Research projects
Urban versus rural areas and multidimensional skill-mismatch
Research has shown that people who work in urban areas earn more than people who work in rural areas. One theoretical mechanism for why wages are higher in urban compared to rural areas is that individuals in urban areas are better matched to their job. Even if this has been discussed theoretically the empirical evidence for this is limited. This project examines empirically how match quality differs for individuals who live in urban and rural areas.
RCT evidence regarding the take-up and consequences of debt relief among over indebted individuals in Sweden
In Sweden, debt relief is a five-year program, during which the overindebted individual pays as much as possible whilst living on the subsistence level. In this project, we investigate the Swedish debt relief program´s effectiveness with the following research question: Can the number of applications for debt relief - as well as number of approved requests and completed plans - be increased through targeted information campaigns?
Do Initial Neighborhood Characteristics Impact Future Residential Integration of Refugees? Quasi-experimental Evidence from a Swedish Placement Policy
Sweden has recorded the highest number of refugees per capita in Europe in recent decades, while its major cities maintain high levels of ethnic segregation and urban unrest. This project investigates the long-term impact of refugees' initial neighborhood placement on long-term neighborhood integration.
Development of the demographic atlas "Boendebarometern"
The purpose of "Boendebarometern" is to describe the development at the neighborhood level (DeSO) in Sweden across various dimensions, with a focus on the housing situation. For example, questions regarding education level and income for tenants, condominium owners, and homeowners will be analyzed over time and in different areas.
Scars of War: the local legacy of WW1 deaths on British soldiers
The researchers study the local legacy of the WW1 mortality shock and its effects on British soldiers’ behaviour in WW2. The results show that the legacy of the Great War may run through and be amplified by a civic capital channel that is fostered by the process of the remembrance and commemoration of fallen soldiers.
Effects of early housing market entry: Evidence from lottery-assignment of new rental apartments
How is an area’s socioeconomic and demographic mix affected by random allocation of housing? What does it mean for a young person to receive their own home without having to wait in a housing queue for many years? Does this, in turn, have an impact on educational outcomes, family formation, labour market outcomes, and general wellbeing? This project will try to answer these questions.
Electricity, societal change and labour market transformation
This project analyses how local labour markets adapt to technological change. We look specifically into the transformative early 20th century, when electricity diffused widely into society as a general purpose technology.
Planning and social mix
Social mix through tenure mix is a policy tool to combat segregation in Sweden and elsewhere. We study if new construction of housing in Swedish cities, 1995–2017, has affected tenure mix in neighbourhoods, and if this in turn affected social mix.
How preschool quality relates to children’s learning outcomes
International research has shown that the quality of preschool is of great importance for children's learning and development. The purpose of this project is to investigate whether, and under what conditions, differences in the quality of preschool are important for children's knowledge development in preschool class.
Growing cities and segregated neighbourhoods
We investigate how new housing constructions affect residential sorting patterns across neighbourhoods in cities.
Effects of having a neighbourhood being classified as a ”vulnerable area”
Since 2015, the police in Sweden has released reports in which they classify certain areas as vulnerable. In this project, we are interested in examining how this classification affects the pinpointed area.
Land use in Sweden
In this project, we construct a database with comprehensive information about how the land is used in Sweden. Combining the land use data with full population, individual-level register data, the project aims at addressing the lack of detailed land-use data describing individuals' immediate neighbourhoods.
How do individuals and local stakeholder value housing?
In this project we study the willingness to pay for different housing attributes. In the project, we also intend to study local stakeholders in the rental market and their views and understanding of tenants’ value as well as how they themselves perceive the principles, functions and legitimacy of rent setting. Out approach is to conduct a hypothetical field experiment.
Neighbourhood Reputation and Youth Schooling Paths
We study a policy in which in 2015 the Swedish police suddenly published reports to identify vulnerable neighbourhood. The public release of the list has led to massive media coverage of the listed neighbourhoods, which typically portraits them in a stigmatizing way.
