| 1. |
- Helgertz, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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Early life conditions and long-term sickness absence during adulthood - A longitudinal study of 9000 siblings in Sweden.
- 2014
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In: Social Science and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-5347 .- 0277-9536. ; 119:Online 6 February 2014, s. 224-231
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study examines the influence of health conditions experienced during the individual's first year of life on the incidence of sickness absence during adulthood. Using a sample of approximately 9000 biological siblings from 17 countries of origin and living in Sweden during the time period 1981-1991, sibling fixed effect models are estimated. This approach is combined with the use of an exogenous measurement of early life conditions, operationalized as the infant mortality rate. The link between early life conditions and later life outcomes is examined both with and without intermediary characteristics observed during the individual's childhood and adulthood, aiming for a better understanding regarding to what extent the effect of exposure to an early life insult can be mediated. The results suggest that exposure to worse health conditions during the first year of life is associated with an elevated risk of experiencing sickness absence during adulthood. An increase in infant mortality rate by ten per thousand is associated with a four percentage point higher probability of experiencing sickness absence. Despite the importance of adulthood socioeconomic status on sickness absence propensity, these factors do not mediate the influence from the health conditions experienced during the first year of life, suggesting that the association from early life conditions on sickness absence in adulthood operates as a direct mechanism. The link between early life conditions and sickness absence is only present for children to parents with primary schooling and not for individuals with more educated parents. These findings suggest that families with more abundant resources have the ability to protect their child from exposure to adverse health conditions during early life, or to cancel out the influence from an early life insult.
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| 2. |
- Helgertz, Jonas
(author)
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Immigrant Careers - Why Country of Origin Matters
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines the labor market outcomes of a population of natives and immigrants in Sweden from 1968 and until 2001. Previous research has consistently pointed to the importance of an individual’s country of origin, without being able to fully explain why this is the case. The standard approach is to use the country of origin as a way to measure everything occurring prior to migration, including linguistic and cultural differences from the destination country. Using unique information on an immigrant’s experience prior to migration, this thesis differentiates some of the mechanisms which are usually merged into the country of origin effect. Including measurements of language skills, labor market experience, formal education and early-life conditions, the thesis empirically estimates the magnitude of their effects on immigrants’ post-migration labor market outcomes. The thesis furthermore assumes a full career perspective and examines the influence of such pre-migration factors on the immigrants’ entire labor market career in Sweden. In the initial transition to the Swedish labor market, the influence of language skills is shown to be important for highly-skilled immigrants in particular. This finding is consistent with the expectation that communicative skills are more highly valued in occupations that require advanced formal skills. This is supported by the finding that those highly-skilled immigrants who are familiar with a language belonging to the Swedish language family experience a considerably more favorable transition to the Swedish labor market compared to those characterized by a greater linguistic distance. Still, among the immigrants in high-skill occupations prior to migration, labor market experience obtained prior to migration is also associated with a positive and non-negligible effect on the initial transition to the Swedish labor market. According to the results of the thesis, worse labor market outcomes for immigrants could also be caused by health conditions experienced during infancy, measured as the infant mortality rate. Establishing that conditions at the time of the individual’s birth are associated with attained adult income is therefore another key finding of this thesis. Furthermore, as individuals’ outcomes are observed at an age empirically shown to be a good predictor of lifetime earnings, this indeed suggests that an individual born under comparatively adverse conditions is likely to become permanently disadvantaged in the labor market. The infant mortality rate, measuring the health conditions to which an individual is exposed during their first year of life, has improved considerably worldwide over time. Despite this, contemporary immigrant cohorts typically have experienced comparatively worse early-life conditions than birth cohorts who migrated in the 1960s or the 1970s. An extension of the results therefore becomes to associate a part of the observed immigrant disadvantage to having been exposed to comparatively adverse conditions during early-life. More specifically, such a disadvantage may be manifested both as a greater initial disadvantage subsequent to migration, and as a less favorable career trajectory compared to an individual subjected to more favorable early-life