are sensitive with respect to how we define employment, which is especially true when we analyze different subgroups such as men and women, married and singles. Our conclusion is that the identifying variation is too small and potentially endogenous and that it is therefore not possible to use this variation to perform a quasi-experimental evaluation of the Swedish EITC-reform.
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| 34. |
- Edmark, Karin, et al.
(author)
-
The Swedish Earned Income Tax Credit : Did It Increase Employment?
- 2016
-
In: Finanzarchiv. - 0015-2218 .- 1614-0974. ; 72:4, s. 475-503
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper analyzes the extensive-margin labor-supply effects of a Swedish earned income tax credit introduced in 2007. The reform was one of the government's flagship reforms to boost employment, but its actual effects have been widely debated. We exploit the fact that the size of the tax credit is a function of the municipality of residence and income if working, which yields two sources of quasi-experimental variation. The identifying variation, however, turns out to be small and potentially endogenous, which means that the question of whether the reform has delivered the hoped-for effects cannot be credibly answered.
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| 35. |
- Erlingsson, Gissur Ó, 1974-, et al.
(author)
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Does size matter? Evidence from municipal splits
- 2024
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In: Journal of regional science. - : WILEY. - 0022-4146 .- 1467-9787.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We contribute to the limited knowledge of the consequences of municipal splits by estimating how break-ups of seven Swedish municipalities affected per capita expenditures. To predict what would have happened had the break-ups not taken place, we apply the matrix completion method with nuclear norm minimization. We find that smaller municipalities not necessarily imply higher per capita expenditures. Instead, expenditures increase in some cases, are unaffected in others, and in others, decrease. The results point to the complex nature of territorial reforms and underscore the perils of policy recommendations that take uniform outcomes of either amalgamations or break-ups for granted.
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| 36. |
- Fredriksson, Peter, et al.
(author)
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Alleviating Global Poverty : A Note on the Experimental Approach
- 2021
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In: Poverty in Contemporary Economic Thought. - London : Routledge. - 9780367354268 - 9780429331312 ; , s. 188-198
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter describes the research by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer, who pioneered the experimental approach to understanding poverty alleviation, for which they were awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Economic well-being doubled in the poorest countries between 1995 and 2018. Child mortality has been cut in half relative to 1995, and the proportion of children attending school has gone up from 56 to 80 percent. Any post-intervention differences in the outcome of interest can thus be solely attributed to the treatment. Studies using field experiments are therefore characterized by high internal validity. A key issue is whether experimental results can be generalized to other contexts, whether or not they are externally valid. In the mid-1990s, Michael Kremer and colleagues conducted the first field experiments within development economics in rural Western Kenya.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
- Hanspers, Kajsa
(author)
-
Essays on Welfare Dependency and the Privatization of Welfare Services
- 2013
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Essay 1: This paper investigates whether mandatory activation programs for welfare recipients have effects on welfare participation, employment and disposable income. In contrast to earlier studies, we are able to capture both entry and exit effects. The empirical analysis makes use of a Swedish welfare reform in which the city districts in Stockholm gradually implemented mandatory activation programs for individuals on welfare. On average, we find that mandatory activation of welfare recipients increases employment as well as disposable income. However, these sizes of the estimated effects must be considered relatively small. There are some indications of larger effects for single-headed households.Essay 2: This study tests whether individuals who grow up with parents on welfare benefits are themselves more (or less) likely to be welfare recipients as young adults, compared to individuals who grow up in non-welfare households. We use the sibling difference method to identify causal effects separately from the effects of correlated factors. While a descriptive analysis reveals a fairly high positive intergenerational correlation, especially in the late teens and conditional on a large set of household level factors, the sibling analysis provides no support for a causal effect of parents’ welfare benefit receipt on children’s future welfare use.Essay 3: Spending on health care makes up a large proportion of the GDP in Sweden as in most developed countries. The introduction of private alternatives and more competition