This thesis consists of four empirical essays on the topics of ethnic segregation, gender economics, and self-employment.    Essay I investigates how the residential mobility of Sweden's native population contributes to ethnic segregation, by applying regression discontinuity methods. The results show that the growth in the native population in a neighbourhood discontinuously drops as the share of non-European immigrants exceeds the tipping point. Tipping is driven by the departure of natives and their avoidance of tipped neighbourhoods. Tipping behaviour is selective in the sense that highly educated and high earning natives are more likely to leave neighbourhoods that have tipped.    Essay II studies the relationship between the childhood neighbourhood's ethnic composition and economic outcomes in adulthood for second-generation immigrant sand natives. The results reveal that a high concentration of immigrants in aneighbourhood is associated with a lower probability of second-generation immigrants continuing to higher education. Natives' earnings and educational attainment are negatively correlated with, and the probability of social assistance and unemployment are positively associated with a high immigrant concentration. Among non-Nordic second-generation immigrants, reliance on social assistance and unemployment are negatively correlated with the share of co-ethnics and positively associated with the proportion of other ethnic groups.    Essay III explores the role of social norms and attitudes about gender for labour market outcomes of immigrant men and women in Sweden. The results show that immigrants originating from countries with large gender disparities in labour force participation also have large gender gaps in labour force participation within their immigrant group on the Swedish labour market. In contrast, source country gender differences in earnings are not correlated with gender gaps in earnings within immigrant groups in Sweden. In addition, gender gaps in labour force participation among immigrants assimilate towards the corresponding gap among natives as time inSweden increases.    Essay IV empirically tests the Jack-of-all-trades theory, which states that individuals who are more balanced in their abilities are more suitable for self-employment. Using Swedish Military Enlistment data, a measure of balance in endowed abilities is constructed and this balance measure is, in relation to previous research, less likely tobe endogenous. The results support the Jack-of-all-trades theory, in the sense that propensity for being or becoming self-employed is greater for individuals with abalanced set of abilities. In addition, earnings from self-employment tend to be higher among individuals with a balanced set of skills.

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development. Department of Economics / This study is a theoretical exploration of what constitutes the economic worth of domestic work in South Africa. Due to the particular conditions of the South African economy, it has been difficult to measure the economic worth of this type of labour. Domestic work was performed by housewives, but now women in South Africa seek employment in domestic labour for economic survival. This study will explore the factors which determine the value of domestic labour in the South African economy today. Though domestic employment is undervalued it contributes vastly to the formal sector directly or indirectly. Domestic workers have experienced a specific type of economic exploitation as their labour is perceived to carry low economic value because no formal training is required for domestic labour. In South Africa, government has enforced legislation that governs and protects domestic workers. This however may still not be enough to fundamentally alter the conditions of domestic work in South Africa and this study may provide a framework for a future exploration of the rationale for changing the conditions of work in this sector.

This thesis consists of four papers summarized as follows. Do Payroll Tax Cuts Raise Youth Employment? We study whether payroll tax reductions are an effective means to raise youth employment. In 2007, the Swedish employer-paid payroll tax was cut on a large scale for young workers, substantially reducing labor costs for this group. Using the variation in payroll taxes across cohorts, we estimate a significant, but small, impact both on employment and on wages. Effects of Taxes on Youth Self-Employment and Income. I examine the link between taxes and youth self-employment. I make use of a Swedish reform that made the payroll tax and the self-employment tax vary by age. The results suggest that youth self-employment is insensitive to tax reductions, both in the short run and in the somewhat longer run. For those defined as self-employed, I find positive effects on income from self-employment, and negative effects on income from wage employment. Can Indifference Make the World Greener? We conducted a natural field experiment at a large university in Sweden to evaluate the effects of two resource conservation programs. The first intervention consisted of a campaign that actively tried to convince people to cut back on printing in general, and to use double-sided printing whenever possible. The second intervention exploited people's tendency to stick with pre-set alternatives. At random points in time we changed the printers’ default settings, from single-sided to double-sided printing. Whereas the moral appeal had no impact, the default change cut paper use by 15 percent. The Origins of Behavioral Contagion: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Facebook. We explore the micro-level foundations of behavioral contagion by running a natural field experiment on the networking site Facebook. Members of Facebook express positive support to content on the website by clicking a Like button. We show that users are more prone to support content if someone else has done so before.

