Browsing by Author "Jakobsson, Niklas"

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Do attitudes toward gender equality really differ between Norway and Sweden?
(2009-04-06T13:56:52Z) Jakobsson, Niklas; Kotsadam, Andreas; Institutionen för nationalekonomi med statistik Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs universitet Vasagatan 1, Box 640, SE 405 30 Göteborg
Using survey data from Norway and Sweden, we assess people’s attitudes toward gender equality. Previous studies argue that these attitudes are more egalitarian in Sweden than in Norway. Similar to previous research, we find that Swedes are more positive towards gender equality in general. However, we find no differences regarding views on egalitarian sharing of household responsibilities, and Norwegians are actually more supportive of government intervention to increase gender equality. This suggests that the lower support for gender equality in Norway is not as clear-cut as previously thought and that active state intervention to improve gender equality may be even more feasible in Norway than in Sweden.
Do Laws Affect Attitudes? - An assessment of the Norwegian prostitution law using longitudinal data
(2010-06) Jakobsson, Niklas; Kotsadam, Andreas
The question of whether laws affect attitudes has inspired scholars across many disciplines, but empirical knowledge is sparse. Using longitudinal survey data from Norway and Sweden, collected before and after the implementation of a Norwegian law criminalizing the purchase of sexual services, we assess the short-run effects on attitudes using a difference-in-differences approach. In the general population, the law did not affect moral attitudes toward prostitution. However, in the Norwegian capital, where prostitution was more visible before the reform, the law made people more negative toward buying sex. This supports the claim that proximity and visibility are important factors for the internalization of legal norms.
Does immigration affect welfare state generosity? Quasi-experimental evidence
(2014-06) Jakobsson, Niklas; Tengstam, Sven; Dept. of Economics, University of Gothenburg
This note studies the impact of immigration on welfare state generosity in 12 Western European countries. In estimations not coping with the possible endogeneity problem, there are indications of a negative relationship between immigration and welfare state generosity. However, when the distance to the Balkan wars are used as a source of exogenous variation in the immigrant share, as to overcome potential endogeneity in mobility across countries, our findings suggest that an increase in the immigrant share does not decrease welfare state generosity.
Intergovernmental grants and fiscal competition
(2009-01-08T12:02:12Z) Jakobsson, Niklas; Nordblom, Katarina
This theoretical paper shows how a central government can induce a policy concerning a municipal matter through a package of a policy requirement and a grant. We find that, due to fiscal competition and the possibility for citizens to move between municipalities, the central government can make all municipalities adopt the policy requirement despite the grant not being sufficiently high to make them gain from the reform. We apply this model to a recent Swedish child-care fee reform and can explain why all Swedish municipalities implemented the maximum child-care fee although it had a negative impact on many municipalities’ finances.
Laws, attitudes and public policy
(2010-05-18T09:03:16Z) Jakobsson, Niklas
The Law and Economics of International Sex Slavery: Prostitution Laws and Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation
(2010-06) Jakobsson, Niklas; Kotsadam, Andreas
International trafficking in humans for sexual exploitation is an economic activity driven by profit motives, and up to four million people are estimated to be exploited by human traffickers each year. Laws regarding commercial sex influence the profitability of trafficking and may thus affect the inflow of trafficking to a country. Using two recent sources of European cross country data we show that trafficking of persons for commercial sexual exploitation (as proxied by the data sets we are using) is least prevalent in countries where prostitution is illegal, most prevalent in countries where prostitution is legalized, and in between in those countries where prostitution is legal but procuring illegal. Case studies of two countries (Norway and Sweden) that have criminalized buying sex support the possibility of a causal link from harsher prostitution laws to reduced trafficking. Although the data do not allow us to infer robust causal inference, the results suggest that criminalizing procuring, or going further and criminalizing buying and/or selling sex, may reduce the amount of trafficking to a country.
What explains attitudes toward prostitution?
(2009-04-03T14:00:16Z) Jakobsson, Niklas; Kotsadam, Andreas
Using a larger and more representative sample than previous studies, we assess people’s attitudes toward prostitution in Norway and Sweden. Compared to previous statistical analyses in this field, the present study is the first to use sophisticated statistical methods that can shed further light on attitudes toward different aspects of prostitution while controlling for other confounding factors. The main findings are that men and sexual liberals are more positive toward prostitution, and that conservatives and those who support gender equality are more negative. Holding anti-immigration views is correlated with more positive attitudes toward buying, but not toward selling, sex. Norwegians are more positive than Swedes toward prostitution. It is also found that supporting gender equality has more explanatory power in Sweden than in Norway, and it is argued that this may be due to the more gendered nature of the Swedish debate.
Why do you want lower taxes? Preferences regarding municipal income tax rates
(2009-02-23T12:40:34Z) Jakobsson, Niklas
The factors shaping people’s preferences for municipal labour income tax rates in Sweden were assessed, using survey data. The tax rate actually faced by the respondents had explanatory power for their attitudes towards the tax rate only when a few socio-demographic explanatory variables were included. When a richer set of variables were included the association disappears. The hypothesis that this small or nonexistent effect from the actual tax rate is caused by a Tiebout bias finds no support, but IV-estimations indicate that the actual municipal tax rate may be of importance for the attitudes towards the tax rate. People with higher education, regularly reading a newspaper, agreeing with the political left, and stating that they were satisfied with the municipal services were less likely to want to decrease the municipal tax. People with low income, stated low knowledge about society, and agreeing with the political right were instead more likely wanting to decrease the municipal tax.