Co-worker networks and agglomeration externalities

The present article provides an initial systematic analysis of how social networks influence productivity in regional agglomerations. This is accomplished by means of matched employer–employee data for the entire Swedish economy for the period 1990–2008, allowing us to construct a weighted co-worker network with aggregated tie weights on the plant level. We find evidence that increasing density of the plant-level network has a positive effect on productivity, particularly in large regional industry-clusters with high degrees of specialization. Triadic closure of ties is, however, negatively linked to productivity, suggesting the importance of nonredundant knowledge. Moreover, we find only limited support for the notion that the diversity of linkages within or across regions as such is beneficial for productivity. Instead, we show that the degree of specialization conditions the extent to which both linkages to related industries in the region and nonlocal ties are beneficial. Our results thus suggest that having dense social networks is a crucial feature of high-performing agglomerations, and that interindustry, as well as interregional, linkages are compensatory in cases when sufficient industry specialization is absent

Co-worker networks and agglomeration externalities

The present article provides an initial systematic analysis of how social networks influence productivity in regional agglomerations. This is accomplished by means of matched employer–employee data for the entire Swedish economy for the period 1990–2008, allowing us to construct a weighted co-worker network with aggregated tie weights on the plant level. We find evidence that increasing density of the plant-level network has a positive effect on productivity, particularly in large regional industry-clusters with high degrees of specialization. Triadic closure of ties is, however, negatively linked to productivity, suggesting the importance of nonredundant knowledge. Moreover, we find only limited support for the notion that the diversity of linkages within or across regions as such is beneficial for productivity. Instead, we show that the degree of specialization conditions the extent to which both linkages to related industries in the region and nonlocal ties are beneficial. Our results thus suggest that having dense social networks is a crucial feature of high-performing agglomerations, and that interindustry, as well as interregional, linkages are compensatory in cases when sufficient industry specialization is absent

Reducing automation risk through career mobility: where and for whom?

Automation risk prevails less in large cities compared to small cities but little is known about the drivers of this emerging urban phenomenon. A major challenge is that automation risk is quantified by work-related tasks that allows for measurement through occupation, which is in turn implicitly related to local economic structure and to individual career paths. This paper examines the role of working in cities on changes in automation risk through individual career mobility. Using panel data on Swedish workers, we show that the metropolitan effect of reducing automation risk is mainly induced through inter-firm job mobility. Separate estimates for different groups show that this effect accrues mostly to native, high-skilled and male workers

Costs of shoulder pain and resource use in primary health care: a cost-of-illness study in Sweden

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Painful shoulders pose a substantial socioeconomic burden. A prospective cost-of-illness study was performed to assess the costs associated with healthcare use and loss of productivity in patients with shoulder pain in primary health care in Sweden.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was performed in western Sweden, in a region with 24 000 inhabitants. Data were collected during six months from electronic patient records at three primary healthcare centres in two municipalities. All patients between 20 and 64 years of age who presented with shoulder pain to a general practitioner or a physiotherapist were included. Diagnostic codes were used for selection, and the cases were manually controlled. The cost for sick leave was calculated according to the human capital approach. Sensitivity analysis was used to explore uncertainty in various factors used in the model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>204 (103 women) patients, mean age 48 (SD 11) years, were registered. Half of the cases were closed within six weeks, whereas 32 patients (16%) remained in the system for more than six months. A fifth of the patients were responsible for 91% of the total costs, and for 44% of the healthcare costs. The mean healthcare cost per patient was €326 (SD 389) during six months. Physiotherapy treatments accounted for 60%. The costs for sick leave contributed to 84% of the total costs. The mean annual total cost was €4139 per patient. Estimated costs for secondary care increased the total costs by one third.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The model applied in this study provides valuable information that can be used in cost evaluations. Costs for secondary care and particularly for sick leave have a major influence on total costs and interventions that can reduce long periods of sick leave are warranted.</p

Human capital, skills and uneven intra-urban employment growth : The case of Göteborg, Sweden 1990-2008

Recent research has elucidated the role of talents to explain urban growth differences but it remains to be shown whether urban dynamics, such as human capital and a mixed local population, can be linked to intra-urban employment growth. By use of a unique longitudinal database, we track the economic development through the lens of intra-urban employment growth of a number of primary urban areas (PUA) in Göteborg, Sweden. Regarding factors influencing employment growth we find that relative concentrations of human capital protect areas from rising unemployment during severe recession (1990-1993) and recovery (1990-2000) while the composition of skills is beneficial during recovery (1990-2000) and long-term growth (1990-2008). Our findings suggest that neither too high concentrations of creative occupations, nor too low, is beneficial. Thus, human capital drives much of the employment changes in relation to the recession and early transition from manufacturing to service but composition of skills is more relevant for explaining long-term intra-urban employment growth

Co-Worker complementarities and new firm survival

In the present paper, we analyse the association between the skill composition of young firms and the firms’ subsequent survival. This is made possible by means of a matched employer-employee dataset from Statistics Sweden on a cohort of firms that started between 2001 and 2003. Our findings show that, compared to firms that exit, the firms that survive at least until 2012 have teams with higher complementarity at the start, and successively increase their skill complementarity over time. Subsequent discrete time hazard models, controlling for several well-known determinants of firm longevity, show that complementarity plays a crucial role for firm survival. Higher skill synergy within firms, as compared to high degrees of substitutability, is associated with a lower conditional probability of failing. The role of skill complementarity is stable across different specifications and outweighs many other determinants of firm survival, such as starting size and experience of the founder

Labour Market Externalities and Regional Growth in Sweden : The Importance of Labour Mobility between Skill-Related Industries

Boschma R., Eriksson R. H. and Lindgren U. Labour market externalities and regional growth in Sweden: the importance of labour mobility between skill-related industries, Regional Studies. This study investigates the relationship between labour market externalities and regional growth based on real labour flows. In particular, it tests for the importance of labour mobility across so-called skill-related industries between 435 four-digit industries within 72 Swedish functional regions (1998–2002). Both the fixed-effect models and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimates demonstrate that a strong intensity of intra-regional labour flows between skill-related industries impacts positively on regional productivity growth, but less so on employment growth. Labour mobility between unrelated industries tends to dampen regional unemployment growth while a high degree of intra-industry labour flows is only found to be associated with rising unemployment

Returning to work : regional determinants of re-employment after major redundancies

Using matched employer-employee data on roughly 429,000 workers made redundant from large plant closures or major downsizing in Sweden between 1990-2005, this paper analyses the role of the regional industry mix (specialization, related and unrelated variety) in the likelihood of returning to work. Our results show that a high presence of same or related industries speeds up the re-employment process, while high concentrations of unrelated activities do not. The role of related activities is particularly evident in the short run and in regions with high unemployment. Consequently, the prospect of successful diversification is enhanced in regions with related industries