Egenanställning är en anställningsform som växer mycket snabbt. Under senare år har det börjat komma rapporter och debattartiklar om nya former för att organisera arbetslivet och möjliga konsekvenser av egenanställning när det gäller regelverk och anställningstrygghet. Med egenanställda menas personer som utför arbete på uppdrag och inte själva har något företag. De är i stället anställda av ett egenanställningsföretag som ansvarar för fakturering mot kunden/ uppdragsgivaren. Utifrån dessa förändringar är det intressant att se vilka konsekvenser det får för individen och vilka färdigheter som krävs i rollen som arbetstagare för att kunna hantera nya förväntningar och krav. I förlängningen är det också intressant att se vilket stöd arbetssökande kan få i att utveckla nya färdigheter på en arbetsmarknad som innebär en förskjutning från anställningstrygghet till anställningsbarhet och om vägledare och rådgivare inom arbetsmarknadsområdet bör eller ens kan rekommendera egenanställning som ett alternativ oavsett den arbetssökandes färdigheter. Denna studie utgår från ett individperspektiv och vänder sig främst till vägledare inom arbetsförmedling och vuxenutbildning samt till rådgivare och karriärcoacher inom Trygghetsråden. Förhoppningen är att studien ska kunna hjälpa till i vägledningsarbetet och fungera som en pusselbit inför individers kommande karriärbeslut. Studien baseras på Planned Happenstance-teorin. Valet av teoretisk utgångspunkt har gjorts utifrån att teorin ligger väl i linje med förskjutningen på arbetsmarknaden och den nya gig-ekonomin, där individen förväntas ta ansvar fullt ut för den egna utvecklingen och ställer krav på initiativförmåga och att vara självgående. För studien har en kvalitativ metod tillämpats. Sju personer har valts ut, de representerar organisationer i olika branscher, olika typer av organisationer samt har olika roller. Gemensamt är att det är organisationer som på olika sätt uppmuntrar, stöttar eller vägleder individer i en karriärvägledningsprocess. De intervjuade personerna arbetar i egenanställningsföretaget Frilans Finans, Fackförbundet Unionen, Trygghetsråden TRR, TSN och TRS, Arbetsförmedlingen och Verto Konsult AB. Resultaten i studien visar att det är relativt ovanligt att arbetslösa använder egenanställning som en plattform för att komma in på arbetsmarknaden. De specifika kompetenser som krävs är främst att vara självständig, driven, gilla försäljning, vara flexibel, våga ta risker, relationskompetens och specialistkompetens. Flera av dessa färdigheter stämmer överens med de färdigheter som karriärteorin Planned Happenstance menar är viktiga. Studien visar vidare att karriärvägledare bör stämma av att personer som överväger egenanställning har en tydlig affärsidé och att de gjort en ordentlig marknadsundersökning av den tjänst eller produkt man ska sälja samt har koll på de ekonomiska förutsättningarna. Stöd genom utbildningsinsatser för att öka den digitala kompetensen och kurser i lagar och avtal är också något som respondenterna lyfter fram, samt rådgivning när man är igång, inte bara inför uppstarten. Tillgång till nätverk och att kunna bolla med andra är också förslag på stödinsatser. / Self-employment is an employment form that is growing rapidly. In recent years, reports and debate articles are coming up about new forms of organizing work-life and possible consequences of self- employment in terms of regulations and employment security. Self-employed means people who perform work on assignments and not have a company themselves. Instead, they are employed by a self-employment company which is responsible for billing against the customer / client. Based on these changes, it is interesting to see what consequences it has for the individual and which skills are required in the role of the employee in order to handle new expectations and demands. In the long run, it is also interesting to see which support jobseekers can get in developing new skills in a labor market, which involves shifting from job security to employability and if counsellors and advisors in the labor market sector should or even can recommend self-employment as an option regardless of the job applicant's skills. This study is based on an individual perspective and is primarily addressed to counsellors in employment service and adult education, as well as advisors and career coaches within the job security councils - Trygghetsråden. The hope is that the study should be able to assist in the work of guiding and as a piece of puzzle for individuals' future career decisions. The study link to the Planned Happenstance theory. The choice of theory has been based on the fact that the theory is well in line with the shift in the labour market and the new gig economy, where the individual is expected to take full responsibility for his / her own development, claiming initiative and being self-governing. For the study a qualitative method has been applied. Seven people have been selected, they represent organizations in different industries, different types of organizations and have different roles. Commonly, they are organizations that encourage, support or guide individuals in a career-counselling process. The interviewees work in the self-employment company Frilans Finans, The labour union Unionen, the job security councils TRR (outplacement and job security services for private companies and employees), TSN (The Job Security Foundation, job security services for government employees) and TRS, Arbetsförmedlingen (The Swedish Public Employment Service) and Verto Konsult AB. The results in the study show that it is relatively unusual for unemployed to use self-employment as a platform for entering the labour market. The specific skills required are primarily independent, driven, like sales, flexible, dare to take risks, relation competencies and specialist skills. Several of these skills are consistent with the skills that the career theory Planned Happenstance means are important. Further, the study shows that career counsellors should argue that people who consider self- employment have a clear business idea and that they have done a proper market research of the service or product to sell, as well as the financial conditions. Support through training efforts to increase digital skills and courses in laws and agreements is also something that respondents highlight, as well as counselling at the start, not just before the start-up. Access to networks and being able to chat with others are also suggestions for support efforts.

