International migration has had a steady growth over the last decades and the integration of immigrants into the labour market is a challenge for many countries. Previous literature has found that immigrants, especially non-European immigrants, are disadvantaged in the labour market, and that the size of this disadvantage differs between male and female immigrants. One potential explanation for non-European immigrants’ labour market disadvantage is discrimination, which can be expressed through negative attitudes towards immigrants. Using individual data from the European Social Survey, this paper investigates whether there is a relation between negative attitudes towards immigrants and the employment gap between non-European immigrants and natives in Sweden, and whether this relation differs by gender. The results, however not statistically significant, indicate that there is a negative relation between negative attitudes towards immigrants and the immigrant-native employment gap. Moreover, the female immigrant-native employment gap is found to be more negatively affected by negative attitudes towards immigrants. 

The question about economic inequality belongs possibly to one of the most controversial questions throughout history. The opinions regarding the pros and cons of economic inequality, but mostly regarding the degree of economic inequality are divided. Initially it was assumed that economic inequality was a precondition for economic growth since it generates investment and is essential for the creation of incentives. New research, however, suggest that growth and economic inequality has a negative relationship, especially when considered in the long run. If so, this is of great importance for economic and political decisions. Moreover, it is considered that a high degree of economic inequality prevents an inclusive political and economic society that could have a setback on the economic growth rate. This paper, taking its starting point in a mixed method, examines the relationship between economic inequality and economic growth.

Global warming issues are a widespread problem around the world and the emissions of greenhouse gases is one of the main contributors. The transport sector emits a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions; thus, this contributes to global warming. To tackle this challenge the Swedish state introduced in July 2018 a system called bonus-malus system which aims to increase the proportion of eco-friendly cars and in the long run reducing greenhouse gases emissions from the transport sector. This paper examines the tax system within the Bonus-Malus system. Primarily investigating if Malus, tax system, impacted the demand for electric vehicles since it introduced. The study conducted based on a short panel data from Sweden´s 21 counties for the period 2016-2020 and the analysis method applied is a regression analysis. The results of this thesis confirm a strong positive relationship between the share of newly registered battery electric vehicles (BEV) and the Malus, but much weaker influence of the other studied variables. Suggesting that tax system induce on emission seem to be efficient at boost the demand for BEV 

It is no longer surprising that attention paid to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has increased lately, which could be due to the fact that firms action have negative or positive impacts on their stakeholders–employees, customers, investors, suppliers and community. It is the board responsibility to ensure firms pay attention to CSR matters, therefore, board composition will relatively play significant role in CSR implementation. However, prior studies have focus on board diversity, female proportion and independent directors and paid very little attention to inside board member and CSR. In order to study inside board member and CSR, the study found it interesting to look at the institutional norms of Swedish because different institutions structure board different and as such would likely influence CSR differently. The study therefore, focus on ownership concentration, employees representative director (ERD),  and CEO presence on board and found out that firm with ownership concentration and also firms having CEO on board have negative relationship with CSR, meanwhile ERD have a positive relationship with social responsibilities.  According to the findings in general board comprises of insiders have negative relationship with overall CSR (economic, governance and environmental concern) meanwhile strictly independent directors (of management, CEO, major shareholders, and firm) and female proportion have significant relationship with CSR.

In this paper we investigate how anonymous exams impact the grades for foreign-named students and if there are differences in this treatment effect against them when considering the gender of the graders. By obtaining data from Stockholm University, we used a difference-in-difference model to estimate our results. Our results show that there was no negative treatment effect against foreign-named students when considering their test scores prior and after the reform of writing exams anonymously. The results are interpreted through the fact that foreign-named students received even lower test scores after the reform, meaning that the foreign-named students did not gain from the reform. Moreover it can be said that these results can be related to “reverse-bias”, which indicates that the grader is more lenient towards foreign-named students.

Further, when estimating the relationship between the gender of the teacher and the treatment effect, our results showed evidence of female graders treating foreign-named students more negatively compared to male graders. This, due to the results which implied that male graders showed a strong positive treatment effect against foreign-named students, but hence a negative treatment against Swedish named students. Moreover the female graders showed a positive treatment effect against Swedish-named students and the contrary against foreign-named students.

Aims: Individuals with low socioeconomic status (SES) face widespread prejudice in society. Whether SES disparities exist in treatment and survival following in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is unclear. The aim of the current retrospective registry study was to examine SES disparities in IHCA treatment and survival, assessing SES at the patient level, and adjusting for major demographic, clinical, and contextual factors.

