I forskningsprojektet undersöktes hur fem högutbildade utlandsfödda kvinnor har kommit in på arbetsmarknaden och fått ett arbete utifrån sin kompetens. I studien presenteras resultat om hur dessa utlandsfödda kvinnor i egenskap av bland annat ett feministiskt synsätt och utifrån sin egen förmåga har kommit in på arbetsmarknaden. Hinder och framgång som kvinnorna upplever i sin yrkesverksamhet beskrivs i studien. Denna kvalitativa studie genomfördes med e-metodologi, en sammankoppling av den fysiska och den elektroniska världen. / The research project investigated how five highly educated, foreign-born women entered the labor market and got jobs relating to their competence. Taking a feminist approach, the study shows how these foreign-born women have entered the labor market based on their own skills and merit. The challenges and successes experienced by these women are described in the study. This qualitative study was carried out with the e-methodology, an interconnection of the physical and the electronic world. / <p>Studentens fullständiga namn är Melanie Mirtha Osorio.</p>

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<p>This thesis consists of an introduction and three stand-alone essays. In the introduction I discuss the commonalities between the three essays. Essay I charts the the main political cleavages among 59 Swedish unions and business organizations. The main conclusion is that there appear to exist two economic sources of political cleavage: The traded versus the nontraded divide and the labor versus capital divide. Essay II suggests a political rationale for why strikes have been more common in those OECD countries where the legislature is elected in single member districts (e.g. France, Great Britain) than where it was elected by proportional representation (e.g. Sweden, Netherlands). In Essay III I present a theoretical model of political support for different types of labor market regulations. From it I recover two implications: Support for industrial relations legislation that enables unions to bid up wages should be inversely related to the economy's openness, while support for employment protection legislation should be positively related to the size of the unionized sector. Empirical evidence from a cross-section of 70 countries match my theoretical priors.</p>

