Summary To form an efficient education policy, politicians need answers to the following types of questions: What are the economic returns to individuals’ participation in different types of schooling? How are prospective students’ schooling choices affected by the perceived economic returns to schooling before and after taxes and student costs? What are the returns to additional resources, e.g. smaller classes in primary education? In the 1990s, the Swedish government increased the number of study places at colleges and in other institutions for adult education. New subsidies were introduced to stimulate adult education. At the same time, the local governments reduced expenditure per pupil in compulsory education. This paper summarises Swedish empirical research in this area. Several studies suggest a robust causal relationship between years of education and the logarithm of individuals’ earnings. The relationship is remarkably linear with a slope around 0.04, which suggests that an additional year of schooling would on average raise earnings by around four percent. Nonetheless, it is questionable whether adult education, which takes place later in life, yields as high a return as youth education. College enrolment seems to be sensitive to the economic returns to such education. However, the marked increase in enrolment during the 1990s would not have occurred without additional study places. Present Swedish research offers almost no guidance on the effects of the expenditure reductions in primary education during the 1990s. Randomised experiments would probably be needed to fill this serious gap in our knowledge.

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/pdf/education-policy-and-returns-to-education-cx1igwtoh9.pdf

Välfärdspolitik i kristid - håller arbetslinjen

Education policy and returns to education

The deep economic recession that hit Sweden in the 1990s led to a massive increase in unemployment and generated cutbacks in most social policy programmes. The downturn in the labour market was more severe in Sweden than in most other European countries and was unmatched since the 1930s. The situation was in many respects unfamiliar to a nation that had experienced full employment for more than half a century and the preconditions for national labour market policy were hence fundamentally altered. Active labour market policy has by tradition been an integrated part of Swedish macroeconomic policy and used in order to facilitate structural changes in the economy. With the rising unemployment figures, national activation programs changed character as they became more diversified and less expensive and moved from being an instrument for matching the workforce to the demands of the labour market, to a general tool for fighting mass unemployment. In the 1990s Sweden, as many other European countries, experienced an increase of “welfare to work” programs, where eligibility for social assistance, supported by legal and institutional changes, was tied to participation in activation measures. This is a development that have been criticised – partly for endangering citizen rights for vulnerable groups and partly for lack of evidence of any positive effects.

background

Activated to Work? Activation Policies in Sweden in the 1990s

https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/ws/files/5869332/1502980

Vad säger ekonomerna? En forskningsöversikt

Research in many countries indicates that the transition to parenthood intensifies gendered patterns in time use and strengthens a traditional division of labor in which women do more housework and caring than men. This paper investigates the impact of fatherhood on men’s everyday time and how it changed over the 1990s by analyzing data from two Swedish Time Use Surveys, undertaken by Statistics Sweden in 1990/91 and 2000/01. Specifically, we address: In what way does presence of small children affect the time use of fathers and mothers, respectively? Which types of activities are affected the most by parenthood, and are there any gender differences in this respect? Did the effects of parenthood on gendered time use patterns change following structural and institutional change during the1990s? The results indicate that while parenthood in 1990 clearly strengthened the traditional gender division of labor in the household, this was much less the case in 2000, when parenthood affected men and women in a rather similar way. Paper for session 48 “Work and Family: A Father’s Perspective” at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, New York, 29–31 March, 2007. This work has been done within the project “Male Fertility and Fatherhood”, financed by the Swedish Research Council. Martin Dribe also acknowledges financial support from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.

/pdf/fatherhood-and-men-s-everyday-time-use-in-sweden-1990-91-1tc42hn36u.pdf

Fatherhood and Men’s Everyday Time Use in Sweden, 1990/91-2000/01

La grave recession economique qui a touche la Suede au cours des annees quatre-vingt-dix a genere un accroissement massif du chomage et motive des « coupes sombres » dans de nombreux programmes sociaux. De fait, la crise qui a touche le marche de l’emploi a ete plus severe en Suede que dans la plupart des autres pays europeens. Une situation en partie inedite dans un pays qui, depuis les annees trente, a fait continument l’experience du plein emploi. Il en a resulte, au niveau des autorites, une sorte d’impreparation a affronter une telle situation. Traditionnellement, la politique active de l’emploi etait concue comme un instrument macroeconomique visant a faciliter les adaptations structurelles de l’economie suedoise. Avec la montee du chomage, il a fallu changer le caractere des programmes d’activation, diversifier les outils et maitriser les couts : il ne s’agissait plus tant d’adapter les caracteristiques de la population active aux besoins du marche du travail, que de penser des instruments a meme de combattre un chomage de masse. Aussi, dans les annees quatre-vingt-dix, la Suede, a l’instar de beaucoup d’autres pays europeens, a du repenser les modalites d’intervention de l’Etat providence au profit des couches fragilisees de la population active, allant jusqu’a conditionner le benefice de l’aide sociale a la participation a des programmes d’activation. Cette evolution a ete fortement critiquee – en partie parce qu’elle porte atteinte aux droits des couches les plus vulnerables de la population, et en partie parce que son efficacite est sujette a caution.

Välfärdspolitik i kristid - håller arbetslinjen

Citations

Education policy and returns to education

Activated to Work? Activation Policies in Sweden in the 1990s

Vad säger ekonomerna? En forskningsöversikt

Fatherhood and Men’s Everyday Time Use in Sweden, 1990/91-2000/01

Prêts à travailler ? Les politiques d'activation en Suède au cours des années quatre-vingt-dix