Methods and results: In total, 24 217 IHCAs from the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation were analysed. Education and income constituted SES proxies. Controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, comorbidity, heart rhythm, aetiology, hospital, and year, primary analyses showed that high (vs. low) SES patients were significantly less likely to receive delayed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (highly educated: OR = 0.89, and high income: OR = 0.98). Furthermore, patients with high SES were significantly more likely to survive CPR (high income: OR = 1.02), to survive to hospital discharge with good neurological outcome (highly educated: OR = 1.27; high income: OR = 1.06), and to survive to 30 days (highly educated: OR = 1.21; and high income: OR = 1.05). Secondary analyses showed that patients with high SES were also significantly more likely to receive prophylactic heart rhythm monitoring (highly educated: OR = 1.16; high income: OR = 1.02), and this seems to partially explain the observed SES differences in CPR delay.

Conclusion: There are clear SES differences in IHCA treatment and survival, even when controlling for major sociodemographic, clinical, and contextual factors. This suggests that patients with low SES could be subject to discrimination when suffering IHCA.

Aims 

Previous research on racial/ethnic disparities in relation to cardiac arrest has mainly focused on black vs. white disparities in the USA. The great majority of these studies concerns out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The current nationwide registry study aims to explore whether there are ethnic differences in treatment and survival following in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA), examining possible disparities towards Middle Eastern and African minorities in a European context.

Methods and results

In this retrospective registry study, 24 217 patients from the IHCA part of the Swedish Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation were included. Data on patient ethnicity were obtained from Statistics Sweden. Regression analysis was performed to assess the impact of ethnicity on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) delay, CPR duration, survival immediately after CPR, and the medical team’s reported satisfaction with the treatment. Middle Eastern and African patients were not treated significantly different compared to Nordic patients when controlling for hospital, year, age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity, aetiology, and initial heart rhythm. Interestingly, we find that Middle Eastern patients were more likely to survive than Nordic patients (odds ratio = 1.52).

Conclusion

Overall, hospital staff do not appear to treat IHCA patients differently based on their ethnicity. Nevertheless, Middle Eastern patients are more likely to survive IHCA.

We investigate how social gender norms influence parental leave uptake intentions by conducting two separate survey experiments on prospective fathers (N = 877) and mothers (N = 882) in the UK. In a between-subjects design, we manipulate social gender norms by varying information on the average number of days that other fathers and mothers stay at home to take care of a child during the first year after childbirth. We find that when prospective parents (both genders) are exposed to the low staying-home-with-children norm, they plan less parental leave uptake compared to the control (no norm) group. When exposed to the high staying-home-with-children norm, men (but not women) plan more parental leave uptake compared to the control group. We discuss policy implications and suggest directions for future studies.

De-racialization research suggests that depicting members of ethnic minority groups as gay leads to less stereotypic perceptions oftheir ethnic group. However, whether the consequences of de-racialization translate into real-world behavior is unclear. In a large “lost letter” field experiment (N = 6,654) where an email was ostensibly sent to the wrong recipient by mistake, we investigate whether the relative impact of signaling gayness (vs. heterosexuality) differs for Arab (minority) versus Swedish (majority) senders. The results show clear evidence of ethnic discrimination where Arab (minority) senders receive fewer replies (prosocial response) than Swedish (majority) senders. However, there is no evidence indicating that Arab senders would receive a lower penalty for revealing gayness. Implications for multiple categorization research are discussed.

Judicial courts form a stringent example of public services using partially sticky inputs and outputs with heterogeneous quality. Notwithstanding, governments internationally are striving to improve the efficiency of and diminish the budget spent on court systems. Frontier methods such as data envelopment analysis are sometimes used in investigations of structural changes in the form of mergers. This essay reviews the methods used to evaluate the ex post efficiency of horizontal mergers. Identification of impacts is difficult. Therefore, three analytical frameworks are applied: (1) a technical efficiency comparison over time, (2) a metafrontier approach among mergers and non-mergers, and (3) a conditional difference-in-differences approach where non-merged twins of the actual mergers are identified by matching. In addition, both time heterogeneity and sources of efficiency change are examined ex post. The method is applied to evaluate the impact on efficiency of merging the Swedish district courts from 95 to 48 between 2000 and 2009. Whereas the stated ambition for the mergers was to improve efficiency, no structured ex post analysis has been done. Swedish courts are shown to improve efficiency from merging. In addition to the particular application, this work may inform a more general discussion on public service efficiency measurement under structural changes, and their limits and potential.