In industrialized economies such as the European countries unemployment rates are very responsive to the business cycle and significant shares stay unemployed for more than one year. To fight cyclical and long-term unemployment countries spend significant shares of their budget on Active Labor Market Policies (ALMP). To improve the allocation and design of ALMP it is essential for policy makers to have reliable evidence on the effectiveness of such programs available. Although the number of studies has been increased during the last decades, policy makers still lack evidence on innovative programs and for specific subgroups of the labor market. Using Germany as a case study, the dissertation aims at contributing in this way by providing new evidence on start-up subsidies, marginal employment and programs for youth unemployed. The idea behind start-up subsidies is to encourage unemployed individuals to exit unemployment by starting their own business. Those programs have compared to traditional programs of ALMP the advantage that not only the participant escapes unemployment but also might generate additional jobs for other individuals. Considering two distinct start-up subsidy programs, the dissertation adds three substantial aspects to the literature: First, the programs are effective in improving the employment and income situation of participants compared to non-participants in the long-run. Second, the analysis on effect heterogeneity reveals that the programs are particularly effective for disadvantaged groups in the labor market like low educated or low qualified individuals, and in regions with unfavorable economic conditions. Third, the analysis considers the effectiveness of start-up programs for women. Due to higher preferences for flexible working hours and limited part-time jobs, unemployed women often face more difficulties to integrate in dependent employment. It can be shown that start-up subsidy programs are very promising as unemployed women become self-employed which gives them more flexibility to reconcile work and family. Overall, the results suggest that the promotion of self-employment among the unemployed is a sensible strategy to fight unemployment by abolishing labor market barriers for disadvantaged groups and sustainably integrating those into the labor market. The next chapter of the dissertation considers the impact of marginal employment on labor market outcomes of the unemployed. Unemployed individuals in Germany are allowed to earn additional income during unemployment without suffering a reduction in their unemployment benefits. Those additional earnings are usually earned by taking up so-called marginal employment that is employment below a certain income level subject to reduced payroll taxes (also known as “mini-job”). The dissertation provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of marginal employment on unemployment duration and subsequent job quality. The results suggest that being marginal employed during unemployment has no significant effect on unemployment duration but extends employment duration. Moreover, it can be shown that taking up marginal employment is particularly effective for long-term unemployed, leading to higher job-finding probabilities and stronger job stability. It seems that mini-jobs can be an effective instrument to help long-term unemployed individuals to find (stable) jobs which is particularly interesting given the persistently high shares of long-term unemployed in European countries. Finally, the dissertation provides an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of ALMP programs to improve labor market prospects of unemployed youth. Youth are generally considered a population at risk as they have lower search skills and little work experience compared to adults. This results in above-average turnover rates between jobs and unemployment for youth which is particularly sensitive to economic fluctuations. Therefore, countries spend significant resources on ALMP programs to fight youth unemployment. However, so far only little is known about the effectiveness of ALMP for unemployed youth and with respect to Germany no comprehensive quantitative analysis exists at all. Considering seven different ALMP programs, the results show an overall positive picture with respect to post-treatment employment probabilities for all measures under scrutiny except for job creation schemes. With respect to effect heterogeneity, it can be shown that almost all programs particularly improve the labor market prospects of youths with high levels of pretreatment schooling. Furthermore, youths who are assigned to the most successful employment measures have much better characteristics in terms of their pre-treatment employment chances compared to non-participants. Therefore, the program assignment process seems to favor individuals for whom the measures are most beneficial, indicating a lack of ALMP alternatives that could benefit low-educated youths. / Zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsmarktchancen arbeitsloser Personen und damit zur Bekämpfung von Arbeitslosigkeit werden innerhalb der Europäischen Union jedes Jahr beträchtliche Summen für Maßnahmen der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik (AAP) aufgewendet. Vor diesem Hintergrund ergibt sich die Frage nach der Effektivität dieser Programme. Obwohl in den vergangenen Jahren zahlreiche empirische Evaluationsstudien durchgeführt und hierdurch wesentliche Erkenntnisse über die Wirksamkeit von AAP gewonnen wurden, bestehen noch stets unerforschte bzw. nur unzureichend erforschte Bereiche, wie zum Beispiel für innovative Programme oder für Untergruppen am Arbeitsmarkt. Hierin liegt der Beitrag der Dissertationsschrift. Am Beispiel von Deutschland werden neue Erkenntnisse zur Wirksamkeit der Existenzgründungsförderung, der geringfügigen Beschäftigung sowie der Programme für arbeitslose Jugendliche geliefert. Mit Einführung des Existenzgründungszuschusses (Ich-AG) im Rahmen der Hartz-Reformen, standen gründungswilligen Arbeitslosen, zusammen mit dem bereits seit Mitte der Achtziger Jahre bekannten Überbrückungsgeld, zwischen 2003 und 2006 zwei Förderprogramme zur Verfügung. Beide Programme umfassen eine monetäre Förderung während der Gründungsphase, um arbeitslosen Personen den Weg in die berufliche Selbständigkeit zu erleichtern. Die Analyse der beiden Programme zeigt deutlich, dass die intendierten Ziele, d.h. die Verbesserung der Beschäftigungschancen sowie der Einkommenssituation der Teilnehmer, erreicht wurden. Es zeigt sich weiter, dass beide Programme insbesondere effektiv für benachteiligte Gruppen am Arbeitsmarkt, wie z.B. Geringqualifizierte, sowie in Regionen mit eher schlechten ökonomischen Bedingungen sind. Aber auch die getrennte Analyse für Frauen zieht eine positive Bilanz. Hier erweist sich die Förderung als besonders wirksam, da die berufliche Selbständigkeit (im Gegensatz zur abh. Beschäftigung) anscheinend eine bessere Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf ermöglicht. Abschließend lässt sich somit feststellen, dass die Förderung der beruflichen Selbständigkeit eine sinnvolle Strategie darstellt, da insbesondere bestehende Hürden für benachteiligte Gruppen am Arbeitsmarkt beseitigt und diese Personen langfristig in den Arbeitsmarkt integriert werden. Im nächsten Abschnitt der Dissertationsschrift wird die Aufnahme einer geringfügigen Beschäftigung während der Arbeitslosigkeit untersucht. In Deutschland können arbeitslose Personen bis zu 15 Stunden/Woche eine Beschäftigung aufnehmen, wobei ein Zuverdienst bis 165 Euro/Monat keine Auswirkung auf den Bezug von Arbeitslosengeld hat. Hierzu greifen arbeitslose Personen insbesondere auf die geringfügige Beschäftigung (genannt „Mini-Job“) zurück, da diese für die Arbeitslosen selbst abgabenfrei ist und Arbeitgeber nur einen reduzierten Beitrag zur Sozialversicherung sowie Einkommensteuer zahlen. Das erhöhte Einkommensniveau während der Arbeitslosigkeit sowie der enge Kontakt zum Arbeitsmarkt können unterschiedliche Wirkungen generieren. Es zeigt sich, dass die Aufnahme einer geringfügigen Beschäftigung grundsätzlich keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Arbeitslosigkeitsdauer hat, jedoch im Anschluss an die Arbeitslosigkeit zu längeren Beschäftigungsphasen führt. Die Untersuchung der Effektheterogenität zeigt, dass die geringfügige Beschäftigung während der Arbeitslosigkeit die Arbeitslosigkeitsdauer für Langzeitarbeitslose verkürzt und zu insgesamt stabileren Beschäftigungsphasen für diese Personengruppe führt. Das Ergebnis ist von hoher politischer Relevanz, da die Möglichkeit einer Zusatzbeschäftigung während der Arbeitslosigkeit anscheinend ein effektives Instrument zur Bekämpfung von Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit darstellt. Abschließend beschäftigt sich die Dissertationsschrift mit der Untersuchung der Effektivität von AAP zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsmarktchancen von arbeitslosen Jugendlichen. Jugendliche sind im Gegensatz zu Erwachsenen häufiger von Arbeitslosigkeit betroffen, da sie über geringere Such- bzw. Arbeitserfahrung verfügen. Die Bekämpfung von Jugendarbeitslosigkeit steht daher im Fokus der AAP. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es erstaunlich, dass bisher nur wenig über die Wirksamkeit von AAP für arbeitslose Jugendliche bekannt ist bzw. für Deutschland hierzu noch überhaupt keine Erkenntnisse existieren. Die Dissertationsschrift liefert nun erstmalig Evidenz zur Wirksamkeit von AAP für arbeitslose Jugendliche in Deutschland. Die untersuchten Programme (außer Arbeitsbeschaffungsmaßnahmen) erhöhen die Beschäftigungswahrscheinlichkeit der Teilnehmer gegenüber den Nicht-Teilnehmern. Allerdings zeigt sich auch, dass arbeitslose Jugendliche ohne bzw. mit Hauptschulabschluss weniger von einer Programmteilnahme profitieren als Jugendliche mit einer höheren Schulbildung. Hier scheint noch Optimierungsbedarf zu bestehen, indem die Ausgestaltung der AAP stärker auf die Bedürfnisse von geringqualifizierten Jugendlichen eingehen sollte.

