Research interests:
Labour economics: minimum wages, employment protection legislation, disability and labour market programmes.
Among the questions that Per Skedinger tries to answer with his research:
- Did the sizeable reductions of payroll taxes for young workers in 2007 and 2009 improve their labour market prospects?
- What are the effects from minimum wages on employment, unemployment and self-employment among marginal groups, such as young people and refugee immigrants?
- What are the effects of different components in employment protection legislation, like notice and seniority rules, on employment, worker mobility and wages?
- Can psychic disorders among young people be explained by their having difficulties on the labour market?
New research
Employment Protection and Multinational Enterprises: Theory and Evidence from Micro Data
Pehr-Johan Norbäck, Jing-Lin Duanmu and Per Skedinger
Disability Insurance Reform and Labour Supply among the Elderly
The purpose of this project is to investigate the impact on labor supply of a reform in 1997, when eligibility for disability insurance pension solely for labour market reasons was abolished for 60-64-year-olds. We examine whether individuals in this age group were more likely to enter into sheltered employment or unemployment after the reform, instead of early retirement. Using detailed information on health status, we are also able to investigate whether the reform triggered shifts in the threshold for being awarded disability pension or entering a labour market programme for the disabled.
The Swedish Minimum Wage System
Very little is known about the complex minimum wage systems in the countries where minimum wages are set through collective bargaining between employers and unions, i.e., the Scandinavian countries, Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The aim of this project.is to provide information about the levels and differentiation of minimum wages in Sweden, examine the effects of minimum wages on employment and other outcomes and to discuss possible consequences of increasing competition from low-wage countries, including the new EU member states.