It is well-documented that residential moves are connected to life events such as separation or widowhood. However, much less is known about the residential choices that follow these events in middle and later life (between ages 50 and 70) and how the location of family members outside the household relates to these choices. Comparing the cases of Belgium and Sweden, this paper addresses (i) the extent to which (im)mobility after separation or widowhood is associated with the presence of older parents and adult children nearby; (ii) the extent to which the choice of destination is associated with the location of older parents and adult children for those separated, widowed, and married individuals who moved, and (iii) how these patterns vary among men and women. We answer these questions employing logistic regression models and discrete-choice models fitted to Belgian and Swedish register data from 2012 to 2014. The results show unique patterns of mobility around separation and widowhood which differ from those of continuously married individuals. Separated and widowed men and women in both countries are generally more likely to make a move towards their parents than continuously married ones. Widowhood is also associated with an increased propensity for a move towards ones children. In contrast, separation is associated with a lower propensity for moving towards ones children, especially among men.

Research on the effects of school composition tends to focus on how it shapes school achievement. In this study, we instead examine how school composition shapes children's educational aspirations, given their achievement, and if children from different socio-economic backgrounds are affected differently. We apply school-fixed effects on Swedish register data, including all 9th-grade students from 2013 to 2017. Being exposed to a high share of low-achieving schoolmates increases the likelihood of applying for academics instead of vocational tracking across socio-economic backgrounds. In contrast, the share of high-achieving schoolmates is negatively associated with academic tracking only for high-SES children. Being exposed to peers with highly educated parents increases the likelihood of applying for academic tracking for low-SES children, whereas the effect is weaker or even negative for some of the high-SES groups. Together, our results suggest that the academic decisions of both high- and low-SES children could benefit from a less segregated school environment.

Older peoples ability to thrive independently of their adult children is an important feature of a universalistic welfare system. However, population ageing puts this notion under stress. In separate multinomial logistic regression models for older men and women, we examined whether adult childrens gender, number and proximity were associated with older parents relocations into residential care facilities, and whether the effects of these childrens characteristics on older parents institutionalisation vary by parents severe health problems, operationalised as closeness to death - specifically, dying within the two-year observation period. Analyses were based on the Swedish register data between 2014 and 2016 (N = 696,007 person-years). Older parents with at least one co-resident child were less likely to move or become institutionalised than those without a co-resident child. We did not find a relationship between older adults institutionalisation and the closest childs gender. The negative effect of having a non-resident child living nearby on the likelihood of becoming institutionalised was more pronounced for mothers than fathers. Having a child nearby decreased the likelihood of moving to an institution more for mothers who had severe health problems than for those in better health. We found no evidence of a relationship between number of children and likelihood of institutionalisation.

Background Estimating excess mortality and years of life lost (YLL) attributed to coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) infection provides a comprehensive picture of the mortality burden on society. We aimed to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on age- and sex-specific excess mortality and YLL in Sweden during the first 17 months of the pandemic. Methods In this population-based observational study, we calculated age- and sex-specific excess all-cause mortality and excess YLL during 2020 and the first 5 months of 2021 and cause-specific death [deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, other causes and deaths excluding COVID-19] in 2020 compared with an average baseline for 2017-19 in the whole Swedish population. Results COVID-19 deaths contributed 9.9% of total deaths (98 441 deaths, 960 305 YLL) in 2020, accounting for 75 151 YLL (7.7 YLL/death). There were 2672 (5.7%) and 1408 (3.0%) excess deaths, and 19 141 (3.8%) and 3596 (0.8%) excess YLL in men and women, respectively. Men aged 65-110 years and women aged 75-110 years were the greatest contributors. Fewer deaths and YLL from CVD, cancer and other causes were observed in 2020 compared with the baseline adjusted to the population size in 2020. Conclusions Compared with the baseline, excess mortality and YLL from all causes were experienced in Sweden during 2020, with a higher excess observed in men than in women, indicating that more men died at a younger age while more women died at older ages than expected. A notable reduction in deaths and YLL due to CVD suggests a displacement effect from CVD to COVID-19.

