Ethnicity and Unemployment in Finland

This research note provides the general findings from a research project analyzing the reasons behind the lower unemployment rate of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, compared with the Finnish-speaking majority. The main conclusion is that the unemployment gap cannot be attributed to ethnic-group differences in age, education, place of residence, or industrial structure. We believe that two latent factors are highly relevant in this context: language proficiency and social integration, although no data presently available provides information about such issues

Language-group Differences in Very Early Retirement in Finland

The purpose of this paper is to study very early retirement as an indicator for poor health, with focus on a comparison between the two language groups in Finland. Extensive longitudinal data are analysed with the help of random effects probit models. As expected from previous studies of mortality differences, the rate of retirement is lower among Swedish-speakers than among Finnish-speakers, and this cannot be attributed to socio-demographic and regional factors. Swedish-speaking males have a risk of very early retirement that is about 25 per cent lower than that of Finnish-speaking males. Among females the corresponding difference is about 15 per cent. Our results also suggest that not accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity will bias the effect of native language downwards.early retirement, health, native language, retirement, unobserved heterogeneity

The Swedish-Speaking Population on the Finnish Labor Market

The Swedish-speaking population in Finland constitutes a linguistic minority in numbers,but has equal constitutional rights with the Finnish-speaking majority. In theJ 9th century, Swedish was the dominant language af government, business and culture.At present, though, the two language groups have almost the same distributionsby industry and socioeconomic position at the national level. Generally, the differencesbetween regions are wider than between the two language groups. The laborforce participation rate is also very much the same. The unemployment rate, however,is clearly lower among Swedish speakers and retirement at an early age (i.e. disabilitypension) less common. These disparities remain also after a great number ofbackgroundvariables have been controlled for

Language-Group Differences in Very Early Retirement in Finland

The purpose of this paper is to study very early retirement as an indicator for bad health, with focus on a comparison between the two language groups in Finland. Extensive longitudinal data are analysed with the help of random effects probit models. As expected from previous studies of mortality differences, the rate of retirement is lower among Swedish-speakers than among Finnish-speakers, and this cannot be attributed to socio-demographic and regional factors. Swedish-speaking males have a risk of very early retirement that is about 25 per cent lower than that of Finnish-speaking males. Among females the corresponding difference is about 15 per cent. Our results also suggest that not accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity will bias the effect of native language downwards.native language; early retirement; health; unobserved heterogeneity

Separations among Finnish women born between 1938-1967

The study of dissolutions in Finland until 1989 confirms corresponding findings from other countries. Consensual unions and marriages preceded by consensual unions were less stable than direct marriages. We do not interpret this as a causal relation, but rather as an outcome of a selection process. The choice of type of union is an indicator of the general attitudes and norms with respect to family formation and divorces. Furthermore, it is no longer meaningful to classify the unions according to formal marital status at the entry into the union. At present less than one union out of ten is a direct marriage, and we should instead focus on the marital status at entry into parenthood

Geographical Extraction and the Finnish-Swedish Health Differential in Finland

Previous research concerned with the Finnish-Swedish mortality differential in Finland tends to have overlooked the fact that many Finnish speakers who live in the same coastal area as the Swedish speakers originate from parts of the country with high death rates. Using an extract from Statistics Finlands longitudinal employment statistics ? le, we ? nd that geographical extraction is an important factor underlying variation in both mortality and disability retirement in working-aged people. Finnish speakers born in eastern and northern Finland have substantially poorer health than those originating from western Finland. It is consequently not suf? cient to restrict analyses only by present region of residence. Still, there remains a between-group health differential also in people born in the coastal area, which suggests that health behaviors and risk factors could be relevant