Bo Malmberg

Stockholm University | SU · Department of Human Geography

Background Drug use Disorder (DUD), the risk for which is substantially influenced by both genetic and social factors, is geographically concentrated in high-risk regions. An important step toward understanding this pattern is to examine geographical distributions of the genetic liability to DUD and a key demographic risk factor – social deprivatio...

There are few reasons to believe that social segregation is restricted to the working age population. Still, attempts to analyse social segregation among old age individuals have been lacking. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to explore the extent to which old age individuals who follow different sociodemographic trajectories are geographic...

In this paper we analyse spatial and temporal inequalities in the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission for COVID-19 in Sweden between March 2020 and June 2021. The analysis is based on geocoded and time-stamped data from the Swedish Intensive Care Registry. We merge this data with a classification of Swedish neighbourhoods developed with mul...

This article explores typical life-course trajectories based on annual observations of educational participation, employment, and establishing a family from age sixteen to age thirty. Using latent class analysis, we identify seven different trajectory classes that capture the different life courses experienced by individuals born in 1986. Examples...

Studies of neighbourhood effects typically measure the neighbourhood context at one specific spatial scale. It is increasingly acknowledged, however, that the mechanisms through which the residential context affects individual outcomes may operate at different spatial scales, ranging from the very immediate environment to the metropolitan region. W...

The purpose of this study is to compare socioeconomic segregation patterns and levels in Brussels, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Oslo, and Stockholm with uniform measurements. Previous research has been hampered by conceptual and methodological shortcomings. We use harmonized datasets containing geocoded indicators based on a nearest-neighbors approach. O...

The aim of the article is to use survey evidence of school choice and educational attitudes in Sweden to explore how spatial polarization and liberal school reforms have affected the way parents, pupils, and school management think about education. The authors identify a possible polarization of attitudes in Sweden towards the importance of educati...

Preliminary evidence points to higher morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 in certain racial and ethnic groups but population-based studies using micro-level data are so far lacking. A register-based cohort including all adults living in Stockholm, Sweden (n=1,778,670) between January 31st (date of first confirmed case of COVID-19) and May 4th 2020...

This paper finds convincing evidence of upward progress out of poor Swedish neighbourhoods for individuals with a Swedish background, individuals with a European background, and those with a non‐European background. We use the 1986 cohort of the Swedish population and follow them from age 15 when they are living at home to age 30. We find that by a...

Background: Housing characteristics and neighbourhood context are considered risk factors for COVID-19 mortality among older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate how individual-level housing and neighbourhood characteristics are associated with COVID-19 mortality in older adults. Methods: For this population-based, observational stud...

As global deaths from COVID-19 continue to rise, the world’s governments, institutions, and agencies are still working toward an understanding of who is most at risk of death. In this study, data on all recorded COVID-19 deaths in Sweden up to May 7, 2020 are linked to high-quality and accurate individual-level background data from administrative r...

We examine the ‘overlap’ or to which degree tenure form patterns are similar to socio-economic segregation patterns. The issue has been discussed concerning mixing policies; does mixing of tenure hinder socio-economic segregation? If mixing tenure is to be an effective policy against segregation, the overlap has to be understood. Using Swedish regi...

The majority of segregation studies focus on ethnic concentration but there is growing research that also documents high and increasing status segregation. While empirical studies have documented the existence of both ethnic concentration and status segregation, there is only limited research on the two complexly related distributions. In this arti...

In a previous study, Andersson et al. (A comparative study of segregation patterns in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden: neighbourhood concentration and representation of non-European migrants. Eur J Popul 34:1–25, 2018) compared the patterns of residential segregation between non-European immigrants and the rest of the population in fou...

In this article, we propose a new approach for assessing the extent to which schools are successful in mixing students from different backgrounds. It is based on a comparison of variation in the composition of the student population in small‐scale residential neighborhoods with variation in the composition of the student population at local schools...

Against the background of a liberalization of Swedish compulsory education, this paper analyses post-1991 shifts in the way compulsory education performance in Sweden has been shaped by parental background, residential context and school context. We can document increasing school and residential segregation of foreign background students and, after...