This study investigates if neighbourhoods can alter the strong relationship between parental background and childrens adult outcomes. In particular, we examine if neighbourhood effects are heterogeneous in such a way that they are particularly important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and if school quality has a mediating effect in this equation. Using register data and individualized neighbourhoods, we follow five full birth cohorts of individuals born from 1983 to 1987. We examine the interaction between social background and neighbourhoods in shaping (i) the risk of children relying on social welfare when they are aged 30, and (ii) the probability of belonging to the highest income decile at age 30-34. Growing up in a resource-rich neighbourhood is associated with better life outcomes. Contrary to what several neighbourhood theories predict, we find that neighbourhood effects operate similarly regardless of social background. Differences in peer composition of schools does not explain these local neighbourhood effects, whereas own school results attenuate neighbourhood effects substantially. Our findings are in contrast to results from the United States studies but are in line with historical Swedish studies; and contribute to further disentangling the various mechanisms through which the neighbourhood operates.

BACKGROUND Divorce is associated with a weakened relationship between the child and the nonresident parent, usually the father. This loss of contact is likely to be even further exacerbated if this parent lives at a substantial distance from the child. OBJECTIVE This paper analyzes how the distance between children and nonresident parents, the year after a parental separation, has changed during a 40-year period in Sweden, and whether this is related to changes in child custody policies. METHODS We use Swedish population register data that includes exact geographical coordinates for children and their nonresident parents in the year after separation. We analyze how average distance and the likelihood of living very close to, or very far from, a nonresident parent has changed over this period, using OLS and logistic regression models. RESULTS Results show a gradual decrease in the distance between children and nonresident parents from the 1970s until the early 1990s, after which the trend stalled at a low level. In 2011, 50% of all children lived within 2 kilometers of their nonresident parent. We find no evidence of direct policy effects, indicated by any sudden changes in distance after the introduction of a new custody policy. High-income parents have changed their post -divorce residential patterns at a faster pace than low-income parents. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate a diffusion process where distances between children and nonresident parents gradually decreased until the 1990s. CONTRIBUTION This paper demonstrates that the change has not been directly influenced by custody law reforms promoting dual parent responsibility.

Background: Studies on risk factors for severe COVID-19 in people of working age have generally not included non-working persons or established population attributable fractions (PAFs) for occupational and other factors. Objectives: We describe the effect of job-related, sociodemographic, and other exposures on the incidence, relative risks and PAFs of severe COVID-19 in individuals aged 18–64. Methods: We conducted a registry-based study in Swedish citizens aged 18–64 from 1 January 2020 to 1 February 2021 with respect to COVID-19-related hospitalizations and death. Results: Of 6,205,459 persons, 272,043 (7.5%) were registered as infected, 3399 (0.05%) needed intensive care, and 620 (0.01%) died, with an estimated case fatality rate of 0.06% over the last 4-month period when testing was adequate. Non-Nordic origin was associated with a RR for need of intensive care of 3·13, 95%CI 2·91–3·36, and a PAF of 32·2% after adjustment for age, sex, work, region and comorbidities. In a second model with occupation as main exposure, and adjusted for age, sex, region, comorbidities and origin, essential workers had an RR of 1·51, 95%CI, 1·35–1·6, blue-collar workers 1·18, 95%CI 1·06–1·31, school staff 1·21, 95%CI 1·01–1·46, and health and social care workers 1·89, 95%CI 1·67–2·135) compared with people able to work from home, with altogether about 13% of the PAF associated with these occupations. Essential workers and blue-collar workers, but no other job categories had higher risk of death, adjusted RRs of 1·79, 95%CI 1·34–2·38 and 1·37, 95%CI 1·04–1·81, with adjusted PAFs of altogether 9%. Conclusion: Among people of working age in Sweden, overall mortality and case fatality were low. Occupations that require physical presence at work were associated with elevated risk of needing intensive care for COVID-19, with 14% cases attributable to this factor, and 9% of deaths. © 2022 The Authors

