Labour economics is a very broad research field. In addition to research on labour market outcomes, such as wages and employment, the AME unit studies both elementary and higher education, health, taxes and income transfers, politics, crime and punishment, and gender equality. 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.

Research at the Level of Living-unit includes studies of individuals' living conditions, social stratification and economic and social inequality. Here we study what living conditions in society look like today for both adults and children, and how the standard of living in society has changed over time and between generations. Examples of living conditions are family life, health, education, working life, financial conditions and social support. The level and distribution of these conditions, as well as changes in levels and distribution, are central study objects in living standard research. Differences in living conditions between different population groups (defined by, among other things, gender, age, family type, country of birth, place of residence, education and occupation) are important themes, both empirically and theoretically. Several of the researchers at the department analyze these issues in an international comparative perspective.

An important part of the unit's activities is to carry out the Level of Living Survey (Levnadsnivåundersökningen – LNU), which is a recurring survey in which a nationally representative sample of Sweden's adult population is interviewed or answers questionnaires about their living conditions in a number of areas. The LNU survey was first implemented in 1968 and has since then been implemented another six times with intervals of approximately 10 years, the latest round in 2020-22 . To a large extent, the same persons have been interviewed in the survey on repeated occasions. Together with the american Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID ) is LNU the world's longest still ongoing longitudinal survey.

Read more abour LNU and apply for data on our Swedish website

Research at the Social Policy unit includes investigating explanations for the development of the welfare state, as well as the effects of social policy on an individual and societal level, often in an international comparative perspective and with quantitative research methods. The focus is on the impact of political and economic factors for the institutional design of social policy, and the connections between the design of social policy, socio-economic conditions and individuals' life chances.

Thematically, all major transfer programs are analyzed, such as pensions, parental benefits, sickness benefits, unemployment benefits and social benefits. In addition, various forms of publicly funded services such as health care, education, housing and labour market policy reforms are studied. Finally, some social policy programs that can not be classified as either transfers or services are also treated, e.g. supply control and taxation in alcohol policy.
The analyzes of the social policy programs cover large parts of the world, with an emphasis on the industrialized western countries and Sweden. In addition to this, social policy is also studied in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, South America and Africa. The analyzes range from about 1950 onwards, with a certain emphasis on the current development of the programs.

Research at the individual and societal level

The research is conducted from both macro and micro perspectives. The macro-analyzes, for example, deal with different explanations for the development of social policy, while the micro-analyzes shed light on the consequences of the programs at the individual level in both the short and long term. Recurring issues concern the interaction between different programs and the consequences of the programs in a life course perspective.

Databases at SOCPOL

An important part of the SOCPOL unit's activities consists of the establishment and further development of infrastructure for research, especially databases such as the Social Citizenship Indicator Program (SCIP), the Social Policy Indicator Database (SPIN) and Stockholm Birth Cohort Study (SBC).

Read more about databes at SOFI here

At the research  for AMR (Labour market regulation), forensic research is conducted on the regulation that governs the labour market. It includes labour law, the rules that give substance to the relationship between employers and employees, as individuals and as a collective. The focus is on civil law as well as public law regulation, including discrimination law. Furthermore, things that affect entry and exit into the labour market, including social and unemployment insurance, are included. Common to the regulation of the labour market in the 2020s is that it is governed by international commitments that have a direct impact on the Swedish labour market and applicable law. The research at AMR thus largely concerns EU law and other European law.