Worker Power, Immigrant Sorting, and Firm Dynamics

This paper examines how worker power shapes the allocation of immigrants across firms, and the subsequent consequences of such sorting on firm performance and the careers of incumbent workers. Our analysis highlights several key results. First, unions push immigrants to enter less unionized, lower-paying, and lower-quality firms. Second, the less unionized firms are able to utilize the access to cheaper immigrant labor to scale up production, thereby outcompeting the more unionized firms and capturing market share. Third, incumbent workers in less unionized firms benefit by shifting into management positions and capturing some of the firm’s increased rents. Fourth, despite benefiting incumbent workers in less unionized firms, these workers are more likely to become union members themselves in response to greater contact with new immigrants. Broadly, our results cut across nearly all sectors, but are heightened in labor intensive firms, and muted in competitive markets

Area-based ‘Positive Discrimination’ School Funding in Helsinki

Finland has gained a reputation worldwide as a leader both in educational performance and equality of outcomes. In the last decade, however, the results of Finnish schools have grown more unequal. This trend is particularly visible in urban areas: both the bottom and top performing schools in the country are found in Helsinki (Kuusela, 2010). The current 'positive discrimination' (PD) funding model has provided additional support to schools in certain areas of Helsinki since 2008. The PD funding policy breaks from the universalist approach typical to Finnish education policy as one of the first policies to explicitly target existing inequalities. This thesis examines the institutional characteristics and impact of the PD funding policy. The theoretical framework for this thesis situates the PD funding model in Helsinki against a backdrop of Nordic welfare state policies more broadly before approaching the PD funding policy through a framework centered on governance, particularly education governance. This thesis employs mixed-methods, combining data from stakeholder interviews with a difference-in-differences econometric model. Semi-structured interviews conducted with municipal policy-makers, school principals, and teachers in spring 2016, and quantitative data from both Statistics Finland and the Helsinki Department of Education provide the empirical backbone for this research. The quantitative analysis in this thesis finds increased rates of enrollment in post lower-secondary education amongst students from schools that receive PD funding. Equally important, the stakeholder interviews suggest that the high levels of local autonomy and trust between stakeholders combined with a notable absence of performance-based accountability are central to the operation of PD funding in Helsinki

Can fisheries-induced evolution shift reference points for fisheries management?

Biological reference points are important tools for fisheries management. Reference points are not static, butmay change when a population's environment or the population itself changes. Fisheries-induced evolution is one mechanism that can alter population characteristics, leading to "shifting" reference points by modifying the underlying biological processes or by changing the perception of a fishery system. The former causes changes in "true" reference points, whereas the latter is caused by changes in the yardsticks used to quantify a system's status. Unaccounted shifts of either kind imply that reference points gradually lose their intended meaning. This can lead to increased precaution, which is safe, but potentially costly. Shifts can also occur in more perilous directions, such that actual risks are greater than anticipated. Our qualitative analysis suggests that all commonly used reference points are susceptible to shifting through fisheries-induced evolution, including the limit and "precautionary" reference points for spawning-stock biomass, B-lim and B-pa, and the target reference point for fishing mortality, F-0.1. Our findings call for increased awareness of fisheries-induced changes and highlight the value of always basing reference points on adequately updated information, to capture all changes in the biological processes that drive fish population dynamics

Targeted Funding, Immigrant Background, and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Helsinki's “Positive Discrimination” Policy

I estimate the impact of a targeted funding policy that provides disadvantaged schools in Helsinki with extra resources for hiring additional staff. Using a differences-in-differences strategy, I identify significant improvement in transitions to secondary education for low-performing native students and students from an immigrant background. As a result of the policy native students are 3 percentage points less likely to drop out of education after middle school, and students from immigrant backgrounds are 6 percentage points less likely to drop out of education after middle school as well as 7 percentage points more likely to attend the academic track of upper-secondary school. The impacts of the policy are particularly large for male native students and female students from an immigrant background. The analysis suggests that these results are driven by improvements in non-academic skills rather than only in academic coursework. The results, robust to various checks, provide evidence that extra resources can be particularly effective when targeted towards students from an immigrant background.nonPeerReviewe

The Extent and Consequences of Teacher Biases against Immigrants

We study the extent and consequences of biases against immigrants exhibited by high school teachers in Finland. Compared to native students, immigrant students receive 0.06 standard deviation units lower scores from teachers than from blind graders. This effect is almost entirely driven by grading penalties incurred by high-performing immigrant students and is largest in subjects where teachers have more discretion in grading. While teacher-assigned grades on the matriculation exam are not used for tertiary enrollment decisions, we show that immigrant students who attend schools with biased teachers are less likely to continue to higher education

The Extent and Consequences of Teacher Biases against Immigrants

We study the extent and consequences of biases against immigrants exhibited by high school teachers in Finland. Compared to native students, immigrant students receive 0.06 standard deviation units lower scores from teachers than from blind graders. This effect is almost entirely driven by grading penalties incurred by high-performing immigrant students and is largest in subjects where teachers have more discretion in grading. While teacher-assigned grades on the matriculation exam are not used for tertiary enrollment decisions, we show that immigrant students who attend schools with biased teachers are less likely to continue to higher education

Labor Market Returns to Vocational Secondary Education

We study labor-market returns to vocational versus general secondary education using a regression discontinuity design created by the centralized admissions process in Finland. Admission to the vocational track increases annual income by 7 percent at age 31, and the benefits show no signs of diminishing with time. Moreover, admission to the vocational track does not increase the likelihood of working in jobs at risk of replacement by automation or offshoring. Consistent with the notion of comparative advantage, we observe significantly larger returns for people who express a preference for vocational education in their applications to secondary school

Informal Social Interactions, Academic Achievement and Behavior: Evidence from Peers on the School Bus

We study the effects of informal social interactions on academic achievement and behavior using idiosyncratic variation in peer groups stemming from changes in bus routes across elementary, middle, and high school. Our results suggest that student interactions outside the classroom - especially in adolescence - may be an important factor in the education production function for both academic and, particularly, behavioral skills. The effects of interactions on the bus are also related to neighborhood measures - suggesting that one way that interactions on the bus may matter is by amplifying interactions in the neighborhood

Informal Social Interactions, Academic Achievement and Behaviour: Evidence from Peers on the School Bus

We study the effects of informal social interactions on academic achievement and behaviour using idiosyncratic variation in peer groups stemming from changes in bus routes across elementary, middle, and high school. Our results suggest that student interactions outside the classroom—especially in adolescence—may be an important factor in the education production function for both academic and, particularly, behavioral skills. The effects of interactions on the bus are also related to neighborhood measures—suggesting that one way that interactions on the bus may matter is by amplifying interactions in the neighborhood

Koulutus

Koulutus on merkittävä yksittäinen investointi. Koulutuspolkuja on erilaisia ja niiden vaikutukset yksilön myöhempään elämään myös vaihtelevat. Onko koulutusvalinnoilla loppujen lopuksi merkitystä työelämässä menestymisen kannalta? Voiko koulu suojata syrjäytymiseltä? Olisiko Suomessa otettava käyttöön lukukausimaksut?nonPeerReviewe