Objectives This is the first population-level study to examine inequalities in COVID-19 mortality according to working-age individuals occupations and the indirect occupational effects on COVID-19 mortality of older individuals who live with them. Methods We used early-release data for the entire population of Sweden of all recorded COVID-19 deaths from 12 March 2020 to 23 February 2021, which we linked to administrative registers and occupational measures. Cox proportional hazard models assessed relative risks of COVID-19 mortality for the working-aged population registered in an occupation in December 2018 and the older population who lived with them. Results Among working aged-adults, taxi/bus drivers had the highest relative risk of COVID-19 mortality: over four times that of skilled workers in IT, economics, or administration when adjusted only for basic demographic characteristics. After adjusting for socioeconomic factors (education, income and country of birth), there are no occupational groups with clearly elevated (statistically significant) COVID-19 mortality. Neither a measure of exposure within occupations nor the share that generally can work from home were related to working-aged adults risk of COVID-19 mortality. Instead of occupational factors, traditional socioeconomic risk factors best explained variation in COVID-19 mortality. Elderly individuals, however, faced higher COVID-19 mortality risk both when living with a delivery or postal worker or worker(s) in occupations that generally work from home less, even when their socioeconomic factors are taken into account. Conclusions Inequalities in COVID-19 mortality of working-aged adults were mostly based on traditional risk factors and not on occupational divisions or characteristics in Sweden. However, older individuals living with those who likely cannot work from home or work in delivery or postal services were a vulnerable group.

This study examines how similarity in work-family related attitudes matter for relationship satisfaction and union dissolution among Swedish couples. It utilizes a data set from 2009 (the Young Adult Panel Study) containing information on 1055 opposite-sex couples (married or co-residential), and registered union dissolutions up to 2014. Results indicate that couples who have similar notions on the importance of being successful at work; on the importance of having children; or on the importance of having enough time for leisure activities are more likely to be satisfied with their partner relationship than couples who have dissimilar attitudes. However, there are no effects of similarity in attitudes regarding the importance of living in a good partner relationship or doing well economically on relationship satisfaction, and we do not find any impact of similarity in attitudes of any kind on actual breakups. We find no support for specialization theory, which would predict that dissimilarity in work orientation would increase relationship quality. The study concludes that having similar priorities regarding work, career, and family does seem to matter for relationship quality, at least when it comes to the partners satisfaction with the relationship.

Objective This study examines the roles of commitment and gender equality for marriage formation in a highly individualized and gender-egalitarian context. Background Marriage is commonly perceived as a more committed form of union than cohabitation. Individualization perspectives propose that this discourages marriage formation, whereas gender perspectives suggest that this is only the case for couples living in egalitarian lives. Method The roles of marriage attitudes and gender equality for marriage formation are studied among 1085 cohabiting men and women born in Sweden in 1968-1980 using the 2003 wave of the Young Adult Panel Study, which is based on a stratified random sample. The authors examine how cohabitants perceive: (1) the level of commitment in cohabitation versus marriage and (2) the division of housework in their current relationship, and link these factors to population register data showing the individuals likelihood of marrying in 2004-2007. Results Cohabitants are more likely to marry if they believe that marriage indicates relationship seriousness, but less likely if they see a marriage as more difficult to leave than cohabitation. Gender equality, measured as satisfaction with the division of housework, appears to be positively related to marriage formation. Whether perceiving marriage as a particularly committed form of union is more positive for marriage formation among gender-equal couples remains unclear, as the direction of the findings varies and statistical power is low. Conclusion Even in a highly individualized context, cohabitants seek certain forms of commitment through marriage. Gender equality plays a role, but needs further investigation.

Educational gradients in parental leave length are opposite for women and men: highly educated women return to work faster than those with low education while highly educated men are absent longer than less educated men. Explanations for the opposite gradients are typically made at the individual- or couple-level. To date, no quantitative study has documented whether the opposite educational gradients hold also within workplaces. In this study, we use employer-employee matched Swedish register data with fixed-effects models to examine whether the educational gradient applies also among co-workers in the same workplace. The results show that three-quarters of the educational effect typically attributed to the individual father disappeared when comparing fathers within workplaces. The educational gradient of mothers remained largely unchanged. These findings provide the first population-level evidence for the primacy of the workplace in determining fathers care choices.

Background Exposure to many contacts is the main risk factor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, while risk of serious disease and death is chiefly determined by old age and comorbidities. Relative and population-attributable fractions (PAFs) of multiple medical and social exposures for COVID-19 outcomes have not been evaluated among older adults. Objectives We describe the effect of multiple exposures on the odds of testing positive for the virus and of severe disease (hospital care or death) and PAFs in Swedish citizens aged 55 years and above. Methods We used national registers to follow all citizens aged 55 years and above with respect to (1) testing positive, (2) hospitalization, and (3) death between 31 January 2020 and 1 February 2021. Results Of 3,410,241 persons, 156,017 (4.6%, mean age 68.3 years) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, while 35,999 (1.1%, mean age 76.7 years) were hospitalized or died (12,384 deaths, 0.4%, mean age 84.0 years). Among the total cohort, the proportion living without home care or long-term care was 98.8% among persons aged 55-64 and 22.1% of those aged 95 and above. After multiple adjustment, home care and long-term care were associated with odds ratios of 7.9 (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.8-9.1) and 22.5 (95% CI 19.6-25.7) for mortality, with PAFs of 21.9% (95% CI 20.9-22.9) and 33.3% (95% CI 32.4-34.3), respectively. Conclusion Among Swedish residents aged 55 years and above, those with home care or long-term care had markedly increased risk for COVID-19 death during the first year of the pandemic, with over 50% of deaths attributable to these factors.

