IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v48y2021i4p685-705.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The re-emergence of educational inequality during a period of reforms: A study of Swedish school leavers 1991–2012

Author

Listed:
  • Eva K Andersson
  • Pontus Hennerdal
  • Bo Malmberg

Abstract

Against the background of a liberalization of Swedish compulsory education, this paper analyses post-1991 shifts in the way compulsory education performance in Sweden has been shaped by parental background, residential context and school context. We can document increasing school and residential segregation of foreign background students and, after 2008, increasing segregation by income, employment status and social allowance reception. Over time, educational performance has become increasingly linked to family, neighbourhood and school context. The greatest change has been for parental background, but the importance of school context and neighbourhood context has also increased. A noteworthy finding is that residential context consistently has a stronger effect on student performance than school context. Student grades were found to be most strongly influenced by the closest (12 or 25) residential peers of the school leavers as compared to larger peer groups. The increase in the influence of family, neighbourhood and residential context has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the between-school variation (intra-class correlation) in student performance, but it was not until after 2005 that this increased variability became clearly linked to the social composition of the schools. This study’s results suggest that the restructuring of Swedish compulsory education has had consequences for equality, possibly because disadvantaged social groups have not been as able as advantaged groups to navigate and benefit from the educational landscape created by the school reforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva K Andersson & Pontus Hennerdal & Bo Malmberg, 2021. "The re-emergence of educational inequality during a period of reforms: A study of Swedish school leavers 1991–2012," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(4), pages 685-705, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:48:y:2021:i:4:p:685-705
    DOI: 10.1177/2399808319886594
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399808319886594
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399808319886594?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacob M. Markman & Eric A. Hanushek & John F. Kain & Steven G. Rivkin, 2003. "Does peer ability affect student achievement?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 527-544.
    2. Olof Åslund & Per-Anders Edin & Peter Fredriksson & Hans Grönqvist, 2011. "Peers, Neighborhoods, and Immigrant Student Achievement: Evidence from a Placement Policy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 67-95, April.
    3. Anders Böhlmark & Mikael Lindahl, 2015. "Independent Schools and Long-run Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Sweden's Large-scale Voucher Reform," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(327), pages 508-551, July.
    4. Andersson, Eva & Malmberg, Bo & Östh, John, 2012. "Travel-to-school distances in Sweden 2000–2006: changing school geography with equality implications," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 35-43.
    5. Nieuwenhuis, Jaap & Kleinepier, Tom & van Ham, Maarten, 2019. "Neighbourhood and School Poverty Simultaneously Predicting Educational Achievement, Taking into Account Timing and Duration of Exposure," IZA Discussion Papers 12396, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren, 2018. "The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1163-1228.
    7. Richard Harris & Ron Johnston & Simon Burgess, 2007. "Neighborhoods, Ethnicity and School Choice: Developing a Statistical Framework for Geodemographic Analysis," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(5), pages 553-579, December.
    8. Bo Malmberg & Eva K. Andersson & Michael M. Nielsen & Karen Haandrikman, 2018. "Residential Segregation of European and Non-European Migrants in Sweden: 1990–2012," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 34(2), pages 169-193, May.
    9. Martin Nordin, 2013. "Immigrant School Segregation in Sweden," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(3), pages 415-435, June.
    10. Anders Böhlmark & Helena Holmlund & Mikael Lindahl, 2016. "Parental choice, neighbourhood segregation or cream skimming? An analysis of school segregation after a generalized choice reform," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1155-1190, October.
    11. Bo Malmberg & Eva K. Andersson & Zara Bergsten, 2014. "Composite Geographical Context and School Choice Attitudes in Sweden: A Study Based on Individually Defined, Scalable Neighborhoods," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 104(4), pages 869-888, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agata A Troost & Heleen J Janssen & Maarten van Ham, 2023. "Neighbourhood histories and educational attainment: The role of accumulation, duration, timing and sequencing of exposure to poverty," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 655-672, March.
    2. Eva Andersson & Heleen Janssen & Maarten van Ham & Bo Malmberg, 2023. "Contextual poverty and obtained educational level and income in Sweden and the Netherlands: A multi-scale and longitudinal study," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 885-903, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Damm, Anna Piil & Mattana, Elena & Nielsen, Helena Skyt, 2022. "Effects of school displacement on academic achievement and wellbeing of ethnic minorities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Hinnerich, Björn Tyrefors & Vlachos, Jonas, 2017. "The impact of upper-secondary voucher school attendance on student achievement. Swedish evidence using external and internal evaluations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel, 2018. "Smart but unhappy: Independent-school competition and the wellbeing-efficiency trade-off in education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 66-81.
    4. Stephen Gibbons & Olmo Silva & Felix Weinhardt, 2010. "Do Neighbours Affect Teenage Outcomes? Evidence from Neighbourhood Changes in England," CEE Discussion Papers 0122, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    5. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    6. Edmark, Karin & Hussain, Iftikhar & Haelermans, Carla, 2024. "Unpacking the impact of voucher schools: evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series 2024:17, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    7. Valentin Verdier, 2020. "Estimation and Inference for Linear Models with Two-Way Fixed Effects and Sparsely Matched Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Andrés Barrios-Fernández, 2022. "Neighbors' Effects on University Enrollment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 30-60, July.
    9. Taghizadeh, Jonas Larsson, 2020. "Effects of school closures on displaced students and future cohorts," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Natalie Irmert & Jan Bietenbeck & Linn Mattisson & Felix Weinhardt, 2023. "Autonomous Schools, Achievement, and Segregation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10831, CESifo.
    11. Edmark, Karin & Hussain, Iftikhar & Haelermans, Carla, 2020. "The Impact of Voucher Schools: Evidence From Swedish Upper Secondary Schools," Working Paper Series 3/2020, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    12. Chakraborty, Tanika & Schüller, Simone & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2019. "Beyond the average: Ethnic capital heterogeneity and intergenerational transmission of education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 551-569.
    13. Anders Böhlmark & Helena Holmlund & Mikael Lindahl, 2016. "Parental choice, neighbourhood segregation or cream skimming? An analysis of school segregation after a generalized choice reform," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1155-1190, October.
    14. Holmlund, Helena, 2016. "Education and equality of opportunity: what have we learned from educational reforms?," Working Paper Series 2016:5, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    15. Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel, 2023. "Independent-School Competition and Sweden's Performance in TIMSS," Working Paper Series 1472, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Chung, Bobby W., 2020. "Peers’ parents and educational attainment: The exposure effect," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Marco Tonello, 2011. "Mechanisms of peer interactions between native and non-native students: rejection or integration?," Working Papers 2011/21, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    18. Chris Ryan, 2017. "Measurement of Peer Effects," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 50(1), pages 121-129, March.
    19. Stephen Gibbons & Olmo Silva & Felix Weinhardt, 2013. "Everybody Needs Good Neighbours? Evidence from Students’ Outcomes in England," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123, pages 831-874, September.
    20. Dai, Tianran & Schiff, Nathan, 2023. "The structure and growth of ethnic neighborhoods," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:48:y:2021:i:4:p:685-705. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.