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We estimate static and dynamic agglomeration effects on earnings among university graduates using Swedish longitudinal population register data. The prime interest lies with whether and how the dynamic effects of big city work experience vary by observed ability of workers and whether the effects are portable after relocation. Urban wage premium and spatial sorting of university graduates are analysed by using information on school grades, parental education and university rank. We find that the value of accumulated big city work experience increases with observed ability. The dynamic premium of working in bigger cities is not lost when moving to smaller cities, suggesting that it reflects learning effects and human capital accumulation. Our findings indicate systematic spatial sorting on observed indicators of ability as well as on unobserved productive traits. Sorting on unobserved abilities is driven primarily by graduates in the upper part of the observed ability distribution and is apparent also when taking dynamic learning effects into consideration.

In this paper, we examine the long-term patterns of geographical disparities in human capital and income in Finland and Sweden over the period 1987–2015. Using nationwide longitudinal population register data, we analyze disparities at different spatial scales, between and within functional labor market regions determined by observed travel-to-work patterns. Contrary to the findings from many other developed economies indicating inter-regional divergence in per capita income, we find indications of inter-regional convergence in per capita earnings among the functional labor market regions in both countries after 2000. However, small, and peripheral regions have not recovered from the macroeconomic shocks in the 1990s, in terms of per capita earnings. Our estimates indicate relatively small and statistically insignificant changes in the geographical dispersion of human capital at the inter-regional scale. At the intra-regional scale, the disparities in human capital and earnings between the core and hinterlands are relatively large and persistent, although some evidence of convergence is found for Finland. The largest intra-regional differences in human capital and earnings are found within the metropolitan labor markets. peerReviewed

In this paper, we analyse long-term changes in the regional distribution and migration flows of university graduates in Finland and Sweden. This study is based on detailed longitudinal population register data, including information on high school grades and parental background. We find a distinct pattern of skill divergence across regions in both countries over the last 3 decades. The uneven distribution of human capital has been reinforced by the mobility patterns of university graduates, for whom regional sorting by high school grades and parental background is evident. Our findings indicate that traditional measures of human capital concentration most likely underscore actual regional differences in productive skills.

This paper extends the literature on highly educated “power” couples. Its objectives are twofold. First, it examines the extent to which precursors of power couple formation are evident in young pe ...

Most OECD countries experience high unemployment rates and declining growth in higher educational attainment. An often suggested government policy is therefore to allocate resources towards formal schooling for adults. However, returns on such investments are uncertain and the foregone earnings are potentially large. We use Swedish population register data from 1982 to 2011 to estimate average long run earnings returns on higher education for 29- to 55-year-olds who enrolled 1992-1993. We find substantial positive estimates, but these only fully emerge after approximately ten years. Nevertheless, calculations indicate that the benefits for society exceed the costs also under fairly pessimistic assumptions.

Berck P., Tano, S. and Westerlund O. Regional sorting of human capital: the choice of location among young adults in Sweden, Regional Studies. Migration rates are highest among young adults, especially students, and their location choices affect the regional distribution of human capital, growth and local public sector budgets. Using Swedish register data on young adults, the choice of whether to enrol in education and the choice of location are estimated jointly. The results indicate a systematic selection into investment in further education based on school grades and associated preferences for locations with higher per capita tax bases. For students, the estimates indicate lower preferences for locations with higher shares of older people. The importance of family networks for the choice of location is confirmed.

Interregional commuting is an important feature of labour supply and regional labour market adjustment. In this study, we examine the effect of long-distance commuting (LDC) on timing of retirement ...

Accepted manuscript version. Published version available in Regional Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2016.1254765 Regional adjustment models are applied to explore causal interaction between two types of people distinguished by educational attainment, and two types of jobs: creative class jobs and other jobs. Data used are for labour market regions in Finland, Norway and Sweden from the 2000s. Creative class jobs follow people with high educational attainment (one way causation), but creative class jobs also follow other jobs and vice versa (circular causation). The results suggest that stimulating creative class job growth could be accomplished through attracting people with higher education, but also by attracting other jobs with the added benefit that the initial stimulus would be reinforced through circular and cumulative causation between job creation in the two sectors.

Governments in Europe, Canada and the US have expressed an ambition to stimulate education of older. In this paper, we analyze if there are effects on annual earnings of formal education for partic ...

