Does the Father Matter for the Time Children Spend in Child Care?

This paper analyses whether the fathers matter for the number of hours that their children spend in subsidized child care. More explicitly, we estimate two non-nested models of child care demand in Sweden. The dual care taker model allows both parents' labour supplies to vary and includes several personal characteristics of the father as well as for the mother. The single care taker model follows earlier research and assumes that the father's labour supply is fixed and exogenous to the family's child care demand. The parameter estimates indicate that several of the father's characteristics are associated with the time his child spends in child care. J-tests and bootstrap J-tests are performed to compare the models. The tests show that the single care taker model can be rejected in favour of the dual care taker model while the dual care taker model cannot be rejected in favour of the single care taker model.Child care demand; Subsidized child care; Dual care taker model

Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students

Using data on three cohorts of Swedish university entrants, this study examines whether earnings vary between students who change universities and students who do not change. The results show that earnings, during the first years after leaving the university, are significantly lower for students who change universities compared to students who do not change. Earnings differences decrease significantly over time and over the earnings distribution. The pattern in the estimates seems consistent with non-transfer students, who have higher earnings because of their relatively earlier labor market entry, and transfer students catching up because of their additional human-capital investments.College education; University choice; Earnings distribution

Guideline for collection, analysis and presentation of safety data in clinical trials of vaccines in pregnant women.

Vaccination during pregnancy is increasingly being used as an effective approach for protecting both young infants and their mothers from serious infections. Drawing conclusions from published studies in this area can be difficult because of the inability to compare vaccine trial results across different studies and settings due to the heterogeneity in the definitions of terms used to assess the safety of vaccines in pregnancy and the data collected in such studies. The guidelines proposed in this document have been developed to harmonize safety data collection in all phases of clinical trials of vaccines in pregnant women and apply to data from the mother, fetus and infant. Guidelines on the prioritization of the data to be collected is also provided to allow applicability in various geographic, cultural and resource settings, including high, middle and low-income countries

Essays on Child Care and Higher Education

This thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] examines whether fathers influence the time their children spend in subsidized child care. Two non-nested models of family child care demand are estimated. The parameter estimates indicate that several characteristics of the father are associated with the time his child spends in child care. J-tests and bootstrapped J-tests also show that a model where the father’s characteristics are excluded can be rejected in favour of a model where his characteristics are included. Paper [II] considers the effects of the Swedish child care fee reform on public expenditures and taxation in the municipalities. A difference-in-difference approach is employed where outcomes are compared with respect to the municipalities’ pre-reform fee systems. The results show that pre-reform characteristics determine taxes and child care expenditures in the post-reform period. It is also found that changes in child care quality were not connected to the pre-reform systems characteristics. Paper [III] provides evidence of the effect of college quality on earnings in Sweden. The results suggest that the link between college quality and earnings is weak. A small positive effect is found for individuals that are likely to work full time. Controlling for region of work affects the estimated effects, indicating a correlation between choice of college quality and choice of labour market region. In Paper [IV], earnings differences between transfer and non-transfer students are analysed. The results show that earnings, during the first years after leaving the university, are significantly lower for students who change universities compared to students who do not change. The earnings differences decrease significantly over time and over the earnings distribution

Sjuksköterskor på väg! : Regional- och samhällsekonomisk analys av sjuksköterskeutbildningen i Lycksele

Vårterminen 2002 startade en sjuksköterskeutbildning i Lycksele. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om denna utbildning är samhällsekonomiskt lönsam. Detta görs ur två perspektiv, ett samhällsekonomiskt och ett regionalekonomiskt. Utgångspunkten för den regionalekonomiska analysen är kommunalförbundet Partnerskap inlandsregion. Lönsamheten för utbildningen beräknas med hjälp av kostnads- och intäktsanalys (CBA). Utifrån de antaganden som görs i uppsatsen är den studerade utbildningen regionalekonomiskt lönsam redan första gången den ges. För samhällsekonomisk lönsamhet krävs att utbildningen ges minst fyra gånger. Ges utbildningen de sex gånger som krävs för att täcka behovet av sjuksköterskor i regionen är lönsamheten ungefär tio gånger större för kommunalförbundets region än för samhället i helhet. Resultatet är dock känsligt för ändringar av de antaganden som gjorts. För båda perspektiven är val av diskonteringsränta avgörande för resultatet. Den regionalekonomiska lönsamheten påverkas också av hur stor andel av studenterna som väljer att stanna kvar i regionen

