Jonas Månsson

Integration of Immigrants The Role of Language Proficiency and Experience

In this article, the authors evaluate a Swedish pilot scheme that targeted immigrants with weak Swedish-language skills registered as unemployed at public employment offices. By sandwiching work-oriented language teaching and practical workplace training, the project aimed at enhancing the employability of project participants but also at alerting them to and preparing them for available training and further education opportunities. For the evaluation, a comparison group of nonparticipants was selected using a propensity score methodology. The results show that participation in the pilot scheme project resulted in much speedier transfers from open unemployment to employment, training, and education.

Second‐Generation Immigrants in the Swedish Labour Market

Abstract This study focuses on the labour market performance among second‐generation immigrants in Sweden. One motivation behind the analysis is that it gives insight into the long‐term consequences of immigration. Labour market performance relates the probability of having a job, referred to here as a threshold effect and to the differences in income from work, given that a person is in the market and is referred to as an income from work effect. We have shown that a clear threshold effect of being a second‐generation immigrant exists and that different groups of second‐generation immigrants perform differently in the Swedish labour market.

Vertical Integration and Efficiency: Ownership in the Swedish Sawmill Industry

This study investigates different types of vertically integrated ownership types inrelation to technical efficiency, in the Swedish sawmill industry. The theoreticalfindings connecting vertical integration and efficiency points in two directions:both in favour for non-integrated firms and in favour for fully integrated firms.In the study, significant differences between ownership types are not found. Onepossible interpretation of this result is that the integration advantages outweigh thepossible negative effects an integrated firms will have from maximising an integratedobjective function.

Economies of scale in the Swedish sawmill industry

Summary In this study, scale elasticity and optimal size of the Swedish sawmill industry is investigated. An input distance function is used to compute scale elasticity. The result of the study shows that the average scale elasticity is above 1, indicating existence of economies of scale in the industry. By comparing the size of the average input - output vectors with the inefficiency adjusted input vector and the output vector for scale efficient units, we could see that, in general, there are gains to be made by expansion. However, some units may gain from becoming smaller.

Technical efficiency and productivity for higher education institutions in Sweden

ABSTRACT This study investigates technical efficiency and productivity for Swedish higher education institutions (HEIs). One identified problem in previous research concerns adjusting efficiency scores for input quality. This problem is avoided using grades from upper-secondary schools. A second problem concerns heterogeneity with respect to subjects and institutions between HEIs. Using the Swedish national resource allocation system, students are weighted according to subject. For research production, a bibliometric index that allows for differences in publication tradition is used. A third problem when using the data envelopment analysis approach is the lack of statistical inference. Bootstrapping is used to approach this problem. The results indicate an average inefficiency of 12% and a productivity increase of around 1.7% per year.

Transitions from part-time unemployment: Is part-time work a dead end or a stepping stone to the labour market?

This article analyses the effects of individual characteristics on the probability of leaving part-time unemployment. The results show that it cannot be unreservedly asserted that part-time work offers access to the core labour market. Among the part-time unemployed, there are great variations in the degree to which they are likely to leave part-time unemployment. A concentration of labour market policy activities on the part-time unemployed who are least likely to succeed in finding full-time employment can, therefore, be expected to have positive consequences from both equity and efficiency points of view. In this respect, part-time unemployed women, persons with work-related disabilities and persons with temporary employment come to the forefront. The article shows that the likelihood of finding a full-time job is certainly not great for persons belonging to these groups. For many of them, part-time job is not a stepping stone but rather a dead end on the labour market.

Gender-based career differences among young auditors in Sweden.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not gender-related differences affect the likelihood of promotion. Design/methodology/approach - The research is done on a unique dataset on the Swedish audit industry, an industry with a well-defined and well-known career ladder. We apply an ordered probit model to take all steps in the career ladder into consideration simultaneously. Findings - Females are on average less likely to be promoted. Separate regressions for males and females identified that the estimated promotion probability increases for males as an effect of having a child, but decreases more for males than females if males are highly involve in the care of these children. Thus, females who are involved in childcare are penalised by lower probability of promotion; however, males who are highly involved in childcare have much more to lose in terms of promotion than females do. For a family, this becomes a question of how to lose the least. Originality/value - Having access to unique data, from a policy perspective our study gives some new insight into the uneven distribution between genders of career interruptions related to childcare.

Can business counselling help SMEs grow? Evidence from the Swedish business development grant programme

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the state funded business counselling on firm growth. Design/methodology/approach – A quasi-experimental difference-in-difference estimation of treatment effects, using a matched sample of comparable untreated firms. Findings – Firms that have been granted counselling vouchers have a higher growth in value added than comparable untreated firms. This effect is mainly due to increased use of labour and capital, rather than increased efficiency. Results are upwardly biased due to sample selection among treated firms. Research limitations/implications – An improved strategy for identifying potential comparison firms from the pool of all firms may be necessary for further impact evaluations on business development programmes. Social implications – Policy makers may have to reconsider the programme design, since the programme currently suffer from a large potential for crowding-out, and low additional value of business counselling. Originality/value – The paper...

Private versus Public Provision of Placement Services for Hard-to-Place Unemployed: An Impact Evaluation

This book argues that active labour market policies are necessary to improve the position of the unemployed but have so far performed relatively poorly. The contributing authors seek ways to improve active labour market policy and consider three means of doing so: improving the quality by better targeting and by better-designed measures, more efficient implementation and delivery, and better performance by benchmarking the various implementation agencies involved.

Using the Unemployed as Employment Counsellors: Evaluation of an Initiative to Combat Long-Term Unemployment

This study investigates empirically the effects of a pilot project in which unemployed persons were used as temporary employment counsellors. Economic theory clearly points in the di-rection of a positive relation between search intensity and exit from unemployment. The fundamental concept of the project was the use of unemployed, who underwent customised training, to assist other unemployed in their job search. The project was carried out during a period in which the caseload was very high at public employment offices, which resulted in a drastic reduction in individual placement services available to the unemployed. It was based on a collaboration agreement between trade union confederations and the Swedish Labour Market Administration. Based on individual records drawn from administrative data, this paper examines the impact of the project on the probability of being removed from the live register of the Employment Service (various reasons for being removed are analysed separately) or being placed in a labour market policy programme. For job seekers placed in such programmes, the evaluation also examines effects on the probability of gaining employment within a given time period subsequent to programme participation. The impact on the period of time from the start of the project until a job seeker is removed from the register or placed in a labour market policy programme is also examined. The estimated effects indicate that the project had a positive impact on job search effectiveness and, thereby, in its efforts to reduce long periods out of work.