Discussions of tenure mix have received renewed interest as many have suggested that neo-liberalization has made way for gentrification of neighbourhoods and increasing segregation. Yet, few scholars have studied country-wide changes in tenure mix, due to the lack of data and appropriate methods. In this article, we propose to use tenure type lands...

Deliverable 5.3 for the EU funded (H2020) RELOCAL project: https://relocal.eu/deliverables/

This paper investigates effects of neighbourhood context on first birth timing in Sweden. Analyses are on the basis of Swedish population registers and innovative methods for the construction of individualised neighbourhoods of varying sizes and a traditional measure using defined areas. The 1980 Swedish birth cohort is followed from age 13 to 36,...

Based on the wide-ranging liberal reforms introduced in the early 1990s, Sweden has become one of the most prominent realizations of Milton Friedman’s proposal for market-based schooling. From 1991 to 2012, the percentage of Swedish ninth-grade students attending independent, voucher-financed, private schools increased from 2.8% to 14.2%. A recent...

In this paper, we analyse how a migrant population that is both expanding and changing in composition has affected the composition of Swedish neighbourhoods at different scales. The analysis is based on Swedish geocoded individual-level register data for the years 1990, 1997, 2005, and 2012. This allows us to compute and analyse the demographic com...

In this paper, we use geo-coded, individual-level register data on four European countries to compute comparative measures of segregation that are independent of existing geographical sub-divisions. The focus is on non-European migrants, for whom aggregates of egocentric neighbourhoods (with different population counts) are used to assess small-sca...

Earlier research on residential mobility has demonstrated a tendency for the young old of the 55+ population to prefer peripheral locations, whereas older age groups choose central locations. Here, we present survey results indicating that such late-adulthood differences in preferences are supported by age-related shifts corresponding to difference...

It is hypothesized that self-defined mixed-race persons live in residentially mixed areas in the largest metropolitan areas in California. The hypothesis is tested by examining the distribution of mixed-race persons among ethnically and racially diverse and nondiverse neighborhoods in the San Francisco and Los Angeles Metropolitan Areas. The resear...

Will the consequences of residential segregation, that is, spatial concentration of marginalised populations on the one hand, and spatial concentration of affluent populations on the other hand, generate a situation where individual life trajectories are influenced by where individuals grow up? Our aim is to analyse how poverty risks and early inco...

This paper explores the precarious working conditions in the Chinese restaurant industry in Sweden – a country considered to have one of Europe’s most liberal labour immigration policies. Drawing upon a theoretical framework inspired by scholarship on precarious work and time geography, the paper argues that precarious work performed by migrant lab...

The aim of this paper is to analyse if recovery from ill-health is influenced by geographical context using a multi-scalar approach to context measurement and Swedish longitudinal register-based data on sickness benefit recipiency as an indicator of onset of and recovery from illness. Our sample consists of individuals that have stayed healthy and...

There continues to be cross-disciplinary interest in the patterns, extent, and changing contexts of segregation and spatial inequality more generally. The changes are clearly context dependent but at the same time there are broad generalizations that arise from the processes of residential sorting and selection. A major question in U.S. segregation...

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the influence of the neighborhood-level presence of visible minorities on xenophobic party support. Drawing on previous research on support for xenophobic political parties in Europe, we explore variations in electoral preferences for the Sweden Democrats. We examine relationships between the presen...

Method for classifying a two- or higher dimensional image, where each pixel is associated with M property measures, includes identifying firstly a certain predetermined, variable geometric structure, the extension of which in at least two of the N dimensions in the dataset is determined in relation to a single element in the dataset and by at least...

The question addressed in this chapter is: can a simple model that relates income growth to demographic change contribute to an understanding of the challenges that the forestry sector will be facing in the coming decades? Per capita income is interesting because of its impact on the ecological footprints of various societies. The exact relationshi...

Since the 1980s, there has been an increase in the spruce bark beetle population in the Bavarian Forest National Park in southeastern Germany. There is a need for accurate and time-effective methods for monitoring the outbreak, because manual interpretation of image data is time-consuming and expensive. In this article, the window independent conte...

Nearly all segregation measures use some form of administrative unit (usually tracts in the United States) as the base for the calculation of segregation indices, and most of the commonly used measures are aspatial. The spatial measures that have been proposed are often not easily computed, although there have been significant advances in the past...