Preliminary evidence points to higher morbidity and mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in certain racial and ethnic groups, but population-based studies using microlevel data are lacking so far. We used register-based cohort data including all adults living in Stockholm, Sweden, between January 31, 2020 (the date of the first confirmed case of COVID-19) and May 4, 2020 (n = 1,778,670) to conduct Poisson regression analyses with region/country of birth as the exposure and underlying cause of COVID-19 death as the outcome, estimating relative risks and 95% confidence intervals. Migrants from Middle Eastern countries (relative risk (RR) = 3.2, 95% confidence interval (CD: 2.6, 3.8), Africa (RR = 3.0, 95% CI: 2.2, 4.3), and non-Sweden Nordic countries (RR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.2, 1.8) had higher mortality from COVID-19 than persons born in Sweden. Especially high mortality risks from COVID-19 were found among persons born in Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Socioeconomic status, number of working-age household members, and neighborhood population density attenuated up to half of the increased COVID-19 mortality risks among the foreign-born. Disadvantaged socioeconomic and living conditions may increase infection rates in migrants and contribute to their higher risk of COVID-19 mortality.

Objectives To evaluate the role of language proficiency and institutional awareness in explaining excess COVID-19 mortality among immigrants. Design Cohort study with follow-up between 12 March 2020 and 23 February 2021. Setting Swedish register-based study on all residents in Sweden. Participants 3 963 356 Swedish residents in co-residential unions who were 30 years of age or older and alive on 12 March 2020 and living in Sweden in December 2019. Outcome measures Cox regression models were conducted to assess the association between different constellations of immigrant-native couples (proxy for language proficiency and institutional awareness) and COVID-19 mortality and all other causes of deaths (2019 and 2020). Models were adjusted for relevant confounders. Results Compared with Swedish-Swedish couples (1.18 deaths per thousand person-years), both immigrants partnered with another immigrant and a native showed excess mortality for COVID-19 (HR 1.43; 95% CI 1.29 to 1.58 and HR 1.24; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.40, respectively), which translates to 1.37 and 1.28 deaths per thousand person-years. Moreover, similar results are found for natives partnered with an immigrant (HR 1.15; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.29), which translates to 1.29 deaths per thousand person-years. Further analysis shows that immigrants from both high-income and low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC) experience excess mortality also when partnered with a Swede. However, having a Swedish-born partner is only partially protective against COVID-19 mortality among immigrants from LMIC origins. Conclusions Language barriers and/or poor institutional awareness are not major drivers for the excess mortality from COVID-19 among immigrants. Rather, our study provides suggestive evidence that excess mortality among immigrants is explained by differential exposure to the virus. 

We bridge research on work environment and competition among schools using detailed data on complaints and incidents of disorder and violence in all Swedish schools 1999-2011. Findings suggest that competition is associated with lower levels of complaints across educational levels. For lower secondary schools, municipalities with high levels of school competition experience higher levels of violence in schools. To assess the causal effects of competition on work environment, we compare municipalities that have introduced competition with those that have not in a difference–in–difference framework, finding that only school complaints in upper secondary schools decrease after competition is introduced.

It is a matter of debate whether free school choice should lead to higher or lower levels of school segregation. We investigate how school choice opportunities affect school segregation utilizing geocoded Swedish population register data with information on 13 cohorts of ninth graders. We find that local school choice opportunities strongly affect the sorting of students across schools based on the parents country of birth and level of education. An increase in the number of local schools leads to higher levels of local segregation net of stable area characteristics, and time-varying controls for population structure and local residential segregation. In particular, the local presence of private voucher schools pushes school segregation upwards. The segregating impact of school choice opportunities is notably stronger in native areas with high portions of highly educated parents, and in areas with low residential segregation. Our results point to the importance of embedding individual actors in relevant opportunity structures for understanding segregation processes.

