Jan Helmdag Researcher
Contact
Name and title: Jan HelmdagResearcher
Mail: jan.helmdag@sofi.su.se
Phone: +468162741
ORCID0000-0003-2143-8485 Länk till annan webbplats.
Workplace: Swedish Institute for Social Research Länk till annan webbplats.
Visiting address Universitetsvägen 10 F
Postal address Institutet för social forskning106 91 Stockholm
About me
I am an Assistant Professor at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) and member of the Social Policy Unit (SocPol), led by Prof Tomas Korpi. I hold a PhD in political science.
I am the managing director of the Social Policy Indicators (SPIN) database, led by Prof Kenneth Nelson (University of Oxford). In SPIN, we collect institutional data on a large variety of indicators on income taxes and social policies, e.g., unemployment, sickness, accident, pensions, social assistance, parental leave, student support, and housing benefits. Besides data gathering and research, one of my central tasks within SPIN is to ensure synchronisation with the research infrastructure on Democracy, Environment, Migration, Social Policy, Conflict, and Representation (DEMSCORE).
I am currently leading the project “The dualisation of social rights in Sweden: How social policy design can maintain or mitigate income inequality”, which is funded by FORTE with 3.5 million SEK. In this project, I investigate how dualisation within employment is either perpetuated or mitigated by social policy arrangements outside of employment, specifically by looking at compensation levels of employment-related benefits in Sweden (1960–2026). One of the main outputs of the project will be the Benefit Dualisation Index (BDI), which measures the gap in social rights between labor market insiders and outsiders and will be available in a newly formed SPIN module.
During the Trinity Term (April–June '25) I am a visiting researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI), University of Oxford.
Publications
Helmdag, J. and Väänänen, N. (2025). Financial sustainability above all else? Drivers and types of pension reform recommendations in EU socio-economic governance. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 63(4):1236–1258. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13700
Helmdag, J. and Nelson, K. (2025). Positive-sum solutions in the generational welfare state. In Vaalavuo, M., Nelson, K., and Kuitto, K., editors, Social Sustainability in Ageing Welfare States, pp. 23–45. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035318377.00009
Helmdag, J. and Kuitto, K. (2022). The politics of unemployment benefit reforms. In Baltz, E., Kosanke, S., and Pickel, S., editors, Parties, Institutions and Preferences: The Shape and Impact of Partisan Politics, pages 261–297. Springer, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35133-5_11
Kuitto, K. and Helmdag, J. (2021). Extending working lives: How policies shape retirement and labour market participation of older workers. Social Policy & Administration, 55(3):423–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12717
Kuitto, K., Salonen, J., and Helmdag, J. (2019). Gender inequalities in early career trajectories and parental leaves: Evidence from a Nordic welfare state. Social Sciences, 8(9):253. https://dol.org/10.3390/socsci8090253
Most recent datasets
Nelson, K., Helmdag, J., Burman, S., Dalén, P., Eneroth, M., Schomaker, L., and Strigén, J. (2026). Social Insurance Entitlements Dataset (SIED) 2000–2024. Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University. https://su.se/spin
Nelson, K., Burman, S., Eneroth, M., and Helmdag, J. (2026). Parental Leave Benefit (PLB) dataset 1950–2024. Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University. https://su.se/spin