Crime composition in gang enclaves
In this project, we study gangs' presence and influence in an urban area in a developed country at a low geographical level. We analyse whether there is a tipping point in gang presence that affects criminal patterns, and we test for discontinuities in crime levels and composition.
Gang sweeps, crime, and welfare
In this project, we study criminal organisations' causal effect on crime for arrested individuals and known peers. We also study broader welfare implications for the areas where a sweep took place.
Community-based interventions and inequality
In this project, we study the effects on local crime rates of bolstering community ties. We take advantage of the quasi-random deployment of a community health policy that aims to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods through community-based initiatives.
“Mom, Dad: I’m staying”. Initial labour market conditions, housing markets, and welfare.
Young individuals are currently living with their parents more than at any other point in time, while also spending more on housing. In 2020, more than 50 per cent of the young US population (between 18 and 29 years old) were living with their parents, the highest level since the great depression. In Europe, 69 per cent of those aged between 16 and 29 lived with their parents in 2019.
Business as usual? The Dynamics of Land Development Around Floodplains
Using a rich dataset on historical flood records and the universe of buildings in Spain, we document the patterns of land development in the aftermath of an inundation. We apply a flexible event-study framework and find that, on average, new development is not affected by a flood, and residential buildings continue to locate close to potentially dangerous areas.
Public sector employment – stimulating regular employment or providing eligibility to unemployment benefits?
Public sector employment programs (PSEP) typically do not come out well in evaluations. However, for groups with weak labour market attachments, benefits from increased networks and labour market experience may outweigh negative lock-in effects.
Do Brokers Beat Auctions in the Sale of Foreclosed Real Estate Property? RCT Evidence from Sweden
The impact of brokered sale during foreclosure has not been investigated previously. This is possible in the Swedish setting, since the Swedish Enforcement Authority - SEA (Kronofogden) is legally obliged to choose between these two different sale modes in each compulsory sale case.
Age at arrival and residential integration
In this project, we study whether immigrant children who arrive at earlier ages in Sweden live in better neighbourhoods in adulthood. We focus on refugees.
Housing supply and housing inequality
We investigate whether new housing units trickle down to disadvantaged groups.
Ethnic Enclaves and Political Participation
What is the effect of residing in ethnic enclaves on immigrants' future political participation? In this study we use unique individual-level turnout data to study the causal impact of ethnic concentration on immigrant voter participation.
Does income redistribution prevent residential segregation?
We use rich full-population data for Sweden 1990–2017 and take advantage of how in-moving residents change the municipal income composition to rule out the influence of reverse causation and mechanical effects.
Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Population Mobility under Mild Policies: Causal Evidence from Sweden
Sweden has adopted far less restrictive social distancing policies than most countries following the COVID-19 pandemic. This project uses mobile data to examine the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak under the Swedish mild recommendations and restrictions regime on individual mobility.
On Gentrification: Renovations of Rental Housing and Socio-Economic Sorting
The purpose of this project is to use detailed register data on all renovations in Sweden from 1995 to 2014 and examine if renovations affect the socio-economic composition in the renovated properties.
Urban Social and Economic Geography in the Long Run, 1880–2017
This research project has the aim of analysing changes to urban social and economic geography over the 1880–2017 period and how these are linked to shifts in transportation technology and urban planning using data for the six Swedish cities Stockholm, Sundsvall, Växjö, Norrköping, Östersund and Uppsala.
The heavy metal project
This project aims to learn more about the consequences of environmental exposures in childhood on outcomes later in life. The researchers will study causal effects of mercury, cadmium and arsenic on economic outcomes over the life-cycle, and also examine how the consequences may differ across the socioeconomic status of the parents.
The effect of urban migration on educational attainment
In this project, we focus on the effects of urban migration in developing countries on educational outcomes of children. Does urban migration form a viable pathway to improve opportunities and educational outcomes? In order to answer the question, the project uses extensive census data for a variety of developing countries in Africa and Latin America.