This article presents the first field experiment on sexual orientation discrimination in the hiring process in the Swedish labor market. Job applications were sent to about 4000 employers in 10 different occupations in Sweden. Gender and sexual orientation were randomly assigned to applications. The results show that sexual orientation discrimination exists in the Swedish labor market. The discrimination against the gay male applicant and the lesbian applicant varied across different occupations and appears to be concentrated in the private sector. The results also show that the gay male applicant was discriminated against in typical male-dominated occupations, whereas the lesbian applicant was discriminated against in typical female-dominated occupations. Theoretical implications are discussed

An experimental study of perceptions about gay, lesbian, and heterosexual domestic violence in Sweden. Undergraduate students (N = 1009) read one of eight fictitious scenarios of domestic violence in married couple relationships, where sexual orientation, sex of victim and batterer, and severity of violence were varied. Perceptions of seriousness of the described incident and attitudes toward women, gays and lesbians were measured. Domestic violence was perceived as more serious in cases where: the respondent was a woman, the batterer was a man, the victim was a woman, or the battering was severe. Wife-battering in a heterosexual relationship was considered the most serious case in both the less and more severe battering scenario. Where battering was less severe, domestic violence in gay and lesbian relationships was perceived as more serious than heterosexual husband-battering; this difference disappeared in the severe battering scenario. Negative attitudes toward gays, lesbians, and women were associated with less concern about domestic violence in all types of relationships. The findings suggest that stereotypes about gays, lesbians, and women affect perceptions of domestic violence, but mainly when violence is less severe.

In this paper we explore annual earnings as well as full-time monthlyearnings differentials resulting from sexual orientation. We observe that gay malesare at an earnings disadvantage compared to male heterosexuals regardless of whichearnings measure we use. This earnings disadvantage is found to be larger when wecompare gay and heterosexual males who are working full-time. In addition, thedisadvantage is larger in the private than in the public sector. Lesbians, however,earn more than heterosexual females. This earnings advantage is considerablysmaller when we study full-time monthly rather than annual earnings but an earningsadvantage for lesbians at the top of the earnings distribution is documentedregardless of which earnings measure we use. In addition, lesbians are doing betterthan female heterosexuals in the public sector. To sum up, the results indicate thatgay males face obstacles on the labor market that hinder them from reaching toplevelpositions and high earnings. The earnings advantage observed for lesbians islikely to stem from the fact that lesbians devote more time to market work thanheterosexual females.

We used an experiment to investigate whether people’s decisions over employment opportunities are affected by the ethnicity and sex of their potential future coworkers. University students (N = 1,406) were asked to state the lowest hourly wage rate at which they would be willing to accept a job on a campus food truck, where they would work alongside the food truck owner. The ethnicity and sex of the food truck owners were randomized across participants. Results showed no signs of coworker prejudice in terms of the probability of being interested in the job and reservation wage.

We examined customer and worker discrimination against gay and lesbian business owners using a web-based experiment conducted at a Swedish university campus. Participants (N = 1,406) were presented with a prospective restaurant establishment on the campus. They then stated whether they would be positive to such an establishment, whether they would be interested in working at the restaurant, and what their reservation wage would be if they were interested in the job. Owners’ sexual orientation was randomized across participants. Results showed that participants were less positive to a restaurant opening if the owners were lesbians, and they were less interested in an available job if the owners were gay. The participants had higher reservation wages if the owners were lesbians. In fact, the participants increased their wage demands when the number of women among the owners increased. Our study underlines that gay and lesbian people face various inequalities in society.

This paper studies customer discrimination against fictive male and female food truck owners with Arabic names on a Swedish University campus using a web-based experiment. Students at a Swedish university campus were asked to participate in a market survey and state if they think it is a good idea to have a food truck establishment on the campus. Further, they were also asked about their own beliefs, and their beliefs about others’ willingness to pay for a baguette and a kebab sold by the food truck on the campus. Four names—one male Swede, one female Swede, one male Arab, and one female Arab—were randomly assigned to the food truck. We found no evidence of customer discrimination against food truck owners with Arabic names. In fact, the respondents were slightly more positive to a food truck establishment run by an Arabic male than by a Swedish male. We conclude that our results are representative in an environment with relatively young and highly educated customers and that customer discrimination may vary across different markets. More research in this area is needed.

