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Empirical Essays on Education and Social Insurance Policies
- av Caroline Hall

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I reformen av gymnasieskolan 1991 förlängdes de tidigare 2-åriga yrkes­lin­jer­na till 3-åri­ga program med fler allmänna teoretiska ämnen. Detta medförde att även el­ever från yrkes­­inriktade utbildningar fick allmän behörighet till hög­skolan. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka effekter för­längningen av yrkesutbildningarna hade på el­e­ver­nas senare utbildnings- och arbets­mark­nad­sutfall. I uppsatsen utvärderas en omfattande för­­söks­verk­samhet med 3-åriga yrkeslinjer som föregick gymnasiereformen i vissa kommuner. Utbildningarna i försöket påminde mycket om de som infördes efter reformen. Utvärderingen bygger på en jämförelse av elever i kommuner som deltog i försöket med elever i kommuner som inte deltog. Alla personer som påbörjade en yrkesutbildning 1986-1990 ingår i studien. Resul­taten vi­sar att förlängningen av yrkesutbildningarna medförde en ökad sanno­­likhet att hop­pa av gymnasiet för el­e­ver med låga slutbetyg från grundskolan och från icke-akademiska hem. Re­sul­ta­ten visar inga tecken på att det extra gym­na­sie­året skulle ha medfört en ökad övergång till hög­skolestudier. Det finns dock vissa teck­en på att för­läng­ningen av yrkes­ut­bild­ning­ar­na i försöket kan ha lett till hög­re inkomster på längre sikt.

Abstract in English:

This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. Essay 1: This paper evaluates the ef fects of the introduction of a more comprehensive upper secondary school system in Swe den in the 1990s. The reform reduced the differences between the academic and vo ca tio nal edu ca tio nal tracks through prolonging and substantially increasing the aca demic content of all vo ca­tio nal tracks. The effects of this policy change are identified by exploiting a six year pilot scheme, which preceded the actual reform in some municipalities. The results show that the pro longation of the vocational tracks brought about an increased pro ba bi li ty of drop ping out among low performing students. Though one important motive be hind the po licy change was to enable all upper secondary school graduates to pursue a uni versity de gree, I find no effects on university enrolment or graduation. There are some indications, however, that at ten ding the longer and more academic vo ca tional tracks may have led to in creased earnings in the long run. Essay 2: (co-authored with Peter Fredriksson, Elly-Ann Johansson and Per Johansson) We examine whether the impact of pre-school interventions on cognitive skills differs by immigrant background. The analysis is based on Swedish data containing information on childcare attendance, rich family background information, the performance on cognitive tests at age 13, and long-run educational attainment for cohorts born between 1967 and 1982. We find that childcare attendance reduces the gap in language skills between children from immigrant backgrounds relative to native-born children. We find no differential effects on inductive skills, however. Nor does childcare appear to affect the distribution of long-run educational attainment. Essay 3: (co-authored with Laura Hartman) This paper studies a specific type of moral hazard that arises in the interplay between two large public insurance systems in Sweden, namely the sickness insurance (SI) and the unemployment insurance (UI). Moral hazard can arise from the structure of the benefit levels as for some unemployed persons benefits from the SI are higher than benefits from the UI. We use a reform of the SI system that came into force on 1 July 2003 to identify the effect of economic incentives arising from the different benefit levels. The purpose of the reform was to eliminate the difference in benefits between the two insurance systems. Our results from a duration analysis show clearly that the higher the sickness benefits, the higher the probability of reporting sick. Essay 4: Previous research suggests that there are substantial interactions between the un em ployment insurance (UI) and the sickness insurance (SI) in Sweden. Mo ral ha zard arises in the interplay between these two social insurance systems, since by re por ting sick an unemployed person can postpone the UI expiration date and some times also re ceive considerably higher benefits. This paper exa mines whe ther these inter ac tions affect the transition rate from unemployment to em­ploy ment. To stu dy this question I utilize a reform which great ly re duced the incentives for un em ployed persons to transfer to the SI. While there is evi dence that this reform sub stantially lowered the incidence of sick re ports among the un­em ployed, I find no evidence suggesting that the reduced sick re port rate in turn affected the transition rate to employment.