Earnings Inequality and the Gender Gap: An Accounting Exercise for Sweden 1975–1991

Using the Household Income Survey, the earnings of full time, full year workers in Sweden are studied. Earnings inequality as well as the gender earnings gap were found to decrease up to the beginning of the 1980s, when both started to increase. The following questions are also addressed: How much has the changed earnigns gap contributed to changes in earnings inequality? How much should earnings inequality decrease in the case of men and women having the same mean income while keeping inequality within each gender category constant?     

Household allocation and spatial distribution in a market under (“soft”) rent control

We analyse whether segregation exists in the rental housing market in Stockholm, Sweden, a market under persistent and all-embracing, yet “soft”, rent control. We use segregation measures for the uncontrolled cooperative housing segment as benchmarks for analysing whether rent control counteracts segregation. We apply the analyses to a rich dataset encompassing some 400,000 households.     

Sales and operations planning: responding to the needs of industrial food producers

This paper investigates sales and operations planning (S&OP) at four Scandinavian industrial food producers in order to explore how the use of S&OP might help leaders to deal with the challenges set by the planning environment. Variables connected to the product and market, e.g. frequency of new product development, customer service levels and supply uncertainty, were identified as particularly critical for the S&OP process. It was found that there is great potential for S&OP in the food industry, foremost to cope with the imbalances between demand and supply and to create prerequisites for a stable production process.     

Effects of experimentally induced mental and physical stress on motor unit recruitment in the trapezius muscle

Mental stress may induce muscle tension and it is thought to contribute to the development of musculoskeletal disorders. Prolonged activity of a muscle's motor units (the smallest functional units) having low activation thresholds, may cause metabolic disturbances, degenerative processes and pain. The present experiment was aimed at investigating if the same motor units are activated by mental stress as by physical demands. Seventeen participants were exposed to mental stress tests (mental arithmetic, Stroop color word) and physical demands (standardized reference contraction, force ramp contraction) in the laboratory. In addition, they were exposed to the cold pressor test. Bipolar intramuscular electromyographic (EMG) activity was measured in the trapezius muscle, which covers the upper part of the back, the neck and the shoulder, and an automatic classification programme was used to separate the contributions of the individual motor units in the compex EMG signal. Overall muscle activity was measured by bipolar surface EMG and heart rate was recorded as an indicator of stress. The mental stress induced significant increases in muscle activity ( p < .05) and in heart rate ( p < .05). In 12 out of 14 participants, one or more motor units were found to be active in mentally as well as in physically induced muscle contraction. The results indicate that mentally induced stress may contribute to keeping low threshold motor units active, even in the absence of physical demands. Considering the health risks of prolonged motor unit activity, it was concluded that lack of mental rest is an important risk factor for the development of muscular pain.     

Teamwork among midwives during neonatal resuscitation at a maternity hospital in Nepal

Problem

The ability of health care providers to work together is essential for favourable outcomes in neonatal resuscitation, but perceptions of such teamwork have rarely been studied in low-income settings.

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.

     

Inequality in the welfare state? Local variation in care of the elderly – the case of Sweden

This article uses Sweden as an example to describe and analyse municipal variation in services and care for elderly people. Responsibility for these services lies with the municipalities. National statistical data on municipalities are analysed to map out the variations in old-age care; to study compensating factors in the care system; and to explore the connection with municipal structural and political conditions. The overall finding of the bivariate analyses was that most relations with structure and policy were weak or non-existent. The final multivariate model explained only 15% of the variance. The large differences between municipalities makes it more appropriate to talk about a multitude of 'welfare municipalities' rather than one single welfare state. The article concludes that this municipal disparity constitutes a greater threat to the principle of equality in care of the elderly than gender and socio-economic differences.     

Normality or care – an inventory of Swedish municipalities’ responses to unstable accommodation for vulnerable groups

This article presents an inventory of policies and housing support interventions to the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless in a representative sample of Swedish municipalities. Two types of intervention are included: various types of accommodation for those who are already homeless and daily life support for those at risk, either provided or financed by the social services in the municipality. Data were collected in 2004–2005 through a questionnaire e-mailed to local authority officials, in a stratified sample of about half of the Swedish municipalities (n=147). The results show that two types of housing intervention dominate the field: daily life support and sublet contracts, both of which have a relatively high normality factor, with a setting in normal housing. Daily life support includes care and is usually implemented before the tenant is evicted. The level of care related to various interventions fluctuates more between the municipalities than normality does. The more densely populated municipalities were more engaged in developing housing policies and administrative bodies to handle these. However, the implementation of housing policies does not seem related to improvements in the qualities of the interventions. On the contrary, the local authorities that have housing policies and administrative tools adapted to these policies provided a lower degree of both normality and care in the interventions. The results suggest that aspects of normality and care in the same type of housing interventions vary depending on the type of municipality, while the existence of policies has no influence on care and a negative effect on the degree of normality provided through the interventions.     

Sexual orientation and earnings: a register data-based approach to identify homosexuals

This paper examines earnings differentials between homo- and heterosexual individuals by identifying sexual orientation with the help of information from register data. Register data enable us to avoid the misclassifications of sexual orientation often mentioned as a potential bias in survey-based studies. The results show that gay men are at an earnings disadvantage as compared to male heterosexuals while the earnings differential between lesbians and heterosexual women is very small. Our results are in line with results from previous research but are more reliable since we use a more reliable measure of sexual orientation than previous research.