There is a general belief that expanding labour-market regions, triggered by increased commuting, have positive economic effects on individuals, firms, and society. Recently, however, scholars have reported possible negative outcomes related to health and well-being. Based on these findings, this study addresses the association between long-distance commuting, and mortality. Using longitudinal individual data from between 1985 and 2008, focusing on 55-year-olds in 1994, we model mortality through propensity score matching and Kaplan–Meyer estimates of survival among long-distance commuters and matched controls from the population travelling short distances to work. The results indicate that women who have experienced long-distance commuting face a significantly higher mortality risk compared with women with short commutes to work. This seems to be driven by variations in income and education: for example, for women with long-distance commuting experience, substantially lower survival rates are found among those with low education and low income. A very different picture emerges for men, for whom mortality risks do not seem to be associated with long-distance commuting. Our findings suggest that men and women are subject to different mechanisms regarding the nexus between commuting and mortality. Keywords: long-distance commuting, health, mortality, propensity score matching, survival rates

This study examines spousal matching for females in second-order marriages. It is based on detailed data from longitudinal Swedish population data registers. We aim to follow women who marry, divor ...

This paper examines determinants of couple migration in a model that accounts for self-selection of migrant couples. The study is based on a sample of married couples from the Swedish population. T ...

The effect of spouse's premarital earnings capacity on the probability of divorce is examined. This study is based on longitudinal register data on married and cohabitating couples in Sweden. We use the residuals from estimated earnings equations of men and women based on observations before their marriage in estimation of a logit model of divorce. By using information on individuals as singles, we can identify the impact of relative earnings power on the probability of divorce, per se, without the confounding effect of the marital relationship. The results indicate that differences in spouse's conditional earnings capacities increase the probability of divorce.

This paper addresses the impact of active labor market programs on interregional migration in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which the programs, which provide traini ...

Are less productive regions catching up with more productive regions? In this paper we investigate the importance of regional industry structure for regional productivity convergence. We use county data for the Scandinavian Peninsula. Norway and Sweden are similar in many respects and the Scandinavian Peninsula therefore represents an attractive natural laboratory with one country inside and another outside the European Union. The data cover five-year intervals from 1980 to 2000 for Norway and from 1985 for Sweden. We find strong productivity convergence between Norwegian counties and weak divergence between Swedish ones. The effect of the industry structure on the spatial distribution of productivity appears to be small in magnitude, but it is qualitatively important. Moreover, the role played by the changing composition of production in the process of economic growth seems to differ over time. By implication, considerable caution should be exercised when undertaking convergence studies based on the commonly used one-sector growth model. More complex models allowing for differences in industry structure, and possibly also other potentially important factors such as wealth effects and transitional dynamics, should be considered.

Research in regional and labor economics has established that economic incentives play a significant role in the process of internal migration. The most common approach is to view migration as a form of human capital investment undertaken by individuals who expect to benefit from the standpoint of increased earnings. One of the central concepts in these models is self-selection. Individuals who self-select the option of migration tend to differ from the nonmigrant population in ways that are not measured in most data sets. The contribution of this paper is in its distinction between two aspects of migrant selection. On one hand, some workers possess unmeasured traits that might simultaneously affect their wages and their propensity to engage in risky human capital investment such as migration. On the other hand, measured earnings might exert a direct effect on migration. Based on samples of employed Swedish males and females at two points in time, this study seeks first to examine whether migration between the two periods occurs in the presence of correlation between unmeasured factors present in both earnings during the first period and the subsequent decision to migrate. Second, it looks for an explicit role of earnings per se in the migration decision. Results of the study provide support for selection based on unmeasured traits for both genders. For females, there is also evidence of selection based on measured earnings.

Recent research concerning the incidence of reported work-limiting disabilities in the married population indicates a degree of interdependence between spouses' disabilities. This pattern is consistent with several hypotheses. Spouses tend to share many lifestyle traits that might lead to common health outcomes. Alternatively, their joint reports might reflect a shared preference for income benefits or workplace accommodations available to disabled individuals. Another possibility is that disabled individuals tend to be matched in the process of marital formation. This paper investigates the latter hypothesis. Taking advantage of a unique data set from the Swedish population, we select a sample of recently married couples and trace them back in time to their single years. Our analysis indicates nonrandom matching on the basis of disability status. After controlling for observed traits such as age and education, we find a residual correlation between future spouses that is positive and strongly significant. The magnitude of the correlation is within the range of residual correlations obtained from other studies that address marital matching in the contexts of education and earnings.