Earnings differences between transfer and non-transfer students, Umeå Economic Studies 782

Abstract Using data on three cohorts of Swedish university entrants, this study examines whether earnings vary between students who change universities and students who do not change. The results show that earnings, during the first years after leaving the university, are significantly lower for students who change universities compared to students who do not change. Earnings differences decrease significantly over time and over the earnings distribution. The pattern in the estimates seems consistent with non-transfer students, who have higher earnings because of their relatively earlier labor market entry, and transfer students catching up because of their additional human-capital investments. Keywords: College education, University choice, Earnings distribution JEL Classification: J24, J31 ____________________________ * We thank Lena Granqvist, Niklas Hanes, Eva Löfbom, Maria Noleryd, Olle Westerlund, Gunnar Wetterberg, Christina Wikström, Magnus Wikström and seminar participants at Umeå University, Saco, and the 2008 European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) meeting for helpful comments. We are especially grateful to Galina Pokarzhevskaya for skillful computer programming and constructive comments. Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students Introduction For the past 20 years, many OECD countries have experienced an increase in the earnings premium to college education (see, for example, One issue that is high up on the European political agenda is the mobility of college students. For example, mobility of students is one of the key objectives of the Bologna process and there are special EU-programs that promote mobility in education. Even though students in Europe have become more mobile, little is known about the consequences (e.g. in terms of earnings) of combining courses from different colleges. This paper fills a gap in the literature by examining earnings differences between students who switch colleges and students who do not. This study uses a large administrative dataset of all Swedish university entrants in 1995, 1996, and 1997 and focuses on students who switch between Swedish colleges. Data reveal that (i) more than 30% of the students changed universities at least once, 1 (ii) students change to all types of universities, and 1 Transfer students are students who obtained credits at more than one university. Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students 2 (iii) students who change universities have higher educational attainments than students who do not change. This suggests that students might change universities to improve their human-capital. Transfer students' additional human-capital investments may improve their careers and result in higher subsequent earnings, compared to students who do not change universities. Students might also change for reasons other than to improve their humancapital. For example, they might change to a university that is closer to where they grew up (to be near family and friends) or to be in an area in which they can pursue their hobbies. If students change for one of those reasons, transferring might be uncorrelated with earnings, or even be negatively correlated. To our knowledge, there is only one previous study that examines earnings of students who switch universities. 2 Using survey data on US college students, Based on their data, we calculate an average transfer rate of about 30% in the US (calculated as the average over transfer students with varying degrees), which is similar to the transfer rate in our data. 3 Light and Strayer estimate a log-earnings equation with transfer patterns as right-hand side variables. They control for individual ability (AFQT scores), number of public colleges in state, and enrollment duration, assuming that ability adjusts for the nonrandom selection of transfer students. They find that students who change universities receive about 6% higher wages than those who do not change. 2 3 Data exist on percentages of college drop-outs in most European countries (see, for example, OECD, 2008). But we have not found a study that reports data on percentages of European students who switch colleges. Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students 3 They also find that transfer students are at least as likely as non-transfer students to earn a degree. This study provides the first estimates of the earnings differences between transfer and non-transfer students for a non-US country. In addition, it includes quantile regression estimates of the earnings gap, which can tell us whether the average estimates are driven by students in specific parts of the earnings distribution. The large data set allows separate regressions for various subsamples, which facilitates further analyses of heterogeneity in the results. This study also investigates whether the results vary between students who switch to universities of varying observed quality. The results show that Swedish transfer students have significantly lower earnings than non-transfer students during the first years after leaving the university, but the earnings differences decrease over time. The earnings differences also decrease over the earnings distribution. One possible explanation to the results is that non-transfer students have higher earnings because of their relatively earlier labor market entry and transfer students catch up because of their additional human-capital investments. The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 contains representative facts about higher education in Sweden. Section 3 presents the theoretical framework and the empirical strategy, while Section 4 describes the data. Section 5 reports the estimated earnings differences between students who change universities and students who do not change and the results from the sensitivity analyses. Section 6 presents conclusions. Degrees from all government-recognized higher education institutions have equal official value. Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students Higher education is free of charge for all students, and the government provides financial support to Swedish students and immigrants who hold a permanent residence permit. This support is twofold: grants and loans, which combined, constitute student aid of about SEK 7,500 ( § EUR 800) per month in 2008. Parents' or spouse's income or wealth do not affect the amounts that students receive, and universities do not provide financial support to students. Theoretical framework and empirical strategy A substantial proportion of university students switch universities during their studies. When they switch universities, they may also consider the benefits and costs of changing academic fields and whether to graduate. These types of students do not fit into Becker's (1964) standard human-capital model, which assumes that there are no uncertainties about schooling decisions. In the traditional human-capital framework, utility maximizing students choose the college education that offers the highest discounted returns, and the decision is made before enrollment. In short, students simply choose a path and stay on it. Early on, Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students 6 model that treats the educational decision as a sequential decision problem. Exogenously specified probabilities drive the college decision, and there are no uncertainties about earnings. Altonji (1993) also treats education as a sequential choice, but in contrast to Comay et al., Altonji assumes that the choice is made under uncertainty. Heckman et al. (2003, 2006) describe further extensions of these approaches. Although, no model explicitly discusses why students switch colleges; the models suggest that a human-capital decision is not a once-and-for-all decision and that a decision can be changed at each level. In addition, the aforementioned papers suggest that benefits and costs of the investments affect the education decision-making process. Based on this theoretical base, Light and Strayer (2004) discuss several reasons why students change colleges. They focus on the issue of match quality and argue that students may decide to change colleges after reassessing costs and benefits of their investment options. Students continuously learn about the institutions and their own capacities and might change because they believe that they will benefit more from being at a different institution. They Human-capital investments or optimal match quality do not necessarily drive a student's transfer decision. Students may also change colleges to come closer to friends and family or to be in a different social environment (for example, fewer students, smaller campuses, and varying leisure activities). In addition, genuine movers could dominate the group of college transfer students, that is, individuals who are more mobile than other students. These students may be less likely to commit to a particular college or program. They may also be less stable on the labor market, which implies that they more often change jobs and are more willing to take on short-term employment. Employers might consider transfer students to come from a group of predominantly bad matches and to be less reliable individuals. 6 A transfer then signals lower productivity and may be a criterion that employers use when screening job applicants. Consequently, a positive relationship between changing colleges and earnings might not exist. The following equations for earnings and transfer decision describe the empirical problem of estimating earnings differences between transfer and non-transfer students: 6 This is related to literature on job mobility, match quality, and adverse selection. See, e.g., Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students Eq. Earnings Differences Between Transfer and Non-transfer Students 9 might be present in work done by To obtain further insights into potential heterogeneity in the impact of changing colleges, we use quantile regression (see, for example, The coefficients are interpreted as the earnings premium in percentile θ of the conditional earnings distribution. The method uses all observations, which means that the sample size in each percentile is weighted by the total sample size. The method is also robust to outliers of the dependent variable. In addition, heteroscedastic-consistent standard errors (bootstrapped standard errors) are estimated. Most universities use identical reporting systems. 8 So data on education are of high quality at individual and university levels. Students were followed for 12 semesters. For each semester, information is available regarding the college they attended, the courses they completed, and the number of credits they earned. If they achieved a degree, there is detailed information about the level and academic field. The dataset also includes individual registe

