When COVID-19 reached Sweden, upper-secondary students (ages 17–19) transitioned to remote instruction, while lower-secondary schools (ages 14–16) remained open. We use this setting as a natural experiment to analyze how modes of instruction affect student mental health. We find a 4.4 percent decrease in mental health care use from remote instruction, primarily due to fewer diagnoses and prescriptions for depression and anxiety. The reduction persists throughout the study period; 21 months after the initial closure and 9 months after schools resumed usual operations. This suggests potential mental health benefits from remote instruction, at least in the medium term.

We document a significant increase in the sorting of workers by cognitive and noncognitive skills across Swedish firms during 1986–2008. During this period, worker skill differences between firms increased, while within-firm skill differences fell. A significant fraction of the increase in the between-firm differences in cognitive skill is due to high-skilled workers moving into the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. Within-firm skill differences fell in all major industries, but particularly in the manufacturing sector. Combined with steeper firm-level skill gradients, the increase in sorting can account for 45 percent of the increase in between-firm wage dispersion during our period of study. 

To reduce the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), most countries closed schools, despite uncertainty if school closures are an effective containment measure. At the onset of the pandemic, Swedish upper-secondary schools moved to online instruction, while lower-secondary schools remained open. This allows for a comparison of parents and teachers differently exposed to open and closed schools, but otherwise facing similar conditions. Leveraging rich Swedish register data, we connect all students and teachers in Sweden to their families and study the impact of moving to online instruction on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. We find that, among parents, exposure to open rather than closed schools resulted in a small increase in PCR-confirmed infections (odds ratio [OR] 1.17; 95% CI [CI95] 1.03 to 1.32). Among lower-secondary teachers, the infection rate doubled relative to upper-secondary teachers (OR 2.01; CI95 1.52 to 2.67). This spilled over to the partners of lower-secondary teachers, who had a higher infection rate than their upper-secondary counterparts (OR 1.29; CI95 1.00 to 1.67). When analyzing COVID-19 diagnoses from healthcare visits and the incidence of severe health outcomes, results are similar for teachers, but weaker for parents and teachers' partners. The results for parents indicate that keeping lower-secondary schools open had minor consequences for the overall transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in society. The results for teachers suggest that measures to protect teachers could be considered.

We study the impact on long and short run criminal behavior from a large scale Swedish reform of vocational upper secondary education, extending programs and adding more general theoretical content. The reform directly concerns age groups where criminal activity is high and individuals who are overrepresented among criminal offenders. Using detailed administrative data we show that the reform led to a reduction in property crime, but no significant decrease in violent crime. The effect is mainly concentrated to the third year after enrollment, which suggests that being in school reduces the opportunities and/or inclinations to commit crime.

Sweden has a school voucher system with universal coverage and full acceptance of corporate providers. Using a value added approach, we find that students at upper-secondary voucher schools on average score 0.06 standard deviations lower on externally graded standardized tests in first year core courses. The negative impact is larger among lower achieving students (but not among immigrant students), the same students who are most prone to attend voucher schools. For high achieving students, the voucher school impact is around zero. Comparing internal and external evaluations of the exact same standardized tests, we find that voucher schools are 0.14 standard deviations more generous than municipal schools in their internal test grading. The greater leniency in test grading is more pronounced among students at academic than at vocational programs. The findings are consistent with voucher schools responding more strongly to differences in educational preferences than municipal schools.

We study the intergenerational transmission of cognitive and noncognitive abilities using population data and correct for measurement error in abilities using two sets of instruments. The results show that previous estimates are biased downward and that once measurement error is corrected for, the correlation in noncognitive ability is close to that of cognitive ability. By considering both parents, intergenerational ability correlations account for a substantial portion of the sibling correlation. Using adoptees, we find that the social impact of maternal abilities is more important than paternal abilities. Children's educational attainment and labor market outcomes are strongly related to parents' cognitive and noncognitive abilities.

We document a substantial decline in cognitive and social interactive abilities and in GPAs among entering teachers. Then, using matched student-teacher data, we find that teacher abilities have a negligible impact on average student achievement. This finding hides interesting heterogeneities. In particular, an increase in teachers' cognitive (social) abilities increases (reduces) the achievement gap between high- and low-aptitude students. Teacher cognitive and social abilities further appear to be complements. We also find strong positive effects of male teachers' GPAs that are uniform across students, but similar effects are not found for female teachers' GPAs.

Trots att 25 procent av de svenska gymnasieeleverna får sin utbildning vid fristående skolor har inga tidigare studier analyserat resultatskillnader mellan fristående och kommunala gymnasieskolor. Vi undersöker sådana skillnader med hjälp av externa och interna bedömningar av nationella prov i gymnasiets kärnämneskurser. Analysen tar hänsyn till att elever på olika typer av skolor kan skilja sig åt med avseende på tidigare skolprestationer och socioekonomisk bakgrund. Vi finner att elever vid fristående skolor uppnår sämre resultat enligt de externa bedömningarna. Resultatskillnaderna är särskilt stora för elever med relativt låga grundskolebetyg (men inte för elever med utländsk bakgrund). Dessa elever är också de som är mest benägna att studera vid fristående gymnasier. Genom att jämföra interna och externa bedömningar av exakt samma provsvar finner vi vidare att de interna bedömningarna av proven är generösare bland fristående än bland kommunala skolor. Resultaten är konsistenta med att fristående skolor i högre grad än kommunala anpassar sig efter olika elevgruppers efterfrågan.

We estimate the impact of individual principals on school outcomes by using panel data that allow us to track principals over time. We find that individual principals have a substantive impact on school policies, working conditions, and student outcomes. In particular, students who attend a school that has a one standard deviation better principal improve their achievement by between 0.05 and 0.1 standard deviations. Despite rich background information on principals, it is difficult to characterize successful management, suggesting that innate skills are central. We find that the scope for discretion is larger among voucher schools and in areas with school competition.