Poverty Persistence in Sweden

Jorgen Hansen and Roger Wahlberg

No 4539, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This Paper analyses the persistence of poverty in Sweden using a hazard rate model based on multiple spells. The model also accounts for unobserved heterogeneity and possibly endogenous initial conditions. We estimate the model on a large representative Swedish panel dataset, LINDA, for the years 1991-2001. The data contains precise information on household disposable income obtained from individual tax files. Poverty is defined using information on annual minimum needs standards determined by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. The data indicates that poverty rates are highest for immigrants, especially refugee immigrants, and for households with children. Further, poverty rates declined, both for natives and for immigrants, between 1991 and 2001, partly as a result of improved labour market conditions. The empirical results suggest that there is significant negative duration dependence in both exit and entry hazard rates. Moreover, the transition rates are significantly affected by immigrant status, educational attainment, labour market conditions, age, and family status. Accounting for multiple spells shows that for two-parent families with two children who are represented by a male person, 44% of native households that fall into poverty at any given point in time remain poor in five or more out of the next ten years. For refugee and non-refugee households, the figures are 62% and 50%, respectively.

Keywords: Poverty persistence; Duration dependence; Multiple spells; Unobserved heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 C41 D31 I32 J15 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP4539 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Poverty Persistence in Sweden (2004)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4539

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP4539

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().