In this article we study the effect of interregional migration on gross income of labour. The empirical analysis is based on Swedish household data for the period 1994 to 1995. We are primarily concerned with the allocation effect of migration on economic growth in an economy where the incentives for migration may be hampered by relatively high income taxes and transfers. A treatment-effect model for migration and income is estimated. The results indicate significant income gains from migration for the unemployed as well as for those who were employed prior to migration. The estimation results also indicate negative correlation between errors in the migration function and the income function. The hypothesis of no self-selection can be rejected.

Social scientists have devoted substantial research to economic basis for matching of men and women in marriage. A common feature of existing studies is their reliance on samples of married couples. The principal shortcoming of spouse data is that spouses' earnings correlations are contaminated by the partners' behaviors and other events that occur after marriage and affect their earnings. This study addresses that problem by exploiting a longitudinal data file from the Swedish population. By selecting a sample of married couples in a given year, we retreat through the file to years before the marriage. Using data from the spouses' single years, we apply the correlation methodology to their earnings. Evidence from the model supports positive assortative mating.

ELIASSON K., LINDGREN U. and WESTERLUND O. (2003) Geographical labour mobility: migration or commuting?, Reg. Studies 37 , 827-837. In this paper, we examine how individual labour market status and spatial variations in employment opportunities influence interregional job search behaviour and mobility decisions in Sweden. The econometric analysis is based on 290,000 individual observations and refers to the years 1994-95. The empirical results show that the probability of interregional labour mobility unexpectedly decreases with the accessibility to employment opportunities in neighbouring regions. As expected, the findings reveal that accessibility to job openings in surrounding regions significantly increases the likelihood of choosing commuting as the mobility mode. Moreover, the empirical findings indicate that individual unemployment experience increases the likelihood of mobility as well as migration. ELIASSON K., LINDGREN U. et WESTERLUND O. (2003) La mobilite geographique du travail: la migration ...

Background:This study examines the association between marital and parental status and their individual and combined effect on risk of dementia diseases in a population-based longitudinal study while controlling for a range of potential confounders, including social networks and exposure to stressful negative life events.Methods:A total of 1,609 participants without dementia, aged 65 years and over, were followed for an average period of 8.6 years (SD = 4.8). During follow-up, 354 participants were diagnosed with dementia. Cox regression was used to investigate the effect of marital and parental status on risk of dementia.Results:In univariate Cox regression models (adjusted for age as time scale), widowed (hazard ratio (HR) 1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13–1.78), and not having children (HR 1.54, 95% CI = 1.15–2.06) were significantly associated with incident dementia. In multivariate analyses that included simultaneously marital and parental status and covariates that were found to be significant in univariate models (p < 0.10), the HR was 1.30 (95% CI = 1.01–1.66) for widowed, and 1.51 (95% CI = 1.08–2.10) for those not having children. Finally, a group of four combined factors was constructed: married parents (reference), married without children, widowed parents, and widowed without children. The combined effect revealed a 1.3 times higher risk (95% CI = 1.03–1.76) of dementia in widow parents, and a 2.2 times higher risk (95% CI = 1.36–3.60) in widowed persons without children, in relation to married parents. No significant difference was observed for those being married and without children.Conclusions:Our findings suggest that marital- and parental status are important risk factors for developing dementia, with especially increased risk in those being both widowed and without children.

Training programs for the unemployed typically involve teaching a specific skill to ease the transition into employment. However, in 1997, the Swedish unemployed could choose general/theoretical training through enrollment in one year of full-time studies at the upper secondary school level. This study provides an empirical assessment of the relative earnings impact of general vs. specific training 13 years post-enrollment. In the long term, general training may compensate for the short-term relative earnings loss by enhancing the ability to adapt to changes in demand for skills. The analyses are based on population register data 1990-2010 and an unusually rich set of control variables. The results indicate that both programs are associated with earnings increases. Our relative program estimates reveal a short-term advantage of specific training that converges within 5-7 years. With a longer perspective, there is considerable heterogeneity in the relative earnings estimates. For females with short educations, the earnings increases following general training substantially exceed those following specific training.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether variations in mobility grants have affected internal migration in Sweden. The paper also contains an exploration of how changing labour mark ...

In this study I focus on the impact of aggregate labor turnover and regional labor market conditions on gross in- and out-migration within the framework of a neoclassical flexible-wage (equilibrium) model and a fixed-wage (labor-market disequilibrium) model. Using annual panel data on internal gross migration flows in Sweden from 1970 to 1989, I find that regional differences in employment opportunities have the expected effects on migration. The empirical relationship between real wages and gross migration flows is found to be less congruent with theory implications, indicating that compensated regional income prospects are equalized primarily via the interaction between employment opportunities and gross migration flows. Cyclical changes in hirings are shown to have a robust and strongly significant positive scale effect on migration.

