Empirical studies of public policies within the primary school and the sickness insurance

Lindahl, Erica, 2008, Empirical studies of public policies within the primary school and the sickness insurance, Department of Economics, Uppsala University, Economic Studies 111, 142 pp, ISBN 978-91-85519-18-7 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-9304 

This thesis consists of five self-contained essays.

Essay 1 (with Elly-Ann Johansson) estimates the effect of attending an MA-class (MA-class) during grades 4-6 on students’ cognitive skills. Using a unique survey with information on students, parents and teachers, we are able to control for many factors that could otherwise bias the results. We find a negative effect on the short-run skills, as measured by grade 6 cognitive tests.

Essay 2 compares results on national tests with teachers’ assessment of student performance, by using Swedish data of grade 9 students (16 years old). I examine whether there are systematic differences correlated with gender and ethnic background. The results show that girls are more generously rewarded in teachers’ assessment compared to test results in all three subjects studied. Non-native students are more generously rewarded in teachers’ assessment compared to test results in two out of three subjects studied.

Essay 3 investigates the importance of gender and ethnic interactions among teachers and students for school performance. School leaving certificates assigned by the teacher is compared with results on comprehensive national tests. I find that a student is likely to obtain slightly better test scores in Mathematics, when the share of teachers of the same gender as the student increases. Correspondingly, ethnic minority students, on average, obtain better test scores in Mathematics, when the share of ethnic minority teachers increases. The positive same-gender effect on test scores is counteracted by a negative assessment effect. That is, conditional on test scores, same-gender teachers are slightly less generous than opposite-gender teachers when assessing students’ performance. In Swedish and English no statistically significant effects are found.

Essay 4 (with Per Johansson) evaluates a multidisciplinary collaboration programme with the aim to prevent long-term sickness. The selection of eligible candidates was mainly based on register information, implying a good prerequisite of estimating the effects by using the same information. In addition, we have run a small experiment. Both evaluation approaches provide the same result: the programme prolongs rather than shortens the sickness absence spell. The hazard of leaving a sickness absence spell is reduced by on average 22 per cent. Two potential and complementary explanations for these negative results are (i) inefficiency in the organization outside the programme (i.e., in the rehabilitation process) and (ii) moral hazard in the sickness insurance.

Essay 5 (with Per Johansson) evaluates a policy to call sick-listed individuals without permanent employment to information meetings about the rights and duties associated with the sickness insurance system. The evaluation is based on experimental data: a random displacement of when the call is sent out. Comparing the survival functions of the individuals who are called immediately and those whose calls are delayed (by about 30 days) makes it possible to estimate a lower bound of the effect of being called on the sickness absence duration. The result suggests that calling a sick-listed individual without permanent employment to an information meeting reduces the sickness absence duration by at least 23 per cent on average.