Sexual orientation and full-time monthly earnings, by public and private sector: evidence from Swedish register data

In this paper we explore annual earnings as well as full-time monthly earnings differentials resulting from sexual orientation. We observe that gay males are at an earnings disadvantage compared to male heterosexuals regardless of which earnings measure we use. This earnings disadvantage is found to be larger when we compare gay and heterosexual males who are working full-time. In addition, the disadvantage is larger in the private than in the public sector. Lesbians, however, earn more than heterosexual females. This earnings advantage is considerably smaller when we study full-time monthly rather than annual earnings but an earnings advantage for lesbians at the top of the earnings distribution is documented regardless of which earnings measure we use. In addition, lesbians are doing better than female heterosexuals in the public sector. To sum up, the results indicate that gay males face obstacles on the labor market that hinder them from reaching top-level positions and high earnings. The earnings advantage observed for lesbians is likely to stem from the fact that lesbians devote more time to market work than heterosexual females do.     

Ethnic Enclaves,Networks and Self‐Employment among Middle Eastern Immigrants in Sweden

The proportion of immigrants from countries in the Middle East living in Sweden has increased since the 1970s, and it is a well‐known fact that immigrants from the Middle East suffer from low earnings and high rates of unemployment on the Swedish labour market. There are often great hopes that self‐employment will enable immigrants to improve their labour market situation. Further, in Sweden as in many other countries, the question of whether the existence of ethnic enclaves are good or bad for immigrants’ earnings and employment opportunities has also been widely debated. This paper presents a study of the extent to which Middle Eastern ethnic enclaves and networks in Sweden enhance or hinder immigrants’ self‐employment. The results show that the presence of ethnic enclaves increases the propensity for self‐employment. Thus, immigrants in ethnic enclaves provide their co‐ethnics with goods and services that Swedish natives are not able to provide. The results also show that ethnic networks seem to be an obstacle to immigrant self‐employment. One explanation is that an increase in network size implies increased competition for customers among self‐employed immigrants. The question of whether ethnic enclaves are good or bad for the integration of immigrants into the labour market has been widely debated. The results of this paper provide us with information about the integration puzzle. Ethnic enclaves seem to enhance self‐employment propensities among Middle Eastern immigrants in Sweden.     

Transmission of self-employment across immigrant generations: the importance of ethnic background and gender

This paper studies the intergenerational transmissions of self-employment abilities among immigrants in Sweden. The results show that second-generation immigrants are over-represented in self-employment compared to natives. Male immigrants from countries neighbouring to Sweden and natives alike seem to use both mothers and fathers as role models in their self-employment decision, but the father is the stronger role model among male immigrants from more geographically distant regions. Female immigrants use both their father and their mother as role models in their self-employment decision. Furthermore, male immigrants and male natives tend to become self-employed in the same business sector as their fathers; female immigrants and female natives with self-employed parents are over-represented in self-employment but not necessarily in the same business sector as their parents.     

Immigrants' Relative Earnings in Sweden — A Cohort Analysis

Abstract. This paper examines the earnings assimilation of immigrants in Sweden by applying a quantile regression approach on pooled data during the period 1990–99. Immigrants from Nordic and Western European countries have a smaller entry earnings disadvantage and slower rate of assimilation than other groups of immigrants. For some cohorts of immigrants from European countries the initial earnings disadvantage disappears after 15–20 years in Sweden, but as non‐European immigrants suffered from very large entry earnings disadvantages, their earnings will not catch up with the earnings of natives during their first 20 years in Sweden. More recent non‐European immigrant cohorts had a larger entry earnings disadvantage than previous ones. The immigration policy, discrimination, and the economic conditions may have contributed to the decline in the earnings assimilation of non‐European immigrants.     

Unemployment compensation and the use of social assistance among second-generation immigrants in Sweden

Previous studies have shown that the participation of first-generation immigrants in the Swedish income security system deviates from that of the native population. However, so far there has been no research that has focused on this issue where second-generation immigrants are concerned. This study shows that the rates of participation in different parts of the income security system vary considerably between different groups of second-generation immigrants. Second-generation immigrants whose parents come from Western Europe have low participa-tion rates in all the studied parts of the income security system. Their participation rates are even lower than for natives with both parents born in Sweden. Second-generation immigrants with parents from southern Europe and from outside Europe, on the other hand, have very high participation rates in especi-ally social assistance. The differences between the groups are of course to a great extent explained by differences in their labour market situation. According to the findings of the study, there are reasons to be concerned about the future labour market integration of second-generation immigrants with parents of non-European origin.     