To our knowledge, this paper provides the first study evaluating the effects of higher education for adults on the timing of retirement. Using detailed longitudinal population register data 1982–2010, we track first-time enrollees in higher education in 1992–1993. Our sample is aged 42–55 at the time of enrollment and thus aged 60–73 in 2010. We find that higher education increases labor market survival rates when aged 61–66 by about 5 percentage points. The estimates represent relatively large effects. Tentative calculations indicate that if enrollment occurs at age 42, the retirement delay represents about one percent in yearly earnings returns per year of tertiary education. Ageing and Living Conditions ALC

Background: There is increasing evidence that social network factors may affect risk of developing dementia. The objective of the present study was to examine the association between marital and pa ...

Using aggregate and micro data from Sweden, we address two questions. First, how do regional labour market characteristics and individual labour force status affect geographical mobility? Second, has there been a diminishing influence of labour market variables on migration and commuting mobility in recent years? We also provide a discussion on observed mobility patterns and some related policy issues.Our main conclusion is that geographic mobility between regional labour markets in Sweden has increased substantially during the last one or two decades, mobility is affected by regional labour market conditions and individual labour force status, the effects are consistent with mainstream economic theory, and there is no evidence of a declining influence of labour market related variables on mobility.

Several studies have suggested that education is associated with later retirement from the labour market. In this paper, we examine whether adult education, involving enrolees aged 42 or above, delays retirement to potentially increase labour force participation among the elderly. With Swedish register data of transcripts from adult education and an-nual earnings, which encompasses 1979-2004 and 1982-2004 respectively, we exploit the fact that adult education is a large-scale phenomenon in Sweden and construct a measure of the timing of the transition from being self-supported by productive work to being supported by pension transfers. We match samples of treated and controls on the propen-sity score and use non-parametric estimation of survival rates. The results indicate that adult education has no effect on the timing of the retirement from the labour force. This can be contrasted with the fact that adult education is one of the cornerstones of the OECD strategy for “active ageing” and the European Union’s “Lisbon strategy” for growth and jobs.

This paper evaluates the effects of comprehensive adult education on wage earnings of the long-term unemployed, an essentially unexplored issue. We use register data pertaining to a large sample of long-term unemployed persons in Sweden who either enrolled in the comprehensive adult education program, participated in labour market training, or remained in open unemployment. We find that individuals with more than one semester at upper secondary level of the comprehensive adult education program experienced an increase in annual wage earnings compared with those who remained in open unemployment. For those studying at the compulsory level we find no significant effects. The estimated effects were overall negative in relation to vocational labour market training.

Output per worker is radically unevenly distributed across space. Several authors have asked why the differences are so large between countries and hypothesized that differences in social infrastructure provide an answer. However, differences in output per worker are also very different when comparing spatial units at lower levels of resolution without substantial variation in social infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to discuss possible reasons why. We will do so by looking at regional data for the Scandinavian Peninsula at a spatial resolution equivalent to the European NUTS3. Since Norway and Sweden is considered particular egalitarian and homogeneous societies, differences in broad measures of social infrastructure can hardly be invoked as substantial important determinants of productive performance. Instead we suggest that differences in industrial structure and human capital are able to explain the differences we observe.

"The impact of migration on income for Swedish multi-adult households is examined using panel data pertaining to a sample of stable household constellations during the period 1980-1990. In contrast to previous studies, data on household disposable income is employed in estimating the income function. The empirical results indicate no significant effect on real disposable income from migration. In addition, the hypothesis of no self-selection, or zero correlation between the errors in the decision function and the income function, cannot be rejected."

WESTERLUND O. and WYZAN M. L. (1995) Household migration and the local public sector: evidence from Sweden, 1981–1984, Reg. Studies 29, 145–157. In this paper, the relationship between public sector attributes and household characteristics, and Swedish household migration, 1981–4, is studied. We report results separately for metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas because the per capita levels of the tax base and intergovernmental grants are theoretically important migration determinants where population is sparse, whilst the tax rate may be more important where population is dense. Because fiscal influences are likely to be stronger for short-distance migration, we apply multinomial logit to a three-way choice set: staying and migrating short and long distances. Empirical results support our fiscal hypotheses and are consistent with previous findings on household characteristics. WESTERLUND O. et WYZAN M. L. (1995) La migration des menages et le secteur public local: des preuves provenant de la Suede de ...