This paper presents the results of a study that examined customer discrimination against fictitious male and female food truck owners with Arabic-sounding names on a Swedish university campus. In a web-based experiment, students (N = 1,406) were asked, in a market survey setting, whether they thought it was a good idea that a food truck was establishing on their campus and of their willingness to pay for a typical food truck meal. Four names-male and female Swedish-sounding names and male and female Arabic-sounding names-were randomly assigned to food trucks. We found no evidence of customer discrimination against food truck owners with Arabic-sounding names. Participants were slightly more positive to a food truck establishment run by a male with an Arabic-sounding name than a male with a Swedish-sounding name.Keywords

Vi presenterar resultat från ett experiment utfört på ett universitetscampus.Deltagarna fick se bilder av olika food-trucks och svara på om de tyckte det varen god idé att en food-truck etablerade sig på campusområdet samt ange sinbetalningsvilja för olika varor. Deltagarna i experimentet var mer positivatill en etablering av en food-truck ägd av en man med arabiskt namn än till enetablering av en food-truck ägd av en man med svenskt namn. Resultaten är avintresse för integrationspolitiken, då de visar att egenföretagare med ursprung iMellanöstern inte diskrimineras i en bransch där de ofta är verksamma.

We present a field experiment conducted in order to explore the existence of ethnic discrimination in contact with public authorities. Two fictitious parents, one with a Swedish-sounding name and one with an Arabic-sounding name, sent email inquiries to all Swedish municipalities asking for information about preschool admission for their children. Results show that the parents were treated differently by the municipalities since the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received significantly more responses that answered the question in the inquiry than the individual with the Arabic-sounding name. Also, the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received more warm answers than the individual with the Arabic soundingname in the sense that the answer from the municipality started with a personal salutation. We conclude that ethnic discrimination is prevalent in public sector contacts and that this discrimination has implications for the integration of immigrants and their children.

We present a field experiment conducted in order to explore the existence of ethnic discrimination in contact with public authorities. Two fictitious parents, one with a Swedish-sounding name and one with an Arabic-sounding name, sent email inquiries to all Swedish municipalities asking for information about preschool admission for their children. Results show that the parents were treated differently by the municipalities since the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received significantly more responses that answered the question in the inquiry than the individual with the Arabic-sounding name. Also, the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received more warm answers than the individual with the Arabic-sounding name in the sense that the answer from the municipality started with a personal salutation. We conclude that ethnic discrimination is prevalent in public sector contacts and that this discrimination has implications for the integration of immigrants and their children.

We present a field experiment conducted in order to explore the existence of ethnic discrimination in contact with public authorities. Two fictitious parents, one with a Swedish-sounding name and one with an Arabic-sounding name, sent email inquiries to all Swedish municipalities asking for information about preschool admission for their children. Results show that the parents were treated differently by the municipalities since the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received significantly more responses that answered the question in the inquiry than the individual with the Arabic-sounding name. Also, the individual with the Swedish-sounding name received more warm answers than the individual with the Arabic soundingname in the sense that the answer from the municipality started with a personal salutation. We conclude that ethnic discrimination is prevalent in public sector contacts and that this discrimination has implications for the integration of immigrants and their children.

This article presents the results of a field experiment in which fictitious parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) sent inquiries to schools in Sweden about admission of their children to the mandatory preschool class. Results show that inquiries concerning a child with no medical condition were more likely to receive an invitation for a visit and more likely to receive a promising placement response than inquiries concerning a child with ADHD and T1DM. Discrimination was more prominent in the private sector and when the child was a boy or had ADHD.

Med hjälp av ett fältexperiment studeras diskriminering mot barn med ADHD och diabetes typ-1 vars föräldrar undersöker möjligheten för dem att få plats i den obligatoriska förskoleklassen för 6-åringar. Resultaten visar att framför allt privata utförare väljer bort barn med funktionsnedsättning och att det främst är barn med ADHD som drabbas.  

We present results from a field experiment in which fictitious parents to children with certain types of disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), make inquires to Swedish schools about admission for their children to the compulsory preschool class. Our results reveal that Swedish schools discriminated against children with these disabilities and that discrimination is most prevalent in private schools. Private schools discriminated against boys with ADHD and T1DM and against girls with ADHD. Furthermore, public schools discriminated against girls with ADHD. One potential effect of our results is that children with disabilities are referred to less attractive schools than children with no such medical conditions. These results may have implications for the possibilities for individuals with ADHD and T1DM to succeed in the labor market in the long run.