This thesis consists of an introduction and three stand-alone essays. In the introduction I discuss the commonalities between the three essays. Essay I charts the the main political cleavages among 59 Swedish unions and business organizations. The main conclusion is that there appear to exist two economic sources of political cleavage: The traded versus the nontraded divide and the labor versus capital divide. Essay II suggests a political rationale for why strikes have been more common in those OECD countries where the legislature is elected in single member districts (e.g. France, Great Britain) than where it was elected by proportional representation (e.g. Sweden, Netherlands). In Essay III I present a theoretical model of political support for different types of labor market regulations. From it I recover two implications: Support for industrial relations legislation that enables unions to bid up wages should be inversely related to the economy's openness, while support for employment protection legislation should be positively related to the size of the unionized sector. Empirical evidence from a cross-section of 70 countries match my theoretical priors.

This study aims to investigate whether perceived institutional discrimination among job seekers within minority groups in Sweden is higher than in Canada. Perceived institutional discrimination is argued to be determined by cultural differences, more specifically, cultural Tight-Looseness and perceived everyday discrimination. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted both in Swedish and Canadian work centres. The results were compared with views on the perceived openness of the labour market. Results indicate that higher perceived institutional discrimination is related to the labour market being perceived as more closed for minority groups in Sweden while the same results could not be seen in Canada.

This thesis consists of three self-contained essays dealing with different aspects of macroeconomics and political Economy. The Relative Price of Investment Goods and Sectoral Contract Dependence I develop a quantitative model to explain the relationship between TFPs at the aggregate and sector levels and contracting institutions across countries. The incomplete contract enforcement induces distortions in the production process which come from the “hold up” problem between a final goods firm and its suppliers. Because investment goods sector is more contract dependent, its productivity suffers more from the distortion. In turn, countries endowed with weaker contract enforcement institutions face higher relative prices of investment goods. A Ricardian Model of the Labor Market with Directed Search I analyze how search friction affects the allocation in a Ricardian model of the labor market. The equilibrium shows that the matching pattern is partially mixed: Some tasks are only performed by skilled workers; some are only performed by unskilled workers; the remaining tasks are performed by both skilled and unskilled workers. The mixed matching pattern implies a mismatch in equilibrium. It turns out that the reason for the mismatch has its roots in search friction. In addition, I show labor market institutions have interesting implications for the unemployment rate and mismatch. A Dynamic Analysis of the Free-rider Problem I argue that special interest groups overcome their free-rider problem thanks to distorted government policy. As policy confers monopoly privileges on a group, it can also preserve and promote group’s organization. The key to sustaining the organization of the group is a dynamic incentive: when distorted policy generates rents for a group, each member of the group wish to make contributions not just to raise their rents today; they want to sustain their cooperation so that they will be able to influence policy in the future.