Current approaches of measuring segregation are constrained by data derived from census enumeration units of pre-defined boundaries, and the fact that the measures cannot reflect individual experience in the neighbourhood. This chapter suggests an approach to derive neighbourhoods for each individual. A program EquiPop was developed to construct ne...

This paper analyses whether a multi-scale representation of geographical context based on statistical aggregates computed for individualised neighbourhoods can lead to improved estimates of neighbourhood effect. Our study group consists of individuals born in 1980 that have lived in Sweden since 1995 and we analyse the effect of neighbourhood conte...

The method is characterized in that the method comprises the steps that a computer or several interconnected computers are caused to a) store, in the form of a pixel set in which set each pixel is associated with image information in at least one channel for light intensity, a first image to be classified onto a digital storage medium; b) carry out...

This article contributes both to the expanding literature on the effect of school choice and to the literature focusing on how to measure and conceptualize neighborhood effects. It uses a novel approach to the measurement of geographical context to analyze neighborhood influences on school choice attitudes among Swedish parents. Data on attitudes c...

In 2009, Sweden experienced a wave of urban unrest concentrated in areas with large foreign-born populations. This episode was seen by many as reflecting a trend towards increased ethnically based residential segregation, in line with scholarly literatures that correlate inequality and rising segregation with increases in unrest or rebellion. In th...

Method for classifying a two- or higher dimensional image, where each pixel is associated with M property measures, includes identifying firstly a certain predetermined, variable geometric structure, the extension of which in at least two of the N dimensions in the dataset is determined in relation to a single element in the dataset and by at least...

In recent years, structural changes to the school system, including the introduction of independent schools, have increased school choice alternatives in Sweden. Consequently, a large share of today’s students attend a school other than the one closest to home. Since the compulsory school system is designed to be free of charge and to offer the sam...

The idea that neighborhoods affect the future life course of young people has over the years, stimulated an impressive amount of empirical work. We propose a method for constructing contextual variables based on scalable, individualized neighborhoods to capture neighborhood effects. What is an appropriate neighborhood size to capture effects on ado...

The idea that neighborhoods affect the future life course of young people has over the years, stimulated an impressive amount of empirical work. We propose a method for constructing contextual variables based on scalable, individualized neighborhoods to capture neighborhood effects. What is an appropriate neighborhood size to capture effects on ado...

Housing and demography are closely related at a fundamental level. Housing is needed to form households, and the number of people forming the households will usually vary over the life cycle as will their housing needs. Moreover, their resources to buy or rent housing also vary over the life cycle. Yet, research on these relations has been very sca...

Since the early 1990s, a number of researchers have put forward evidence of strong demographic effects on housing demands. More recently, a number of studies have pointed to the effect of housing market conditions on family formation. This implies that housing markets are influenced by population change, but also that the housing market conditions...

Twenty years ago the Swedish school system underwent serious change in that students were given the right to choose their school, though those living near each school had priority. Since then, there has been a new geographical debate concerning where students live and go to school and possible implications of this on student educational achievement...

Satellite images have enormous potential for qualitative land use analysis. This paper presents empirical results that demonstrate how normally invisible dimensions produced by land use can be identified by enriching satellite data with qualitative information from field studies.Land use can be defined as the intentional use of a specific piece of...

The method is characterised in that the method comprises the steps that a computer or several interconnected computers are caused to a) store, in the form of a pixel set in which set each pixel is associated with image information in at least one channel for light intensity, a first image to be classified onto a digital storage medium; b) carry out...

This paper argues that age structure is an important factor behind variations in the rate of economic growth. Theoretically, the argument is based on Romer's model of endogenous technical change, human capital theory and the life-cycle theory of savings. Taken together, these theories imply that growth rates are dependent on age structure. Empirica...

The present study explores data on transfers of gifts/ economic support to relatives from a recent Swedish Household Income Survey (hek) compiled by Statistics Sweden. It provides the first analysis of demographic de- terminants of remittances from Sweden based on official household survey and register data. By exploring a data set that also includ...

Sweden is today an immigrant country with more than 14% foreign born. An increasing share of the immigrants comes from non-European countries. This implies that Sweden has been transformed from an ethnically homogenous country into a country with a large visible minority. In this paper we survey the effect of this change on school segregation. Buil...

