The effects of a recent Swedish child-care fee reform are compared with those of an alternative reform, increased child benefits. The fee reform implied considerably decreased fees and was intended to increase both labor supply among parents and their economic well-being. We estimate labor...

This paper studies the effects of public child-care subsidies on parental time allocation. We develop a model where parents are allowed to utilize subsidized care during both working and leisure hours. The model distinguishes between subsidies to child-care quality and to fees. Three types of...

This paper studies to what extent it is possible to discriminate between two municipality parts by unequal public service provision when there is a threat of secession. The objective of the local politicians is to maximize utility for only one part of a municipality. The discriminated part is...

Swedish municipality parts aiming for secession are highly dependent on the municipal council's acceptance in order to succeed. Only four of the 25 municipality break-up verdicts passed by the central government have not been in line with the municipal council's recommendation. In nearly all...

This paper examines the economic and political conditions that influence people’s attitudes regarding a municipality break-up. The theoretical model predicts intra-municipal differences in tax bases, political preferences, and population size to affect the expected gain from secession. The...

This study examines differences in wage distributions between natives, non-refugees, and refugees in Sweden. We find that the wage differentials between natives and non-refugee immigrants decrease across the distribution, while those between natives and refugee immigrants increase. There is...

This study analyzes the part-time penalty in Sweden using quantile regression. We find that the estimated part-time wage differential is negative across the whole wage distribution. OLS overestimates the part-time penalty at the bottom of the distribution, and underestimates it at the top. The...

This study examines gender wage differentials across the wage distribution in the Swedish private and public sectors using quantile regression. Women have lower wages than men across the entire wage distribution. The gender gap increases throughout the distribution and there is a speeding-up...

The purpose of SWEtaxben is to evaluate the impact of changes in the tax/benefit systems on households as well as the central governmental budget. Relating to the micro simulation literature this model can be labeled a static micro simulation model with behavioral changes. This behavioral change...

Using a sample of Swedish households, we estimate a household labor supply model assuming that preferences for consumption and leisure can be described by a direct translog utility function. The labor supply and welfare participation decisions are treated as a discrete choice problem, and we...