Can workers switch it up? - Organizational forms in the Swedish preschool sector

Karin Edmark () and Lovisa Persson ()
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Karin Edmark: Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University
Lovisa Persson: Research Institute for Industrial Research (IFN). Kristianstad University College and Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies (UCFS), Uppsala University

No 2026:4, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: The Swedish preschool sector, which is heavily dominated by a female workforce, is marked by low wages and poor health outcomes. Our study shows that preschools’ organizational form is significantly associated with hiring practices, wage-setting, and worker health outcomes. For-profit preschools tend to hire younger, less qualified, and less experienced workers, and pay lower wages even after controlling for observable and unobservable worker characteristics. Non-profit providers hire fewer preschool teachers and younger workers, similarly to the for-profits, but on the other hand tend to hire workers with more experience and higher upper secondary school grades. Wages in non-profits are, on average, higher than in for-profit and municipal preschools. Worker health outcomes are better in non-profit and for-profit preschools compared to municipal preschools. Overall, the results suggest that worker composition, wages and health outcomes differ between employer types. Whether these differences matter for preschool quality is a relevant topic for future research.

Keywords: preschool workforce; organizational form; private provision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J42 J45 L33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2026-02-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lma
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