The long-term effect of low birth rates is a decline in the population share of children and young adults. How will such changes in age structure affect the housing market? In this article, panel data sets for Swedish municipalities from 1981 to 2006 are used to answer this question. The use of panel data makes it possible to control for the effect...

While poor health has been associated with economic outcomes at the national level, its effect on economic outcomes at the individual and local level remains less well known. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from Sweden, we examined the extent to which an individual’s poor health leads to poor economic outcomes for that individual....

Zusammenfassung In den nächsten Dekaden wird die Bevölkerung nicht nur in Deutschland immer älter. Gibt es einen statistischen Zusammenhang zwischen der Altersstruktur einer Gesellschaft und zentralen makroökonomischen Variablen? Welche Konsequenzen hat die gesellschaftliche Alterung für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Deutschland bis 2050? Wie...

We test the robustness of correlations between age structure and economic growth in EU15 countries by replicating a previous OECD study. A hump-shaped relation with the age structure is confirmed where increases in the dependent age group shares are associated with decreasing GDP growth rates. In addition we confirm that the peak of the hump is in...

This paper addresses two issues. To what extent can models estimated on modern data be used to account for growth patterns in the past? Can information on historical patterns help to improve long-term forecasting of economic growth? We consider a reduced-form statistical model based on the demographic dividend literature. Assuming that there is a c...

Contemporary research on migration has benefited from adopting a variety of methodological approaches and different sources of information to provide answers to the ever-recurring question of why people migrate. Yet, when it comes to central methods used for researching migration motives, progress appears to have been slow. This paper focuses on su...

Satellite images holds large possibilities to be used in analysis of land use, but still the use of this source to analyse social economic dimensions related to land use are restricted. By enriching data with qualitative information from field work and by focusing on local spatial dimension this paper presents empirical results which show how norma...

There are obvious reasons why residential construction should depend on the population’s age structure. We estimate this relation on Swedish time series data and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development panel data. Large groups of young adults are associated with higher rates of residential construction, but there is also a significant...

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it builds and makes use of long-run data from Sweden on formal education that have never been used to date. Second, it provides a quantitative application of recent theoretical work on the link between demographic changes and economic growth through their effect on education. It concludes that chang...

During the last years, it has been increasingly acknowledged that shifts in the population’s age structure can have important effects on key determinants of economic development, such as fertility, savings, and human capital investment. In general, these models have focused on the very long run where stable equilibria are established. Similarly, mo...

Is health a forgotten factor in regional economic development? The health or ill health of the European workforce is a crucial issue as the share of old age people as well as the mean age increases. A second reason for this paper is the increased interest in the relation between health and productivity of businesses. Ill health might in this respec...

Since 1992 the school segregation in Swedish schools has increased, both in regard to ethnic and socio-economic background. A possible explanation for this is an increase in residential segregation on the neighborhood level. Another explanation is the introduction of a voucher system, enabling families to opt out from neighborhood schools. In this...

Ny rapport från Institutet för framtidsstudier: Snart kommer dubbelt så många människor att årligen invandra till Sverige i jämförelse med hur många som föds. Om bara ett fåtal decennier kan så många som 200 000 människor årligen flytta till Sverige. Det är ungefär dubbelt så många människor som föds i landet varje år. Därigenom blir invandringen v...

Migration är både en naturlig del av människors livsprojekt, i samhällsutvecklingen och en politiskt laddad fråga. I en globaliserad värld blir det allt vanligare att både varor, pengar, information, tjänster och personer flyttar över gränser. Framtidens migrationsströmmar bestäms av demografiska trender, hur efterfrågan på arbetskraft utvecklas i...

This paper examines the variation in gains and losses from migration within the Swedish urban hierarchy. The central questions focus on whether increases in disposable income outweigh the associated increases in housing costs, especially with movements up the urban hierarchy to larger and more expensive locations. The paper extends the literature w...

The purpose of this study is to analyse the mechanisms and effects of population pressure on rural livelihood system in South central Ethiopia from 1950 to 2004. In Sub-Sahara Africa population pressure takes two different forms: (1) a pressure on existing household to accommodate a growing number of children (change in household dependency ratio);...