Disposable income differences between immigrants and natives in Sweden

This paper investigates whether there are differences in Sweden between immigrants and natives in disposable income and in the probability of having a low disposable income. By investigating disposable income and the probability of having a low disposable income, our study illuminates to what extent taxes and transfers in the Swedish welfare state manage to compensate for differences in income from work between immigrants and natives. The study shows that there are differences between different groups both in disposable income and in the probability of having a low disposable income and that these differences remain when we control for factors such as age, gender, education and civil status. Early immigrants from the Nordic countries have a higher disposable income than does the native population whereas recent immigrants have a substantially lower disposable income and a higher probability of remaining poor than both earlier immigrants and the native population. In summary, our study shows that the differences in disposable income between immigrants and natives are indeed smaller than the differences in income from work but that the differences are not completely counterbalanced through the tax and transfer system.     

Ethnic Segregation,Tipping Behavior,and Native Residential Mobility

We study tipping behavior in residential mobility of the native population in Sweden between 1990 and 2007. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find that the native population growth in a neighborhood discontinuously drops once the share of non‐European immigrants exceeds the identified tipping point. Native tipping behavior can be ascribed to both native flight and native avoidance. Natives with a high level of educational attainment and the highest labor earnings are more likely to move from neighborhoods that have tipped. We conclude that tipping behavior is likely to be associated with ethnic as well as to socio‐economic segregation in Sweden.     

Assimilation and participation in social assistance among immigrants

This article analyses assimilation and social assistance participation among immigrants in Sweden. Probit regressions are used in order to estimate the participation rates in social assistance among different groups of immigrants and native-born Swedes. The analysis is based upon panel data since the same individuals have been tracked in different years. The results show that among immigrants from the Nordic countries and from Western societies the participation rates are about the same as among comparable native-born Swedes. Immigrants from South European and non-European countries are over-represented in welfare usage. This over-representation remains even after controlling for differences in observable characteristics such as age, gender, family situation and educational attainment. Non-European immigrants assimilate out of welfare dependency at a faster rate than European immigrants, but despite this, non-European immigrants are over-represented in social assistance utilisation even after 20–25 years of residence in Sweden.     

The Receipt of Transfer Payments by Immigrants in Sweden

Using the native-born as a benchmark, this article examines the reliance of immigrants on Sweden's social safety net. Both in the raw data, and after conditioning on a number of explanatory variables, we find that there are differences between immigrants and natives regarding participation in the Swedish income security system. We also find that there are differences in this respect between immigrants from different regions as well as between more recent and earlier cohorts of immigrants. As regards unemployment insurance benefits and cash labour market assistance, no clear pattern can be discerned in the results. In the case of early retirement pension and social assistance, however, the picture looks different. Immigrants arriving at an early date from typical labour immigration regions are over-represented in early retirement. Immigrants, especially non-European immigrants with a recent date of arrival, are over-represented among recipients of social assistance. The overall conclusion is that the immigrants' total rate of participation in the income security system is determined by their rate of unemployment and their state of health. On the other hand, the distribution of their participation among the different components of the income security system is highly dependent on their length of residence in Sweden and where they come from.     

Self-employed immigrants and their employees: evidence from Swedish employer-employee data

We present a study of the employees of self-employed immigrants with unincorporated firms in Sweden using matched employer-employee data from 2014. Non-European immigrants are more likely than natives to have employees in their firms. Furthermore, immigrants, especially non-European immigrants, are more likely than natives to employ immigrants in their firms, and non-European immigrants are most likely to employ recently arrived non-European immigrants with low education in their firms. Males are more likely than females to have employees in their firms, but self-employed females are more likely than self-employed males to have female employees. This is the case for all immigrant groups as well as for natives. We conclude that self-employed immigrants play a role in the labour market integration process since they create employment opportunities for immigrant groups that have difficulty entering the labour market.