in the market have been advanced as a way to increase efficiency and patient choice, but the previous literature contain conflicting evidence regarding the quality impact of market reforms in health care. This paper examines the impact on health care quality of reforms aimed at introducing more competition in the market for primary health care. The analysis is performed using cross-county variation in private supply and the financial incentives provided by the health care organization in Sweden 1998 to 2010. The analysis separates between measures of quality which are easily observed by patients and measures intended to capture medical quality, which are more difficult for patients to assess. The results indicate that the reforms intended to increase competition do not seem to improve the overall quality of primary health care. Increased competition in the market is associated with more visits to the primary health care, but otherwise, the results give no support for effects on availability or patient satisfaction. The results on clinical quality do not indicate any consistent evidence of any impact of competition either.Essay 4: This paper investigates differences in worker absence between privately and publicly employed workers in Swedish primary schools and preschools. Using hive-offs, i.e., ownership changes from a public to a private owner, I analyze the effects of private versus public employment on sickness absence, parental leave, and temporary leave for care of children. The empirical analysis suggests a substantial negative effect on sickness absence in preschools, but not in primary schools. For parental leave and temporary parental leave for care of children, no significant effects are found in either industry. The fact that parental leave, which is voluntary to a greater extent than sickness absence, seems to be unaffected by ownership opposes the argument of stronger incentives for effort in the private sector. However, the finding of a negative effect on sickness absence suggests that private employment may be associated with better work conditions, at least for workers in the preschool sector.
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| 39. |
- Jävervall, Sebastian, 1990-
(author)
-
Corruption, Distortions and Development
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Essay I: Does increased government transparency make bureaucracies more meritocratic? I study the impact of politician disclosure requirements on the assignment of bureaucrats to public posts. I collect detailed information on bureaucrats' qualifications and construct a novel measure of bureaucratic mismatch—an index measuring the extent to which a bureaucrat is under- or overqualified to perform a specific task. Using the staggered implementation of Indian state elections for identification, I find that information disclosure is associated with a mismatch reduction of 2.5% of a standard deviation. This effect is substantially larger (15–45% of a standard deviation) in posts that are more important for policy implementation and tasks that bureaucrats perceive to be more prestigious. In addition, I find that information disclosure increases returns to bureaucrat skill. Bureaucrats with greater skill are more likely to reach prestigious positions in more transparent states. Taken together, the results show that government transparency promotes meritocracy within public organizations.Essay II (with Roza Khoban): Political distortions are prevalent in many developing countries and can imply substantial productivity losses. Theory is ambiguous as to whether greater openness to trade amplifies or reduces the effects of such distortions. This paper shows that trade liberalization in India decreased the value of firms' political connections, suggesting a reduction in political distortions. First, using variation in firm connections stemming from political turnover, we identify that political connections increase firm performance by 10–20%. Second, we evaluate how the value of political connections changed after India's externally imposed tariff reductions, using a triple-difference and difference-in-discontinuities design. We find that political connections became substantially less valuable when tariffs on input goods were reduced. Our findings imply that access to international markets reduces firms' dependence on political connections to source input goods, thus reducing the distortionary effect of such connections. Our results suggest a new margin for gains from trade in the presence of political distortions through a direct effect of trade liberalization on the prevalence of such distortions.Essay III: Social unrest is a pervasive problem in the developing world. Yet, the causes of social unrest are not fully understood. This paper studies the impact of electing dominant party representatives on social unrest in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC) party has held a hegemonic position in South African politics. At the same time, the party has been criticized for poor implementation of basic service delivery and accused of corruption and government malpractice. Combining geo-referenced data on riots and protests with a regression discontinuity design, I find that the prevalence of violent social unrest is substantially lower in ANC-controlled areas. The findings provide a nuanced perspective on the political determinants of social unrest in a dominant party setting.