Barn med adhd och diabetes typ 1 väljs bort när föräldrar kontaktar svenska skolor och frågar om möjligheterna att få plats i den obligatoriska förskolan för sexåriga barn. Det skriver tre forskare.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the ”outdoors” has an added health effect on top of that of physical activity. This hypothesis is based on the fairly extensive volume of evidens suggesting that the outdoor environment is beneficial for overall health. We, however, consider most previous studies insufficiently designed in order to draw causal relationship between spending time outdoors and examined health parameters. In this study we state that our experimental design allows us to do just that. 

Methods:

In this randomized cross-over experimental design, 49 healthy subjects (+65 years, 27 female) performed a standardized submaximal bike ergometer test in three different environments (indoors, simulated outdoors and outdoors). The test consisted of 20 minutes cycling and subjects were instructed to stay between 11-13 at the Borg RPE scale (i.e. moderate intensity). Each test was followed by two hours of passive recovery. We measured power output, heart rate, lactate and counts of five fractions (lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophiles, basophiles and eosinophiles) of white blood cells (leukocytes) in circulation.

Results:

Our results revealed that the outdoor treatment resulted in higher levels of lactate, higher heart rate and higher power output despite that there were no differences in Borg RPE-rating between the treatments. The white blood cell analysis showed an increase of circulating leukocytes in almost all fractions immediately post exercise in all treatments. Numbers decreased rapidly post exercise and the lymphocyte numbers stayed well under baseline for more than one hour during recovery. This is referred to as an “open window” where the immune function is temporarily suppressed and there is an elevated risk of infection of primarily URTI.

Conclusions:

Our results not only suggest that exercise is more efficient out of doors such that more exercise/effort is obtained but also that recovery outdoors may be a way to decrease the risk of infections due to exercise induced immune suppression. The risk of getting an infection is known to be generally lower out of doors. Taken together, our results support the notion that exercising and spending time outdoors indeed is beneficial for health in senior citizens.

BackgroundA growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to nature is beneficial for human health. However, the observed health effect of nature may be mediated by physical activity and that humans are physically active at a higher intensity outdoors compared to when they are physical active indoors.ObjectiveThis study examines the variation of heart rate and power output for a fixed rating of perceived exertion in a group of healthy older adults in three different environments representing three levels of exposure to nature.MethodsTo this randomized, 3-by-3 crossover design study, healthy older adults (≥65 years) were recruited from local gyms. All participants participated in three experimental conditions; indoors, simulated outdoors and outdoor environments, in a randomized order. The participants exercised for 20 minutes at an intensity equivalent to a rating of 11–13 on the Borg scale for perceived exertion (RPE). Measurements of heart rate, power output (Watt) and ratings of perceived exertion were taken at minutes 1 to 6 and at minute 20. To examine the effect of the environment on heart rate and power, linear mixed models were used.ResultsIn all, 48 participants (56% females) were included in the analysis. No significant main effects on the outcomes were observed for power output (p = 0.073, η2 = 0.04) or heart rate (p = 0.067, η2 = 0.04)ConclusionNo significant effect on the outcomes was observed. However, borderline significant outcomes for power output or heart rate outdoors in nature, along with previous studies in the field, indicates that such an effect cannot be completely ruled out, but any effect is likely to be small. Future research examining health benefits of the independent exposure to nature are encouraged to adjust for the dose of physical activity.

In the last decades there was an evolving theoretical and practical discussion about the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR), partially provoked due to the occurrence of incidents which were caused by negligently companies. Furthermore, there is a disagreement of financial outcomes of the implementation of CSR strategies in prior research. The thesis contributes to the limited established empirical research on the impact of social incidents on company’s CSR transparency and social performance of companies listed in European Union Member States. Furthermore, the thesis examines the impact of social performance on financial performance based on 308 observations in a time range of 2012 to 2014. The author finds no significant relationship between incidents and an improved CSR transparency or social performance for the overall sample at any conventional level. However, the author finds a positive significant relationship between social performance and financial performance, measured by the logarithm of Tobin’s q, which indicates that social performance has a positive impact on financial performance.

Med hjälp av ett fältexperiment finner vi att erfarenhet från egenföretagande värderas negativt vid övergång till löneanställning. Jobbsökande med företagarerfarenhet har lägre sannolikhet att bli kallade till anställningsintervju än personer som varit löneanställda. Resultaten gäller oberoende av de sökandes etniska bakgrund och kön. 