A presente dissertação analisa a condição das trabalhadoras por conta própria e a domicílio na sociedade contemporânea, questionando-se como as mulheres trabalhadoras percebem e acessam a cidadania e vivenciam seu cotidiano no cenário atual das transformações do trabalho e do emprego no Brasil. Tem-se em vista que a concretização da cidadania no Brasil esteve intimamente ligada com a criação dos direitos do trabalho. A amostra de pesquisa é composta por mulheres trabalhadoras no domicílio, por conta própria ou a domicílio subcontratadas, residentes da região do Vale do Sinos, cidade de São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul. Todas as trabalhadoras apresentaram alguma passagem pela indústria calçadista desta região e um histórico de migração de cidade. A pesquisa empírica é conduzida pela técnica de entrevistas em profundidade e observação do cotidiano das trabalhadoras. O quadro teórico se constitui a partir das categorias de análise: trabalho, cidadania, gênero e cotidiano. Para tanto, dimensões conceituais de cidadania, divisão sexual do trabalho, patriarcado, gênero, cotidiano, ciclo de vida, trabalho a domicílio e trabalho por conta própria são chave na presente análise. Demonstra-se como a relação das trabalhadoras com a casa é estreita e que em sua vida cotidiana não há espaço para participação comunitária e política. O ciclo de vida é decisivo na vida das mulheres e quando alguma mudança importante neste se dá, elas são chamadas a cumprir seus papéis sociais. Percebe-se na análise que a cidadania das mulheres trabalhadoras no domicílio, seja por conta própria ou a domicílio é fragilizada e por vezes seus direitos estão ausentes. Evidencia-se que há necessidade de construir-se outra cidadania, ampliada também às mulheres, e traz elementos para essa construção. / The present dissertation analyses the conditions of self-employed and household female workers in contemporary society, asking how female workers realize and access citizenship and how they live their daily life in the current scenario of work and employment changes in Brazil. It is noticed that the concretion of the citizenship in Brazil was intimately linked to the creation of the labor rights. The research sample is composed by female workers, selfemployed or household workers hired under registered contract, residents of the region of Vale do Sinos, city of São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul. All workers presented a pass through in the shoe industry of this region and a history of city migration. The empirical research is conducted by the in-depth interview method and by observational study of the daily life of the workers. The theoretical framework is constituted since the following categories of analysis: work, citizenship, gender and daily life. To this end, conceptual dimensions of citizenship, sexual division of labor, patriarchate, gender, daily life, life cycle, household labor and self-employment job are the key in this present analysis. It demonstrates how the relationship of female workers with the household is close and how there is not any space of communitarian and political activities in their daily life. Life cycle is crucial in the life of women. When some important change happens in this life cycle, they are called to perform their social roles. It can be noticed in the analysis that the citizenship of the female workers, either self-employed or household workers, is fragile and sometimes their rights are absent. It is evident that there is a need of constructing another citizenship, extended also to women, and this research provides elements for this elaboration.

Entrepreneurial skills stimulate entrepreneurial activities. An increase in entrepreneurial activities culminates in high economic growth, creation of employment, and alleviation of poverty. South Africa’s entrepreneurial activity ratio stands at 9.1%, far below 14.3% of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Entrepreneurship is a national priority endeavour which helps absorb individuals searching for employment. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) provide employment to approximately 61% of households in South Africa. SMME shutdowns have increased and can be attributed to lack of entrepreneurial proficiencies. Hence, contingent employees in small retail businesses face poor working conditions, are unprotected by labour legislation, low remuneration, skills redundancy, and discrimination. They are also not affiliated with a union. The foregoing variables lead to job insecurity. Job insecurity leads to job dissatisfaction, disloyalty, and low organisational commitment. The study investigated whether contingent employees in Roodepoort have entrepreneurial skills to be entrepreneurial, as an avenue to offset job insecurity. The question why contingent employees are not entrepreneurial in Roodepoort was posed. A sample composed of 129 contingent employees from 60 small retail businesses in Roodepoort was used. Results showed a positive relationship between entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurship, job insecurity and entrepreneurship, and contingent employees and job insecurity. However, it appears that contingent employees in Roodepoort were not affected nor concerned about job insecurity. They possess a significant understanding of entrepreneurial skills, yet they are not entrepreneurial. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