Ungdomsarbetslösheten är ett problem i Sverige och det finns flera unga som uppbär försörjningsstöd. Det har visat sig vara svårt för en del ungdomar att etablera sig på arbetsmarknaden och kommunerna har ett ansvar för skapa arbetsmarknadsåtgärder som kan hjälpa personer att komma ut i arbetslivet. En del unga är mer utsatta än andra vilket gör att de kan vara i behov av ett intensivare stöd. Denna studies syfte är att undersöka vilka komponenter eller händelser i Case management-projektet som haft inverkan för de unga vuxnas livssituation. Projektet som är en arbetsmarknadsåtgärd syftar till att hjälpa ungdomar som har svårigheter med att strukturera upp sin vardag. En kvalitativ studie har gjorts för att undersöka vilka erfarenheter både klienter och professionella har av projektet. Detta skedde med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer där fyra klienter och tre professionella deltog. Tidigare forskning visar att en god relation mellan klient och hjälpare är en väsentlig komponent och att ett tätt samarbete mellan myndigheter samt klient är en avgörande faktor för om insatsen ska ha någon effekt. Samtidigt är övrigt stöd från nätverket en hjälpande faktor samt att klienten är motiverad till att förändra sin livssituation. Undersökningens resultat visar att alla respondenter är positivt inställda till projektet och att klienterna anser case managern har varit det stöd som de har saknat. / Youth unemployment is a problem in Sweden and there are several young people who receive income support. It has proven difficult for some young people to establish themselves in the labor market and local governments have a responsibility to create labor market policies which help people to establish themselves on the labor market. Some young people are more vulnerable than others so they may be in need of more intensive support. The aim of this study is to examine which components or events in the case management project that has impacted the young adults' lives. The project is a labor market program aimed at helping young people that find it difficult to structure their daily lives. A study has been done to examine both clients and professionals experience of the project. This was done by semi-structured interviews with four clients and three professionals participated. Previous research shows that a good relationship between client and helper is an essential component and that a close cooperation between agencies and clients is a crucial factor if the effort will have any effect. Additional network is also a helping factor and that the client is motivated to change their lives. The results of the study shows that all respondents are in favor of the project and the clients consider that the case manager has been the support that they have been missing.

<p>I examine how employing workers with specific human capital affects capital structure decisions by employers. Based on plant-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, I use the opening of new plants as an exogenous reduction in human capital specificity-- the inability to transfer specific skill sets across employers--for incumbent workers in a local labor market. My results indicate that the opening of a new manufacturing plant in a given county leads to a 2.6-3.9% increase in the leverage of existing manufacturing firms in the county, relative to the leverage of manufacturing firms in an otherwise comparable county. Moreover, plant openings have a larger impact on firms that are more likely to share labor with the new plant, that have high labor intensity, and that have high marginal tax benefits of debt. Alternative explanations concerning productivity spillovers, product market competition, and county-wide shocks do not appear to account for the results. I find consistent evidence in a separate sample that contains a broad panel of firms. Overall, these results suggest that human capital specificity raises the cost of debt and thus decreases optimal leverage.</p> / Dissertation

This study examined whether the demand for more educated science and engineering workers outweighed longstanding practices of discrimination in hiring in high technology industries and science and engineering occupations. The study focused on the effects of education on the distribution of employment and wages among four racial and ethnic groups (non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics and Asians), for the period 1992 to 2002. The main data used in the analyses came from the March Annual Demographic Survey. Multinomial logit analyses were used to determine the probabilities of employment, and ordinary least squares, non-parametric regressions and t-tests were used to examine wages. The analyses showed that education was more important in determining employment in S &E occupations, when compared to its effects in other occupations; and compared to race, other demographic and labor market characteristics. The effects of education were greater in S &E jobs in the high technology sector when compared to S &E jobs elsewhere in the economy. However, the effects of education varied with race, the level of education, and the industry/ occupational group under consideration in ways that suggest that both employment and wages continue to be influenced by correlates of race. Based on the findings, the study provides recommendations for policy and future research.