Mechanisms of Inequality: Unequal Access to Organizational Power and the Gender Wage Gap

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Ethnic Segregation and Educational Outcomes in Swedish Comprehensive Schools

We ask whether ethnic density in Swedish comprehensive schools affect teacher-assigned school grades in ninth grade (age 16). The data, based on two entire cohorts who graduated in 1998 and 1999 (188,000 pupils and 1,043 schools), link school information with Census data on social origin, and enable us to distinguish first- from second generation immigrants. Using multilevel analysis we find the proportion of first, but not the second, generation immigrant pupils in a school to depress grades in general, but particularly for (first generation) immigrant pupils. Passing a threshold of more than 40 percent immigrants reduces grades with around a fifth of a standard deviation, affecting fourteen percent of immigrant children. Our main results are robust to model specifications which address omitted variable bias both at individual- and school-level. One policy implication of our results is that desegregation policies which concentrated on the two per cent most segregated schools would probably improve school results and reduce ethnic inequality.Ethnic inequality; Immigrant schooling; Educational attainment; Contextual effects; Ethnic inequality; Immigrant schooling

Families, neighborhoods, and the future : The transition to adulthood of children of native and immigrant origin in Sweden

In this paper, we examine mechanisms that generate gaps in educational attainment and labor market outcomes between children of immigrants and children of native Swedes. Theoretical explanations of how social inequality between generations is (re)produced focus on a relative lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools. In the empirical analyses we follow over time all individuals who completed compulsory school during the period 1990 -1995 and analyze what types of background factors have influenced their educational and labor market careers, which are measured for the year 2007. On the basis of our empirical results we conclude that the gaps between children of immigrants and children of native Swedes are mainly generated by differences in various forms of resources in the family of origin. The role of neighborhood segregation is less substantial. Moreover, our results indicate that the gaps in employment are larger than the corresponding gaps in educational attainment. When gainfully employed, children of immigrants born in Sweden follow roughly the same path as children from native families in contrast to children born abroad

Using register data to estimate causal effects of interventions: An ex post synthetic control-group approach

Aims: It is common in the context of evaluations that participants have not been selected on the basis of transparent participation criteria, and researchers and evaluators many times have to make do with observational data to estimate effects of job training programs and similar interventions. The techniques developed by researchers in such endeavours are useful not only to researchers narrowly focused on evaluations, but also to social and population science more generally, as observational data overwhelmingly are the norm, and the endogeneity challenges encountered in the estimation of causal effects with such data are not trivial. The aim of this article is to illustrate how register data can be used strategically to evaluate programs and interventions and to estimate causal effects of participation in these. Methods: We use propensity score matching on pretreatment-period variables to derive a synthetic control group, and we use this group as a comparison to estimate the employment-treatment effect of participation in a large job-training program. Results: We find the effect of treatment to be small and positive but transient. Conclusions: Our method reveals a strong regression to the mean effect, extremely easy to interpret as a treatment effect had a less advanced design been used (e.g. a within-subjects panel data analysis), and illustrates one of the unique advantages of using population register data for research purposes.Funding Agencies|European Social Fund in Sweden; European Research Council under European Union [324233]; Riksbankens Jubileumsfond [M12-0301:1]; Swedish Research Council [445-2013-7681, 340-2013-5460]</p

Families, neighborhoods, and the future : The transition to adulthood of children of native and immigrant origin in Sweden

In this paper, we examine mechanisms that generate gaps in educational attainment and labor market outcomes between children of immigrants and children of native Swedes. Theoretical explanations of how social inequality between generations is (re)produced focus on a relative lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools. In the empirical analyses we follow over time all individuals who completed compulsory school during the period 1990 -1995 and analyze what types of background factors have influenced their educational and labor market careers, which are measured for the year 2007. On the basis of our empirical results we conclude that the gaps between children of immigrants and children of native Swedes are mainly generated by differences in various forms of resources in the family of origin. The role of neighborhood segregation is less substantial. Moreover, our results indicate that the gaps in employment are larger than the corresponding gaps in educational attainment. When gainfully employed, children of immigrants born in Sweden follow roughly the same path as children from native families in contrast to children born abroad

Ethnic Environment during Childhood and the Educational Attainment of Immigrant Children in Sweden

We ask whether growing up with persons of the same national background (which we refer to as coethnics), in the immediate neighbourhood, influences future educational careers of children of immigrants. We use administrative data to follow an entire cohort of immigrant children who graduated from Swedish compulsory schools in 1995. We have information on their parents and on their ethnic environment during the period they were 10 – 15 years old. The dependent variable studied is the highest completed education in years at age 24. We are able to account for unobserved heterogeneity with neighbourhood fixed effects and ethnic group fixed effects. We find that the effect of the quantitative side of the ethnic environment (the number of coethnics) on educational attainment is strongly conditioned by the qualitative side of this environment (the educational success of coethnics). The individual’s educational career is positively related to the number of young coethnics in the neighbourhood, but only if they can be characterized as being educationally successful. Growing up in a large ethnic community with average or poor educational success is harmful for the future educational success. The effect of the ethnic surrounding on the highest completed education is fully mediated by success in compulsory school

Ethnic Environment during Childhood and the Educational Attainment of Immigrant Children in Sweden

We ask whether growing up with persons of the same national background (which we refer to as coethnics), in the immediate neighbourhood, influences future educational careers of children of immigrants. We use administrative data to follow an entire cohort of immigrant children who graduated from Swedish compulsory schools in 1995. We have information on their parents and on their ethnic environment during the period they were 10 – 15 years old. The dependent variable studied is the highest completed education in years at age 24. We are able to account for unobserved heterogeneity with neighbourhood fixed effects and ethnic group fixed effects. We find that the effect of the quantitative side of the ethnic environment (the number of coethnics) on educational attainment is strongly conditioned by the qualitative side of this environment (the educational success of coethnics). The individual’s educational career is positively related to the number of young coethnics in the neighbourhood, but only if they can be characterized as being educationally successful. Growing up in a large ethnic community with average or poor educational success is harmful for the future educational success. The effect of the ethnic surrounding in the highest completed education is fully mediated by success in compulsory school