Det är välkänt att människor med bakgrund i länder utanför Europa har problem att etablera sig på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Inte sällan framförs förhoppningen att arbetslösheten bland vissa grupper av utrikes födda ska minska genom att människor väljer att starta eget företag.

Det finns idag en relativt omfattande forskning som visar att andelen egenföretagare är hög i framförallt vissa grupper av utrikes födda från länder utanför Europa, samt att utrikes födda i högre grad än inrikes födda upphör med sina företagarverksamheter.  

Outforskad frågeställning

En fråga som däremot är relativt outforskad är hur företagarerfarenhet värderas vid övergång till löneanställning, och i vilken utsträckning det i detta avseende finns skillnader mellan inrikes födda personer och personer med utländsk bakgrund.

I denna uppsats har vi genomfört ett fältexperiment i vilket mer än 1 300 utannonserade anställningar söktes av fiktiva personer med erfarenhet från att ha varit egenföretagare och/eller löneanställd som programmerare eller redovisningsekonom. 

Samtliga sökande var 29 år gamla och skilde sig åt beträffande kön och etnisk bakgrund. Sökande hade antingen ett typiskt arabiskt/muslimskt namn eller ett typiskt svenskt namn. Vidare skilde sig de sökande åt genom att de hade erfarenhet från antingen egenföretagande eller löneanställning eller från både och.

Företagarerfarenhet värderas lågt oavsett etnisk bakgrund

Vi finner att sökande med arabisk/muslimska namn väljs bort när de söker jobb, då de erhåller färre svar och får färre inbjudningar till anställningsintervjuer än personer med typiskt svenska namn. Vidare framkommer att erfarenhet från företagande värderas negativt av arbetsgivare. Såväl de sökande som enbart hade erfarenhet från företagande som de sökande som hade erfarenhet från både företagande och löneanställning fick färre svar och färre inbjudningar till intervju än de sökande som enbart hade erfarenhet från löneanställning.

Resultaten gäller oberoende av etnisk bakgrund och kön, men vissa skillnader i hur företagarerfarenhet värderas kan observeras mellan framförallt män och kvinnor med utländsk bakgrund. I det senare fallet pekar resultaten mot att företagarerfarenhet värderas högre för kvinnor än för män.

Hög policyrelevans

Resultaten har hög policyrelevans då de visar att personer som i relativt ung ålder väljer att starta företag kan försämra sina möjligheter på arbetsmarknaden senare i livet jämfört med om de varit löneanställda. Vidare är resultaten av betydelse för integrationspolitiken då förhoppningar ofta knyts till att arbetslösheten i vissa grupper av utrikes födda ska minska genom att dessa startar eget företag. I uppsatsen studerar vi inte hur företagarerfarenhet belönas jämfört med att istället ha varit arbetslös, men våra resultat visar att även personer med utländsk bakgrund försämrar sina framtida möjligheter på arbetsmarknaden genom att vara egenföretagare jämfört med att vara löneanställda.

We use a randomized field experiment in Sweden to investigate how self-employment experience is valued in the labour market. Our results show that self-employment experience negatively impacts the likelihood of receiving a positive response from employers. For male applicants, this holds regardless of ethnic background, and independently of whether we consider applicants with experience solely from self-employment, or applicants with combined experience from wage employment and self-employment. For female applicants, the results are less clear-cut. Our findings provide input into the discussion about the impact of self-employment on the chances for individuals with different ethnic background to obtain wage employment.

Tidigare forskning har visat att det finns skillnader i ekonomiska utfall mellan utrikes och inrikes födda personer som driver företag, t.ex. lägre inkomster för utrikes födda. Denna uppsats finner att dylika skillnader även existerar mellan utrikes och inrikes födda personer som driver företag under en längre period.    

Tidigare forskning har belagt att det finns skillnader i sannolikheten att starta och driva eget företag mellan utrikes och inrikes födda personer i Sverige. Det är exempelvis välkänt att egenföretagandet är högt i grupper av utrikes födda som har svårt att få löneanställning. Egenföretagare från sådana grupper har ofta låga företagarinkomster och upphör oftare än andra med sitt företagande. Denna uppsats studerar ekonomiska utfall – arbetsinkomster och kapitalinkomster – bland personer som invandrat till Sverige och som varit egenföretagare i tio år eller längre.