conditions. The labor market changes characterizing Sweden in the time period examined in this thesis were expected to be associated with substantial implications regarding the immigrant’s career opportunities. The decline of low-skill jobs in general, and the private manufacturing sector in particular, implied a contraction of typical entry-jobs for immigrants in the Swedish labor market. Simultaneously, the growing share of high-skill jobs in the public and the private service sectors was believed to be associated with requirements that many immigrants do not fulfill. This thesis shows considerable differences in the opportunities for career progress between labor market sectors. The shrinking private manufacturing sector indeed appears to be associated with an absence of career opportunities for immigrants, increasing with linguistic distance. Immigrants are also disadvantaged in the private service sector, which tentatively is linked to this sector’s comparatively high demands for communicative skills. Furthermore, employers in this sector could be more likely to rely on informal recruitment methods which may lead to an exclusion of immigrants. Therefore, it is expected that the public sector is a more beneficial sector for immigrants in terms for career opportunities, given their greater reliance on formal recruitment methods. An exception to the favorable immigrant career opportunities in the public sector is, however, represented by individuals from countries with mother tongues most distant from the Swedish language in terms of origin and writing system. Lastly, among immigrants with advanced formal qualifications obtained prior to migration, substantial differences in their income assimilation trajectories are observed that is linked to the educational type of their formal degree. In particular, immigrants with pre-migration degrees within Health Care are observed to experience a comparatively favorable post-migration labor market experience. Regardless of the educational type to which an individual’s degree belongs, formal human capital investments are found to exert a positive effect on that individual’s trajectory towards income assimilation.
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| 3. |
- Helgertz, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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Naturalization and Earnings: A Denmark-Sweden Comparison
- 2014
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In: European Journal of Population. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0168-6577 .- 1572-9885. ; 30:3, s. 337-359
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The determinants and consequences of the naturalization of immigrants is a hot topic in the political debate in Europe. This article compares the effect of naturalization on the income attainment of immigrants in two Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Sweden, using longitudinal register data from 1986 and onward. Sweden is characterized by low obstacles to naturalization, and existing studies provide inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of naturalization on labor market outcomes. Denmark is instead characterized by higher barriers to naturalization, as well as a virtual inexistence of previous studies on the topic. Results, obtained through individual fixed-effect regression analysis, suggest similar effects in both countries. A consistent naturalization premium is detected for immigrants of Asian and African descent, but not for any other immigrant group. The similarity across contexts arguably questions the use of more stringent naturalization laws to promote the economic integration of immigrants.
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| 4. |
- Helgertz, Jonas
(author)
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Pre- to Post-Migration Occupational Mobility of First Generation Immigrants to Sweden from 1970-1990: Examining the Influence of Linguistic Distance
- 2013
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In: Population Research and Policy Review. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0167-5923 .- 1573-7829. ; 32:3, s. 437-467
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article examines the influence of linguistic distance on the labor market outcomes of a sample of 5,041 first generation immigrants in Sweden between 1970 and 1990. The article exploits register data from the Swedish Longitudinal Database, examining a population of individuals from 11 non-Nordic countries of origin. The analysis focuses on the transition to the Swedish labor market, comparing the last occupation before migration with the first occupation after, measured by the ISEI score. Using OLS regression, the results finds important differences in the initial labor market outcomes that are linked to the individual's linguistic distance. More specifically, individuals proficient in languages belonging to the same language family as Swedish and familiar with the Latin alphabet are found to enjoy an advantage in the initial transition to the Swedish labor market. This finding exists net of the influence of the individual's region of origin, and is particularly accentuated among formally highly skilled males. This appears to confirm the comparatively large demands for destination-specific skills in high-status occupations, favoring linguistically more proximate individuals. Among females, no consistent advantage among the linguistically most proximate can be observed among the formally highly skilled, potentially explained by differing selection mechanisms into the labor market. In general, however, the mechanisms through which linguistic distance affects the individual's initial occupation in Sweden appear to operate similarly along gender lines.
