Welcome to the autumn’s first CEDAR seminar where Siddartha Aradhya, from Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA), will present his research about “A dynamic perspective on ethnic inequalities in unemployment in Sweden”.
Abstract: A large body of research has aimed to understand the mechanisms driving ethnic and racial inequalities in unemployment. To the best of our knowledge, research has mainly focused on barriers to unemployment exit (i.e., becoming employed) and not many studies have focused on the role of unemployment entry. In this study, we take a dynamic perspective on ethnic inequalities in unemployment and contribute to the debate by examining inequalities in entry and exit from unemployment across second-generation immigrant groups and natives in Sweden. This marks an important extension to existing research because we are able to shed light on the extent to which barriers to employment and the likelihood to lose a job contribute to inequalities in unemployment.
Analyses are based on Swedish total population registers (Immigrant Trajectories Dataset). Correlated random-effects dynamic logit models are used to estimate group-specific unemployment entry and exit probabilities and to derive long-term steady-state probabilities (SSP). In addition, we estimate counterfactual SSP according to two scenarios in which second generation immigrants have 1) natives’ unemployment entry probabilities and 2) native’s unemployment exit probabilities. Such counterfactuals allow to shed light on the most relevant dynamic in accounting for the ethnic unemployment gap.
Our results show that equalizing unemployment exit does not reduces unemployment inequality between second-generation immigrant groups and natives in Sweden. This result is against the idea that sees employer discrimination as the most important mechanism. On the contrary, equalizing unemployment entry reduces inequalities in unemployment to a great extent. This points towards differences in precariousness to be a likely mechanism at work.
