Parental Separation and Children's Educational Attainment: A Siblings Analysis on Swedish Register Data

This article analyzes whether the commonly found negative relationship between parental separation in childhood and educational outcomes is causal or mainly due to selection. We use data on about 100,000 Swedish full biological siblings, born in 1948-63, and perform cross-section and sibling-difference estimations. Outcomes are measured as educational attainment in 1996. Our cross-section analysis show the expected negative and significant relationship, while the relationship is not significant, though precisely estimated, in the sibling-difference analysis. This finding was robust to the sensitivity tests performed and is consistent with selection, rather than causation, being the explanation for the negative relationship. JEL Classification: Keywords:divorce; child welfare; siblings estimators

The Evolution of Income Inequality During the Rise of the Swedish Welfare State1951 to 1973

We analyse the change in family gross income inequality between 1951 and 1973. We use two new samples of the Swedish population from 1951 and 1956 containing tax register data, and compare the results with those obtained from the Swedish Level of Living survey from 1967 and 1973. Gini coefficients, four different Generalised entropy measures as well as decile group shares of total income are calculated. We also do two different decompositions: one between different demographic groups and one between the male and female component of family income. Finally, we examine to what extent zero family income records really reflect low economic welfare by using interview data from the 1968 Swedish Level of Living Survey.

The Evolution of Income Inequality During the Rise of the Swedish Welfare State 1951 to 1973

We analyse the change in family gross income inequality between 1951 and 1973. We use two new samples of the Swedish population from 1951 and 1956 containing tax register data, and compare the results with those obtained from the Swedish Level of Living survey from 1967 and 1973. Gini coefficients, four different Generalised entropy measures as well as decile group shares of total income are calculated. We also do two different decompositions: one between different demographic groups and one between the male and female component of family income. Finally, we examine to what extent zero family income records really reflect low economic welfare by using interview data from the 1968 Swedish Level of Living Survey.Income distribution; Household income

Intergenerational mobility of socio-economic status in comparative perspective

This paper reviews three strands of literature on socio-economic intergenerational mobility. The first is a mostly recent and rapidly growing economics literature that measures mobility in labour earnings and income. This approach is compared with two classical sociological approaches that measure the mobility in class and status. The United States seems to rank quite high in terms of class and status mobility, but low in terms of earnings and income mobility. This seemingly contradictory result can be accounted for by lower earnings mobility within occupations in the United States.

Education and Family Background: Mechanisms and Policies

In every society for which we have data, people’s educational achievement is positively correlated with their parents’ education or with other indicators of their parents’ socioeconomic status. This topic is central in social science, and there is no doubt that research has intensified during recent decades, not least thanks to better data having become accessible to researchers. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize and evaluate recent empirical research on education and family background. Broadly speaking, we focus on two related but distinct motivations for this topic. The first is equality of opportunity. Here, major the research issues are: How important a determinant of educational attainment is family background, and is family background – in the broad sense that incorporates factors not chosen by the individual – a major, or only a minor, determinant of educational attainment? What are the mechanisms that make family background important? Have specific policy reforms been successful in reducing the impact of family background on educational achievement? The second common starting point for recent research has been the child development perspective. Here, the focus is on how human-capital accumulation is affected by early childhood resources. Studies with this focus address the questions: what types of parental resources or inputs are important for children's development, why are they important and when are they important? In addition, this literature focuses on exploring which types of economic policy, and what timing of the policy in relation to children's social and cognitive development, are conducive to children's performance and adult outcomes. The policy interest in this research is whether policies that change parents' resources and restrictions have causal effects on their children.intergenerational mobility, sibling correlations, education, education reform

Combining capacities. A presentation of the Swedish museum authority National Museums for World Culture

Anders Björklund és director del Museu d’Etnografia d’Estocolm, però també professor d’etnologia. En el context escandinau l’entologia ha estat una disciplina tradicionalment marcada per línies d'investigació relacionades amb temes escandinaus, mentre que l’antropologia s’ha dedicat a qüestions i cultures externes al seu país. No obstant això, aquestes tendències estan canviant i actualmente tant trobem etnòlegs suecs treballant fora del país com antropòlegs suecs investigant a Suècia. Aquest text, Björklund dóna una idea de la seva trajectòria com a director de museu i investigador descrivint el Museu Nacional de les Cultures del Món, un exemple de cooperació nacional i internacional entre museus

Education and family background: Mechanisms and policies.

In every society for which we have data, people’s educational achievement is positively correlated with their parents’ education or with other indicators of their parents’socioeconomic status. This topic is central in social science, and there is no doubt that research has intensified during recent decades, not least thanks to better data having become accessible to researchers. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize and evaluate recent empirical research on education and family background. Broadly speaking, we focus on two related but distinct motivations for this topic. The first is equality of opportunity. Here, major the research issues are: How important a determinant of educational attainment is family background, and is family background—in the broad sense that incorporates factors not chosen by the individual—a major, or only a minor, determinant of educational attainment? What are the mechanisms that make family background important? Have specific policy reforms been successful in reducing the impact of family background on educational achievement? The second common starting point for recent research has been the child development perspective. Here, the focus is on how human-capital accumulation is affected by early childhood resources. Studies with this focus address the questions: what types of parental resources or inputs are important for children’s development, why are they important and when are they important? In addition, this literature focuses on exploring which types of economic policy, and what timing of the policy in relation to children’s social and cognitive development, are conducive to children’s performance and adult outcomes. The policy interest in this research is whether policies that change parents’ resources and restrictions have causal effects on their children.Intergenerational mobility; Sibling correlations; Education; Education reform.