Data från register och enkäter

Vår studie bygger på registerdata från Statistiska centralbyrån och enkätdata. Med data från de offentliga registren studerar vi hur arbetsinkomster och kapitalinkomster förändras över tiden för utrikes och inrikes födda företagare. I enkäten ställer vi frågor till företagarna om deras erfarenheter av att driva eget företag. 

Det finns skillnader mellan framförallt utrikes födda företagare från länder utanför Europa och inrikes födda företagare för såväl arbets- som kapitalinkomster. Dock minskar skillnaderna i arbetsinkomster mellan olika grupper över tid efter det att företaget startats, medan de etniska skillnaderna i kapitalinkomster tenderar att öka över tid.

Enkäten ger oss en inblick i förklaringarna till de resultat som vi observerar. Företagare från länder utanför Europa upplever fler problem i sitt företagande än inrikes födda företagare och företagare från länder i Europa. Problemen avser exempelvis svårigheter att få tillgång till finansiellt kapital samt relationer till kunder och leverantörer. Vi finner också att företagare från länder utanför Europa har ett svagare socialt nätverk än andra företagare.

Skillnader på kort sikt kvarstår på längre sikt

De problem som framförallt personer från länder utanför Europa möter i sina verksamheter, och som dokumenterats i tidigare forskning om utrikes födda personers företagande, existerar även när vi studerar personer som driver företag under lång tid. En slutsats är därför att det finns skillnader mellan etniska grupper och deras förutsättningar för att driva företag som är bestående även på längre sikt.   

We study immigrant-native differences in long-term self-employment in Sweden combining population-wide register data and a unique survey targeting a large representative sample of the total population of long-term self-employment. Using the registers, we analyze the evolution of labor and capital incomes during the first 10 years following self-employment entry. We find that immigrant-native differences in labor income become smaller, whereas immigrant-native differences in capital income grow stronger, over the course of self-employment. These findings are robust to controlling for factors such as organizational form and type of industry. We use the survey data to gain further insights into immigrant-native differences among the long-term self-employed, and show that immigrant self-employed experience more problems and earn less, but work harder than native self-employed. They also have a less personal relation to their customers, do not enjoy their work as much as natives, and appear to have different perspectives on self-employment in general.

Sweden was early to legalize same-sex partnership (1995), to allow same-sex couples to adopt children (2003), and to offer same-sex couples fertility treatment through the national health system (2005). Using population data, we identify children of lesbian parents as those whose biological mother was a registered same-sex partner no later than six months after the child's birth. The number of such children increased markedly from 1995 to 2010 with a total of 750 children for the whole period. We find that boys and girls with lesbian parents had 2.4 percent lower birth weight than other children, a difference that is statistically significant from zero at the 5 percent level. Girls, but not boys, also have a higher probability of having a low birth weight. We follow these children until age ten and observe diseases of the respiratory system. Boys with lesbian parents have a significantly lower probability of such diseases (-3.4 percentage points), and girls with lesbian parents an insignificantly higher probability (+2.4 percentage points). Our analysis of school outcomes at age ten uses a small sample so precision is low. The point estimates show that boys with lesbian parents outperform other children by around 10 percentiles higher test scores in Math and Swedish. These differences are barely significant, while estimates for girls are lower and not significant. For all outcomes, we find that children with lesbian parents benefit from their mother's socio-economic status, whereas they suffer in terms of birth weight from having been exposed to fertility treatment.

The expansion of legal rights to same-sex couples is afoot in a number of Western countries. The effects of this rollout are not only important in their own right but can also provide a window on the institution of marriage and the rights bundled therein. In this article, using Swedish longitudinal register data covering 1994–2007, we study the impact of the extension of rights to same-sex couples on labor earnings and fertility. In 1994, registered partnership for same-sex couples was introduced, which conferred almost all rights and obligations of marriage—a notable exception being joint legal parenting, by default or election. The latter was added in the 2002 adoption act. We find registered partnership to be important to both gays and lesbians but for different reasons. For gays, resource pooling emerges as the main function of registered partnerships. For lesbians, registered partnership appears to be an important vehicle for family formation, especially after the 2002 adoption act. In contrast to heterosexual couples (included for comparison), we find no evidence of household specialization among lesbians. The lack of specialization is noteworthy given similar fertility effects of registered partnership (after 2002) and the fact that lesbian couples were less assortatively matched (on education) than heterosexual couples—children and unequal earnings power being two factors commonly believed to promote specialization.