Essays on Child Care and Higher Education

This thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] examines whether fathers influence the time their children spend in subsidized child care. Two non-nested models of family child care demand are estimated. The parameter estimates indicate that several characteristics of the father are associated with the time his child spends in child care. J-tests and bootstrapped J-tests also show that a model where the father’s characteristics are excluded can be rejected in favour of a model where his characteristics are included. Paper [II] considers the effects of the Swedish child care fee reform on public expenditures and taxation in the municipalities. A difference-indifference approach is employed where outcomes are compared with respect to the municipalities’ pre-reform fee systems. The results show that pre-reform characteristics determine taxes and child care expenditures in the post-reform period. It is also found that changes in child care quality were not connected to the pre-reform systems characteristics. Paper [III] provides evidence of the effect of college quality on earnings in Sweden. The results suggest that the link between college quality and earnings is weak. A small positive effect is found for individuals that are likely to work full time. Controlling for region of work affects the estimated effects, indicating a correlation between choice of college quality and choice of labour market region. In Paper [IV], earnings differences between transfer and non-transfer students are analysed. The results show that earnings, during the first years after leaving the university, are significantly lower for students who change universities compared to students who do not change. The earnings differences decrease significantly over time and over the earnings distribution.Child care demand; subsidized child care; dual care provider model; local public expenditures; income taxation; college quality; earnings; selection on observables; university choice; earnings distribution

Anxiety in the workplace : A quantitative study about security guards and their perceived anxiety of being victimized in there profession.

Föreliggande studie har undersökt oro över att utsättas för hot om våld samt överfall eller misshandel hos yrkesgruppen ordningsvakter, genom den kriminologiska teorin om rutinaktivitet. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det finns samband mellan respondenternas upplevda oro över att utsättas för hot om våld samt överfall/misshandel och grad av exponering, attraktivitet som lämpligt offer samt avsaknad av kapabla väktare. Studiens underlag bestod av en webbenkät som distribuerats genom sociala medier till yrkesgruppen ordningsvakter. 378 verksamma ordningsvakter ingick i det slutgiltiga urvalet. Underlaget analyserades genom logistisk regressionsanalys samt bivariata analyser. Resultaten visade att hög exponering samt avsaknad av kapabla väktare är starka prediktorer för oro över att utsättas för hot om våld samt överfall/misshandel. Dock förkastades hypotesen att attraktivitet som lämpligt offer är en prediktor för upplevd oro. Tidigare utsatthet för brott i arbetet utgjorde tillsammans med exponering och avsaknad av kapabla väktare en lämplig förklaringsmodell för upplevd oro bland ordningsvakterna. Slutsatsen blev att det finns en utbredd oro bland ordningsvakter att utsättas för hot om våld samt överfall/misshandel, dock kan rutinaktivitetsteorin som enskild modell inte förklara den upplevda oron.This study examines the feeling of anxiety about becoming a victim of threat of physical violence or assault in the workplace. The study focuses on people working as security guards. The purpose of the study was to examine if there is a connection between the feeling of anxiety and the elements of the routine activity theory. The samples of participants were collected by social media, where web-based surveys were published. The final sample consisted of 378 participants. The analysis consisted of a binary logistic regression and bivariate analysis. The results of the study showed that exposure and the absence of capable guards are strong predictors of the feeling of anxiety. By the results of the analysis there was no strong evidence that the feeling of anxiety and attractiveness have a connection. The study showed that earlier victimization in the workplace can be a possible predictor of anxiety. In conclusion there is a widespread feeling of anxiety amongst security guards, however the routin activity theory can not explain the whole spectra of this problem

Assessing the Effects of the Child-Care Fee Reform on Public Expenditures and Taxation

This paper studies the effects of the Swedish child-care fee reform on public expenditures and taxation in the municipalities. The reform implied a common system of child-care fees among all the municipalities and was introduced in 2002. In order to study its effects, we employ a difference-in-difference approach, where outcomes are compared with respect to differences in the municipalities’ pre-reform fee systems. It was found that pre-reform characteristics determine taxes and expenditures in the post-reform period. We then discuss the likely causes of these differences and find that the reform did change the child-care demand in municipalities that had applied time rates relative to those who applied income dependent fees prior to reform. Changes in child-care quality were not connected to the pre-reform fee systems characteristics.child-care subsidies; local public expenditures; income taxation