Martin Nordin

The Ethnic Employment and Income Gap in Sweden: Is Skill or Labor Market Discrimination the Explanation?

This study uses a cognitive test score, the Swedish Military Enlistment test taken at age 18, to identify whether the ethnic employment and income gap in Sweden is caused by a pre-market skill gap and/or ethnic discrimination. The employment gap and income gap are estimated for males born in Sweden with different ethnic backgrounds: their parents were born in Sweden or in southern Europe or outside Europe. Controlling for the cognitive test score does not affect the ethnic employment gap, and for incomes the ethnic income gap almost disappears.

Productivity or discrimination? An economic analysis of excess-weight penalty in the Swedish labor market.

This article investigates the excess-weight penalty in income for men and women in the Swedish labor market, using longitudinal data. It compares two identification strategies, OLS and individual fixed effects, and distinguishes between two main sources of excess-weight penalties, lower productivity because of bad health and discrimination. For men, the analysis finds a significant obesity penalty related to discrimination when applying individual fixed effects. We do not find any significant excess-weight penalty for women.

Increasing Returns to Schooling by Ability? A Comparison between the USA and Sweden

This study uses US survey data and Swedish register data to estimate and compare the relationship between returns to schooling and ability. A significant and positive relationship is found for Sweden, but not for the USA. Based on the predictions of the optimal schooling model it is argues that measured differences in the relationship between returns to schooling and ability could depend upon on differences in the schooling systems between the countries. The findings suggest that a low price of higher education in Sweden makes a relationship between returns to schooling and ability observable in Sweden but not in the USA.