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| 40. |
- Klarin, Jonas
(author)
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Empirical Essays in Public and Political Economics
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Essay I: This paper proposes a novel approach to the issue of size, cost-efficiency and economies of scale by focusing on the break-up of municipalities. Municipal break-ups are an understudied phenomenon that nevertheless has been recurrent not only in parts of eastern Europe, but also in Spain and Sweden. Analyzing seven voluntary break-ups of Swedish municipalities, we estimate the effects of municipal splits on municipal total costs as well as administrative costs. To predict what would have happened had the splits not taken place, we apply the matrix completion method with nuclear norm minimization. Our results do not support the standard view, i.e. that smaller municipalities imply higher per capita costs. Instead, we find that costs increase in some municipalities, are unaffected in others and decrease elsewhere. The findings point to the complex nature of territorial reforms, the difficulty in drawing general conclusions of such, and hence, the perils of expecting them to have uniform outcomes.
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| 41. |
- Kreiner, Claus Thustrup, et al.
(author)
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Introduction to the special issue
- 2019
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In: International Tax and Public Finance. - : Springer. - 0927-5940 .- 1573-6970. ; 26:6, s. 1231-1233
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 42. |
- Lundin, Danlela, et al.
(author)
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How far can reduced childcare prices push female labour supply?
- 2008
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In: Labour Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0927-5371 .- 1879-1034. ; 15:4, s. 647-659
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Exploiting exogenous variation in childcare prices stemming from a childcare price reform, this paper estimates effects of reductions in childcare costs on female labour supply. The reform introduced a cap on childcare prices, and lead to considerable reductions in prices depending on family type and region of residence. Since the price is determined by a handful of observed characteristics, we are able to match households that are similar in all relevant aspects, but experienced quite different price changes. Our difference-in-differences regression matching estimates are very precise, and close to zero.
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| 43. |
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| 44. |
- Lundqvist, Heléne, 1982-
(author)
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Empirical Essays in Political and Public Economics
- 2011
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. Essay 1: Despite the key role played by political payoffs in theory, very little is known empirically about the types of payoffs that motivate politicians. The purpose of this paper is to bring light onto this. I estimate causal effects of being elected in a local election on monetary returns. The claim for causality, I argue, can be made thanks to a research design where the income of some candidate who just barely won a seat is compared to that of some other candidate who was close to winning a seat for the same party, but ultimately did not. This research design is made possible thanks to a comprehensive, detailed data set covering all Swedish politicians who have run for office in the period 1991—2006. I establish that monetary returns are absent both in the short and long run. In stead, politicians seem to be motivated by non-monetary payoffs that can be realized with a successful political career. Essay 2 (with Matz Dahlberg and Karin Edmark): In recent decades, the immigration of workers and refugees toEurope has increased substantially, and the composition of the population in many countries has consequently become much more heterogeneous in terms of ethnic background. If people exhibit in-group bias in the sense of being more altruistic to one's own kind, such increased heterogeneity will lead to reduced support for redistribution among natives. This paper exploits a nationwide program placing refugees in municipalities throughoutSweden during the period 1985—94 to isolate exogenous variation in immigrant shares. We match data on refugee placement to panel survey data on inhabitants of the receiving municipalities to estimate the causal effects of increased immigrant shares on preferences for redistribution. The results show that a larger immigrant population leads to less support for redistribution in the form of preferred social benefit levels. This reduction in support is especially pronounced for respondents with high income and wealth. We also establish that OLS estimators that do not properly deal with endogeneity problems – as in earlier studies – are likely to yield positively biased (i.e., less negative) effects of ethnic heterogeneity on preferences for redistribution. Essay 3: While the literature on how intergovernmental grants affect the budget of receiving jurisdictions is numerous, the