Female Teachers and the Emancipation of Women

This paper studies the role of female teachers and the emancipation of women, measured by women's participation in the labor market and in the political arena. We document the feminization of the teaching profession in Sweden, beginning with the 1859 reform when women gained access to teaching positions in the public school system. By the end of the 19th century, around 18% of school districts across the country had hired a female teacher. Exploiting the staggered entry of female teachers across school districts, we show that exposure to female teachers during childhood shifted women toward a more emancipated life course. Our estimates imply that by the 1910s, women who had a female teacher were 18% more likely to participate in the campaign for women´s suffrage and 9% more likely to enter a non-domestic occupation. In addition, we quantify the role of the first female teachers as political organizers. We conclude that female teachers made an important contribution to the political and economic emancipation of women in Sweden, with stronger effects in the political sphere.

Wind Power and Veto Power

Every society faces decisions about where to locate infrastructure that benefits the general public but creates concentrated local costs. This study examines how decentralizing decision-making authority shapes the allocation of critical yet locally contested facilities, focusing on Sweden’s introduction of municipal veto power over onshore wind farms. Using data on all approved and rejected onshore wind farms, we generate site-specific estimates of energy production and local externalities, measured by impacts on individual real estate transaction prices. To assess the consequences of decentralization, we develop a simulation that compares each planned wind farm in Sweden over the past 25 years with every possible alternative site to which developers could have applied. This analysis highlights an inherent trade-off between national efficiency and reducing local externalities. Faced with this trade-off, local politicians with veto rights prioritize their constituents' interests and are more likely to reject applications that would impose higher costs on local residents. Decentralization reduces local burdens at the expense of national siting efficiency and shifts costs toward neighboring municipalities and socially disadvantaged groups.

Starting young: How age limits shape political participation

Using rich data on Swedish politicians, this paper documents the importance of the first experience of an election on future political participation. A difference-in-discontinuity design, based on the interaction between the month of birth and the timing of elections, allows us to compare the behavior of individuals who can vote and run for office in an election for the second time to individuals of similar age who participate for the first time. We find that, while turnout rates of both groups remain the same, more demanding measures of political engagement, such as running for office and being elected, rise by 10-14\% and 60-70\%, respectively, with the second participation. We discuss the role of parties' screening in generating these results. We then explore the consequences of lowering the minimum age limit to 16 years old on the age profiles of politicians.

Redistributing school resources: Evidence from a funding reform

In this paper, we study whether redistributing school funding toward disadvantaged students improves their educational outcomes. We exploit a reform of Stockholm’s school funding allocation system in 2012, which generated substantial variation in per-student resources across compulsory schools, with clear winners and losers. We first document the pass-through from funding to spending: increased resources raise total expenditures, primarily on personnel, but also on instructional materials and student health services. We find no effects of increased funding on average educational outcomes. However, we find positive effects for groups targeted by the reform, particularly recently arrived immigrants, with effects concentrated among boys. These results suggest that redistributing school resources based on socioeconomic composition can reduce achievement gaps without increasing overall spending.