As global deaths from COVID-19 continue to rise, the worlds governments, institutions, and agencies are still working toward an understanding of who is most at risk of death. In this study, data on all recorded COVID-19 deaths in Sweden up to May 7, 2020 are linked to high-quality and accurate individual-level background data from administrative registers of the total population. By means of individual-level survival analysis we demonstrate that being male, having less individual income, lower education, not being married all independently predict a higher risk of death from COVID-19 and from all other causes of death. Being an immigrant from a low- or middle-income country predicts higher risk of death from COVID-19 but not for all other causes of death. The main message of this work is that the interaction of the virus causing COVID-19 and its social environment exerts an unequal burden on the most disadvantaged members of society. Better understanding of who is at highest risk of death from COVID-19 is important for public health planning. Here, the authors demonstrate an unequal mortality burden associated with socially disadvantaged groups in Sweden.

Vi har undersökt hur äldre stockholmares risk att avlida av covid-19 mellan 12 mars och 7 maj 2020 var associerad med boendesituation och bostadsområde. Individer som bodde med någon iarbetsför ålder löpte högre risk att dö av covid-19 jämfört med äldre som endast bodde medandra äldre, och detsamma gällde individer som bodde på äldreboenden och individer boende itätt befolkade grannskap eller stadsdelar med utbredd smittspridning. 

Sex gånger så många som har dött i covid-19 har förlorat en familjemedlem i sjukdomen, och i Stockholm är låginkomsttagare, lågutbildade och individer med invandrarbakgrund överrepresenterade i denna grupp. Stadsdelar med hög andel låginkomsttagare eller utrikesfödda är särskilt drabbade. Att förlora en familjemedlem kan innebära en förlust av socialt och ekonomiskt stöd och att förlora en familjemedlem i just covid-19 antas vara extra traumatiskt. Individer som drabbats av detta kan därför vara i behov av olika former av samhälleligt stöd.

This research examines the relationship between older parents health issues and (i) their relocations closer to their faraway adult children, (ii) their relocations into institutionalised care facilities, or (iii) having distant children move closer. Additionally, we investigate how these relocations are structured by childrens gender and location. We focused on parents aged 80 years and older and their distant children. Multinomial logistic regression models were employed for older men and women based on data from administrative registers of Sweden. Whereas severe health problems were associated with an increased likelihood of parent relocations closer to their children or into institutions, they were not associated with the likelihood of childrens moves towards parents. Mothers were more likely to move towards daughters or towards distant children who had at least one sibling living nearby. Children moved closer to their parents when there was at least one sibling living near the parent or in response to their own life circumstances.

Older individuals are overrepresented among COVID-19 deaths,raising questions of how to best mitigate patterns of social contact as the pandemic progresses.Researchers have underlined the importance of living arrangements and household composition, such as care homes, crowded housing, and mixed-age households, as well as social contacts outside the household for understanding the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Living arrangements shape the contact that older adults have with individuals from within or outside the household. In addition, their risk of infection can be shaped by their broader neighbourhood environment. Residential clustering of infections has received considerable attention in previous studies. In attempting to understand the structural features responsible for differences in the spread of the virus across neighbourhoods, early hypotheses pointed to population density as an important contributor, but the evidence has been mixed. A major limitation of previous research on the associations between living arrangements, neighbourhood characteristics, and COVID-19 mortality has been the reliance on aggregated data, unadjusted for differences by age and other individual-level risk factors. Because how and where older people live is partly determined by their sociodemographic characteristics and health, drawing individual-level conclusions on the basis of aggregated data can lead to biased conclusions on the importance of living arrangements and neighbourhoods in COVID-19 mortality.

This study investigates how the childbearing intentions of women and men in couples affect actual childbearing over the following years with the aim to explore whether women’s or men’s intentions may be more important. The study is set in Sweden, a country known for ranking high in terms of gender equality and a country with relatively high fertility. We use the Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS), which gives information about both partners’ long-term childbearing intentions in 2009, and follow these couples for five years with register data on childbearing. In 30 percent of the couples, both partners intended to have a child, and out of these about three quarters have a child. The results show that, in general, both partners need to intend to have a child for the couple to do so but that women’s intentions tend to have more influence over the decision to have a second or third child. This phenomenon is interpreted as decision-making in relation to the cost and utility of children for women and men.