very few studies that explicitly deal with likely endogeneity problems focus on grants targeted towards specific sectors or specific type of recipients. The results from these studies are mixed and make it clear that the knowledge about grants effects is to this date still insufficient. This paper contributes to this literature by estimating causal effects on local expenditures and income tax rates of general, non-targeted grants. This is done in a difference-in-difference model utilizing policy-induced increases in grants to a group of remotely populated municipalities inFinland. The robust finding is that increased grants have a negligible effect on local income tax rates, but that there is a substantial positive immediate response in local expenditures. Furthermore, there is no evidence of dynamic crowding-out – i.e., that the immediate response in expenditures is reversed in later years. The flypaper behavior displayed by the treatment group can potentially be explained by “separate mental accounting” – i.e., voters treating the government budget constraint separately from their own. Essay 4 (with Matz Dahlberg and Eva Mörk): Public employment plays an important role in most countries, as it is closely linked to both the quality of publicly provided welfare services and total employment. Large parts of those employed by the public sector are typically employed by lower-level governments, and one potential instrument with which central decision-makers can affect public employment is thus grants to lower-level governments. This paper investigates the effects of general grants on local public employment. Applying the regression kink design to the Swedish grant system, we are able to estimate causal effects of intergovernmental grants on personnel in different local government sectors. Our robust conclusion is that there was a substantial increase in personnel in the central administration after a marginal increase in grants, but that such an effect was lacking both for total personnel and personnel in child care, schools, elderly care, social welfare and technical services. We suggest several potential reasons for these results, such as heterogeneous treatment effects and bureaucratic influence in the local decision-making process.
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| 45. |
- Lundqvist, Heléne, et al.
(author)
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Stimulating Local Public Employment:Do General Grants Work?
- 2014
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In: American Economic Journal. - : American Economic Association. - 1945-7731 .- 1945-774X. ; 6:1, s. 167-192
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We apply the regression kink design to the Swedish grant system and estimate causal effects of intergovernmental grants on local public employment. Our robust conclusion is that grants do not stimulate local public employment. We find no statistically significant effects on total local public employment, and we can exclude even moderate effects. When disaggregating the total effect by sector, we find that personnel in the traditional welfare sectors are unaffected, a conclusion which applies to both publicly and privately employed in these sectors. The only positive and statistically significant effect of grants is that on administrative personnel.
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
- Migliano, Simona M., et al.
(author)
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Removal of hypersignaling endosomes by simaphagy
- 2024
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In: Autophagy. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1554-8627 .- 1554-8635. ; 20:4, s. 769-791
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Activated transmembrane receptors continue to signal following endocytosis and are only silenced upon ESCRT-mediated internalization of the receptors into intralumenal vesicles (ILVs) of the endosomes. Accordingly, endosomes with dysfunctional receptor internalization into ILVs can cause sustained receptor signaling which has been implicated in cancer progression. Here, we describe a surveillance mechanism that allows cells to detect and clear physically intact endosomes with aberrant receptor accumulation and elevated signaling. Proximity biotinylation and proteomics analyses of ESCRT-0 defective endosomes revealed a strong enrichment of the ubiquitin-binding macroautophagy/autophagy receptors SQSTM1 and NBR1, a phenotype that was confirmed in cell culture and fly tissue. Live cell microscopy demonstrated that loss of the ESCRT-0 subunit HGS/HRS or the ESCRT-I subunit VPS37 led to high levels of ubiquitinated and phosphorylated receptors on endosomes. This was accompanied by dynamic recruitment of NBR1 and SQSTM1 as well as proteins involved in autophagy initiation and autophagosome biogenesis. Light microscopy and electron tomography revealed that endosomes with intact limiting membrane, but aberrant receptor downregulation were engulfed by phagophores. Inhibition of autophagy caused increased intra- and intercellular signaling and directed cell migration. We conclude that dysfunctional endosomes are surveyed and cleared by an autophagic process, simaphagy, which serves as a failsafe mechanism in signal termination.
