PublikationArtikel (med peer review)

Recruitment of scarce competences to rural regions: Policy perspectives

Sammanfattning

This paper studies the perceived difficulty of recruiting scarce competencies to rural regions. Furthermore, the role of policy in facilitating and enhancing recruitment to and better skills matching in rural regions is discussed. Based on a survey targeted to the business sections of Swedish municipalities, the results show that recruitment is perceived to be difficult in both rural and nonrural regions and that the difficulty of recruiting for the right skills results in a lack of skills matching and constitutes an obstacle to growth. Rural regions located close to urban areas can to some extent mitigate these recruitment problems, and their locations pose less of a barrier in recruitment processes compared to those of remotely located rural regions.

Which policies can help remedy recruitment problems faced in rural regions? In both rural and nonrural regions, incentives for writing off student debt and relocation support for accompanying persons and tandem recruitment are perceived to be the most promising policies. Rural regions are more receptive to the implementation of such policies. Finally, the need for flexibility and policies that can be adapted to the regional demand for labour are stressed.

Nyström, K. Recruitment of scarce competences to rural regions: Policy perspectives. Rev Reg Res (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10037-021-00155-

Liknande innehåll

Working paper

Ratio Working Paper No. 390: Fighting Populism by Rethinking Welfare

Karlson, N.

Publiceringsår

2026

Publicerat i

Ratio Working Paper Series.

Sammanfattning

Populism thrives on discontent. It could be anything from migration and xenophobia to globalization and welfare failures. Populists deliberately use such discontent to promote polarization by demonizing opponents and attacking media, established elites, courts etc. in the name of the “true people”. As a consequence, democracy, the rule of law, and sound social and economic policies are undermined, with long-term disastrous effects. In many cases, however, the original discontent is caused by real policy failures that have not been properly solved. A major strategy for fighting back at the populist threats therefore must be to improve policy. This paper focuses on the policy failures of welfare states, a major source of discontent in many democracies. I argue that the concept of welfare has been captured and misinterpreted into government assistance programs, a presumption that needs to be abandoned and replaced by interpreting welfare as human flourishing, something that primarily can be promoted within markets and civil society, supported by a small, limited, and decent state.

Working paper

Ratio Working Paper No. 389: Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Academic Careers

Ejermo, O., & Holmström, P.

Publiceringsår

2026

Publicerat i

Ratio Working Paper Series.

Sammanfattning

Using population-wide data on Swedish university researchers and teachers, we identify the effects of parenthood on academic careers. Leveraging staggered event-study models that compare mothers and fathers around first birth, we document widening gender gaps in publication output, wage income, promotion, and PhD completion. These gaps arise across all scientific fields. We further document substantial gender differences prior to first birth and among never-parents, indicating that child-related penalties explain only part of the overall academic gender gap.

Artikel (med peer review)

Competition and Voice in Public Education: Evidence from Sweden

Sebhatu, A., Wennberg, K., Lakomaa, E., & Brandén, M.

Publiceringsår

2026

Publicerat i

Education Finance and Policy, 1-40

Sammanfattning

While numerous studies examine the effects of school competition on student performance, little research directly addresses a key critique of competition: its potential to negatively affect parental engagement and voice. We draw on Hirschman’s theory of voice to argue that voucher-based school competition increases opportunities for exit but may crowd out voice. To assess the causal effects of competition on parental voice, we employ a robust two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences framework, comparing municipalities in Sweden that introduced competition with those that did not. Our findings indicate that school complaints decline following the introduction of competition. This decrease in voice is driven by neither a decrease in problems in school nor by changes in teaching staff quality or attrition. This suggests that the decrease in complaints is driven not by an increase in school quality but rather by a substitution from voice to exit.

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