/pdf/the-theory-of-industrial-organization-19bejph0ej.pdf

The Theory of Industrial Organization

In Sweden, children typically start compulsory school the year they turn seven. Hence, individuals born just before or just after the new year, have about the same date of birth but start school at different ages. We exploit this source of exogenous variation, to identify the effects of age at school entry on test scores, grades, educational attainment and labor market performance. Using a rich data set for the entire Swedish population born 1935-84, we find that children who start school at an older age do better in school and go on to have more education than their younger peers. Children from families with weaker educational tradition have more to win from starting school later. The long-run earnings effects are positive but small. However, since starting school later entails the opportunity cost of entering the labor market later, the net earnings effect over the entire life-cycle is negative. Exploiting within-school variation in peer age composition, we find that the school starting age effect primarily is due to absolute maturity rather than to the relative age in the class.

/pdf/is-early-learning-really-more-productive-the-effect-of-1o2yw6xwkr.pdf

Is Early Learning Really More Productive? The Effect of School Starting Age on School and Labor Market Performance

https://swopec.hhs.se/fiefwp/papers/WP167.pdf

Incentives and selection in cyclical absenteeism

This study sheds light on the labour market outcomes of children born to immigrants in the destination country, i.e. second generation immigrants. The study has the advantage of being able to (i) identify several different ethnic backgrounds and (ii) identify the parent composition, i.e. whether one or both parents of the individual are foreign born. The labour market outcomes of second generation immigrants mirror those of first generation immigrants in that we find heterogeneity in labour market outcomes to be associated with ethnic background. Moreover, these outcomes, especially for Southern and non-European backgrounds, are much worse than those for native-born with a Swedish background. Finally, the outcome is more favourable if one parent is born in Sweden compared to having both parents foreign born, especially if the mother is native born.

Unemployment and Earnings for Second Generation Immigrants in Sweden - Ethnic Background and Parent Composition

This paper studies the link between production transfer within Swedish-headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the manufacturing industry and skill upgrading in their parent companies in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in the affiliates in non-OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non-trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labor in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the parents’ skill upgrading is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). This is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models.

/pdf/skill-upgrading-and-production-transfer-within-swedish-5isuci98cd.pdf

Skill Upgrading and Production Transfer within Swedish Multinationals

Some important studies have recently used Statistics Sweden's register data on educational levels and annual earnings to estimate the economic return on schooling. This is a powerful way of getting large samples and of adding information to data sets with other useful information. By using detailed information in the Level of Living Surveys, we investigate two potential flaws with this approach. First, the register data on education do not pick up some partial studies at high school and college which do not lead to formal degrees. Our results show that such studies have a significant positive economic return. Nonetheless, the use of this information as independent variables in regression models does not change the original estimates. So omission of partial studies does not flaw the results based on registers only. Second, also using the Level of Living Surveys, we compare estimates based on annual earnings as the outcome measure with those using hourly earnings. We find a marked difference, particularly f...

How Reliable are Register Data for Studies of the Return on Schooling? An examination of Swedish data

Does internationalization mean increased reallocation of employment among plants and thus higher adjustment costs? This paper studies the reallocation of jobs among plants in the Swedish economy 1986–97 using micro data. It turns out that the rate of job turnover is high in industries with high rates of innovation and employment growth, and low in concentrated industries with limited competition. However, we find no evidence for the view that increased openness to international competition would increase job turnover. In fact turnover is lower in export oriented industries where foreign ownership is frequent.

https://swopec.hhs.se/fiefwp/papers/WP161.pdf

Competition, Market Structure and Job Turnover

Data for rates of job turnover among plants in the Swedish economy in 1986-97 imply that in a typical year in a representative industry one out of six jobs disappeared, and a corresponding number of jobs were created. Job turnover is counter-cyclical, with no trend, and is higher for skilled jobs, and lower in manufacturing, than for all jobs. The rate of job turnover seems to be higher in industries with high rates of innovation and market growth, which may indicate that the volatility of firm specific demand and supply shocks is higher in such industries. Moreover, for given shocks, turnover is higher in industries with many small plants and low return on capital. The results support the hypothesis that market shares are more stable, and thus reallocation of jobs limited, in industries where firms have strong market power. Finally, there is less job turnover in export oriented industries where foreign ownership is widespread. Firms selling in many markets and/or producing in different locations may be able to even out the employment effects of shocks specific to individual markets and/or locations.

Jesper Antelius

Papers

How Reliable are Register Data for Studies of the Return on Schooling? An examination of Swedish data

Competition, Market Structure and Job Turnover

Competition, Market Structure and Job Turnover