En nous intéressant aux facteurs qui incitent les individus à devenir chef-fe-s d’entreprise, nous avons analysé le sens qu’ils donnent à l’acte d’entreprendre ainsi que les divers leviers mobilisés pour mener à bien leur projet entrepreneurial. Le propre du travail indépendant est de disposer d’un patrimoine productif transmissible aux générations à venir : l’entreprise. Or, notre recherche montre que l’héritage relatif à l’indépendance professionnelle est multiforme. Pour autant, nous montrons qu’il s’agit toujours d’une place à transmettre. En comparant les trajectoires d’héritier-e-s de l’entreprise familiale, d’héritier-e-s de l’indépendance et de chef-fe-s d’entreprise sans ascendant entrepreneur, nous avons mis en perspective la distinction de sexes opérante dans la famille concernant le patrimoine. En effet, la transmission du patrimoine n’emprunte pas les mêmes canaux pour les filles et les garçons de la fratrie. En somme, cette thèse revient sur l’influence de la transmission familiale sur les trajectoires des entrepreneur-e-s. Les manières d’appréhender le travail, l’entreprise, la vie conjugale et la famille à l’aune de cette dernière ainsi que les représentations qui s’y attachent dépendent des modalités de transmission familiale relatives à l’indépendance et plus précisément de la transmission d’une place professionnelle - de successeur-e, d’indépendant-e - ou non. / In this work, we focus on factors that made some people become business leaders. We analyze how they understand the entrepreneurship and what are the levers used to manage their entrepreneurial projects. The fundamental aspect of self-employment is to have productive assets and a business that you can pass down to the next generations. However, we will show that professionnal inheritance can be multiform even if, in any case, it is about a place to transfer. We compare trajectories of family business inheritors, self-employed inheritors and business leaders without business ancestors and put the difference between genders that occurs in the family about inheritance into perspective. Indeed, inheritance turns out to be different between daughters and sons.

abstract: This dissertation focused on the links among micro-enterprise development (MD), social capital building, and the accompanying social lives of Chinese female entrepreneurs in two China's urban areas—Nanjing and Haikou. It engaged with a few important discussions concerning China’s liberal politics during the reform era, the global trend of neo-liberal capitalism, and the social construction of a new worker-subject—the Chinese urban female entrepreneur shaped by the hybrid marriage of state politics and global capital. The research findings from this research project contributed to the tradition of feminist theories, which endeavors to explore the relationship between neo-liberalism and gender. In particular, gender was found to concretize the ways in which neo-liberal ideological forces have attempted to capture and exploit the productivity of women’s labor Drawing upon the data from in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and secondary data gathering, I examined the diffusion of the Western-centric concept and phenomena of social capital building in order to answer the question how Chinese women's life was inscribed in the larger context of China's relationship to global capitalism. My research findings manifested that the respondents considered affections (e.g., inter-dependence, obligation, and mutual trust) to be the foundation of establishing and maintaining their social networks regardless of the government's emphasis on market principles and the utility-based social capital conception. This opened up a new way of re-theorizing social capital. This dissertation also focused on how China’s integration with the global economy has affected women’s social identity construction. It emphasized the interaction between gender and class as one of the most salient sites where ideal citizens of China are imagined. Drawing from the perspectives of the respondents, I found that femininity has never been eliminated by the Chinese government. It has existed in China’s MD to challenge the government’s attempt of promoting the agendered (gender-neutral), universal model of women’s participation in self-employment. Moreover, I asserted that class was individualized while penetrating into other dimensions of identity (especially gender). The transformed dimensions of identity constituted a set of stratification schemes that constantly reshuffled social stratifications for maximizing the state’s profits from the control of citizens. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Justice Studies 2015