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| 48. |
- Moberg, Ylva, 1984-
(author)
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Gender, Incentives, and the Division of Labor
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. Essay 1: The length of parental leave entitlements is known to affect take-up rates, division of parental leave between parents, and the mother's decision to return to work. So far, however, the importance of the level of benefit has received little attention in the literature. Using population wide register data, I exploit the ``speed premium” rule in the Swedish parental leave system as a source of random variation in the benefit level. A fuzzy RD strategy is used to estimate the causal effect of a change in the level of benefits per day on the utilization of parental leave among Swedish parents. The results suggest that parents’ take-up of benefits is highly sensitive to the benefit level. A 1% (5 SEK ≈ 0.54 $) increase in the mother's benefits per day is found to increase her length of leave by about 1 % (2.6 days). This translates into an elasticity of take-up duration (length of spell) with respect to the benefit level of 1, a parameter that has not been estimated before. Fathers respond to the increase in mothers’ take-up by reducing their time on leave by an almost equivalent number of days (1.9 days). In other words, the change in benefit level affects not only the individual’s take-up, but the division of parental leave between parents.Essay II: In this paper, I compare the effect of entering parenthood in lesbian and heterosexual couples using Swedish population-wide register data. Comparing couples with similar pre-childbirth income gaps, a difference-in-differences strategy is used to estimate the impact of the gender composition of the couple on the spousal income gap after childbirth. The results indicate that the gender of the parents' does matter for their division of labor as, five years after childbirth, the income gap is significantly smaller in lesbian than in heterosexual couples, also when comparing couples with the same pre-parenthood income gap. Part of the explanation is a difference in biological restrictions: lesbian partners often give birth to one child each and spend more time at home with the child they carried. Other explanations are the influence of gender norms and differences in preferences between lesbian and heterosexual couples.Essay III: The skewed division of parental responsibilities during a child's infancy is often assumed to be a natural consequence of the mother being pregnant and wanting to breastfeed. In this paper, I investigate to what extent the tendency to let the mother be the main caregiver of an infant can be explained by the fact that she is the one to be pregnant, not the father. Using the division of parental leave during the child’s first two years with the parents as a proxy for the division of parental responsibilities, I compare the behavior of biological parents (where the mother gave birth) to adoptive parents (where she did not) in Swedish population-wide register data. My results show that adoptive parents, both mothers and fathers, spend less time on parental leave than biological parents, but that the mother's share of leave is about the same as among biological parents. There is thus some support for the hypothesis that a biological tie increases parents’ initial investment in children, but not that this relationship is stronger for women. Hence, there is no evidence that the mother’s birth giving status can explain her share of parental responsibilities. Due to methodological challenges, it is difficult to disentangle the different mechanisms that could explain the results.Essay IV (with Spencer Bastani and Håkan Selin): No previous quasi-experimental paper has systematically examined the relationship between the extensive margin labor supply response to taxation and the employment level. We model the labor force participation margin and estimate participation responses for married women in Sweden using population-wide administrative data and a solid identification strategy. The participation elasticity is more than twice as large in the lowest-skill sample (with relatively low employment) as compared with the highest-skill sample (with high employment). Our analysis suggests that cross- and within country comparisons of participation elasticities always should be made with reference to the relevant employment level.
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| 49. |
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| 50. |
- Mörk, Eva, 1971-, et al.
(author)
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2019 års ekonomipris till Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo och Michael Kremer
- 2019
-
In: Ekonomisk Debatt. - 0345-2646. ; 47:8, s. 5-14
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Kungl Vetenskapsakademien har beslutat dela ut årets ekonomipris till Abhijit Banerjee, MIT, Ester Duflo, MIT och Michael Kremer, Harvard University ”för deras experimentella ansats för att mildra global fattigdom”. Pristagarnas ansats har på bara tjugo år helt stöpt om forskningen i utvecklingsekonomi. Den nya forskningen levererar en stadig ström av konkreta resultat som bidrar till att lindra de globala fattigdomsproblemen.
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