We examine the impact of ethnic school composition on students’ educational outcomes using Swedish population register data. We add to the literature on the consequences of ethnic school segregation for native and immigrant students by distinguishing social interaction effects from selection and environmental effects through one- and two-way fixed effects models. Our findings demonstrate that native and immigrant students’ grades are relatively unaffected by social interaction effects stemming from the proportion of immigrant schoolmates. However, we find nontrivial effects on their eligibility for upper secondary school. Immigrants’ educational outcomes are weakly positively affected by the proportion of co-ethnics in school.

Although the migration of couples and families is well examined, the migration that occurs at the start of co-residence has only been minimally studied. This study examines (1) whether women move more often and move over longer distances at the start of co-residence and (2) whether gender differences (if any) stem from compositional differences between women and men, such as gender differences in ties, or if they are the consequence of the within-couple distribution of bargaining power. The analyses are performed on Swedish population register data from 1991 to 2008, including longitudinal information on the residence of all couples who either married or had a child as cohabitants in 2008, backtracking them to the year of union formation. The results indicate that women are more prone to move for the sake of their male partner in the process of union formation than vice versa. If partners lived in close proximity prior to co-residence, the woman’s increased likelihood of moving and longer distance moved is nearly completely explained by power imbalances in the couple. Gender differences in ties only have minor importance in explaining gender differences in these types of migration patterns. If partners lived far apart prior to co-residence, gender differences are particularly pronounced. These differences remain after adjusting for the two partners’ relative resources. We contribute to the family migration literature by suggesting that women’s higher propensity to move and their longer distance moved are indications that even couples’ decisions at the start of co-residence are made in favour of the man’s career.

It is well known that couples tend to relocate for the sake of the mans career rather than the womans, also known as the trailing spouse phenomenon. The role of employer choices in this process is unknown however. If employers are hesitant to make job offers to women who live a long way from the workplace (e.g., because of work-family balance concerns or a perceived risk that they will not follow through on their applications, or stay hired if employed), this tendency might constitute an underlying mechanism behind the moving premium of partnered men. Ours is the first study to empirically test whether employers prefer geographically distant men over geographically distant women. We sent applications for 1,410 job openings in the Swedish labour market, randomly assigning gender and parental status to otherwise equivalent applications from cohabiting or married women and men and recorded employer callbacks to these. The results indicate that employers in general tend to disfavour job applicants who live a long way from the employers workplace. This tendency is stronger for women, both for mothers and for women with no children. Our estimated effects are imprecise but clearly suggest that employer recruitment choices contribute to the trailing spouse phenomenon by offering men a larger pool of geographically distant jobs. We call for more research on this hitherto ignored mechanism behind the trailing spouse phenomenon.

A large number of studies have demonstrated that the proportion of home-owners in a region tend to be positively associated with the unemployment levels in that region. In this paper, we introduce a missing piece of explaining this commonly found pattern. By analysing individual-level population register data on Sweden, we jointly examine the effects of micro- and macro-level home-ownership on individuals’ unemployment. The findings indicate that even though home-owners have a lower probability of being unemployed, there is a penalty for both renters and home-owners on unemployment in regions with high home-ownership rates. Differences in mobility patterns cannot explain this pattern. However, when labour market size is considered, the higher probability of unemployment in high home-owning regions is drastically reduced. This suggests that high home-ownership regions tend to coincide with small labour markets, affecting the job matching process negatively.

The lack of couple-level data hinders direct exploration of how inconsistencies in couples? housework reports structure their relationship quality. We address this limitation by applying Swedish data from the 2009 Young Adult Panel Study (N = 1057 couples) matched with Swedish register data (2009?2014) to extend equity theory by estimating mismatch in couples? housework reports on relationship satisfaction and stability. We find women who report performing more housework are less likely to be satisfied with their relationships, and are more likely to consider breaking up. These unions are also more likely to dissolve. Using both partners? housework reports, we document discrediting women?s housework contribution, or reporting she does less than she reports, is associated with lower relationship satisfaction. Women in these partnerships also consider breaking up, and the unions are more likely to dissolve. Our results identify the gendered impact of housework inequality on relationship stability.