Risks in using CFD-codes for analytical fire-based design in buildings with a focus on FDS:s handling of under-ventilated fires

The use of CFD-models as an engineering tool for fire based analytical design of buildings has increased over the last few years. The reason for this is partly that the legislation allows for analytical dimensioning but also because the legislation demands a high degree of verification for the analytical dimensioning. The biggest reason is, however, that the computer power has increased and reached a point where it is applicable for engineering problems in terms of both time and money. The most common CFD-program in Sweden is FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator) which is developed by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), today’s version is the fifth large release. To ensure the correctness of the program it needs to be validated against experimental data. In this report, FDS is validated for under-ventilated fires. It is, however, not only how the program simulates the reality that is associated with risks but also how the program is handled by its users and their reviewers. If incorrect results are used and reviewed in an incorrect way that means that fire safety design in buildings may be incorrectly dimensioned which can have a negative impact on people’s health during evacuations in case of fire. The process to decide if incorrectness in how FDS simulates under-ventilated fires is made in four steps. First, under-ventilated fires are described, how and when they arise and what consequences they may have for people’s health during fires, which is made through a literature study. The next step is to validate how FDS works for under-ventilated fires, which is made by comparing FDS output data with experimental tests performed by the SP Technical and Research Institute of Sweden. The test is a part of a larger research project (BRANDFORSK) financed by the Swedish Fire Research Board. The next step is to decide how the users handle under-ventilated in FDS. This is done through a series of telephone interviews with fire and safety design consultants in Sweden. The fourth step is to investigate how the reviewer (rescue services) handles their role as a reviewer. The results show that the empirical expression concerning when a fire is allowed to burn or not together with the mixture fraction combustion makes the heat release rate and thereby the temperatures very sensitive for changes of oxygen level. Visibility and toxicity (carbon monoxide level), which is based on the soot and carbon monoxide yields, are much harder to apply and the FDS output for these parameters should be used very cautiously. The results also show that the fire and safety design consultants generally have little understanding about how FDS treats under-ventilated fires but that the basic use is handled in a good way. It is clear that although the rescue services in many cases can do a good review of an analytical dimensioning, they lack the knowledge and the resources for doing a good review of an analytical dimensioning with an under-ventilated fire involved. In total this means that incorrectness in how FDS simulates an under-ventilated fires do constitute a risk when it is used in analytical dimensioning of a buildings fire and safety design. The consequence can be that people in the building may be exposed to conditions dangerous (in a higher degree) to their health. Measures to reduce the risk are for example that the CFD course given at the Department of Fire and Safety Engineering and Systems Safety at Lund University contains more elements about how FDS handles under-ventilated fire and how the output is affected. This is however no guarantee for that the students/users actually learn more and there should also exist certified CFD/FDS able users. A suitable party for this is a trade organisation like BIV. It is also appropriate to improve the conditions for the rescue service in their reviewing rol

Intergenerational top income mobility in Sweden: Capitalist dynasties in the land of equal opportunity?

This paper presents new evidence on intergenerational mobility in the top of the income and earnings distribution. Using a large dataset of matched father-son pairs in Sweden, we find that intergenerational transmission is very strong in the top, more so for income than for earnings. In the extreme top (top 0.1 percent) income transmission is remarkable with an IG elasticity above 0.9. We also study potential transmission mechanisms and find that sons’ IQ, non-cognitive skills and education are all unlikely channels in explaining this strong transmission. Within the top percentile, increases in fathers’ income are, if anything, negatively associated with these variables. Wealth, on the other hand, has a significantly positive association. Our results suggest that Sweden, known for having relatively high intergenerational mobility in general, is a society where transmission remains strong in the very top of the distribution and that wealth is the most likely channel.Intergenerational income mobility; top incomes; earnings inequality; income inequality; welfare state; quantile regression

Intergenerational Top Income Mobility in Sweden: A Combination of Equal Opportunity and Capitalistic Dynasties

This paper presents new evidence on intergenerational income and earnings mobility in the top of the distributions. Using a large dataset of matched father-son pairs in Sweden we are able to obtain results for fractions as small as 0.1 percent of the population. Overall, mobility is lower for incomes than for earnings and it appears to decrease the higher up in the distribution one goes. In the case of incomes, however, we find that mobility decreases dramatically within the top percentile of the population. Our results suggest that Sweden, well-known for its egalitarian achievements, is a society where equality of opportunity for a large majority of wage earners coexists with capitalistic dynasties.intergenerational income mobility, top incomes, earnings inequality, income inequality, welfare state, non-linear regression, quantile regression