A presente dissertação analisa a condição das trabalhadoras por conta própria e a domicílio na sociedade contemporânea, questionando-se como as mulheres trabalhadoras percebem e acessam a cidadania e vivenciam seu cotidiano no cenário atual das transformações do trabalho e do emprego no Brasil. Tem-se em vista que a concretização da cidadania no Brasil esteve intimamente ligada com a criação dos direitos do trabalho. A amostra de pesquisa é composta por mulheres trabalhadoras no domicílio, por conta própria ou a domicílio subcontratadas, residentes da região do Vale do Sinos, cidade de São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul. Todas as trabalhadoras apresentaram alguma passagem pela indústria calçadista desta região e um histórico de migração de cidade. A pesquisa empírica é conduzida pela técnica de entrevistas em profundidade e observação do cotidiano das trabalhadoras. O quadro teórico se constitui a partir das categorias de análise: trabalho, cidadania, gênero e cotidiano. Para tanto, dimensões conceituais de cidadania, divisão sexual do trabalho, patriarcado, gênero, cotidiano, ciclo de vida, trabalho a domicílio e trabalho por conta própria são chave na presente análise. Demonstra-se como a relação das trabalhadoras com a casa é estreita e que em sua vida cotidiana não há espaço para participação comunitária e política. O ciclo de vida é decisivo na vida das mulheres e quando alguma mudança importante neste se dá, elas são chamadas a cumprir seus papéis sociais. Percebe-se na análise que a cidadania das mulheres trabalhadoras no domicílio, seja por conta própria ou a domicílio é fragilizada e por vezes seus direitos estão ausentes. Evidencia-se que há necessidade de construir-se outra cidadania, ampliada também às mulheres, e traz elementos para essa construção. / The present dissertation analyses the conditions of self-employed and household female workers in contemporary society, asking how female workers realize and access citizenship and how they live their daily life in the current scenario of work and employment changes in Brazil. It is noticed that the concretion of the citizenship in Brazil was intimately linked to the creation of the labor rights. The research sample is composed by female workers, selfemployed or household workers hired under registered contract, residents of the region of Vale do Sinos, city of São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul. All workers presented a pass through in the shoe industry of this region and a history of city migration. The empirical research is conducted by the in-depth interview method and by observational study of the daily life of the workers. The theoretical framework is constituted since the following categories of analysis: work, citizenship, gender and daily life. To this end, conceptual dimensions of citizenship, sexual division of labor, patriarchate, gender, daily life, life cycle, household labor and self-employment job are the key in this present analysis. It demonstrates how the relationship of female workers with the household is close and how there is not any space of communitarian and political activities in their daily life. Life cycle is crucial in the life of women. When some important change happens in this life cycle, they are called to perform their social roles. It can be noticed in the analysis that the citizenship of the female workers, either self-employed or household workers, is fragile and sometimes their rights are absent. It is evident that there is a need of constructing another citizenship, extended also to women, and this research provides elements for this elaboration.

Essay I: This essay provides an overview of the history of the Swedish pension system. Starting with the implementation of the public pension system in 1913, it outlines the key components of each major pension reform up until today along with a discussion of the main trade-offs and concerns that policy makers have faced. It also describes the historical background of the four largest occupational pension plans in Sweden and the mutual influence between these plans and the public pension system.        Essay II: Despite the fact that the increasing involvement of the private sector in pension provision has brought more flexibility to the pay-out phase of retirement, little is known about the characteristics of those who choose to annuitize their pension wealth and those who do not. I combine unique micro-data from a large Swedish occupational pension plan with rich national administrative data to study the choice between life annuities and fixed-term payouts with a minimum payout length of 5 years for 183,000 retiring white-collar workers. I find that low accumulation of assets is strongly associated with the choice of the 5-year payout. Consistent with individuals selecting payout length based on private information about their mortality prospects, individuals who choose the 5-year payout are in worse health, exhibit higher ex-post mortality rates and have shorter-lived parents than annuitants. Individuals also seem to respond to large, tax-induced changes in annuity prices.            Essay III: This essay estimates the causal effect of postponing retirement on a wide range of health outcomes using Swedish administrative data on cause-specific mortality, hospitalizations and drug prescriptions. Exogenous variation in retirement timing comes from a reform which raised the age at which broad categories of Swedish local government workers were entitled to retire with full pension benefits from 63 to 65. The reform caused a remarkable shift in the retirement distribution of the affected workers, increasing the actual retirement age by more than 4.5 months. Instrumental variable estimation results show no effect of postponing retirement on the overall consumption of health care, nor on the risk of dying early. There is evidence, however, of a reduction in diabetes-related hospitalizations and in the consumption of drugs that treat anxiety. Essay IV (with Per Engström): The consumption based method to estimate underreporting among self-employed, introduced by Pissarides and Weber (1989), is one of the workhorses in the empirical literature on tax evasion/avoidance. We show that failure to account for transitory income fluctuations in current income may overestimate the degree of underreporting by around 40 percent. Previous studies typically use instrumental variable methods to address the issue. In contrast, our access to registry based longitudinal income measures allows a direct approach based on more permanent income measures. This also allows us to evaluate the performance of a list of instruments widely used in the previous literature. Our analysis shows that capital income is the most suitable instrument in our application, while education and housing related measures do not seem to satisfy the exclusion restrictions.