Människor i Sverige lever segregerat med avseende på socioekonomisk status och invandrarbakgrund. Samtidigt varierar bland annat arbetslöshets- och utbildningsnivå samt grad av ohälsa mellan olika bostadsområden. Vilken roll spelar bostads- eller uppväxtområdet för en individs livschanser? Bidrar boendesegregationen i sig till att öka ojämlikheten? Denna forskningsöversikt visar att även om de flesta studier tyder på att grannskapet bidrar i att forma individers livsutfall, så skiljer sig resultaten ofta beroende på vilken metod eller mått som har använts.

The aim of this study is to investigate how school choice opportunities affect school segregation. Theoretically, free school choice may affect school segregation in different directions, depending on its design, baseline residential segregation, and underlying preferences for separation. Our test case is the Swedish voucher-based free school choice system, and we utilize Swedish population register data that include 13 cohorts of ninth graders, with geocoded information on schools, their socioeconomic and ethnic composition, and the composition of the neighborhoods surrounding the schools. To identify causal effects of school choice opportunities, we treat fixed school areas as the unit of analysis, and we follow these over time to net out time-invariant area-level confounders. Within-area panel estimates indicate segregation based on both ethnic and educational background to be strongly affected by school choice opportunities. Increased choice opportunities lead to increased school segregation, to a large extent because of a higher propensity among native children and children with well-educated parents to attend newly established (non-public) independent schools. The segregating impact of school choice opportunities is uniform across school areas with different socioeconomic and ethnic profiles, but school segregation increases much more in residentially integrated areas as a consequence of an increase in school choice options. The lesson to be learned from the Swedish case is that large scale school voucher systems need to be designed to include mechanisms that counteract the strong segregating forces that such systems appear to produce.

Even though ideals in favor of gender equality in the private sphere are wide spread, discrepancies between ideals and actual behavior are common. Such discrepancies and potential dissatisfaction with gender unequal behavior within a couple are expected to influence partnership dynamics negatively. This study examines how discrepancies between the perceived ideal sharing of parental leave and the actual division of leave, as well as satisfaction with the division are associated with (a) relationship satisfaction, (b) continued childbearing, and (c) union dissolution, using Swedish panel data. The findings cannot confirm an effect of discrepancies on partnership dynamics. However, men who wish they had used a larger share of the parental leave have lower relationship satisfaction, lower continued childbearing, and higher probability of union dissolution. Women are seemingly not affected by their (dis)satisfaction with the division. The findings may reflect a changing father role related to the policy setting and norms in Sweden.

<b>Background</b>: Housework studies have long documented a fairness paradox, whereby unequal divisions of housework are evaluated as fair. Gender equality, both at home and at work, is strongly normative in a highly egalitarian country like Sweden, but not always matched by an equally egalitarian situation in the family which are often viewed as fair. <b>Objective</b>: To explore the relationship between housework-sharing and perceived fairness of this division, using both partners’ reports, to identify how Swedish couples cluster across these measures and what individual characteristics predict cluster membership. <b>Methods</b>: Using the couple-level design of the 2009 wave of the Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS, n=1,026), we are able to advance the research field and evaluate housework experience within broader couple dynamics. Our approach is exploratory and develops a typology using latent class analysis. <b>Results</b>: We identify six latent groups, with distinct features. The modal Swedish-couple category comprises those who share housework equally and agree that this arrangement is fair (33% of the couples). Applying a distributive justice perspective, we find that childhood socialization, presence of children in the household, and the distribution of employment, education, income, and egalitarianism across couples are important predictors of cluster membership. <b>Conclusions</b>: We find that equal-sharing/fair couples are most common in the Swedish context, suggesting clear benefits from Sweden’s expansive gender policies. Yet, there seems to be a generational divide, whereby Swedish women who witnessed housework inequality in their parental home are increasingly dissatisfied when this inequality replicates in their own lives. <b>Contribution</b>: Demonstrating that housework allocations, conflict and fairness may reflect different types of couples rather than associations across those measures.

OBJECTIVE Migration rates of dual-earner couples are lower than those of male-breadwinner couples. We revisit this issue using a cross-national comparative perspective and examine heterogeneity in the role of female employment in couple relocations. We propose a theoretical framework in which national levels of support for female employment and normative expectations about gender roles act as moderators of the relationship between couple type (i.e., dual-earner and male-breadwinner) and family migration. METHODS We deploy discrete-time event history analyses of harmonised longitudinal data from four large-scale datasets from Australia, Britain, Germany, and Sweden, covering the 1992-2011 period. RESULTS Consistent with prior research, we find that male-breadwinner couples migrate more often than dual-earner couples in all countries, suggesting that traditional gender structures affecting family migration operate across very different contexts. We also find cross-country differences in the estimated effects of different sorts of absolute and relative partner resources on family migration. CONCLUSIONS We take our results as preliminary evidence that national contexts can serve as moderators of the relationship between within-couple employment arrangements and family migration decisions. CONTRIBUTION Our study contributes to family migration literature by illustrating how cross-national comparisons are a valuable methodological approach to put prevailing micro-level explanations of the relationship between female employment and family migration in context.

