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In this paper I use a rich dataset in order to observe each student in different subjects and courses over time. Unlike most peer studies, I identify the peers and the teachers that each student has had in every classroom. This enables me to handle the simultaneity and selection problems, which are inherent in estimating peer effects in the educational production function. I use a value-added approach with lagged peer achievement to avoid simultaneity and extensive fixed effects to rule out selection. To be specific, it is within-student across-subject variation with additional controls for time-invariant teacher characteristics that is exploited. Moreover, I identify students that are attending classes in which they have no peers from previous education which otherwise might bias the result. I find positive peer effects for the average student but also that there is a non-linear dimension. Lower-achieving students benefit more from an increase in both mean peer achievement and the spread in peer achievement within the classroom than their higher-achieving peers. (Contains 3 tables.)

In Sweden, the new government that took office in 2006 gave the Public Employment Service instructions to introduce private contractors as a complement to publicly provided services. In this paper I use survival analysis in an intention-to-treat approach to compare time to employment of jobseekers in labor market areas that cooperated with private contractors with jobseekers in labor market areas that did not cooperate with private contractors, all within the program Job and Development Guarantee. I use register data from the Swedish Public Employment Service and exploit within region and period variation in a differences-in-differences approach. I find that the labor market areas that cooperated with private contractors had lower turnover to employment than labor market areas that did not cooperate with private contractors. The observed result could be due to different reasons. However, among other things, the contract agreement with private contractors was not optimally designed with a poor incentives structure. Moreover, the introduction of private contractors increased the administrative burden upon the staff of the Public Employment Service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I use within-school variation to estimate the effect of tracking. I exploit the fact not only that different tracking policies were practiced simultaneously in Swedish compulsory schools but also that tracking policies changed overtime within schools. I estimate not only if being in a tracked math environment had any effect on the probability of graduating from high school but also if tracking status had any impact on the math grade in high school. The results show that there are no significant average effects of tracking. However, there are effects in the lower part of the grade distribution. Students with a low-educated family background are more likely to fail math at high school if they have attended a compulsory school that practiced tracking compared to similar students in a non-tracked environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper I use a rich dataset in order to observe each student in different subjects and courses over time. Unlike most peer studies, I identify the peers and the teachers that each student has had in every classroom. This enables me to handle the simultaneity and selection problems, which are inherent in estimating peer effects in the educational production function. I use a value-added approach with lagged peer achievement to avoid simultaneity and extensive fixed effects to rule out selection. To be specific, it is within-student across-subject variation with additional controls for time-invariant teacher characteristics that is exploited. Moreover, I identify students that are attending classes in which they have no peers from previous education which otherwise might bias the result. I find positive peer effects for the average student but also that there is a non-linear dimension. Lower-achieving students benefit more from an increase in both mean peer achievement and the spread in peer achievement within the classroom than their higher-achieving peers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper studies technical efficiency for Swedish employment offices between 2004 and 2010. Efficiency is computed using a semi-dynamic DEA-framework. On the input side we include a measure of input quality and we also control for services that are carried out by private contractors. On the output side we are using both intermediate and final outputs. The motivation for using an intermediate output is to take into account the fact that employment offices might have strengthen the possibility for unemployed individuals that remain unemployed to get a job in the forthcoming year. The study identifies an average yearly inefficiency between 7 and 10 percent. It is also observed that the inefficiency is unevenly distributed. To make employment offices more efficient this uneven distribution needs to be considered, otherwise efforts to improve efficiency might instead result in increased inefficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]