Konstaterar att även om segregationen i stort sett har varit oförändrad under 2000-talet är skillnaderna mellan olika etniska grupper stora.

Visar att bostadssegregationen samvarierar med utrikes föddas sannolikhet att ha arbete. Det finns också en koppling till arbetsinkomsten – individer bosatta i områden med många utrikesfödda har sällan höga inkomster och individer med riktigt höga inkomster har få utrikesfödda grannar.

För att underlätta utrikes föddas integration behövs åtgärder både på bostads- och arbetsmarknaden. Särskilt viktiga är insatser som förbättrar chanserna till egen försörjning. Med arbete och tryggad inkomst ökar möjligheterna för individerna att själva välja boende. Integrationen kan också förbättras genom att det byggs bostäder med olika upplåtelseformer i samma område. Köp rapporten så får du ta del av de kompletta analyserna och förslagen!

Rapport till expertgruppen för studier i offentlig ekonomi (ESO). ESO ligger under Finansdepartementet.

En nyligen publicerad rapport visar på stora skillnader på arbetsmarknaden. Sannolikheten att stå utanför arbetskraften är 2,5 gånger högre för högutbildade kvinnor från Afrika eller Asien än för andra grupper, skriver Lina Aldén och Mats Hammarstedt vid Linnéuniversitetet.

We present results from a unique combination of survey and register data regarding access to financial capital conducted among immigrants who are self-employed in private firms in Sweden's retail, trade, and service sectors. This study is the first to examine discrimination against self-employed immigrants in the credit market of a developed economy outside the US. The results demonstrate that non-European immigrants consider access to financial capital a more serious impediment to their self-employment activities than do native Swedes and European immigrants. Self-employed non-European immigrants report more discrimination by banks, suppliers, and customers than do natives and immigrants from European countries. Immigrant-owned firms apply for bank loans to a larger extent than do firms owned by natives. Non-European immigrants especially are more likely than natives to have a loan denied, and they are also charged higher interest rates on their bank loans than natives. The results are robust to various different robustness checks. The occurrence of ethnic discrimination in the market for bank loans is put forward as an explanation for these results. Limited or lack of access to financial capital is a major obstacle to self-employment among certain immigrant groups. This obstacle may be one explanation for the high exit rates from self-employment among immigrants, a finding that has been documented in several countries including Sweden.

We present results from a survey regarding access to financial capital conducted among immigrants who are self-employed in private firms in Sweden's retail, trade or service sectors. The results show that non-European immigrants consider access to financial capital as a more serious impediment to their self-employment activities than do native Swedes and European immigrants. Self-employed non-European immigrants report more discrimination by banks, suppliers and customers than do natives and immigrants from European countries. Immigrant owned firms apply for bank loans to a larger extent than do firms owned by natives. Non-European immigrants are more likely than natives of having a loan denial and they are also charged higher interest rates on their bank loans than natives are. The occurrence of ethnic discrimination in the market for bank loans is put forward as an explanation for these results. Limited or no access to financial capital is an obstacle for self-employment among certain immigrant groups. This obstacle may be one explanation for the high exit rates from self-employment among immigrants that has been documented in several countries including Sweden.

Vi presenterar resultaten från en enkätundersökning riktad till utrikes födda företagare. Företagare födda i länder utanför Europa upplever sig diskriminerade av kunder, leverantörer och banker i högre grad än andra företagare. De har en högre sannolikhet att få avslag på låneansökningar i banker och betalar högre ränta på beviljade banklån. Resultaten är i linje med vad som framkommit i studier från andra länder. Vi drar slutsatsen att diskriminering, åtminstone delvis, förklarar resultaten. Då en allt större andel utrikes födda i Sverige är aktiva som egenföretagare belyser våra resultat en problematik som är central för integrationen av utrikes födda på arbetsmarknaden.

This paper is a study of exit rates from self-employment among immigrants in Sweden. A survey was administered to all immigrants who became self-employed during the period 2001–2005 and to the members of a native comparison group. The respondents were then followed up to the year 2010. Immigrants were found to have a lower propensity than natives of exiting self-employment for wage-employment but a higher propensity than natives of exiting self-employment for unemployment or for economic inactivity. Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions are conducted to study the extent to which different background characteristics affect differences in exit rates between immigrants and natives. In line with previous research, we find that labour market and self-employment experience prior to self-employment as well as access to financial capital are important explanations for the difference between non-European immigrants and natives in exit rates from self-employment to unemployment and to being economically inactive.