Att lämna föräldrahemmet och skaffa sin första egna bostad, att flytta ihop och bilda ett gemensamt hem med sin partner, att lämna uppväxtorten, vänner och familj och flytta till storstaden, att flytta till ett hus med trädgård och att så småningom sälja huset och flytta därifrån när barnen flyttat ut. Alla är de exempel på hur inrikes flyttningar hänger samman med livets gång, och hur de både påverkas av och påverkar hur livet utvecklas. Inrikes flyttningar handlar om hur en befolkning flyttar inom ett lands gränser. Det kan handla om allt från en flytt till andra sidan gatan till flyttningar hundratals mil, från en stad till en annan. Oftast inbegrips någon form av varaktighet när vi studerar hur individer flyttar, det vill säga att en person flyttar till en ny bostad med intentionen att stanna där en längre period. Men det finns även andra typer av regional rörlighet som inte nödvändigtvis behöver betyda att personen stannar på den andra orten, såsom pendling mellan arbete och bostadsort, eller säsongsarbete där en person till exempel bor på en skidort under skidsäsongen och någon annanstans under resten av året. Denna typ av regional rörlighet brukar inte definieras som inrikes flyttningar.

Sweden stands out as a forerunner in the development of gender equality and family dynamics. To deepen the knowledge on power distribution and gender dynamics of couple relations, we investigate how women and mens childbearing intentions influence actual childbearing behavior. The Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS) has information on both partners childbearing intentions in 2009, which we follow for five years with register data on childbearing. The results indicate that womens childbearing intentions are more important than mens intentions in determining actual childbirths.

We examine the impact of ethnic school segregation on the educational outcomes of students, using Swedish population register data. Through a school fixed effects, family fixed effects, and a two-way school- and family fixed effects design, we adjust for selection effects related to variation in the student composition across schools. The analyses show that students’ grades are relatively unaffected by the proportion of immigrant schoolmates.  However, it has a small negative effect on levels of eligibility for upper secondary school. Furthermore, immigrants’ educational outcomes are weakly positively affected by the proportion of peers with the same national background as themselves.

Couples generally move to accommodate men?s, rather than women?s, career opportunities. Using Swedish panel data including 1,039 married or cohabiting individuals, this study examines the importance of traditional gender ideology and behavior in explaining this pattern. Two dimensions of gender and migration are examined: (a) the willingness to move for a partner?s career and (b) the likelihood of couple migration for one?s own work or educational opportunities. Findings show that women are more willing to move for their partner?s career. Childless women are more likely to move with their partners to pursue their own work or education than childless men, whereas mothers are less likely to report this than fathers. Gender ideology and division of household responsibilities do not explain the gender differences in migration behavior. They are more important for individuals? willingness to move for their partners, with particularly pronounced gender differences among nonegalitarian respondents.

<b>Background</b>: Sweden, which is among the most gender-equal societies in the world, combines 'modern' family patterns such as unmarried cohabitation, delayed parenthood, high maternal labor force participation, and high break-up rates - all usually linked with low birth rates - with relatively high fertility. Sweden also has a high level of shared parental responsibility for home and children. <b>Objective</b>: After decades of late 20th century research showing that increasing gender equality in the workplace was linked with lower fertility, might gender equality in the home increase fertility? <b>Methods</b>: Using data from the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS), we use Cox regression to examine the effects on first, second, and third births of 1) holding attitudes about sharing equally in the care of the home and children, and 2) actual sharing in these domestic tasks. <b>Results</b>: Our analysis shows that, measuring attitudes before the transition to parenthood and actual practice four years later, it is inconsistency between sharing attitudes and the actual division of housework that reduces the likelihood of continued childbearing, especially on second births among women. <b>Conclusions</b>: As women are most likely to confront an inconsistent situation, with egalitarian ideals in a household without equal sharing, it is clear that having a partner who does not share housework is depressing Swedish fertility.