Research group Labour Economics (AME)
At SOFI, labour economics research is primarily empirically oriented, but we also have theoretically oriented research.
Examples of research questions that have been studied recently are how independent schools affect academic success, how access to free lunch at school affects long-term labour market outcomes, how imprisonment affects health, and how promotion to a top job affects the likelihood of divorce differently for men and women.
Although the research includes very many areas and issues, it is often characterized by some common features. A large part of the research studies differences in financial outcomes or in education, within and between groups. Furthermore, much of the research also aims to comment on which policies can be recommended. The strong connection to politics is also reflected in the fact that many AME researchers participate in public investigations and in current public debate.
Researchers at the AME unit use a wide range of data sources for their research. In addition to data derived from administrative registers, data collected in part through surveys (often in combination with register data) are used. Some researchers also produce their own data in terms of field and laboratory experiments.
An important part of AME's activities consists of regular seminars where invited external researchers or our own employees present their research.
Labour economics is a broad research field that is closely related to several other social sciences. Several of the researchers within AME have collaborations with researchers in other fields of science such as sociology and political science.