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| 5. |
- Helgertz, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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Relative Deprivation and Sickness Absence in Sweden
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 10:9, s. 3930-3953
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: A high prevalence of sickness absence in many countries, at a substantial societal cost, underlines the importance to understand its determining mechanisms. This study focuses on the link between relative deprivation and the probability of sickness absence. Methods: 184,000 men and women in Sweden were followed between 1982 and 2001. The sample consists of working individuals between the ages of 19 and 65. The outcome is defined as experiencing more than 14 days of sickness absence during a year. Based on the complete Swedish population, an individual's degree of relative deprivation is measured through income compared to individuals of the same age, sex, educational level and type. In accounting for the possibility that sickness absence and socioeconomic status are determined by common factors, discrete-time duration models were estimated, accounting for unobserved heterogeneity through random effects. Results: The results confirm that the failure to account for the dynamics of the individual's career biases the influence from socioeconomic characteristics. Results consistently suggest a major influence from relative deprivation, with a consistently lower risk of sickness absence among the highly educated. Conclusions: Altering individual's health behavior through education appears more efficient in reducing the reliance on sickness absence, rather than redistributive policies.
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| 6. |
- Helgertz, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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Small for gestational age and adulthood risk of disability pension : the contribution of childhood and adulthood conditions
- 2014
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In: Social Science and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-9536 .- 1873-5347. ; 119, s. 249-257
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Early exiting from the labor force and into disability pension (DP) represents a major social problem in Sweden and elsewhere. We examined how being asymmetric (A-SGA) or symmetric (S-SGA) small for gestational age predicts transitioning into DP. We analyzed a longitudinal sample of 8125 men and women from the Stockholm Birth Cohort (SBC), born in 1953 and not on DP in 1990. The SBC consists of data from various sources, including self-reported information and data from administrative registers. The follow-up period was from 1991 to 2009. Yearly information on the receipt of DP benefits from register data was operationalized as a dichotomous variable. 13 percent of the sample moved into DP during follow-up. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine whether disadvantageous fetal growth - A-SGA and S-SGA - predicted DP. Men and women born A-SGA had a substantially increased hazard of DP. The full model suggested a hazard ratio of 1.68 (CI: 1.11-2.54), only being affected slightly by adulthood conditions. Several childhood conditions were also associated with DP. Such factors, however, mainly affected DP risk through adulthood conditions. The effect of SGA on DP appeared particularly strong among individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The evidence presented suggests that being A-SGA influences the risk of DP, independent of childhood and adulthood conditions, and similarly for men and women. Due to A-SGA being rather infrequent, reducing the occurrence of A-SGA would, however, only have a marginal impact on the stock of DP pensioners. For the individual affected, the elevation in the risk of DP was nevertheless substantial. Other childhood conditions exercised a larger influence on the stock of DP recipients, but they mostly operated through adulthood attainment. The importance of socioeconomic resources in childhood for the long term health consequences of SGA is interesting from a policy perspective and warrants further research.
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| 7. |
- Helgertz, Jonas
(author)
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Thou shalt not pass? Examining the existence of an immigrant glass ceiling in Sweden, 1970-1990
- 2011
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In: Demographic Research. - 1435-9871. ; 24
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The paper studies a sample of natives and 18 immigrant nationalities in the Swedish labor market between 1970 and 1990. The purpose is examining the existence of an immigrant specific glass ceiling. Results suggest a considerable overall advantage in terms of the probability of experiencing upward occupational mobility for native Swedish males. Despite this, the pattern does not correspond to the theoretical expectations of a glass ceiling. Using the ISEI classification of occupational status, the advantage experienced by Swedish males is consistent in the private manufacturing and private service sectors, compared to the experience of immigrants and women. The public sector generally suggests a similar pattern according to linguistic background. In this sector, certain groups of women are, however, observed to experience an advantage from low occupational status origins.
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