Postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University and the Swedish Institute for Social Research
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
The end of an impossible choice: Removing infertility as a prerequisite for legal gender recognition.
AEA Papers & Proceedings, vol. 115, May 2025. Co-authored with Ylva Moberg, Rinni Norlinder, and Emma von Essen.
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The demography of Sweden's transgender population: A research note on patterns, changes, and sociodemographics. Demography, vol. 62(2), April 2025. Co-authored with Martin Kolk, Emma von Essen, Ylva Moberg, and Ian Burn.
WP version: Stockholm Research Reports in Demography No. 2023:22. Media: Medical Xpress. Landets Fria. QX.
School resources, peer inputs, and student outcomes in adult education
Economics of Education Review, vol. 96, October 2023
WP version: IFAU Working paper 2023:9. Swedish report: IFAU Rapport 2024:4.
From epidemic to pandemic: Effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on high school program choices in Sweden
Labour Economics, vol. 82, June 2023. Co-authored with Aino-Maija Aalto and Dagmar Müller.
WP version: IZA DP No. 15107. Media: IZA Newsroom and Sveriges Radio P4 Jönköping.
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WORKING PAPERS
Parental and school responses to student performance: Evidence from school entry rules. Co-authored with Peter Fredriksson and Björn Öckert. IZA DP No. 16901. Status: Under review.
Abstract: We examine whether parental and school investments reinforce or compensate for student performance. Our analysis exploits school-starting-age rules in 34 countries, capturing achievement variation that arises because younger children typically underperform their older peers. Parents respond to lower performance by providing additional homework help, while schools allocate weaker students to smaller classes and offer more remedial tutoring. Notably, parents provide more support to low-performing children in nearly all countries studied. Compensatory investments increase over grade levels, suggesting parents and schools respond as information about achievement is revealed. Moreover, our evidence suggests that parental and school investments are substitutes.
National administrative data in research on transgender people: A matter of measure and time? Co-authored with Emma von Essen*, Ian Burn, and Ylva Moberg. * denotes the lead author. Revise & resubmit at Population Research and Policy Review. Pre-print not publicly available. Draft available upon request.
Abstract: The use of administrative data is increasingly common in transgender research, providing a specific perspective on measuring transgender populations. This study examines how measures of transgender populations using administrative data capture different sociodemographic characteristics over time and around gender transitions. Using population-wide data from Sweden between 2005 and 2019, we compare sociodemographic characteristics with three different measurement strategies to identify the transgender population. The basis of these measurements includes the following markers of trans experiences: gender dysphoria diagnosis, medical treatment, and legal sex change. Our analytical approach involves two regression-based methods: examining sociodemographic differences between the general population and transgender samples over time and performing an event history analysis. Our main findings suggest that when researchers examine transgender demographics or compare results across studies, they should consider three key factors. First, significant sociodemographic changes occur over two historical time points for the transgender population, but these do not depend on the measurement used. Second, in an event history study, the choice of measurement can influence the results. Last, sex assigned at birth influences the differences observed in measurements during an event history analysis.
The effect of higher-stakes grades on student achievement. Under revision. Media coverage in Swedish: Skolporten. Sveriges Radio P4 Uppland. Uppsala University.
Abstract: Educational interventions that increase the quality or quantity of school resources may have a limited impact on student achievement if students lack sufficient effort or motivation. A more effective way of raising achievement could be incentivizing students to perform well in school.  In this paper, I study whether students respond to non-financial incentives for higher grades, exploiting a reform in Stockholm that made compulsory school grades the sole criteria for admission to high school.  Using a difference-in-differences design, I find that the reform increased students’ grade point average in compulsory school by 10% of a standard deviation on average. Estimates of the unconditional quantile treatment effects show that the largest shifts occurred just above the middle of the grade distribution, where the performance incentives were strongest. I perform a variety of checks to support the hypothesis that these effects were driven by changes in student effort rather than changes in school grading practices.  My findings suggest that behavioral responses from students drive the results. Thus, strengthening the performance incentives implicit in the design of the education system can have a positive effect on student achievement.
Degree selectivity and teachers' initial job placements. Under revision. To access an old version that was part of my PhD thesis, click here and go to chapter 3 of the manuscript.
Abstract: Teachers with stronger academic credentials tend to work in schools with students from more advantaged backgrounds. This paper contributes to an emerging literature on the mechanisms that drive these sorting patterns. With register data covering all college graduates and teachers in Chile between 2007 and 2020, I examine whether earning a more selective teaching degree has a causal effect on the type of schools where graduates teach at the start of their career. For identification, I exploit a college placement mechanism that generates hundreds of admission cutoffs around which access to more selective teaching programs is essentially random. Using the variation around these cutoffs in a regression discontinuity design, I find suggestive evidence that graduating from a more selective teacher program has an effect on teachers' initial job placements. In particular, it increases the probability of working in more urbanized areas and in publicly-subsidized private schools.
SELECTED WORK IN PROGRESS
Reacting to rejection: Information shocks in high school choice
(with Petter Berg)
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Gendered tracks, gendered trajectories: Peer gender composition and student outcomes in Swedish vocational education
(with Aino-Maija Aalto)
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Tertiary adult education and mental health
(with Anders Stenberg)
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The labor market effects of gender-affirming care
(with Ian Burn, Emma von Essen, and Ylva Moberg)
Legal gender recognition with or without mandated sterilization: Impacts on transgender health and earnings
(with Ylva Moberg, Rinni Norlinder, and Emma von Essen)